Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced the first appointees to his staff, naming Anthony Shorris as first deputy mayor.
“I don’t think I know anyone who has this range of experience and achievement, and who will be able to work with all elements of the government seamlessly because he has done such an extraordinary range of work,” de Blasio said at the announcement on Wednesday, December 4.
Shorris is a “veteran of public service,” with experience as finance commissioner, deputy chancellor for operations at the Department of Education, executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and senior vice president, vice dean and chief of staff at New York University Langone Medical Center.
De Blasio additionally credited him with being a “central architect” of former mayor Ed Koch’s administration’s affordable housing program.
“This is a guy who does not need any warm up,” de Blasio said. “I am absolutely confident in his ability to deliver on the core agenda that I’ve developed.”
Shorris reiterated de Blasio’s vision of universal pre-K, addressing the affordability crisis, income equality, lifting wages and police reform.
“It’s a pivotal moment in New York,” he said. “This is a moment of opportunity.”
The mayor-to-be also named Dominic Williams, formerly chief of staff in the Public Advocate’s office, as Shorris’ chief of staff and Emma Wolfe, de Blasio campaign manager and political director, as the director of intergovernmental affairs.
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