NYC Mayor Adams enters pivotal political year with many of his closest allies gone from City Hall


Mayor Adams has long been known to value personal loyalty when it comes to politics.

But in September, Adams made clear that loyalty isn’t unconditional.

“My loyalty does not go past if someone does something wrong … Let’s not get it mixed up: My loyalty does not go to the point if you are found to have done something wrong,” he told reporters on Sept. 10.

That loyalty would soon be tested.

In the aftermath of Adams’ indictment on bribery and corruption charges two weeks after those comments, the mayor’s top advisors and closest allies, from his schools chancellor to his police commissioner, were pushed to resign.

Gov. Hochul — who has the authority to remove him as mayor — leaned on Adams to clean house of those in his inner circle who’d become ensnared in several separate corruption probes, even as they didn’t face criminal charges of their own and maintained they had done nothing wrong.

Now, as the mayor continues to fend off calls to resign, battles the federal charges he has pleaded not guilty to and runs for reelection, almost no one from the tight-knit crew he first entered office with — known internally as “Team Adams” — is left by his side.

Instead, Adams enters 2025 surrounded by veteran government operators, most of them new to his orbit, but many of them with deep municipal experience, like First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The shakeups come as next year could prove the most pivotal in Adams’ political career, as he’s set to stand trial in April, two months before he faces multiple challengers in June’s Democratic mayoral primary, all while reeling from historically low approval ratings.

It’s unclear how Adams’ legal challenges and the exodus of his closest aides will impact the election — or whether outside factors could play a role, too, including President-elect Donald Trump, who has openly entertained the idea of pardoning the mayor.

But with all the uncertainty on the horizon, some in Adams’ inner circle say the City Hall staff purges have marked a step in the right direction.

“He has rid himself of people who were hurting him, so he is better off for it and should have done it a long time ago,” a source close to the mayor told the Daily News, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of angering him. “I think he feels unburdened and ready for whatever comes next.”

Bradley Tusk, a political strategist and venture capitalist who served as a top aide to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, echoed that sentiment and suggested city government hasn’t been in a better place since Adams took office.

“It’s bad news for Team Adams, but actually very good news for New York,” said Tusk, who helped run the campaign of one of Adams’ 2021 opponents, Andrew Yang.

“He actually has the most competent professional team he’s ever had, because all of the people who prioritize internal politics and petty grudges and their crumbs and their own well being…are gone,” Tusk added.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin appears at a press conference Dec. 16, 2024 in Manhattan. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)

The exodus of the old Adams guard at City Hall culminated this month, when Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s chief adviser and self-proclaimed sister resigned abruptly on a Sunday just before news broke she would soon be indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on bribery charges. Days later, just after Lewis-Martin’s indictment was unsealed, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, a powerful Adams ally in the NYPD, resigned, too, after facing disturbing sexual misconduct accusations.

Like Adams, Lewis-Martin and Maddrey deny wrongdoing.

Their departures brought to at least 10 the number of high-profile resignations or firings from Adams’ administration that have come in recent months amid investigative controversy.

NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey attends a press conference at Brookdale Hospital in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City on Sunday, Sept. 15 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Ex-NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn on Sept. 15 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)

Besides Lewis-Martin and Maddrey, top Adams allies who have left under a cloud of scandal include, among others, Phil Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, David Banks, the schools chancellor and Phil’s older brother, Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor and David’s wife, Edward Caban, the NYPD commissioner, Tim Pearson, Adams’ public safety adviser, and Winnie Greco, Adams’ Asian affairs adviser.

That tally doesn’t include the November 2022 resignation of Eric Ulrich, Adams’ first Buildings commissioner who’s still battling bribery charges brought by the Manhattan DA’s office.

One of the few individuals left in Adams’ administration recently engulfed in law enforcement scrutiny is Jesse Hamilton, a former Brooklyn state senator who was appointed by the mayor to a top post at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services that involves overseeing the municipal government’s sprawling commercial real estate portfolio.

State Senator Jesse Hamilton, speaks at a press conference condemning Christ The King High School in Queens for not allowing Malcolm Xavier Combes to have
Jesse Hamilton seen in February 2018. (Angus Mordant for New York Daily News)

Hamilton had his electronics confiscated by investigators from the Manhattan DA’s office at JFK Airport in September when he, Lewis-Martin and Diana Boutross, a top executive at the Cushman & Wakefield real estate firm, stepped off a flight from Japan.

The trio, who say they were vacationing in Japan, are being eyed by the DA’s office as part of a probe looking into potential corruption in the city’s commercial real estate sector, according to sources. No one has been accused of wrongdoing in connection with that inquiry, and Lewis-Martin’s criminal charges, also brought by the Manhattan DA, are part of a different probe.

George Arzt, a seasoned New York political consultant, said the resignations, investigations and indictments have left a hole in Adams’ administration.

“It does make it a little bit of a different place, because he’s lost the Banks brothers and he’s lost Ingrid,” said Arzt, noting they have been key in orchestrating his political rise and policy agenda.

But Arzt, who served as press secretary to Mayor Ed Koch between 1986 and 1989 when Koch’s administration faced a number of corruption scandals, also said he believes it’s better for Adams — and the city — that there has been a changing of the guard at City Hall.

“He just has to refocus the administration,” Arzt said. “That’s his new job, but the people who are left, they’re pretty good.”



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