The head of the company that manages town’s huge buying and actual property holdings introduced her resignation to workforce Tuesday — but every other most sensible reliable in Mayor Eric Adams’ management to go away ahead of he finishes his first time period at City Hall.
Dawn Pinnock, commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), despatched an electronic mail to workforce noon revealing that she deliberate to go away the activity on the finish of June, THE CITY has realized.
She is amongst a make a selection crew of most sensible Adams’ staff participants who’ve left metropolis govt in the closing yr, together with his police commissioner, his common suggest, his housing czar and the pinnacle of the constructions division.
In her electronic mail to workforce, Pinnock wrote she “will be departing city government at the end of June” to just accept a place “in the non-profit sector.” She didn’t determine her new employer.
“This decision was not made lightly, and after careful reflection I believe it is the right choice for my family and my future,” she wrote. “I know a departing commissioner can spark uncertainty and even at times anxiety. Please know that I have full confidence in our senior leaders at this agency to support this transition and lend their expertise to ensure continuity among the lines of service.”
Pinnock’s surprising announcement made no point out of a successor, however one most sensible contender is most probably Jesse Hamilton, a former Brooklyn state senator who heads the DCAS actual property unit and is an established Adams best friend.
Hamilton used to be Adams’ handpicked candidate to be triumphant him in the state Senate when Adams turned into Brooklyn borough president in 2013, and the mayor appointed him as common suggest to DCAS in December 2021. Hamilton used to be promoted 4 months later to run the realty unit with a $24,000 raise.
DCAS is likely one of the maximum tough however least public companies in municipal govt, with a $2 billion estimated finances for fiscal 2025. It purchases over $1 billion in items and products and services for town every year, manages town’s fleet of cars, recruits metropolis hires and purchases, and sells and rentals out city-owned homes, whilst additionally leasing house from non-public landlords.
Pinnock has helmed the company since Adams promoted her from the DCAS government deputy commissioner place she held underneath Mayor de Blasio to the highest spot as DCAS commissioner in January 2022, originally of his tenure at City Hall.
That intended that Pinnock labored on the most sensible stage of the company in 2020 when town spent billions of greenbacks on scientific apparatus and private protecting apparatus originally of the COVID-19 pandemic. And she used to be commissioner when DCAS closing yr wound up promoting thousands and thousands of greenbacks of that apparatus for pennies at the greenback, as published via THE CITY.
Asked about Pinnock’s tenure as commissioner on Tuesday, Fabien Levy, Deputy Mayor for Communications, referred the query to a decrease stage press spokesperson. By mid-day Wednesday, that staffer had no longer replied to the query.
Pinnock’s resignation is simply the newest in a sequence of most sensible officers exiting City Hall ahead of Adams wraps up his first time period in place of work.
In September 2022, Adams leader of workforce Frank Carone informed the mayor he’d be leaving via the top of that yr. Two months later, First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo announced she, too, could be leaving via yr’s finish.
That similar month, Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich stepped down after reviews surfaced he used to be the topic of an ongoing corruption investigation. In September he used to be indicted via Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a huge ranging scheme to pocket bribes in change for doing favors for an actual property developer, a tow truck corporate and others.
In May 2023 Adams’ housing czar, Jessica Katz, announced she could be leaving via that summer time, and his common suggest, Brendan McGuire, published he deliberate to go away the management via yr’s finish. (McGuire returned to the non-public sector and is now representing Adams in an ongoing federal investigation of the mayor’s 2021 fundraising actions.) A month later, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell resigned following reviews that she used to be being undermined via longtime Adams’ friend, Deputy Mayor for Criminal Justice Philip Banks III.