Tuesday, October 9, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 6
Another top member of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has said goodbye to City Hall.
Philip Banks III, brother of recently ousted NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks, resigned his position of deputy mayor of public safety Sunday night, the mayor told on Monday.
Adams says Banks told him “he wants to transition and do some other things with his life” and told it was Banks’ decision to resign, saying Banks told him he didn’t “want this to be a constant burden on the work that we’re doing in the city.”
The resignation comes days after NBC New York reported First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright was expected to resign, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. As of Monday, that had yet to be official.
At this point, the continuing departures appear to be less of a sign of chaos and more about New York Gov. Kathy Hochul forcing Adams to bring stability to City Hall one week after the mayor pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and campaign fraud charges.
Federal prosecutors have said they are pursuing “several related investigations” in addition to the case against the mayor, who was indicted late last month on charges of accepting illegal campaign contributions and bribes from foreign nationals.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to the charges and rebuffed calls to resign. Adams pushed back Monday against the suggestion that he should step down.
Adams appointed Philip Banks in 2022 as deputy for public safety, a role not seen in New York since the 1990s that gave him wide influence over the nation’s largest police and fire departments.
Banks had previously served as the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed member, before resigning abruptly in 2014 after becoming ensnared in another corruption scandal that rocked City Hall.
In that case, federal investigators obtained approval to wiretap his phone amid questions about $300,000 that wound up in bank accounts belonging to him and his wife. Two businessmen were later convicted of bribing police officers and other officials. Banks was not charged but was named as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Source: NBC New York
