Rats! NYC mayor ticketed for rodents at his property once more

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed Wednesday to fight his own city hall — again — after being convicted of rat charges at his Brooklyn townhouse.

A city health department inspector had issued two new subpoenas last month, just a day after the Democratic mayor appeared remotely before a hearing officer on Dec. 6 to dismiss a $300 subpoena about rats on his property.

“A rat hole was observed along the ledge of the front right fence line,” the inspector wrote. “Fresh rat droppings were observed in front of the garbage cans in the front right courtyard.”

Not true, Adams insisted. “I have a camera around the house and I was looking back on that date,” he said. “My garden is clean. My garbage is in containers. I go, I sweep up. My apartment is clean.”

An administrative hearing on the new subpoenas is scheduled for Jan. 12, and Adams said he will retry his case. “I encourage every New Yorker: you get a subpoena, you feel like it was done wrong, go and fight it,” Adams said. “And I will do that. I will follow the process.”

Adams was asked about rats at an independent press conference after the Daily News reported the latest breaches. The mayor, who has made rat eradication a key city policy goal, said he is also committed to ridding his own home of the pests.

“I spent $7,000 fighting rats,” he said. “You really have to be afraid of rats to spend $7,000.”