By Rich Bockmann
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio Wednesday announced three leaders from Queens in the realms of technology, higher education and the arts who will help the city’s 109th mayor choose his new government.
Coalition for Queens founder Jukay Hsu, York College President Marcia Keizs and Queens Council on the Arts Executive Director Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer were among 60 names announced on the transition committee that will help inform de Blasio as he chooses key appointments and fills jobs in his administration.
“These leaders are volunteering their expertise in every issue and area of municipal affairs,” de Blasio said in a statement. “Together, they will join Transition NYC Co-Chairs Carl Weisbrod and Jennifer Jones Austin in helping me to assemble a team that’s devoted to building one great city where everyone shares in our prosperity.”
“My charge to the transition team is to identify women and men from every part of our city and walk of life that share a commitment to progressive and competent city government,” he added. “They will be advising me based on their wealth of experience and knowledge of specific issue areas and government agencies.”
The members of the committee work on a volunteer basis and are not looking to serve in the administration itself, de Blasio said.
Hsu is a Flushing native who served in Iraq after graduating from Harvard with a degree in economics. Through the Coalition for Queens he runs the monthly Queens Tech Meetup and is working to bring a tech incubator to Long Island City.
Keizs, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, took over the job as president of York College in 2005. Under her leadership the school built programs in journalism and aviation management, and as York’s president Keizs is working on projects to build a new academic building and oversee a new tax-free zone on the college campus designed to lure entrepreneurs to southeast Queens.
Krakauer is a Rockaway Beach resident and a graduate of Oberlin College. The council works to secure grants to fund arts projects throughout the borough.
At a news conference Wednesday, de Blasio said he had a preference, but not an iron-clad requirement, for hiring New Yorkers or those with “substantial New York experience” to staff his administration and remained vague as to how he was leaning on key appointments, such as the city’s next police commissioner.
Meanwhile, with just under six weeks left until de Blasio’s inauguration, the city’s effort to weigh in on the new administration is in full swing.
De Blasio’s website, transition2013.com, gives people the opportunity to apply for jobs, send messages to the mayor-elect, volunteer their time or submit ideas to the transition team.
And the Talking Transition tent in SoHo has been buzzing with activity since it opened earlier this month with dialogues on everything from fair policing to waterfront development.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
