Hiring and org design

The Mamdani Franchise — an independent, non-partisan, open-source playbook. Not affiliated with the Mayor of New York City, the City of New York, or any campaign or party. Status: DRAFT v0.2 · Evidence cut-off: 2026-11-10.

Evidence IDs refer to rows in the evidence register. Every claim cites an ID with URL and date; unverified items are marked [UNVERIFIED].

Fiscal-year caution. Payroll figures are fiscal-year snapshots: headcount is taken on June 30, and pay covers July–June. FY2026 = Jul 2025–Jun 2026, half of it under the prior administration. A June 30, 2026 snapshot reflects decisions made by both administrations.

Summary disclosure (data sections)

• Citywide headcount grew steadily, continuing the earlier trend. Active full-time (annual-salary) employees on June 30 went from 287,900 (FY2025) to 292,709 (FY2026), +1.7%. The year before was +1.4% (FY2024: 284,025). Regular gross pay rose 5.7% to $26.56B; overtime paid rose 3.7% to $2.53B (EV-209). The Comptroller, using OMB headcount data, reports 292,858 for June 2026, a 4.2% vacancy rate against authorized headcount; it uses a slightly different definition (EV-172).

• Office of the Mayor (payroll 002) — a departure from the FY2024–25 level (FY2026; half under the prior administration). It is still below every year in FY2018–FY2023 (413–493 staff) in the same dataset (EV-210):

  • Staff: 328 → 366 (+11.6%) between June 2025 and June 2026, after 326 in June 2024. Total base salary went from $45.4M to $52.1M (EV-210).
  • Hiring: among staff still active on June 30, 155 started in Jan–Jun 2026, vs 40 in Jan–Jun 2025 and 8 in Jan–Jun 2024. The increase coincides with the Jan 1, 2026 transition (EV-213).
  • Scope: this excludes "Mayor's Office of…" units paid under other agencies (EV-210).

• Agency-level change (61 agencies with ≥100 staff): 40 grew, 20 shrank, 1 unchanged (EV-211).

  • Declines that continue the FY2024–25 direction: Homeless Services −7.5% and Correction −3.6% (both declining each year since FY2024).
  • Rose in FY2025, then fell: NYCHA −3.5% and FDNY −499 (−2.9%).
  • Also declined: Probation −4.5%, Office of Labor Relations −3.8%, Technology & Innovation −3.7%.
  • Largest increase: DOE pedagogical staff +3,805 (+4.0%), growing each year since FY2024. NYPD was roughly flat (45,050 → 45,239).

• Hiring proxy. This counts agency start dates among staff still active on June 30. It is not a count of hires (EV-212 EV-213):

  • Jan–Jun 2026: 5,808 starts, 20% below Jan–Jun 2025 (7,254) and 6% below Jan–Jun 2024 (6,165).
  • Jul–Dec 2025: 12,796 starts vs 9,746 a year earlier (+31%), including 2,238 in December 2025 (783 in Dec 2024; 750 in Dec 2023). December 2025 was the prior administration's final month.
  • Uniformed and housing agencies, Jan–Jun 2026 vs 2025: fewer starts at NYPD (1,413 vs 2,006), FDNY (382 vs 705), NYCHA (248 vs 452) and Correction (96 vs 252). Academy class timing can produce large year-to-year swings at NYPD, FDNY and Correction (a measurement caveat, not an explanation).

• Open postings snapshot. On Nov 3, 2026 there were 1,401 open postings for 4,333 positions across 57 agencies. The most open positions were at NYCHA (836), Correction (637) and Health/Mental Hygiene (467). The Office of the Mayor had 70 postings for 74 positions. The dataset keeps no history, so no year-over-year comparison is possible, and the Nov 3 snapshot cannot be re-pulled; 185 postings were already past their closing date (EV-214).

• Hiring rules. The administration inherited a 2-for-1 rule: a position was refilled only after two people left. The prior administration adopted it in February 2024, replacing a freeze in place since fall 2023 (EV-271). NY Focus reported a February 2026 decision to end it; the Comptroller said it was still in place on May 5 and later reported it lifted in May (EV-272 EV-270 EV-172). Monthly headcount (OMB data, via the Comptroller) went from 292,483 in January to 291,717 in April; the June count was 292,858 (EV-270 EV-172).

• Civil service. The City declined to opt into NY HELPS, the State's exam-waiver hiring program (July); DCAS gave no reason. Separately, on Oct 5 it set up a Civil Service Modernization Advisory Committee with unions. No deadline was set (EV-272 EV-273).

No causes were analysed. The Office of the Mayor increase is the only workforce result here that departs from the 2024–25 trend.

Workforce at a glance (Citywide Payroll, active full-time, June 30)

Baseline counts were added to EV-211 Notes after being re-checked against the lab's raw payroll files. "—" = not stated in the register. Full agency table: data-lab/Q2-agency-table.csv.

