Tears and disappointment over Mamdani’s request for Adams’ City Hall staff to resign ahead of inauguration

As New York City prepares for a mayoral transition, members of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ administration expressed disappointment over how Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s team has handled the upcoming departure of nearly 180 City Hall staffers.

Last Tuesday, the Mamdani transition team notified deputy mayors that they would be sending lists of 179 employees who would not have jobs in the new administration. Later that day, each deputy mayor received the names of staff members who were to be told they were “terminated effective Jan. 1,” according to a senior Adams administration official who spoke to amNewYork.

The staff affected include young assistants and career civil servants across City Hall offices, including communications, intergovernmental affairs, and the offices of the deputy mayors. Supervisors, not the incoming team, were instructed to deliver the news, the official said. Many employees had already submitted applications and résumés through Mamdani’s transition portal at the city’s urging, but the official claimed none of those materials were reviewed.

The Mamdani transition team did not respond to amNewYork’s requests for comment, but told the New York Times the move was “standard practice” for a mayoral transition as they work to build their City Hall plan, “which includes new staff in key roles to ensure they can deliver effectively on their agenda.”

The Mayor-elect also defended the move having spoken to reporters over the weekend, saying the transition team is looking to “build a city government that can fulfil the agenda of affordability.”

“My message to each and every New Yorker is that we will make our assessments on the basis of the work that is done, not on the basis of who appoints people, and that is an assessment that we will apply to the entirety of city government,” Mamdani said, Pix11 reported.

Staffers cut before Thanksgiving

The City Hall official who spoke to amNewYork on the condition of anonymity said word of the terminations leaked to the press before all staff had been notified, leaving some to learn of their job loss from news reports the day before Thanksgiving.

“I had to tell about three dozen people between last night and this morning that Zohran Mamdani does not want them to have a job come Jan. 1. You know, the number of kids in my office crying — it’s breaking my heart,” the official said on Nov. 26.

While the incoming administration has asserted its right to bring in new personnel, the official claims the move disproportionately affects junior staff members, many in their early 20s, some of whom joined City Hall after Mamdani was elected.

Another City Hall source described the notification process in more granular, on-the-ground terms: staff were given two lists — those “definitively not being retained” and those told they could show up on Jan. 1 — with little clarity about what being “retained” actually means in practice.

The source said there has been minimal follow-up guidance and that many employees who are technically being asked to show up on Jan. 1 are unsure whether they will be dismissed days later or considered for longer-term roles.

“Is being retained the same as being considered for a job, or is it, ‘Hey, we’re looking for some folks who can help show us where the light switches are’ and then help everybody transition out pretty quickly? We just don’t know,” they said.

That City Hall source also said morale on their team remains cohesive with colleagues are sharing job postings and referrals, but that those who learned they would not be kept are already beginning outside conversations about next steps.

“We have folks on our team who have been here since the Dinkins administration… longtime public servants, civil servants, and also people more politically attuned to this administration,” they added.

Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy, in a statement on behalf of the outgoing administration, said every incoming mayor has the right to assemble a new team but criticized the decision to remove long-time civil servants who helped manage COVID-19, the asylum-seeker crisis and other emergencies.

He called the terminations “a massive loss for New Yorkers” and said the staff being let go “should not be the victims of political gamesmanship.”

“Every new administration has a right to build its own team, and while there may be a reflexive reaction to terminate employees, being mayor must come with a level of compassion and respect for the 300,000+ city employees who serve their fellow New Yorkers. That’s what Mayor Adams did by keeping on long-time public servants who served in the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations,” said Levy.

Over 70,000 people apply to work for Mamdani

The sweeping staff changes come as Mamdani prepares to take office with a large transition infrastructure behind him.

His team has appointed more than 400 people across 17 committees to serve as “critical advisors,” charged with developing policy guidance and recommending hires ahead of his Jan. 1 inauguration.

The transition has also drawn broad public interest, with roughly 70,000 people applying to work in the new administration through an open hiring portal, with applicants averaging 28 years old.

Last week, Mamdani’s transition team also announced it had raised more than $2 million to support the handoff of power, backed by roughly 25,620 individual donors contributing an average of $75. The transition fund, the team said, will help hire and retain staff responsible for building out the new administration, cover office operations, and support the infrastructure needed to ensure the incoming government is prepared to “deliver on day one.”