[NYPOST] Mayor Adams padded the city payroll with 293 “special assistants” during his first full fiscal year in office — a more than 20% increase over his predecessor Bill de Blasio, The Post has learned.The bloated band of vaguely titled aides, accountable only to Adams, comprised roughly one-third of the Mayor’s Office staff during the yearly period ending June 30 and cost taxpayers $24.3 million, according to payroll records.
Eighty-five pocketed six-figure earnings in fiscal 2023 – including 13 who took in more than $200,000.
They include Edward Mermelstein, a real estate exec with reportedly close ties to sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, former Deputy Comptroller Marjorie Lander, and Sideya Sherman, a one-time exec with the city’s Housing Authority.
Mermelstein, who along with his wife Rose donated $7,100 to Adams’ 2021 campaign and post-election transition, earned $228,659 working under the unofficial title of the city’s “Commissioner of International Affairs.”
The city’s website lists him as a former refugee from Ukraine even though he’s previously described himself for many years as Russian-American.
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