Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday appointed the veteran attorney Randy Mastro to be his first deputy mayor, months after the City Council torpedoed Mastro’s nomination to be the city’s top lawyer.
Mastro will replace Maria Torres-Springer, who resigned last week as the second-ranking City Hall official. Unlike the corporation counsel job for which he was previously nominated, he will not need City Council approval to become first deputy mayor. He is joining the Adams administration for what could be its final few months as the mayor faces a tough path to re-election, and as he tries to stabilize City Hall following the departure of Torres-Springer and three other deputies.
Adams, in a statement, called Mastro “a storied and impressive New Yorker with a track record of success in the face of some of the city and nation’s most challenging times.” A former deputy mayor for operations under Rudy Giuliani, Mastro is known as a ferocious and accomplished litigator, but his controversial client list and prior service for a Republican mayor had caused lawmakers to question whether Mastro would fairly represent both branches of city government as corporation counsel.
“I am honored to serve the city again and grateful to Mayor Adams for affording me this opportunity,” Mastro said in a statement. “Like so many New Yorkers, I love this city and want it to succeed.”
The first deputy mayor is charged with much of the day-to-day work of running City Hall, and directly oversees the city’s Budget Office while supervising the other seven deputy mayors. His appointment will put him in the driver’s seat as the administration negotiates a budget with the City Council in the coming weeks.
Mastro has most recently worked as a partner at King & Spalding. His ill-fated corporation counsel nomination ended last September, when he withdrew from consideration in the face of likely rejection by the council.
Mastro and his defenders pointed to his extensive pro bono work and his service as chair of the good-government group Citizens Union. Detractors held up Mastro’s litigation on behalf of the state of New Jersey against the congestion pricing program; his work for Upper West Side residents who fought a pandemic-era homeless shelter; and his representation of fast-food franchisees opposed to a statewide minimum-wage increase.
Earlier this month, Adams named four other deputy mayors to replace the departing aides.
