March 8, 2023 Despite turmoil in the ranks after recent demotions, Mayor Eric Adams praised her for “changing the culture.”
By Michael Gartland, Thomas Tracy Source New York Daily News(TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Mayor Adams showered his FDNY commissioner with praise and defended her on Monday for “changing the culture” as turmoil over a shake-up in leadership continues to roil its upper ranks.
Adams, who tapped Laura Kavanagh as the city’s first woman fire commissioner last October, said he’s impressed with her performance so far and that she has not lost control of the department despite two high-level firings last week and the demotion of veteran FDNY brass.
“We knew from the onset that Commissioner Kavanagh was coming in, she was changing a culture that she felt she should have changed, and she wanted those high-ranking individuals to be responsive to her mission moving forward. And that’s what she did,” Adams said Monday morning on 1010 WINS.
“I take my hat off to her being the first woman to become the fire commissioner in one of the largest fire departments on the globe. It’s a tough job, but she’s up for it.”
Historically, the fire department has been dominated by men, most of them white, giving Kavanagh’s elevation to the post a level of unprecedented symbolism.
Her promotion from interim commissioner to the role permanently brought with it the expectation that change would be coming, but inside the FDNY, a debate continues to rage as to whether it’s good or bad.
Controversy in the department came into full view last month after the Daily News broke a story about how two top uniformed FDNY officials stepped down from their positions to protest Kavanagh demoting three other chiefs.
Despite their demotions, assistant chiefs Michael Gala, Joseph Jardin and Fred Schaaf have been detailed back to FDNY headquarters, but their new roles are not clear, according to a department source with knowledge of the situation. Kavanagh has declined to sign off on demotions for the two chiefs who asked to be demoted in solidarity: Chief of Department John Hodgens, the FDNY’s most senior uniformed official, and Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito.
According to the source, Kavanagh has asked all the chiefs who wanted to be demoted or transferred to stick around for the next three months so she could “right the ship,“ and they’ve agreed.
Without citing specifics, Adams seemed to defend Kavanagh’s decisions Monday, saying that it is within a leader’s purview to build the team they view as most effective.
“When you come into office, any office — I did it here at City Hall — you want to build a team that can execute the plan that you lay out. And that’s what she’s doing,” Adams said later on PIX11 Morning News. “I don’t know a person that takes over a leadership role and doesn’t do an analysis of who’s going to remain on their team and who they are going to bring in new.”