NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams appeared in a virtual courtroom Thursday to demand tickets he received for a rat infestation at his Brooklyn home be dismissed.
Adams, who quipped last month that he was “looking forward to be the chocolate Perry Mason” while contesting the tickets, spent over 30 minutes in an online Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings proceeding, laying out evidence about why he believes his rodent violation summonses should be tossed out.
For starters, Adams shared receipts with the presiding OATH officer showing he has shelled out nearly $8,000 since last March on extermination services, traps and other gadgets to crack down on rats outside his three-story property on Lafayette Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The mayor rents out two of the floors in the building, and he said all his tenants have been helpful in keeping the front yard “extremely clean.”
“We all don’t like rats, and we all have been cooperating together,” said the vermin-hating mayor, who has made street cleanliness and pest eradication a prominent focus of his administration.
Still, the summonses issued on Dec. 7 — which were first reported by the Daily News and come with a combined possible max penalty of $1,200 — allege the vile critters existed in Adams’ front yard.
The Health Department inspector who wrote the tickets also reported a rodent “burrow” and “runway” in the yard, in addition to various “active rat signs,” like “fresh droppings.”
Adams, who was under oath during the hearing, disputed the inspector’s findings.
He said the burrow is on his neighbor’s side of the fence, and that he shouldn’t be penalized for it. He also submitted videos and photos to the presiding officer that he said showed there was no improperly disposed garbage or signs of rats on the property on the day in question.
“We have not witnessed any rodents at all around the property and we keep the front extremely clean,” he said.
The presiding officer, Sam Chetrit, did not immediately rule on Adams’ appeal, but said she expects to make a decision within 30 days.
Though he dismissed the notion that his yard is overrun with four-legged pests, Adams conceded his neighborhood hasn’t won the war on rats yet.
“The entire block is infested,” he said.
He repeatedly stressed he’s doing his part, though, including by constructing a metal cage around his garbage cans.
“I didn’t need to do that by law ... I wanted to go one step further,” he said.
Adams was previously ticketed for an alleged rodent infestation at his house.
Those tickets, which were issued in May, were dismissed by an administrative court officer after Adams made a court appearance on Dec. 8 — just one day after the inspector leveled the latest levies against him.
The rat circus at the mayor’s pad has attracted a flurry of public attention. Adams’ onetime Republican mayoral challenger, Curtis Sliwa, even showed up outside the building in January with an offer to become the city’s “rat czar” for free.
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