REMARKS
Mastro's defense of his record and accomplishments in the Giuliani administration
3:22:22
·
4 min
Randy Mastro defends his record and accomplishments during his time in the Giuliani administration, responding to criticisms from Council Member Lincoln Restler.
- Mastro emphasizes his role as a lawyer and counselor, maintaining confidentiality about internal discussions
- He highlights positive assessments of his work from various editorial boards and colleagues
- Mastro points out the personal risks he took in confronting organized crime
- He mentions his advocacy for AIDS victims and LGBTQ+ rights within the administration
- Mastro cites specific accomplishments, such as expanding rights for same-sex couples and addressing solid waste issues in Staten Island
Randy Mastro
3:22:22
And I I think I can cancel it with with with all due respect.
3:22:26
I think I am speaking to it in a meaningful way.
3:22:29
I don't agree with some of your characterizations, but I have acknowledged.
3:22:33
I wish there are things we could have done better.
3:22:35
And I am at my core I am a lawyer and a counselor.
3:22:40
And lawyers and counselors counsel their clients work with clients and public officials with whom they serve with relationships of trust and confidence.
3:22:52
The fact that I might have done things differently.
3:22:57
25 years later, a confidence is a confidence just as I will keep the speakers' confidence when we speak and confident if I'm fortunate to have this position.
3:23:06
And I should say that looking at the totality of my career over 4 decades, to me, the focus on trying to get me say negative things about a mayor I served, during a 4 year period in those 40 years.
3:23:22
I'm not sure why that should so dominate these proceedings.
3:23:26
I'm here to tell you I am ready to serve and I have a 40 year record of advancing civil rights, constitutional rights, social justice, and public safety.
3:23:37
And there are things in the Giuliani administration.
3:23:39
I'm proud of having done myself in my own record in the Giuliani administration.
Lincoln Restler
3:23:43
But Mister Mastro, you were not a bystander.
3:23:46
Were not a bystander in the Giuliani administration, and you were not I didn't live live in Michigan.
3:23:49
Nor have you claimed to be.
3:23:50
You were one of the most senior handful of people in that administration.
3:23:54
Among the most powerful people that there were in city hall for the years that you worked here.
3:23:59
And I would have hoped coming into the hearing today as you try to to persuade this city council that you share our values, that you would have brought a more reflective perspective and taken more accountability for what the Giuliani administration got wrong in failing and causing in implementing such harmful policies to the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
3:24:20
And I have to say, mister Matro, you've said today you've said previously that you see a lot of similarities between the Giuliani and Adams administrations.
3:24:27
And, unfortunately, I do too.
3:24:30
And I couldn't think of a more damning indictment.
3:24:32
So, you know, with that, I think I will
Randy Mastro
3:24:37
may give up the reply, please.
Keith Powers
3:24:39
You go ahead.
Randy Mastro
3:24:40
Please.
3:24:40
Okay.
3:24:44
I have not compared the Giuliani administration to other administrations, but to be clear, I I'm here to talk about my own record and my own record in that administration, and my own record in that administration is reflected in what editorial boards and contemporaries who served with me in government from the across the hall and throughout city government elected democrats have said about me and my values, and it was the daily news that wrote when I left city hall.
3:25:26
I did the virtually impossible, and the contributions I made to city government will last a lifetime.
3:25:33
The post, the times, everyone praised my personal work in city hall, and I I I don't want us to lose focus by focusing on, you know, certain issues that weren't necessarily in my portfolio, although I did have a significant role.
3:25:50
But imagined, ladies and gentlemen, imagine how difficult it was for me, for my family, to face daily death threats because I had the guts to take on organized crime.
3:26:06
For this city, the prior administration said they wouldn't take on because it was intractable.
3:26:11
At the Fulton Fish Market, a private carding industry, and otherwise Imagine the guts it took in the 19 nineties.
3:26:18
I stood up and advocated within that administration for victims of AIDS having lost so many close to me from that scourge.
3:26:27
And I stood up for the rights of the LBGTQ plus community at a time when that was not a popular position.
3:26:35
And we got historic things done.
3:26:37
We didn't cut.
3:26:39
We expanded the rights of same sex couples to an unprecedented extent in the city's history.
3:26:45
And I stood up when it was wrong that Staten Island was bearing all of our solid waste.
3:26:51
I stood up when on a 125th Street, a crisis was occurring.
Keith Powers
3:26:56
Russia, we're gonna keep going about it.
Randy Mastro
3:26:58
I'm just saying, please look at the totality of my record, and then all the pro bono I have done over the years.
3:27:04
I appreciate you acknowledging that counsel, and