Yet more than two months after the council was announced, it remains a work in progress, its recruitment process marred by infighting among business leaders, many of whom question whether they can develop a working relationship with Mr. Mamdani. Two business leaders said they feared receiving — and feeling obliged to accept — an invitation to join the council, because they would then have to weigh their desire to help the administration against the appearance of serving as cover for policies with which they disagree.
The divide between City Hall and Wall Street was only further exacerbated in July, when Mr. Mamdani disbanded a separate advisory board for the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a mayoral nonprofit that raises private money for city initiatives. The dismissed board members included several of New York’s most prominent real estate leaders.
Mr. Mamdani’s team said he would replace the advisory board, but not until this fall, and asserted that the board had not been particularly active. Last year, only four of the advisory board’s members, of which there are about 30, had paid their $25,000 dues, according to City Hall. The Mamdani administration has encouraged those who want to remain on the board to reapply; two former members have indicated their desire to do so.
The mayor’s effort to fill his business advisory council has also been choppy. Antonio Weiss, a former head of global investment banking at Lazard; Robert Wolf, the former chief executive of UBS Americas; and Jose Tavarez, the president for New York City at Bank of America, were among the first to be publicly linked to the council. Other business executives later emerged, including Kevin Ryan, a major New York tech investor; Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani; and Scott Rechler, the chief executive of RXR, a real estate company, according to five people familiar with the effort.