Mamdani Begins to Pick the Team That Will Help Him Run New York City

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, moved quickly on Wednesday to try to reassure New Yorkers that he was prepared to lead, rolling out a team of City Hall veterans that he said would guide his transition into office.
Mr. Mamdani, 34, has laid out an agenda that would be ambitious for any mayor to deliver, including promises to make buses free, expand government-funded child care and jump-start housing development.
But as the youngest person to win the office in more than a century and a democratic socialist, Mr. Mamdani is certain to face even more intense scrutiny than his predecessors as he picks the team that will help run a city with a $115 billion budget and 300,000 municipal employees. They could help determine his success or failure as mayor, but also telegraph how far to the left he intends to try to steer the city.
Mr. Mamdani tapped four women as co-chairs of his transition, three of whom have worked for his predecessors. The choices signaled that he was interested in a broad range of experience in New York and Washington.
Among them is Maria Torres-Springer, a well-respected government operations expert who was first deputy mayor under Mayor Eric Adams before resigning last winter. She is now also under consideration to fill that role for Mr. Mamdani, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The other co-chairs are Lina Khan, a progressive favorite who served as Federal Trade Commission chair under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Grace Bonilla, the head of United Way of New York City and an alumna of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration; and Melanie Hartzog, who was deputy mayor for health and human services under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mr. Adams’s predecessor.
Elana Leopold, a political strategist who also worked for Mr. de Blasio, will serve as the team’s executive director as it tries to fill dozens of key posts before Mr. Mamdani is sworn in on Jan. 1.
Monica Klein, another de Blasio administration alumna, will serve as the transition communications director, and Ali Najmi, the campaign’s lawyer and a Mamdani confidant, will be its lead counsel, according to two other people familiar with the hires.
Time is of the essence. President Trump has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funds from New York City and to send in the National Guard if the new mayor adopts policies he does not like. Such actions would have the potential to define Mr. Mamdani’s early tenure.
Speaking at his first news conference since his commanding victory on Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani said he wanted the group to help him build an administration united around “a commitment to solving old problems with new solutions.” He reiterated that he would have no ideological litmus tests.
“The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at 9, but the beautiful prose of governing has only just begun,” he said, adapting a line from former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, the father of the man Mr. Mamdani defeated.
Mr. Mamdani has yet to make any firm hiring commitments, other than saying he plans to ask the current police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, to stay on. Gov. Kathy Hochul and prominent business leaders had pushed him to do so, and Mr. Mamdani reaffirmed that commitment on Wednesday.
Mr. Mamdani is also expected to bring his top adviser, Elle Bisgaard-Church, to City Hall, where she could serve a similar role to the one that Emma Wolfe, Mr. de Blasio’s closest adviser, held during his administration.
Ms. Bisgaard-Church, who like Mr. Mamdani is in her 30s and is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, said in an interview that she had been working for months to prepare for governing.
Ms. Hochul, who endorsed Mr. Mamdani in September and will be key to enacting much of his agenda, has assumed an unusually active posture in the hiring process, saying she will help him find a “very seasoned team to help manage a wildly complicated city.”
Mr. Mamdani and his team have sought advice from a wide range of people, including Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff; Janette Sadik-Khan, who was transportation commissioner under Mr. Bloomberg; and Kathryn Garcia, the director of state operations under Ms. Hochul and the runner-up in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary. (Ms. Garcia attended Mr. Mamdani’s victory rally on Tuesday night.)
Others consulted by Mr. Mamdani and his aides include Marshall Ganz, a professor at Harvard University and an expert in community organizing; Matt Bruenig, a labor lawyer who founded a left-leaning think tank; and Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, a deputy mayor for health and human services under Mr. de Blasio.
As others reached out to offer assistance on Wednesday, there was at least one notable exception: Mr. Mamdani said Mr. Adams, who campaigned against him, had not yet reached out to congratulate him on his victory or invite him to visit City Hall to begin discussing the transfer of power.
Mr. Mamdani will face a balancing act as he proceeds, moving to hire people who align with his left-leaning values and those who might satisfy key constituencies, including unions and local Democratic leaders.
Asked on Wednesday if he would bring more D.S.A. members into City Hall, he did not offer any specific commitments. “I am looking forward to having every member of our coalition be a part of our transition,” he said.
Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy at N.Y.U. and a former adviser to Mr. Bloomberg, said that Mr. Mamdani should hire people with “proven skills in getting things done.”
He added: “The goal is to find people who reflect his vision, not to appease every interest group.”
Mr. Mamdani ran on three major campaign pledges: freezing the rent on rent-stabilized apartments, making buses free and creating universal child care. Enacting those policies could cost nearly $7 billion annually.
For schools chancellor, Mr. Mamdani has considered Meisha Ross Porter, who served as Mr. de Blasio’s final chancellor in 2021; Kamar Samuels, the superintendent of a school district in Manhattan; and Rita Joseph, the chair of the City Council’s education committee, among others.
Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teacher’s union, which endorsed Mr. Mamdani and is expected to play a key advisory role in the appointment, said in an interview on Wednesday that he wanted Mamdani to consider keeping on Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the current schools chief.
He praised her leadership on the issue of reading and literacy, and said she has been willing to make tough changes that benefit students.
The union also has a strong relationship with Ms. Ross Porter, who has emerged as a top pick of many leaders across the school system.
Personnel decisions can make or break any administration. Mr. Adams hired many longtime friends for top roles, and a number of them — as well as Mr. Adams himself — ended up under federal investigation. The resulting erosion in his political standing led him to abandon his re-election bid.
Mr. Mamdani’s inner circle includes friends and advisers who he met in politics, many of whom are quite young. Few hail from the Democratic establishment; some have spent years fighting it. Brad Lander, the city comptroller, has become a close ally, but he appears to be preparing to run for Congress, rather than join Mr. Mamdani’s administration.
Allies of Ms. Tisch, a widely respected technocrat, have signaled for months that she would be interested in staying as police commissioner. But her relationship with Mr. Mamdani might not be smooth sailing. Ms. Tisch recently called for hiring 5,000 more police officers; Mr. Mamdani wants to keep the force at its budgeted size.
William J. Bratton, a former police commissioner who is a mentor to Ms. Tisch, said in a recent essay in The New York Post that he thought working for Mr. Mamdani could pose difficulties for her.
“She should take the job to keep New York safe if he meets her conditions — but be ready to leave if he undermines her,” he said.
Troy Closson contributed reporting.