The city's ethnic media office has one employee and no spending total. Menin says the law has been 'gutted'

A city law requires agencies to spend at least half their ad money with community and ethnic news outlets. At a City Council hearing Wednesday, the official in charge of tracking that law said he is the office's only staffer and can't yet say what agencies spend.

Why it matters to residents: these outlets, many publishing in languages other than English, are how many New Yorkers learn about city services, deadlines and elections. The hearing came a day after the Council criticized City Hall's $1.6 million ad campaign on the ballot questions, as we reported Tuesday.

What was said

The office has been without a leader for most of the year. Committee Chair Gale Brewer said the Mayor's Office of Ethnic and Community Media was moved into the new Office of Mass Engagement in January. Its executive director left at the end of 2025, and the office was later moved under the mayor's communications director (transcript). Mazin Sidahmed, whom Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed in September, said he started this month. He said he is the only person in the office and hopes to hire soon (transcript).

No one could give a total. Speaker Julie Menin asked for the overall ad budget of city agencies. Sidahmed said he was collecting fiscal 2026 data from media buyers to answer that (transcript). Menin said the law "was incredibly successful" and has "now been gutted." She said she was "very troubled" by the last eight months (transcript). Sidahmed said the fiscal 2026 report should be done by the end of this calendar year (transcript).

The numbers depend on what counts. Menin said community and ethnic outlets got $2.7 million in city ads before the policy began. That rose to a peak of $23.1 million in 2022 (transcript). Council Member Lincoln Restler said the last annual report counted $31 million toward community and ethnic media, but $18 million of it was "out of scope." By his math, the real share was 24%, not the 57% the report suggested (transcript). Brewer pointed out that social media and influencer spending falls outside the 50% rule (transcript).

What our records add

The law is the Council's. Local Law 83 of 2021 wrote the 50% target and the office into law, Menin said (transcript). The hearing record is T2026-2608.

Four bills were also heard, and all were laid over.

• Int. 1127, Int. 1128 and Int. 1129, from Nantasha Williams, would repeal or amend 25 outdated reporting requirements. They would also set default due dates for agency reports and create a way for agencies to certify that they have met legal mandates (transcript). Each has nine or ten sponsors. Int. 1127 was amended at the hearing.
• A preconsidered bill from Brewer, T2026-2722, would have the Department of Records study how agencies use messaging apps like Signal. Brewer cited a Signal group set to auto-delete messages (transcript). We wrote about that bill before the hearing. Our record shows it is due to be formally introduced Nov. 12.

What's next

The committee has a second hearing Friday, Oct. 30 (meeting page). The bills need committee votes before going to the full Council. Sidahmed's fiscal 2026 report is the next test of how much ad money reaches community outlets.