Zohran Mamdani chose Lillian Bonsignore to be fire commissioner, weeks after the former commissioner, Robert S. Tucker, resigned, citing Mr. Mamdani’s views on Israel.
Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, is following a tradition of mayors who came before him: choosing his own deputy mayors and commissioners to help run the city.
Turnover is to be expected. But on Tuesday, when Mr. Mamdani named Lillian Bonsignore, the former chief of New York’s Emergency Medical Services, as the city’s first openly gay fire commissioner, Mayor Eric Adams announced that he was appointing the interim commissioner, Mark Guerra, to the same role, an appointment that will last only the final eight days of the mayor’s term.
The position was open because Robert S. Tucker, the former fire commissioner, left the job on Friday. Mr. Tucker submitted his letter of resignation the day after Mr. Mamdani won the general election on Nov. 4. Mr. Tucker, who was the second Jewish person to serve as the city’s fire commissioner, said in an interview with CBS Mornings in November that Mr. Mamdani’s views on Israel had been a “factor” in his decision to resign.
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Jeffery C. Mays is a Times reporter covering politics with a focus on New York City Hall.
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