Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is tapping de Blasio administration veteran Steve Banks as the New York City government’s next top attorney and appointing Elmhurst Hospital CEO Helen Arteaga to a key health post in his cabinet, the Daily News has learned.
Banks, who served as the Department of Social Services commissioner throughout ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s eight years in office, is expected to be named corporation counsel by Mamdani. Arteaga, Elmhurst Hospital’s top executive since 2021, is being selected as Mamdani’s deputy mayor for health and human services.
Both appointments are set to be officially announced by Mamdani during a press conference at Elmhurst Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
In a statement to The News before the press conference, Mamdani said Arteaga and Banks will bring “effective, principled leadership” to his administration.
“New Yorkers deserve a working-class champion like Helen in City Hall, someone who is willing to work around the clock to protect and strengthen our city’s commitment to essential social services,” Mamdani said of Arteaga, in particular.
The latest hires come just hours before Mamdani is set to be sworn in as the city’s next mayor at midnight Wednesday. Mamdani has yet to announce several other key city government appointments, including his pick for schools chancellor.
Banks is among a number of de Blasio alums who are joining Mamdani’s administration, signaling the ideological common ground between them. Other de Blasio veterans on tap for Mamdani’s City Hall include his incoming first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, who served in the same role under de Blasio.
Arteaga hasn’t served in city government before, but has an extensive background in public health.
The corporation counsel leads the Law Department, which represents city government employees, including the mayor and City Council members, in various legal matters. The role is one of the only top government posts picked by the mayor that requires approval from the City Council, making Banks’ selection especially significant.
Current Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant was confirmed for the role in late 2024 after the Council rejected Mayor Adams’ first pick, Giuliani administration alum Randy Mastro. Adams later hired Mastro as his first deputy mayor.
Before becoming de Blasio’s DSS head, a role that comes with oversight of the city’s sprawling homeless shelter system, Banks was the attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society.
Since leaving city government, Banks has entered private practice, and he played a leading role in fighting outgoing Mayor Eric Adams in court over his attempt to roll back the city’s longstanding right-to-shelter mandate amid an influx of mostly Latin American migrants in 2023 and 2024. The case was settled in a way that preserved the mandate, but also allowed the Adams administration to boot migrants from shelter after 30 days.
As de Blasio’s DSS head, Banks was credited with overseeing a drop in the city’s homeless population. He also attracted criticism for certain shelter contract processes, and some have questioned whether Banks would as corp counsel be biased toward the Legal Aid Society, which often sues the city.
As deputy mayor for health and human services, Arteaga doesn’t need to be approved by the Council. Her deputy mayor portfolio will include agencies like DSS and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Arteaga is the first Latina and woman to serve as CEO of Elmhurst, one of the city’s largest public hospitals. Elmhurst was an early epicenter during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Arteaga has a particularly personal history with the hospital.
In 2020, she was admitted to Elmhurst with serious complications from a COVID infection. “I said, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to die in the same place where my father died,’” Arteaga said in an interview with NBC News last year while reflecting on her hospitalization.
But Arteaga pulled through and a year later was hired as Elmhurst’s new CEO, a role in which she helped spearhead the hospital’s response to COVID. Before landing at Elmhurst, she was a top executive at Urban Health Plan, a network of community health centers in the city.
“My life’s work has been dedicated to making this city a better place — ensuring that every New Yorker, no matter who they are or where they come from, has access to health care, safety and the services they need,” Arteaga said in a statement on her appointment. “That commitment finds a home in Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s administration and vision for our city.”
