Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement is already doing what it says on the tin: engaging the masses. Just not quite in the way City Hall might have hoped.
The office has rolled out a slate of six-figure jobs aimed at turning the campaign’s volunteer army into a permanent civic operation inside government. Stack up the posted salary bands for directors, campaign managers, borough staff and liaisons, and the totals climb fast, prompting critics to warn that taxpayers will be left holding the bag. The timing is touchy, as the administration is already staring down a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall.
Postings stoke controversy
The New York Post reported March 24 that roughly 14 advertised OME positions, when tallied at the top of their posted ranges, come to nearly $2 million a year in salaries. The paper quoted a critic who described the listings as resembling a “Soviet politburo” and noted that City Hall did not respond to its requests for comment, according to New York Post.
What the city’s job listings show
The city’s own job pages for the Office of Mass Engagement spell out the pay scales. A Campaigns Director is listed at $140,000–$150,000, an Interagency Director at $140,000–$150,000, and a Deputy Director of Co-Governance at $110,000–$125,000, while campaign managers and borough managers are posted around $100,000–$110,000. Community liaison and scheduling roles are advertised in the $80,000–$110,000 range. Those bands appear on the municipal jobs portal, according to City Jobs.
Office goals and leadership
Mamdani signed an executive order on Jan. 2 creating the Office of Mass Engagement and tapped his campaign field director, Tascha Van Auken, as commissioner, tasking the office with building mass participation channels and weaving public feedback into policy. City Hall’s announcement pitches the office as a tool to reach New Yorkers who have historically been shut out of policymaking, according to City of New York. Separate coverage of the launch also followed the rollout earlier this year.
Organizing meets government
Backers argue the office will convert the campaign’s volunteer network into a lasting civic resource and sharpen outreach to neighborhoods long left out of City Hall decision-making. Skeptics counter that putting organizers on the city payroll risks blurring the line between political movement work and basic municipal services, a tension that has already surfaced in local reporting on Van Auken’s Democratic Socialists of America organizing background by City & State.
Budget trade-offs
The hiring push is unfolding as Mamdani leans on Albany for new revenue and his administration contends with a $5.4 billion fiscal gap. The mayor has said he would rather increase taxes on the wealthy and on corporations than pursue deeper cuts. That backdrop has sharpened the debate over whether this is the moment to expand City Hall’s organizing staff, an issue he touched on in his budget remarks, according to the City of New York.
What’s next
Several OME job listings went up in February and March and remain open into the spring, with application windows and job descriptions available on City Jobs. The Executive Director of Organizing posting appeared in early February and other senior listings followed in March, according to City Jobs, and the New York Post reports City Hall declined to comment for its story. The coming weeks will show whether the administration can reconcile the office’s ambitions with its tightening budget.
