Sheena Wright, a longtime ally of Mayor Eric Adams, has resigned from her post as first deputy mayor, making her the seventh senior official to leave the administration during a time of crisis in New York City government.
Ms. Wright has been replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, who was deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force. The leadership change, which Mr. Adams announced on Tuesday during his weekly news conference at City Hall, is effective immediately, even though the timing of Ms. Wright’s exit was not made clear.
News of Ms. Wright’s departure came as Mr. Adams’s former chief liaison to Muslim New Yorkers, Mohamed Bahi, was arrested and charged with federal witness tampering and destruction of evidence, in connection with the investigation that led to the mayor’s indictment last month.
Ms. Wright’s exit also follows the resignation announcements of her husband, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor, and her brother-in-law, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety.
On Sept. 4, federal investigators seized the phones of both men, Ms. Wright, and several other senior administration officials. With Ms. Wright’s resignation, all of those people have since stepped down or announced plans to.
The departures seem to reflect the administrative housecleaning that Gov. Kathy Hochul — as well as some of Mr. Adams’s own advisers — has sought as four federal investigations have enveloped City Hall and cast doubt on Mr. Adams’s viability as mayor.
In announcing Ms. Torres-Springer’s promotion, Mr. Adams seemed intent on trying to refocus New Yorkers’ attention, by elevating a respected and longtime civil servant and moving away from his penchant of rewarding his closest allies with key city positions, despite their varying levels of expertise.
He asserted that none of the recent personnel changes had anything to do with the federal investigations, even though everyone who resigned has been touched by one or more inquiry. And he presented himself as unbowed by the avalanche of inquiries, insisting that he planned to run for re-election and even bringing back the walkout music at his news conference that he abandoned last week.
With Ms. Wright’s departure, the group of senior leaders at City Hall who were also Mr. Adams’s loyalists has been decimated, with the mayor’s chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, one of the few who remain. But she is herself burdened by legal scrutiny: More than a week ago, investigators seized her phones and searched her home.
Ms. Wright, a lawyer who was the first female president and chief executive of United Way of New York City, a prominent nonprofit group, led Mr. Adams’s transition team after he was elected and then joined his administration as a deputy mayor. But she was seen as closely linked to Mr. Adams by virtue of her relationship with the Banks family and their decades-long ties to the mayor.
“Sheena has chosen a career in nonprofit and public service, when she had the credentials to be a high-flying corporate lawyer,” said Kathryn Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a business group. “I think she gets a lot of credit for bringing her wisdom and her capabilities to City Hall, and it should not be diminished by her being collateral damage in this investigation.”
Ms. Torres-Springer falls roundly within the technocratic side of City Hall. She worked as a senior policy director for Daniel L. Doctoroff when he was a deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration. Under Mr. Adams, she is spearheading a plan called “City of Yes” that aims to add as many of 109,000 units of housing.
“There is no one more qualified to be first deputy mayor than Maria Torres-Springer,” Mr. Doctoroff said in a text message. “She has a wealth of experience, creativity, and the ability to manage large groups of city employees. She is decisive and communicates clearly.”
Ms. Torres-Springer’s elevation also speaks to the intense pressure Mr. Adams is facing to right his ship.
Sixty-nine percent of New York City residents want him to resign, according to a poll released last week by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.
A majority of Black New Yorkers, who have traditionally made up Mr. Adams’s base, echoed that sentiment, according to the poll.
“It’s hard to imagine how Mayor Adams could be faring any worse in the court of public opinion,” Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute, said in a statement. “Not only do New York City residents think he has done something illegal, but they think he should resign or have Governor Hochul start the process of removing him from office.”
Ms. Wright’s departure had been widely anticipated.
It seemed presaged on Sept. 26, the day the indictment against Mr. Adams was unsealed, when the administration issued an executive order that established a more detailed chain of command if neither the mayor nor Ms. Wright were able to perform duties.
In that scenario, “all such functions, powers or duties of the mayor” would be delegated to the deputy mayor for health and human services, Anne Williams-Isom, the order said.
The following weekend, Ms. Wright and Mr. Banks married on Martha’s Vineyard. Theirs had been a yearslong relationship and the wedding was said to have been long in the works. But their marriage may also allow them to decline to testify against one other in court, a right known as spousal privilege.
A few days after the wedding, the Adams administration announced that Mr. Banks would depart sooner than expected. Instead of leaving on Dec. 31, he now plans to step down on Oct. 16.
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