NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Eric Adams appointed seven “battle-tested” public servants to top posts in his incoming administration on Thursday — including a Capitol Hill veteran who will serve as his communications chief.
Six of the new appointments used to or currently serve in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, and will either stay in their posts or switch to slightly different roles once Adams takes over on Jan. 1, the mayor-elect said.
The seventh pick is Maxwell Young, a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman and senior adviser to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who will serve as Adams’ City Hall communications director.
“Our administration is assembling a team of seasoned public servants who are battle-tested and ready to get to work on behalf of the people of this city,” Adams said in a statement. “These appointments announced today will ensure we are ready to meet the challenges this city faces, and I thank all the appointees for answering the call to service.”
Among the latest appointments is Jacques Jiha, de Blasio’s budget director, who will keep doing the same job and be tasked with carrying out Adams’ “plan to mandate efficiency across agencies and ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely,” the mayor-elect said.
Working in close coordination with Jiha will be Preston Niblack, named by Adams to become city finance commissioner, a role that comes with oversight over tax revenue collection and property value assessment. An ex-City Council staffer, Niblack currently serves as a deputy comptroller for budgetary matters.
Niblack replaces incumbent Finance Commissioner Sherif Soliman, who will instead serve as Adams’ policy and planning director tasked with overseeing the mayor-elect’s “wide-ranging policy portfolio,” he said.
On the social services side of municipal government, Adams announced he’s letting Human Resources Administration Commissioner Gary Jenkins stay in his job. Jenkins will report to the commissioner of the Department of Social Services, a post Adams hasn’t filled yet since Steve Banks announced he’ll be vacating it at the end of this year.
As commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, Adams picked Dawn Pinnock, who’s also already serving in that post, which comes with responsibility over ensuring adequate resources for municipal employees.
Lastly, Adams tapped José Bayona, a former deputy press secretary for de Blasio, to serve as the first-ever executive director of the newly created City Hall office of Ethnic and Community Media.
A former journalist who at one point worked for the Daily News, Bayona said his new job “is a historic recognition of the hard work of hundreds of ethnic and community media outlets” in the five boroughs.
“I deeply thank Mayor-elect Eric Adams for the opportunity to lead this newly-created office in his administration and proudly serve the most diverse city in the world,” he said.
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