Four of Eric Adams’ deputy mayors and top advisors resigned their posts Monday over his cooperation with President Trump a week after the Justice Department moved to dismiss the criminal charges against the embattled mayor, amNewYork Metro has confirmed.
The deputy mayors who announced their departures are Maria Torres-Springer, Anne Williams-Isom, Meera Joshi and Chauncey Parker. A spokesperson for City Hall said the resignations are not effective immediately.
“They’re going to stay on for the next few weeks to make sure the transition is smooth, and there are already talks about who will replace them,” the spokesperson said.
Adams said in a statement he is disappointed to see them go, but “given the current challenges,” he understands their decisions.
“Maria Torres-Springer, Anne Williams-Isom, Meera Joshi, and Chauncey Parker are extraordinary public servants who have been vital to our work reshaping New York City,” Adams said. “Together, we’ve broken housing records, created the most jobs in the city’s history, provided for hundreds of thousands of longtime New Yorkers and migrants, built unprecedented public spaces, and made our city safer at every level. New Yorkers owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their service to our city.”
The four resigning deputy mayors handle operations, housing, economic development, labor health and human services, infrastructure, and public safety—some of the city government’s most critical responsibilities.
Losing all four deputy mayors — three of whom have been with Adams from the beginning of his term — strikes a catastrophic blow to Adams’ increasingly tenuous hold on his office at a time when he faces mounting calls for his resignation or removal following the Trump Justice Department moving to drop the federal criminal case against him, and his stated cooperation with feds on deportation efforts.
Even so, Mayor Adams sought to reassure the city that things will keep “moving forward.”
“The people of New York City remain, without question, our top priority,” he said. “I am solely beholden to the 8.3 million New Yorkers I represent, and I will always put this city first — as I always have.”
Torres-Springer took over as first deputy mayor following Sheena Wright’s departure in September. Wright was part of the wave of Adams administration officials who left their posts amid ongoing federal investigations that started last year.
Williams-Isom oversees and coordinates operations of city hospitals, and Meera Joshi heads operations.
The New York Post first reported Monday’s resignations, hours after multiple outlets reported rumblings of the City Hall chaos.
Hochul and the Adams administration
The resignations come as pressure mounts on Gov. Kathy Hochul to use her executive power to boot Adams from office after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) instructed Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop his five-count corruption indictment on Feb. 10.
According to a NBC New York report, the deputy mayors said they had concerns about their ability to continue on with the mayor’s team in light of the DOJ move, which temporarily suspends possible criminal charges against Adams.
Several federal prosecutors resigned last week in protest, including U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon, who alleged that Adams’ defense team offered a “quid pro quo” to the Justice Department of cooperation with Trump’s immigration crackdown in exchange for having the case dismissed.
Other city elected officials, meanwhile, have also expressed concern about where Mayor Adams’ loyalties lie, with some going as far as to suggest Trump had politically compromised him.
“According to the Department of Justice’s recent directive, Mayor Adams adopted a strategy of selling out marginalized New Yorkers and our city’s values to avoid personal and legal accountability,” NYC public advocate Jumaane Williams said in a recent statement. “Well, it worked. I hope it was worth it.”
On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators marched in Lower Manhattan, demanding that Hochul remove the mayor from office. Last week, in wake of the fallout from the Justice Department’s effort to dismiss the Adams case, Hochul told MSNBC that she was evaluating her options on taking action.
But Adams has continued to insist on his innocence and has repeatedly said since Feb. 10 that he is not leaving the job, telling congregants at a Queens church Sunday, “I am going nowhere.” That statement came after he explicitly denied a quid pro quo with Trump’s Justice Department in a statement Friday.
“I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never,” Adams said in a Feb. 14 statement released from City Hall. “I am solely beholden to the 8.3 million New Yorkers that I represent, and I will always put this city first.”
The four resigning deputy mayors
Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor of Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: Mayor Adams appointed her to the post in May 2023 to succeed Jessica Katz in the now-defunct Chief Housing Officer role. She oversees agencies including the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Housing Development Corporation and Housing Recovery Office. She began with the Adams administration on its first day, Jan. 1, 2022, as Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development.
Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Operations: Another original member of the Adams administration, the former Taxi and Limousine Commissioner was appointed the post in December 2021, and took office on Jan. 1, 2022. The deputy mayor of operations helps the administration develop polices related to government operations and infrastructure.
Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services: The third original member of the Adams administration mentioned as considering resignation, Williams-Isom took office on Jan. 1, 2022 in a role designed to help guide policies related to the city’s health and welfare. Mayor Adams credited her for helping to lead the city through the migrant crisis of 2022-23, finding homes for tens of thousands of newcomers.
Chauncey Parker, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety: Parker succeeded the embattled Phillip Banks in the role just last October after Banks resigned from the post helping to guide policing policies. Prior to his appointment, Parker was the assistant deputy mayor of public safety and a deputy commissioner for collaborative policing at the NYPD.
