Rodents strike back.
Mayor Eric Adams’ war on rats took an ironic turn Tuesday when it was revealed that Hizzoner is facing a $300 fine for an infestation of the rodents at his Brooklyn property.
News of the rat summons came after Adams last month promised to expunge the citywide rat population — or at least put a dent in it.
But according to a city citation obtained by The Post, the mayor struggles with keeping his own Bedford Stuyvesant home vermin-free.
The mayor was issued a summons by the city health department on May 10 at his brownstone on Lafayette Avenue after a health inspector spotted “fresh rat droppings” in an area known to be crawling with the critters, according to the citation.
Adams attended a virtual court hearing Tuesday to contest the summons — after failing to respond to the initial summons then repeatedly missing his court dates, the New York Times reported.
During the hearing, Adams spoke of his long feud with rats as mayor and his efforts as a landlord to mitigate the infestation — including spending nearly $7,000 in March to rid the Brooklyn property of the rodents, the Times reported.
“Mayor Adams has made no secret of the fact that he hates rats — whether scurrying around on the streets or terrorizing building tenants,” the mayor’s press secretary Fabien Levy said in a statement. “He spent thousands of dollars to remediate an infestation at his residence in Brooklyn earlier this year, and was happy to appear before OATH today to state as much.”
The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings had found Adams in violation of the summons by default since he had missed prior hearings. He used the deputy chief counsel in the mayor’s office, Rahul Agarwal — rather than a private attorney — to contest the findings, according to the Times.
Levy said the mayor always intended to represent himself in the court hearings.
The mayor’s home-turf rat battle was detailed a week after the Adams administration posted a new job listing for a “Director of Rodent Migration” seeking someone with a “virulent vehemence for vermin” and the “drive, determination and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy – New York City’s relentless rat population.”
The salary listed for the job is between $120,000 and $170,000.
Last month, Adams signed a package of legislation that will force landlords to buy heavy-duty garbage bins to lock out rats if they rack up two or more rodent complaints and reduce the amount of time trash sits out on the street.
“I’ve made it clear I hate rats — and we’re gonna kill some rats,” Hizzoner said at the bill-signing in Manhattan. “We’re putting a dent in our rodent problem.”
Adams apparently has it out for rats so much that his administration put it on a t-shirt. The Sanitation Department, in partnership with the brand OnlyNY, is selling a $48 shirt with the slogan, “The rats don’t run this city. We do,” as made famous by DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Tisch made the now-viral statement during a press conference announcing the city would shorten the amount of time trash bags sit on curbs.
