The three plaintiffs are Staten Island homeowners Rachel O'Brien and Carmine Morano, plus Manhattan's Simon Hedley — and their political profile is more layered than "ordinary owner." 85217/2026), names both Mamdani and Finance Commissioner Richard Lee. Speaking to Gothamist, Mastro summed up his read of the tax rollout bluntly: "The mayor wanted a headline, and he got one." A Mamdani spokesperson pushed back on the lawsuit, telling CNN "the Law Department is prepared to vigorously defend the city against this suit." Mayor Mamdani has separately argued the confusion stemmed from conflating two different things — the broad property database, which he's said was a routine disclosure required under state law, and the much narrower set of 17,000 actual surcharge notices.