Frenzy Fading? Adams Taps New Public Safety Dep. Mayor; Health Commish Exits on 10/18

For the third week in a row, Mayor Eric Adams was flying solo at his weekly press available, save for a few moments when he introduced his new deputy mayor of public safety and that person’s assistant.

Chauncey Parker, who had been the number two to Phil Banks, was promoted to the vacant post of deputy mayor, public safety.

A second staffer was promoted as well, Mona Suazo, who was already in the department of public safety and now moves into Parker’s job as assistant to the deputy mayor.

Adams tried to downplay the turmoil and turnover that has hit staff in the weeks before and since he was hit with a five count federal corruption indictment on September 26

“Our bench is deep,” he insisted. “We had nine, nine requests to fill this position from outside of the agency. People wanted to come in and continue to do the work that Deputy Mayor Banks did. We looked over all of them and clearly Chauncey is the best person for the job. Lifelong public service where he spent his career working on all levels of government, building bridges.”

Parker said he was “excited and grateful” to be stepping into the role of deputy mayor. “In my almost 40 years of working in criminal justice, I think the most important thing I’ve learned is what is your North Star? And that is the power of partnership, how we are always so much stronger and better when we work together. In fact, it’s the only way to go forward.”

Parker is a former director of criminal justice and was commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, as well as former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York.

More recently In the deputy mayor’s office, he played a key role in the drive to take guns off the streets, working with a coalition of 25 federal, state and city law enforcement agencies.

After brief remarks he and Suazo, who did not speak at the press conference, stepped away without taking questions.

The media frenzy of the past few weeks seems to have died down for the moment at least. All reporters who turned up at the Oct. 15 weekly press conference actually managed to find a seat and nobody had to sit on the floor of the rotunda as had been the case the past several weeks. Following the indictment, the weekly press briefing shifted from the Blue Room, where Adams was always flanked by an assortment of deputy mayors on a dais into the smaller central area of the City Hall rotunda where he stood at a podium and fielded questions.

While there were other questions beyond the ongoing investigation this week for a change, many of the questions fired at Adams still centered around the ongoing federal probes, the turmoil among top aids and his own election prospects.

One question centered on when he was going to name a “full-time” police commissioner since the interim commissioner Tom Donlon has come under fire and acknowledged he had his own phone confiscated only days after he was appointed as interim commissioner but disclosed it was from a matter from 20 years ago and not related to NYPD work.

“Well, first of all, there is a full-time,” Adams said. “Even interim is full-time. And we’ve always stated when we make appointments like we just did with the deputy mayor, we will announce them. That’s probably one of the most consistent comments I’ve made. Every day Commissioner Tom Donlon is doing the job that needs to be done.”

And he bristled when asked if he is running his new appointments past Governor Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office and has reportedly been urging him to clean house as the federal investigations continue to swirl.

As part of a widening probe, up to 20 present and former staffers have had their phones and electronic devices seized by federal agents as four and possibly five probes are reportedly underway.

Phil Banks and his brother David Banks, who was the education chancellor, has their phones seized as the FBI made a number of raids on the morning of Sept. 4 a day in which the then Police Commissioner Ed Caban had his phone seized. Caban left about a week later saying he did not want to be a “distraction” to the NYPD. He was not charged with any wrongdoing by the US Attorney for the Southern District.

David Banks, after feds raided the Harlem townhouse that he shares with his romantic partner and now wife Sheena Wright, initially said he was going to step down at year end. He then revised that and said that Adams had asked him to leave effective Oct. 16. He recently married Wright the first deputy mayor at the time, before she also resigned. Neither have been charged with wrongdoing.

Last week, Adams at his weekly press conference unveiled that he had promoted deputy mayor for housing, Maria Torres-Springer to replace Wright in the first deputy role.

Adams insisted he is not running the new appointments he makes past the governor before announcing them. “The governor has always been a partner,” Adams said, acknowledging he had spoken with her recently. “And she was very clear, Eric, you know, all that’s going on, stabilize. Find the talent. The talent is out there. The governor never said, here, this is who you have to hire. This is who you have to appoint.”

Adams also has another position to fill as the Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who initially said he was resigning but was going to stick around until year end, is instead leaving at the end of the week on Oct. 18.

He came aboard in 2022 and his family was given police protection as they faced threats from people who angry with the city health policies during the pandemic. He cited family reasons for his departure. “Those needs have taken on great urgency,” said the city’s top doctor in a statement. Michelle Morse, the NYC chief medical examiner was named interim health commissioner. Vasam’s departure did not appear to be related to many of the other top level departures involved in some form in the federal investigations, many of whom had homes raided and electronic devices seized.

Adams said he will seek a permanent replacement.

“We have a couple of people in the pipeline we’re speaking with and communicating with,” Adams said. “We’ll fill a position.

“There’s a deep bench in this city, and there’s a deep bench in this administration,” Adams insisted. “We have people who want to work for the city.”