Mayor Eric Adams has escaped a potential $600 fine after a city administrative judge dismissed a summons issued by a Department of Health inspector, who discovered signs of a rat infestation at his Brooklyn brownstone.
City records reviewed by The Post on Friday showed that the complaint filed against Adams’ multi-unit building on Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant has been dismissed, two days after Hizzoner testified in a virtual hearing.
There were no other notes about the case included in the file. If affirmed, the violation carried the threat of a fine of between $300-$600.
The summons was an embarrassment for Adams, who has made fighting widespread rat infestations across the city one of the signature initiatives of his year-old mayoralty.
His administration has created a $170,000-a-year rat ‘czar’ position to coordinate rodent response among the slew of agencies tasked with anti-rat measures, including the Sanitation and Health departments.
City Hall has rolled out a new pilot program testing containers to hold trash bags from businesses in two neighborhoods — Brooklyn Heights and Times Square — as a potential way to keep the refuse out of the reach of the rats.
Meanwhile, officials are rolling out new regulations in the spring that will push the trash set-out time to 8 pm and move a substantial portion of the pick-up to midnight — all in a bid to dramatically reduce the number of times rats have to claw their way into the garbage.
The summons that was issued by a Department of Health inspector against Mayor Adams was dismissed by a city administrative judge. AP
City Hall has rolled out a new pilot program testing containers to hold trash bags from businesses as a potential way to keep trash out of the reach of rats. REUTERSPreviously, businesses and residents had been allowed to set out their trash as early as 4 pm and pickup took place early the next morning.
