Eric Adams, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor, speaks during an interview at a Brooklyn diner. | Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
Eric Adams isn’t waiting until the general election to begin designing his potential City Hall.
The Democratic mayoral nominee, who is the odds-on favorite to succeed Mayor Bill de Blasio on Jan. 1, is convening policy experts and former government hands to give counsel on pressing matters as he campaigns against Republican Curtis Sliwa.
Adams has assembled groups to advise him on managing the nearly $100 billion city budget, reviving the economy as private-sector companies grapple with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and growing the city’s burgeoning technology sector, to name a few areas.
The loosely-organized committees — which have not been previously reported — are separate from the formal transition process that campaign finance rules stipulate can only begin after the November election. But given Adams’ electoral advantage in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly seven to one, he and his inner circle are looking to build a brain trust before taking over the vast municipal government.
“He has surrounded himself with intelligent, capable and experienced people,” said Republican Council Member Eric Ulrich, a friend and Adams supporter who will be term-limited out of his job come January.
Adams has not made the policy groups public or said much about his transition, but days after winning the Democratic primary on June 22 he said he wanted to get started on the process within weeks. Through dozens of interviews, POLITICO compiled a list of people involved in the current effort, which is geared toward shaping his policy agenda.
Advising Adams on the city budget are current and former City Council finance division staffers: Preston Niblack, a deputy to City Comptroller Scott Stringer; Jeff Rodus, a lobbyist at CMW Strategies and Latonia McKinney, who has run the Council’s finance arm since 2014.
Government veteran Marc Shaw, a deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration, said he has been approached by the Adams team. He hopes to begin advising on the fiscal headwinds facing the city, the state and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority after Election Day.
“All three of those entities have been, in the short term, bailed out by the federal government because of Covid,” Shaw said. “While wonderful, that is masking the underlying structural problems that the next mayor is going to have to face.”
The economic development group includes Bloomberg administration veteran Seth Pinsky, now head of the 92nd Street Y; Margaret Anadu, a Goldman Sachs partner who runs the bank’s Urban Investment Group and Jose Ortiz Jr., who runs the New York City Employment and Training Coalition — a nonprofit focused on workforce development.
Julie Samuels, executive director of the Tech: NYC organization, and Andrew Rasiej, who founded the tech-focused network Civic Hall, are part of the group advising the mayoral nominee on technology matters.
“Eric has spent several years meeting with close to 300 experts from the worlds of government, business and advocacy so that he is ready to lead New York City on day one should he become mayor,” campaign adviser Evan Thies said in a statement. “Now that he is the nominee, he has been in touch with dozens of those leaders to update him on pressing issues as he prepares for his possible administration.”
Adams has not hired transition team staff yet, but he tapped United Way of New York City CEO Sheena Wright to oversee the process — which, should he win in November, would include charting an agenda for his first 100 days in office and vetting potential hires.
During a recent panel discussion, Wright lamented that Black-owned businesses lack adequate access to capital.
“Three percent of the businesses in the state are Black-owned, which I think is an atrocity and is something we should all be ashamed of,” she said.
She also highlighted the importance of government working with the private sector — a position Adams has maintained and is at odds with that of outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Wright’s partner David Banks, who runs the Eagle Academy Foundation, has been advising Adams on education matters and is discussed among political insiders as a potential candidate to lead the city’s public school system.
His brother Phil Banks — a retired cop who came under scrutiny for his connections to political donors at the center of a public corruption trial — is advising the retired police captain-turned politician on public safety matters, the New York Post and Daily News reported last week.
William Floyd, an executive at Google, is assisting the team and is being considered for an administration job, POLITICO previously reported. Thies said the team has not discussed individual appointments with prospective candidates.
Brendan McGuire, an attorney at the sprawling law firm WilmerHale, has been consulting with Adams on legal matters and is being considered for a job as an administration lawyer, people with knowledge of the matter said. McGuire did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the nascent committees, which have been meeting virtually, Adams is relying on pro-bono consultation about setting up City Hall and crafting campaign proposals from McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte. One of the firms assisted Texas in building a streamlined governmental data platform, an idea Adams wants to emulate, Thies said.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson, whose term ends Dec. 31, has also been offering advice about negotiating with the city’s legislative branch, several people said.
Come November, the winner of the mayoral contest will be required to set up a transition and inauguration committee with the city’s Campaign Finance Board. But because the primary was moved from September to June, the board issued new guidance allowing certain types of transition activities to take place in the intervening months.
Campaigns such as Adams’ can convene advisory committees, travel to seek advice from people outside the city and begin vetting resumés and interviewing potential administration hires, according to a board spokesperson.
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