Mayor Mamdani Appoints a Team of Government Veterans

Zohran Mamdani has stocked his administration with seasoned officials, in part to allay concerns about his inexperience and left-wing stances.

Zohran Mamdani announced a number of key appointments in the lead-up to his inauguration, hoping to both lay the groundwork for his ambitious agenda and soothe the nerves of New Yorkers concerned about his relative lack of experience or wary of his progressive politics.

The appointments include some of the biggest jobs in city government, as well as smaller but influential roles. Here are a few of them.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch

The question of who would lead the Police Department loomed so large over the election that Mr. Mamdani named his pick in October, almost two weeks before Election Day.

He chose to keep Jessica Tisch, a respected technocrat appointed by his predecessor, Eric Adams, in 2024. Many powerful New Yorkers had lobbied for her to stay in the job, and her appointment alleviated the concerns of some who have been uneasy with Mr. Mamdani’s leftist politics. In the past, he denounced the department as racist, homophobic and “a major threat to public safety,” though he has distanced himself from those remarks.

Sherif Soliman, director of the Office of Management and Budget

Mr. Mamdani named Sherif Soliman, the chief financial officer of the City University of New York, to head the city’s Office of Management and Budget, where he will oversee a budget that exceeds $115 billion.

The budget job will be critical for the Mamdani administration, which has promised an expensive expansion of public services — including free buses and child care — at a time of economic uncertainty.

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels

Mr. Mamdani named Kamar Samuels his schools chancellor, putting the superintendent of a school district on the West Side of Manhattan in charge of the nation’s largest school system, with more than 1,500 schools, 880,000 students and a budget of more than $40 billion.

Mr. Samuels has earned a reputation as a champion of desegregation during his two decades in the school system, which could signal that the issue — which was part of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign platform — could be a priority for the new mayor.

Michael Flynn, transportation commissioner

Mr. Flynn’s appointment was expected — his name began circulating as a favorite for the role on Wednesday — but his introduction at Mr. Mamdani’s intimate swearing-in early Thursday was notable.

Mr. Flynn, 46, who worked at the Transportation Department for nearly a decade before joining an urban transportation consulting firm, will be closely watched. The Mamdani administration has made a number of promises involving public transit, including making buses faster and free. Mr. Flynn will have significant power to make the service faster, by changing roads and building more protected bus and bike lanes, but making them free would require City Hall to broker a deal with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who controls the transit system.

Other appointees:

• Lillian Bonsignore, the former chief of New York’s Emergency Medical Service, to be the city’s next fire commissioner.
• Leila Bozorg, a longtime government official, as deputy mayor for housing and planning.
• Steven Banks, former head of the Legal Aid Society and of the city Department of Social Services, as the city’s chief lawyer.
• Ramzi Kassem, a senior policy adviser in the White House under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., as Mr. Mamdani’s chief legal adviser.
• Julie Su, a former acting labor secretary under President Biden, as the city’s first ever deputy mayor for economic justice.
• Helen Arteaga, chief executive of the city-run hospital in Elmhurst, Queens, as deputy mayor for health and human services.

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