More than two years after NBC New York's I-Team filed public records requests about former Mayor Eric Adams' use of AI voice cloning technology and the city's "MyCity" chatbot, the files still haven't been produced. The Adams administration stalled with a series of extension notices. Now Zohran Mamdani, the man who campaigned on a "culture of transparency," is doing the same thing.

When the I-Team began pressing Mamdani's administration three weeks ago to hand over the records his predecessor buried, the new mayor sounded, by the outlet's account, "noncommittal." On Friday, he ended a news conference before anyone could ask him about it. Cornered on a nearby sidewalk, Mamdani offered this:

I haven't heard of it as yet, but I will follow up on it.

Two months into office. Two years of outstanding requests. And the mayor of New York City claims he hasn't heard of it.

The Inherited Excuse

Mamdani spokesperson Jenna Lyles deployed the predictable defense: blame the last guy. She said the administration is "working to complete the large backlog of FOILs that were inherited as quickly as possible." She also insisted that "transparency and accountability are prerequisites to a city government that truly delivers for New Yorkers."

That language is almost word-for-word what Mamdani posted on social media after winning the general election:

This will be a period, like the campaign we ran and the City Hall to come, defined by transparency.

Defined by transparency. Except when a reporter asks a specific question about specific records that the public specifically paid for. Then it's defined by an inherited backlog and a mayor who hasn't heard about it yet.

Rachael Fauss, a Senior Policy Advisor at Reinvent Albany, pushed back on the backlog excuse, NBC News reported. She noted that FOIL delays shouldn't affect the production of standard government contracts and agreements, the very documents the I-Team requested. Her position was straightforward:

These are the public's records and they should be released by default.

What the City Is Hiding

The I-Team's FOIL requests targeted two things:

• Public contracts, agreements, and audio files associated with Adams' use of AI voice cloning technology
• Contracts and agreements behind the "MyCity" chatbot, a now-canceled program

On the chatbot front, an attorney for the city's Office of Technology and Innovation closed the I-Team's request after sending over a 697-page umbrella agreement related to Microsoft IT services. That's the bureaucratic equivalent of answering "What did the city pay for this chatbot?" with a phone book. Only after the I-Team pushed back did OTI agree to reopen its search.

OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre framed the reversal generously, saying it was done "in the spirit of good faith and greater transparency." He added that OTI Legal "reopened this request and is continuing its search for additional records beyond your original request for records pertaining to Microsoft and the Chatbot." The original request shouldn't have been difficult to fulfill in the first place.

On the AI voice cloning records, City Hall said a decision on producing contracts and recordings would likely be made by April 9, the deadline in the most recent extension notice. That's a generous timeline for records that should, as Fauss noted, already be public.

Transparency for Thee

Fauss raised a particularly sharp point about the AI voice recordings. Adams used the technology to communicate directly with New Yorkers. As Fauss put it:

It was like a communication that the public was meant to hear.

She followed with the obvious question:

So why can't you get that record? If we've paid for it, as taxpayers, it should be available to see or hear.

That's the core of this story. The city used taxpayer money to build AI tools, deployed those tools to communicate with the public, and now refuses to let the public see the contracts behind them. Two administrations have now participated in this concealment. Adams started it. Mamdani is continuing it.

Same Machine, New Operator

This is the pattern with progressive governance in New York. The rhetoric changes with the nameplate on the door. The bureaucracy doesn't. Mamdani ran as the anti-Adams, the democratic socialist who would throw open the windows at City Hall and let the sunlight in. Two months later, his spokesperson is citing inherited backlogs while the mayor himself dodges questions on sidewalks.

Conservatives have long argued that the problem with New York City government isn't the individual sitting in the mayor's office. It's the institutional culture that treats public records as government property, that views transparency as a campaign slogan rather than an obligation, and that responds to legitimate FOIL requests with 697-page document dumps designed to bury the answer inside the noise.

Mamdani didn't create this culture. But he promised to end it. And so far, the only thing that's changed is the name on the extension notices.

April 9 is the next deadline. New Yorkers shouldn't have to wait to find out whether their mayor meant a single word he said.