Key questions — status

Org design at a glance

Consolidated from Items 1 and 3. Each unit below was created by executive order or administratively. Hell Gate noted that offices created this way can be dissolved by a successor without Council action (EV-129).

Findings by phase

Transition (Nov 4 – Dec 31, 2025)

Summary: Two days after the election, the transition opened a résumé portal; it had received ~72,000 résumés by mid-December (EV-094 EV-096). It asked 179 prior-administration City Hall staff to resign effective Jan 1; the transition called this standard practice (EV-095 EV-260). In payroll data, agency starts in Jul–Dec 2025 (the prior administration's final months) were 31% above a year earlier, including 2,238 starts in December 2025 (Dec 2024: 783; Dec 2023: 750). This is a proxy count; reasons were not analysed (EV-212).

Tactics

Evidence IDs: EV-094 EV-095 EV-096 EV-212 EV-260

First 100 days (Jan 1 – Apr 10, 2026)

Summary: The org chart was set by executive order on Day 1 and new offices followed by EO (see the org-design table). Monthly headcount fell slightly, from 292,483 in January to 291,717 in April, per the Comptroller (EV-270). Payroll data are June 30 snapshots and cannot isolate this window.

Tactics

Evidence IDs: EV-036 EV-098 EV-129 EV-210 EV-213 EV-270

First budget (FY27: Preliminary Feb → Adopted Jun 2026)

Summary: The June 30, 2026 payroll snapshot (FY2026, half under the prior administration) shows:

• Citywide headcount +1.7%, continuing a steady trend (EV-209).
• Office of the Mayor +11.6%, with 155 Jan–Jun 2026 starts — a departure from the FY2024–25 level, though still below FY2018–23 levels (EV-210 EV-213).
• Agency changes as listed above (EV-211).
• Jan–Jun 2026 starts below 2025 and near 2024 (EV-212).

Budget actions in the same window:

• NYPD: the prior administration's funded 5,000-officer expansion was cancelled (EV-099). A +580 proposed in the May Executive Budget was dropped at adoption. The Mayor cited savings found with the Police Commissioner and said authorized headcount stays at the originally authorized 35,000; the Speaker and the PBA disagreed (EV-267). Actual uniformed headcount was not checked.
• Hiring rule: the inherited 2-for-1 rule was ended. NY Focus reported a February decision; the Comptroller said it was still in place on May 5 and reported it lifted in May. The Comptroller later reported a net +1,141 employees since the lift and 292,858 in June (FY2026); no link between the two was analysed here (EV-272 EV-270 EV-172).
• Vacancies: 15,530 authorized vacancies (5.1%) in April, about half funded, per the Comptroller (EV-270).

Tactics

Evidence IDs: EV-099 EV-172 EV-209 EV-210 EV-211 EV-212 EV-213 EV-267 EV-270 EV-272

Year 1 (Jul – Dec 2026)

Summary:

• Open postings: a snapshot on Nov 3, 2026 shows 1,401 open postings for 4,333 positions. They are concentrated at NYCHA, Correction and Health/Mental Hygiene; the Office of the Mayor had 70 postings (EV-214; snapshot not reproducible).
• Vacancies: the Comptroller counted 15,530 authorized vacancies (5.1%) in April, about half funded (EV-270); NY Focus put the citywide vacancy rate at about 4.5% since 2024 (EV-272). An earlier Vital City count (Nov 2025, before the administration) was more than 13,000 (EV-103).
• Recruitment: the Jobs NYC Center opened as a walk-in recruitment channel (EV-102).
• Civil service: the City said in July it would not opt into NY HELPS; DCAS said its priority was modernizing the existing system, and DC 37 opposed opting in. On Oct 5 the Mayor set up a Civil Service Modernization Advisory Committee with unions; no deadline was given (EV-272 EV-273).

Tactics

Evidence IDs: EV-102 EV-103 EV-214 EV-270 EV-272 EV-273

Present (rolling; last updated: 2026-11-10)

Summary: FY2027 payroll (snapshot June 30, 2027) will be the first payroll year entirely under this administration; it is not yet available. The modernization committee has no published timeline. The DC 37 contract was set to expire Nov 6 and, per Vital City, would likely set the pattern for City labor (EV-142).

Evidence IDs: EV-142 EV-273

Open questions & gaps

• Calendar-month headcount: payroll gives only June 30 snapshots, so it cannot separate the two administrations within FY2026. OMB monthly headcount or Comptroller reports may help.
• Office of the Mayor full footprint: "Mayor's Office of…" units paid under other agencies are excluded (EV-210).
• Time-to-fill for specific roles (only system-wide exam timelines are available).
• Effect of ending the 2-for-1 rule on agency-level hiring: needs monthly agency headcount (Comptroller staffing dashboard).
• Exact effective date of the 2-for-1 change: sources say February (decision) and May (lifted).
• Pre-publication: re-pull the payroll and postings data using the links in each row's URL column.

Changelog