Ex-FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh has been lobbying Zohran Mamdani behind the scenes to turn into NYC’s subsequent deputy mayor of public security if the socialist is elected mayor, sources informed The Publish.
Kavanagh, town’s first feminine hearth commissioner, resigned in July 2024, and largely remained out of public life after leaving metropolis authorities.
Kavanagh was pressured to resign as hearth commissioner in July 2024 amid mounting controversies.
The final straw was her apology in a textual content to state Lawyer Normal Tish James after pro-Donald Trump firefighters booed the Democratic pol throughout a March 2024 division promotion ceremony.
“I’m sorry that we didn’t cease them and that I can’t repair them,” she mentioned of the smoke-eaters.
Kavanagh additionally confronted warmth for rising FDNY emergency-response occasions, surges in lithium-ion battery fires citywide, repeated criticism from underlings and an age-discrimination lawsuit filed by high division chiefs she demoted.
On Friday, Kavanagh flatly denied she’s lobbying for any gig in a Mamdani administration if the pol wins Tuesday’s election.
“That is 100% unfaithful, and I’ve had zero conversations with the Mamdani marketing campaign about it, nor do I plan to,” she mentioned.
Nonetheless, a few of Kavanagh’s former FDNY underlings are bracing for her comeback.
“She may unfold her poison to numerous companies, not simply ours,” mentioned a senior FDNY staffer frightened about Mamdani and Kavanagh becoming a member of forces.
“It’s a match made in hell,” the insider mentioned. “She was a failure on her first go-around, and now we’d must endure her damaging insurance policies once more.”
In accordance with a number of sources near the FDNY, Kavanagh hopes to step right into a better position overseeing not solely the FDNY, however the metropolis Division of Correction, NYC Emergency Administration, the Division of Probation, and the Mayor’s Workplace of Legal Justice.
“She desires this gig for validation,” mentioned a high Democratic operative concerning the job now held by Kaz Daughtry. “She desires to be within the combine once more.”
“She’s all over proper now – she’s making appearances, she’s making herself identified,” the supply added. “She’s exhibiting Mamdani, you want me because the deputy mayor of public security, and I’ll uphold your agenda.”
Kavanagh has been not too long ago attending high-profile occasions and given interviews — some during which she critiqued Mayor Adams and Robert Tucker, who succeeded her within the high FDNY job.
On Wednesday she spoke on the 92nd Avenue Y’s first ever Ladies inPower Summit.
Final week, she spoke on a panel at Transportation Alternate options’s Imaginative and prescient Zero Cities convention, and referred to as on the FDNY to take a bigger position in selling avenue security.
Underneath Mayor Adams, Kavanagh mentioned she was not empowered to work on avenue security, Streetsblog NYC reported.
“Avenue security was not a precedence from the mayor’s workplace to us after I was there,” she mentioned. “As somebody who walks and takes the subway and cares about my streets, I’ve quite a lot of curiosity in issues getting higher.”
Two weeks in the past, she faulted Tucker for shifting 82 firefighter trainees into EMT jobs — blowing previous hiring lists and leaving licensed candidates within the mud, an EMS union alleged.
“I fear the commissioner was misled by a small group within the FDNY who by no means needed these cadets to succeed,” she informed NBCNewYork. “I do know the commissioner believes within the targets of the initiative. For the sake of those cadets and the way forward for the FDNY, I hope he revisits the choice.”
Daughtry’s wage was $276,588 final fiscal 12 months.
Extra reporting by Susan Edelman
