As Lawsuits Loom, New York’s Rent Board Renegades Must Be Named and Shamed

The New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) — the body specifically established to set annual rent increases for the city’s roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments sufficient to cover landlords’ legitimate operating costs — has just instituted a full rent freeze. This, despite undisputed landlord cost increases that demanded rent increases. Landlord groups are preparing legal action to block this unprecedented, inappropriate, and likely illegal move, which is set to take effect for leases beginning October 1.

Mamdani ran explicitly on freezing rents. He knew the statutory requirement, stacked the RGB with sympathetic appointees, stepped back, and let the predetermined outcome unfold. The result was a 7-1 vote for 0% increases on both one- and two-year leases. This is regulatory extortion and potential criminality dressed up as tenant relief.

The real criminals here are the board members on the RGB who betrayed their duty.

These board members on the RGB did not get dragged into their seats — they actively agreed to serve and undertook a legal obligation to follow the law and the evidence on costs. They reviewed the data showing operating expenses rising over 5%, then deliberately voted to impose a total freeze anyway. This confiscates legitimate returns on property, discourages maintenance on aging buildings, and accelerates housing deterioration across the city. Small landlords will cut corners or exit. Supply will shrink. Unregulated rents will rise. The behavioral responses to these perverse incentives are entirely predictable.

Their names must be called out:

• Chantella Mitchell, Chair

• Sina Sinai

• Lauren Melodia

• Brandon Mancilla

• Maksim Wynn (owner representative who went along)

• Adán Soltren

• Sagar Sharma

These people undertook a legal obligation which they are now violating. They have demonstrated they have no integrity and should not be employed in any position of responsibility anywhere — and perhaps shouldn’t be employed by any responsible employer at all. Their actions harm property rights, individual landlords trying to stay solvent, and ultimately the tenants who will live with worse housing conditions in the years ahead.

This rent freeze exemplifies government overreach at its most destructive: short-term political pandering that creates long-term economic pain. Property rights aren’t optional — they align incentives for investment, upkeep, and new supply. Violating them through regulatory fiat doesn’t solve affordability; it guarantees scarcity and decay.

The lawsuits coming will test whether the law still means anything in New York. In the meantime, these RGB board members should face relentless public scrutiny for agreeing to serve and then deliberately undermining the rules. The public has a right to know exactly who sold out economic reality and their sworn obligations for applause.

The principle is straightforward and non-negotiable: public officials and board members who take an oath have a duty to uphold the law and follow the evidence — not deliver campaign promises at the expense of property rights and sound policy. Those who refuse belong out of office.