Adams open to Sliwa as NYC rat czar, OKs feral cat colony to fight rodents at his Brooklyn home

Mayor Adams and Curtis Sliwa reached across the political aisle Wednesday with one unifying goal in mind: Kill more rats.

A day earlier — after the Daily News reported Adams had been slapped with more summonses for a rodent infestation at his Brooklyn home — Sliwa offered to become the Adams administration’s rat czar for free and vowed to unleash a feral cat colony in Bedford-Stuyvesant to address the vermin at Hizzoner’s home.

Adams, a Democrat who defeated Sliwa in the 2021 mayoral race, said Wednesday that he’s ready and waiting to team up with the red beret-wearing Republican.

“I will take him up on his offer. He says he will be our rat czar for free, I’m going to call him, and I would like for him to come on board,” Adams told reporters at a Brooklyn press briefing. “Don’t put it out there if you’re not willing to live up to it. If you’re gonna write a check, make sure you can cash it. So yes, tell Curtis to come be my rat czar, OK? And he’s going to realize that this is not a Tom & Jerry playful commercial. This is real stuff.”

Later Wednesday, Sliwa held his own press event outside the mayor’s Bedford-Stuyvesant rowhouse to address two new summonses Adams was slapped with last month for allowing a rat infestation to persist at the property.

Sliwa, an avowed feline lover, brought several feral cats to the house along with a plastic container with a cat door cut out from it, which, when inverted, can be used as a shelter for the rat hunters if temperatures get too cold.

He offered to maintain the cat colony as well, but said he planned to ask around the neighborhood to see if there are any volunteers to do the job.

Sliwa praised Adams for his determination on the rat front, but said he’s missing out on the obvious solution — undomesticated cats.

“The rats are winning,” he said. “He’s never tried this, and it’s the only thing that works.”

Sliwa described himself as tailor-made for the rat czar job because, like rodents, he prefers to be awake at night.

“All I’m saying is, hey, I’m nocturnal,” he said. “There’s nobody that knows more about two-legged rats and four-legged rats than me.”

Asked to elaborate on that, Sliwa recounted his upbringing in Canarsie and the mobsters from the neighborhood.

“They said, ‘Kid, you never want to be a rat,’” Sliwa recalled. “I became the biggest rat, dropping dimes on gangsters all the time.”

Sliwa, who was shot for talking smack about now-deceased mob boss John Gotti, offered one more piece of advice for Adams, saying that he should perhaps consult with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose father worked as an exterminator in Brooklyn.

“I’m sure Chuck from time to time picked up some tips from his dad,” Sliwa said. “The son must have learned some tricks of the trade.”

Back at his press conference in Brooklyn, after tentatively accepting Sliwa’s offer, Adams turned to Dawn Pinnock, his commissioner of citywide administrative services, and asked: “Can we bring him on board? He can be part of our internship program for that job since he lost the job that he was trying to get.”

Adams also noted that he he intends to challenge the latest summonses at a hearing later this month and said he has “evidence” to prove his yard was clean on the day in question.

“I have video. I have a camera at the house, and I look back on that day and the yard is clean. My garbage is in containers,” he said, referencing the ticket’s claim to the contrary.

The latest rodent penalties were issued shortly after The News reported another ticket the mayor received earlier in 2022 for vermin woes at his Brooklyn address. Adams got the first rat fine dismissed by an administrative court officer, and he voiced confidence Wednesday he’ll be able to get the new summonses thrown out, too.

“I’m looking forward to be the chocolate Perry Mason when I go into court to plead my case,” he said. “I have some good evidence that I’m going to put in front of the court, and it shows that I do a good job. I know my place has to be clean because people are always out there snooping.”