Progressive Politics

Mayor Zohran Mamdani will be able to appoint six members to the Rent Guidelines Board, giving him a majority of appointees to deliver his signature campaign proposal of a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments.

Alex Armlovich, a member of the board who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams to a four-year term that runs through 2026, resigned Tuesday. He’s the third member to resign or signal intent to leave the board this month.

Armlovich said he did not resign for political reasons, but because he’d be taking on a new full-time job working on housing supply issues as a program officer at the philanthropy group Coefficient Giving.

The nine-member Rent Guidelines Board is appointed by the mayor and each year votes on rent levels for over a million rent-stabilized apartments in the five boroughs. Armlovich’s departure indicates that Mamdani could be closer to appointing members that would almost certainly align with his vision of delivering a rent freeze, which was a possibility that seemed less likely in the mayor’s first year because of holdover Adams-era appointments.

Board members’ terms run for as long as four years, so some appointed members stay on the board for longer than the mayor who appointed them is in office. It’s a way for past mayors to exert influence on the make-up of the board beyond their tenure. Armlovich was expected to be one of them.

But now with the recent resignations, Mamdani has a nearly clear board to play with. He has the chance to appoint six new members.