Mayor Eric Adams, his name emblazoned on his white polo shirt, looks serious at a weekly news conference.
Two prominent New York City officials resigned last week as federal investigations swirled around Mayor Eric Adams and his inner circle.Credit...Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Emma G. Fitzsimmons
By Emma G. Fitzsimmons
Sept. 16, 2024
Updated 1:52 p.m. ET
Three years ago, Eric Adams, then a rising Democratic star, would have been the main attraction at an event like this: a politically star-studded Democratic fund-raiser at the famed Junior’s Restaurant in Brooklyn, the borough where Mr. Adams made his mark in politics.
But with his administration appearing to be in free fall, Mayor Adams was a late no-show at the fund-raiser on Monday morning, just as news broke that two high-ranking New York Fire Department chiefs were arrested on federal bribery and corruption charges.
In the last week, two prominent New York City officials have resigned as federal investigations swirl around Mayor Adams and his inner circle, raising doubts about his political future and his ability to focus on his agenda.
The police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, resigned on Thursday at the request of City Hall; Lisa Zornberg, the mayor’s chief legal adviser, resigned abruptly on Saturday, largely in frustration over the mayor’s refusal to follow her advice on personnel matters, according to a person familiar with her decision.
New Yorkers could learn in the coming days whether more officials might quit his administration in an effort to distance themselves from scandal or be asked to leave; whether additional elected officials will call on Mr. Adams to resign; and whether the investigations advance or new allegations emerge.
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Indeed, calls for the mayor to resign continued on Monday, as Tiffany Cabán, a progressive councilwoman from Queens, became the first City Council member to urge Mr. Adams to step down.
Ms. Cabán, a former public defender, acknowledged that the mayor had not been accused of wrongdoing, but said the scandals surrounding the mayor had become too much of a distraction.
“Eric Adams leads with corruption and mismanagement,” she said. “At least 15 of his associates are under investigation. If his track record of cutting critical services and empowering N.Y.P.D. abuses wasn’t enough, it is more clear than ever that Eric Adams is unfit to govern.”
Ms. Cabán joined Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher and Senator Julia Salazar, who, on Friday, became the first two state lawmakers to call for Mr. Adams’s resignation.
The mayor, for his part, sought to return the focus to his management of city government, holding a news conference at City Hall late Monday morning to discuss the mayor’s management report — a metrics-based analysis of the city’s performance across various agencies.
His first scheduled event on Monday was to be the fund-raiser held by the Brooklyn Democratic Party at Junior’s. The event, which had a top ticket price of $1,000, was promoted as a “Bringing Home the Election Victory” breakfast in support of Kamala Harris, congressional candidates and state lawmakers running in November.
But midway through the event, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who leads the Brooklyn Democratic Party, announced that the mayor was stuck at City Hall and was not coming.
Inside the restaurant, prominent Democrats rallied for Ms. Harris. As they left, some expressed frustration over the various investigations into Mr. Adams and city officials, including the arrests of the fire chiefs.
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate who would become acting mayor if Mr. Adams were to resign, said he was “exhausted” by the troubling headlines, which he said appeared to be “the worst since Tammany Hall.”
“I’m not sure how you continue to govern with, every day, more corrupt arrests, more corrupt suspicions,” he said, adding: “It’s angering. I’m tired. I don’t think the mayor has handled this. I don’t know if he has the ability to handle all of this.”
Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Brooklyn who entered the mayor’s race on Friday, said there had been “one disappointment after another with this administration.” She stopped short of calling for the mayor’s resignation, but said she believed that several high-ranking city officials would be indicted, which “calls into question the mayor’s leadership.”
She was not the only Democratic mayoral candidate in next June’s primary to use the investigations to argue that Mr. Adams is not trustworthy. The city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, who is running for mayor, has called for “real management reforms and public integrity safeguards” at the Police Department and City Hall.
On Sunday, Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is running for mayor, spoke at First Baptist Church of Crown Heights in Brooklyn — in the heart of the mayor’s political base — and made a passionate plea that “our leaders should be people of integrity.” He compared Mr. Adams to a tree with rotten fruit.
“As I explore a new role in public service, we are going to be faced with a choice — there are trees that look good, they’re tall, they look nice, but the fruit is rotten,” he said.
While Mr. Adams might be eager to move on from the investigations, some have called on him to oust other officials who are under investigation, including Timothy Pearson, his longtime friend and adviser, and Philip Banks, the deputy mayor of public safety.
Chris Coffey, a Democratic political strategist, said the mayor will try to move past the bad headlines, but he might have to make further changes to his administration to restore trust with the public.
“I expect him to be out doing events and reassuring people that crime is moving in the right direction,” he said. “If this is more serious and they’re expecting bad news, then they’ll have to cut some bait to show that they’re taking it seriously.”
Indeed, the mayor seems set on fulfilling his often-repeated mantra: Stay focused, no distractions and grind.
The mayor’s office has said that Mr. Adams plans to name a new counsel in the coming days. And on Wednesday, the mayor is scheduled to tackle one of his signature issues, as the city hosts the inaugural National Urban Rat Summit.
Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons is the City Hall bureau chief for The Times, covering Mayor Eric Adams and his administration. More about Emma G. Fitzsimmons
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