The Mamdani administration is eyeing potential replacements for scandal-plagued New York Metropolis Colleges Chancellor Kamar Samuels, a number of sources instructed The Submit.
Metropolis Corridor officers started vetting inner candidates, a high-ranking DOE supply revealed, after The Submit’s bombshell report two weeks in the past on Samuels signing a $180,000 no-bid contract with an unapproved vendor and evading Division of Training procurement guidelines.
“The DOE was very busy this weekend; they’re beneath plenty of stress to provide you with an answer for this,” the supply mentioned.
“The Knicks glow is leaving so now they really must cope with this s–t,” one other supply, a Metropolis Corridor insider, said.
Former DOE Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter, who had a short one-year stint as chancellor in 2021-2022, is believed to be again within the combine for the position.
Porter, 51, has been angling for her outdated job for months and upped her efforts after The Submit expose, the Metropolis Corridor insider mentioned.
“Porter’s in Tweed on a regular basis as a lobbyist, she’s all the time speaking s–t about Samuels and he’s fully oblivious,” the insider claimed.
The previous chancellor as soon as threw herself a lavish $45,000 bash to have fun her ascension to Bronx superintendent in 2019. She not too long ago posted on LinkedIn about attending a state college-savings account occasion with Samuels and NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin.
She was almost picked for the chancellor position again in January, however the Mamdani camp acquired spooked by baggage surrounding a monetary scandal at a nonprofit she ran, a number of sources claimed.
In the summertime of 2024, Porter was axed from The Bronx Neighborhood Basis — a nonprofit devoted to combating inequity in The Bronx — the place she was incomes $300,000 a 12 months after the group was hit with severe monetary mismanagement and corruption allegations.
The nonprofit distributed lower than 25% of the $12.6 million it raised from 2019 to 2023, and a slew of executives had been fired as soon as the numbers got here to mild in 2024, The New York Focus reported.
If Samuels is axed, DOE Deputy Chancellor Lindsay Oates, who runs the Division of Finance, Administration and Human Assets, can be on the successor quick listing, the Metropolis Corridor insider mentioned.
She beforehand served as NYC Colleges chief monetary officer in the course of the de Blasio administration, the place she developed a detailed relationship with First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, who’s serving in the identical position beneath Mamdani, the supply claimed.
Fuleihan has taken a extra hands-on position in dealing with the DOE for Mamdani in mild of the Samuels’ scandal, the insider mentioned.
“Whoever will get picked would possible must have his blessing,” they added.
The DOE supply instructed The Submit that Mamdani’s frustration with Samuels has been constructing because the embattled faculties chancellor has struggled to steer town’s largest company.
“Mamdani handed on a number of certified candidates as a result of they didn’t inform him precisely what he needed to listen to — Samuels acquired the position by mendacity to his boss, and that’s what he’s nonetheless doing,” the DOE supply mentioned.
When a Submit reporter noticed Samuels within the hallway of a Panel for Training Coverage assembly Wednesday, the embattled chancellor rushed to the lavatory as a substitute of answering questions concerning the shady contract he inked. He’s now being probed by the Particular Commissioner for Investigation.
“That is completely, unequivocally false,” a Metropolis Corridor consultant mentioned when requested if they’re vetting replacements for Samuels.
