Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani paid a visit to the Greenpoint Library (107 Norman Ave.) on December 17 to announce two key administration appointments.
Mamdani shared that longtime union leader Jahmila Edwards will head the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which liaisons with city, state, and federal officials. He also announced that Cat de Costa would head the Mayor’s Office of Appointments, in charge of further hiring decisions in the administration.
The mayor-elect invoked the press conference’s location during his brief introductory speech.
“It is not simply a library. It is a monument to the power of political organizing,” said Mamdani, in perhaps a nod to the library’s construction through a state environmental grant. “It is funded because of political negotiations, it is full of books because of budgetary decisions. It dispenses resources like career services, youth programming, and citizenship classes, because those with political power sought to do more with that power.”
Mamdani previously visited Greenpoint in August to call for the completion of the McGuinness Boulevard redesign shortly after an alleged bribery scheme between the Adams administration and local business owners came to light.
The clock is ticking as Mamdani’s team works to fill positions by the January 1 inauguration date.
“Some of the still-unnamed, high-profile positions include more deputy mayors, the budget director and the schools chancellor,” THE CITY notes.