Mayor Adams has tapped Joe Borelli, who led the New York City Council’s Republican delegation, to sit on the oversight panel of local public schools, as the outgoing mayor continues to stack boards related to housing, policing and now education before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes office.
The string of eleventh-hour nominations have been viewed by Adams’ critics and supporters alike as an effort to stymie Mamdani’s democratic socialist agenda — a characterization the former Staten Island rep denied as the newest member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy.
Adams has sought to fill vacancies on the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which votes every year on whether to increase rents for stabilized units, with selections expected to be formalized as soon as this week. Such appointments could complicate Mamdani’s ability to follow through on a campaign promise of a rent freeze.
The mayor has also slotted in two appointees seen as being more supportive of police officers to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the city’s police watchdog. Adams this month appointed Interim Chair Pat Smith, an ex-journalist, and member Kevin McGinn, a former cop.
Borelli, now a registered lobbyist, disputed the idea that his own appointment is an attempt to interfere with Mamdani’s plans.
“If I wanted to stir sh*t up, I would have asked to be on the RGB board,” Borelli told the Daily News. “But much to the despair of people who want a sexier story, I just want to serve the public.”
As a member of the Panel for Educational Policy or “PEP,” Borelli will also be a trustee of the Board of Education Retirement System or “BERS,” the city’s massive public pension fund for school employees.
Adams also appointed Borelli, whose clients include real estate interests, to the United Nations Development Corporation. The UNDC is tasked with providing commercial office space and other facilities for the UN community in New York.
Borelli told The News the appointments have been in the works for months and came out of conversations with Adams and his first deputy, Randy Mastro, about his desire to stay in public service after leaving the City Council.
“The genuine truth is that when I left office I asked to be appointed to a number of boards that would keep me in public service that would not be paid,” said Borelli. “The mayor and Randy knew I had been good to them, so the mayor offered the UNDC and PEP and BERS, and I said yes to all three.”
Borelli is expected to serve on the PEP through June, according to a Friday letter confirming his appointment. After that, he would need to be re-appointed by Mamdani to remain on the panel. Spokespeople for Adams and Mamdani did not immediately return requests for comment.
The PEP is tasked with voting on system-wide policies, contracts and budgets. The majority of seats on the panel are filled by the mayor, and as a result, typically vote in alignment with the administration’s directives. However, a number of legislative changes to the PEP, as well as Adams’ repeated failure to keep pace with expiring terms and resignations, have contributed to a more independent panel in recent years that most recently flexed its muscle by pushing for changes to outdated yellow bus contracts.
After the bus controversy, Mastro told the news outlet Bloomberg last month that Adams was looking at stacking the PEP in anticipation of the Mamdani administration. The seat now taken by Borelli was one of the three the mayor had left unfilled in recent months.
Borelli resigned from the Council in January for his gig with Chartwell Strategy Group, about a year before term limits would have otherwise ended his time in office.
Despite serving on the board tasked with public school oversight, it does not appear that Borelli has children in the public schools. In a recent exit interview with City & State that touched on pandemic-era school closures, he said he pulled his kids out and enrolled them in Catholic school instead.
Borelli said he will continue to work as a lobbyist and had cleared background checks, though he could be asked to recuse himself from some votes if they relate to his clients.
