Ten Things Mayor Mamdani Can Do to Strengthen Transparency, Ethics, and Democracy

January 6, 2026

We hope Mayor Mamdani and his team will have more to say about fighting corruption and making NYC government more accountable to the people. Yet, there are dozens of things he can theoretically do to improve transparency, curb corruption, and reduce the ability of big money to buy NYC elections. Here are ten that Reinvent Albany believes are politically attainable, easy to implement, and a reasonable place for a new mayor to start.  

Transparency

  1. Improve agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) 
    1. Swiftly implement and fully fund the new NYC FOIL Law. Agencies now must use the Department of Records’ OpenRecords portal, and publish records 14 days after they are provided to the requester. 
    2. Convene a monthly FOIL coordination group, which watchdogs believe improved agency FOIL compliance when it last met under Mayor de Blasio. 
    3. Fully fund OMB’s headcount of FOIL officers, which would do more than anything else to reduce delays of months, even years, of providing public records.
  2. Clear the Open Data backlog by rapidly automating 344 datasets. This might seem arcane, but provides big bang for the buck by providing more accurate and usable data to the government and public. 
  3. Ban non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) for City employees, except for a narrow range of public safety and personal privacy issues. 

Ethics

  1. Ban third-party payments for travel by any City official – including the Mayor. The City should pay for official travel – not third parties with potential conflicts of interest. 
  2. Support and strengthen City Council Charter proposals for Department of Investigation (DOI) and Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB). The City Council Charter Commission proposal would provide independent budgeting for DOI and COIB, but there is more Mayor Mamdani can do to increase their independence and effectiveness.
  3. Require disclosure of written COIB opinions. The Mayor should champion legislation requiring COIB to publish guidance to highest-ranking officials, city-wide elected officials, and councilmembers, and in the meantime ensure that top-ranking officials voluntarily disclose opinions they receive.  

Campaign Finance

Reinvent Albany believes gargantuan independent expenditures are a dire threat to fair elections. We note that any super-wealthy person in the United States could spend $100 million or even a billion attempting to influence NYC elections – which becomes more and more likely as wealth inequality skyrockets.  

  1. Massively increase penalties for independent expenditures (IE) violations. Fines should be increased to between three to ten times the size of an undisclosed expense or contribution. Currently, the maximum penalty is up to 15% of an expense or $10,000 if the cost is unknown – this is the cost of doing business for mega-wealthy donors.
  2. Increase IE disclosures for improved timeliness and to address dark money.
    1. Move IE disclosure triggers up so that contributions must be disclosed not when the public sees an ad, but when a committee spends on an ad, per the city of Denver’s rules.
    2. Require IE committees to disclose contributors who contributed any amount in the period 12 months before an election. Currently, contributors of less than $25,000 do not have to disclose contributions more than 12 months before an election. Why?
    3. Require disclosure of contributors of $1,000 or more to entities giving to the major contributors of independent spenders. This addresses the dark money “nesting doll” problem per Arizona’s Proposal 211.
  3. Close the MSG “doing business” loophole. People classified as Doing Business easily elude the law by contributing to Political Action Committees (PACs), which then maximize contributions to candidates. See The City’s piece on Madison Square Garden, our September 2023 group letter to the CFB, and CFB’s response.
  4. Require the host committee and anyone acting as an intermediary at a campaign-sponsored event to register as an intermediary. Currently, law firms, real-estate developers, city vendors, political clubs, and anyone else do not have to disclose soliciting or “bundling” contributions at campaign funded events.