As City Hall reviews DCAS texting claims, a Council bill on agency messaging apps gets a hearing

Mayor Zohran Mamdani says the city's top lawyer is personally reviewing allegations that officials at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) used personal email and text messages for city business, The City Reporter reported on Friday. Mamdani called the allegations "something that we take incredibly seriously."

City rules require official business to run through official channels so the records can be kept and released to the public. Messages sent on personal accounts can be lost to public-records requests, lawsuits and audits.

What has been alleged

The claims come from a lawsuit filed by a former DCAS manager, The City Reporter reported. She alleges that supervisors used personal email, texts and hand-delivered documents to discuss sensitive matters, including an alleged nepotistic hire and an unusual lease request, and that she was fired in May after raising concerns. Those are allegations in a pending lawsuit; the outlet's report does not say they have been established.

On Oct. 8, Corporation Counsel Steven Banks sent DCAS a letter telling staff not to delete relevant texts and emails. Officials described it as a routine notice. A DCAS spokesperson said the agency has told employees to preserve records. The Department of Investigation said it is aware of the allegations, according to the outlet.

The report follows earlier coverage that a top mayoral aide coordinated messaging with social media influencers over Signal, in at least one case with auto-delete on. City Hall's general counsel has since told staff not to use Signal for city business, The City Reporter reported.

What our records add

A bill on the agenda Wednesday. The Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation meets Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 10 a.m. (meeting page). Its agenda includes a proposed local law "in relation to the creation of a working group to study agency use of communication technologies," sponsored by committee chair Gale A. Brewer with Farah N. Louis (T2026-2722). It is being heard before formal introduction; our record shows it set for introduction at the Nov. 12 stated meeting. Its full text was not in our records as of Saturday.

The same hearing covers oversight of the Mayor's Office of Ethnic & Community Media and city advertising spending (T2026-2608), and three bills from Nantasha M. Williams on the reports agencies owe the Council (Int. 1127, Int. 1128, Int. 1129).

The Signal hearing in September. Brewer's committee took up the messaging question on Sept. 22. She opened by citing a Columbia Journalism Review report on an invite-only Signal group used by the mayor's communications team, noting that Signal can auto-delete messages and that "it is not clear in what cases" the feature was on (video at 4:00). She said the committee wanted to make sure the team was following the city's record-retention rules. Minority Leader David M. Carr described a group chat with more than 200 influencers and introduced bills to require disclosure of such arrangements (7:30).

Later, Brewer asked the Department of Records and Information Services whether anyone had sought its approval to use Signal's auto-delete feature, noting that city employees may not destroy records without prior approval (1:26:00). The agency's answer was that city agencies are required to comply with its records policy (1:27:00).

The committee. Brewer chairs a seven-member committee with Eric Dinowitz, Oswald J. Feliz, Frank Morano, Althea V. Stevens, Carl Wilson and Susan Zhuang. Our records show 92 matters pending before it, 66 of them for more than 180 days.

What's next

The working-group bill gets its hearing Wednesday; any vote would come later, after formal introduction on Nov. 12. The corporation counsel's review and the lawsuit are continuing, and the Department of Investigation has not announced any action. Video and a searchable transcript will be posted on the meeting page after the hearing.