While the mayor vacations, who is truly steering New York City through its mounting legal battles over the new property tax?

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Dean Fuleihan is the official in charge while Mayor Zohran Mamdani is away, but the city’s property-tax litigation is really being steered by a broader legal and management team rather than by any single stand-in mayor. City Hall says Fuleihan, the first deputy mayor, is overseeing day-to-day operations during Mamdani’s weeklong vacation in upstate New York. Mamdani is still receiving regular briefings from senior staff, so he has not fully stepped away from decision-making. That means overall authority remains with the mayor, even from a distance, while Fuleihan manages routine operations on the ground. On the property-tax fight itself, the key institutional driver is the administration’s legal apparatus working with the Department of Finance. The city has already shown that by moving quickly to appeal the Staten Island court order that temporarily blocked parts of the pied-à-terre tax rollout. City Hall has also publicly said it will vigorously defend the policy, and the appeal automatically stayed the restrictions. Fuleihan’s role matters because he is a veteran manager with prior experience as first deputy mayor and budget director, making him the senior operational hand during the mayor’s absence. But the litigation strategy appears to be coming from the Law Department, Finance officials, and senior City Hall advisers in constant contact with Mamdani, not from Fuleihan acting independently. So, while Fuleihan is minding City Hall, the city’s mounting legal battle over t…

NYC Mayor Mamdani Begins 1-Week Vacation as Deputy Mayor Fuleihan Oversees City

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NYC Mayor Mamdani Begins 1-Week Vacation as Deputy Mayor Fuleihan Oversees City

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