Mayor Mamdani is scrambling to secure NYC Council support for his choice to head the city’s government watchdog agency.
Hizzoner’s team is working hard to set up private sit-downs with Council members and Nadia Shihata, a former federal prosecutor he nominated as commissioner of the Department of Investigation — all while the mayor and lawmakers are locked in tense negotiations over next fiscal year’s budget, Politico reported Saturday.
Mamdani’s pick came under fire Monday after Shihata revealed to Council members during a confirmation hearing that she donated $700 and some of her time to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.
Sources told the outlet — and later confirmed to The Post — that the Mayor’s Office’s goal is to ease Council members’ concerns about whether Shihata can truly be impartial. The Council could vote on her nomination as early as Thursday.
Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) told Politico she believes the mayor and his staff are worried about whether Shihata has enough support.
“Otherwise they don’t call,” said Brewer, who was contacted about meeting Shihata, but has yet to make up her mind.
Another Council member who declined to be named said it’s unusual for a mayor to set up meetings with nominees and Council members after a confirmation hearing.
“Doing this post-hearing is weird,” the member said.
The mayor’s staff’s outreach has even stretched across party lines, with some GOP Council members contacted, although no meetings with Republicans had yet to been set as of Saturday, sources said.
The Mayor’s Office did not return messages but Shihata — who served in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for 11 years — defended her ability to remain impartial during the hearing.
“I think anyone who knows me or who has worked with me knows my level of professionalism and integrity over my 20-year career, and that I will approach every investigation, including any that may involve the mayor or any senior officials in his administration,” she said.
The DOI assisted the feds in the September 2024 indictment of then-Mayor Eric Adams — prior to the US Department of Justice dropping the charges against him — as well as in other corruption-related probes involving City Hall.
