A Brooklyn artist’s attempt to share a personalized token of good luck with New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani was returned by City Hall due to conflict of interest regulations. Steve Pikelny, an artist from Crown Heights, sent the mayor a $1 bill altered with artwork including a beard on George Washington, a message reading “Good luck Mayor Mamdani,” and a spider web-like design. Pikelny described the gesture as a symbolic good luck charm, similar to currency taped above counters in bodegas.
The mayor’s office declined to accept the gift, citing the city’s conflicts of interest law, which prohibits public officials from accepting gifts that may be perceived as compensation. A brief letter sent to Pikelny thanked him for the gesture but explained that the office could not keep the item. The letter encouraged him to review relevant rules on the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board’s website.
According to Carolyn Miller, executive director of the Conflicts of Interest Board, the law prohibits public servants from accepting any form of compensation for carrying out their official duties except from the city itself. Miller noted that in this context, the dollar bill was considered a gift tied directly to Mamdani’s role as mayor, making it impermissible.
Pikelny, who has a background in economics and worked previously as a financial analyst and software engineer, expressed a degree of appreciation for the office’s decision, contrasting it with the controversies surrounding former Mayor Eric Adams. Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges that were later dropped. Pikelny said he voted for Mamdani in the last Democratic primary despite not initially supporting him and described the current mayor as focusing on the “boring municipal government stuff” that he considers essential.
The artist had hoped that the mayor might display the decorated dollar above his desk and potentially meet with him to discuss Pikelny’s policy ideas, particularly land-value taxation. This tax approach targets the unimproved value of land, encouraging greater development and housing construction by taxing landowners based on land value rather than property improvements.
A spokesperson for the mayor confirmed that returning cash gifts is standard procedure for the Mayor’s Office of Correspondence. Since Mamdani took office seven months ago, the office has received five cash gifts along with several checks and gift cards, including one for a doughnut store; none were accepted or retained.
While writing on currency, as Pikelny did, is generally legal provided it does not attempt to alter the bill’s denomination or deceive, altering the $1 bill with artwork represents a notable form of expression rather than counterfeiting. Pikelny is currently one of four artists commissioned for an exhibition by the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, where his contributions do not involve currency modification, and payments for his work have been processed through standard bank transfers.