Mayor Eric Adams and Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright during a press conference at City Hall in February.
Photo: Luiz C. Ribeiro/NY Daily News/Getty Images
After learning of his indictment on bribery and fraud charges on Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams quietly signed off on paperwork that hints at how worried his administration is about another set of investigations consuming it. Overnight, City Hall quietly revised the executive order that defines the powers delegated to each top Adams adviser to include a succession plan for the most important of the bunch, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.
The addendum reads, “In the event that the First Deputy Mayor is unable to perform such functions, powers or duties, or in the event that the First Deputy Mayor waives in writing the delegation contained herein, all such functions, powers or duties of the Mayor are hereby delegated to the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.” That is the well-respected Anne Williams-Isom.
Earlier this month, Wright had her phone seized by federal agents working for the same office that is prosecuting Adams. She is the longtime partner of David Banks, the schools chancellor who is the brother of both Phil Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, and Terence Banks, a former mid-level MTA supervisor who became a “consultant” by pitching himself as a man who can link contractors to government agencies. (It’s functionally lobbying, but acknowledging that would require abiding by regulation and disclosure laws.) The brothers’ phones were also seized.
“Sheena is not resigning,” a City Hall spokesperson tells me. “It is simply good governance to establish a clear line of succession for the sake of continuity, in the instance that the mayor and first deputy mayor are both out of pocket.”
The raids targeting the top echelon of the Adams administration also went after key figures in the Police Department, including Commissioner Edward Caban and his brother, James.
The simultaneous searches were focused on two different alleged schemes that share a fundamental trait: family members attempting to cash in. Terry Banks is reportedly under investigation for pitching his ties to Phil, David, and Wright as a way for potential contractors to gain a leg up when bidding for city business. James Caban — a disgraced cop and slumlord — billed himself as a nightlife “consultant” (again with the consultants) who could help bars and nightclubs “solve” the noise complaints that his brother, Edward, is tasked with enforcing, if they paid him off. One barkeep told WNBC-TV that James hit him up for $2,500 for this service.
Everyone involved has denied any wrongdoing in the brothers’ scandals, and Caban resigned his commissioner post, which was largely ceremonial. The Rosetta Stone to understanding how Adams world works lies in how it manages the NYPD — there’s what they put down on paper and then there’s how things actually operate. The administration’s organizational chart shows the police commissioner reporting directly to the mayor and not to Deputy Mayor Banks, but everyone knows that Banks is extensively involved and that Adams functions as its shadow commissioner.
The mayor, for his part, tells reporters he regularly reiterates to his staff that they must follow the law, which raises the question of why he hired people who need that reminder — and, to take at face value Hizzoner’s blame-my-aides defense following his own indictment, how this keeps happening right under his nose.
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