Mamdani’s picks for top NYC administration posts reward experience and loyalty

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced two of his top staff picks for his administration, including Dean Fuleihan, a veteran New York City civil servant, as his first deputy mayor during a press conference at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute in Manhattan on Monday.

Mamdani also announced Elle Bisgard-Church as his chief of staff.

In an Instagram post, Mamdani said that these two appointments would constitute the team that “will deliver on our affordability agenda”.

Fuleihan is the son of Lebanese immigrants and served as the former deputy mayor to Bill De Blasio. The deputy is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the city government, and the size and influence of their role generally depend on the extent of power the mayor delegates to a deputy.

At 74 years of age, Fuleihan is more than double Mamdani’s age and has spent more years in the New York City government than Mamdani has been alive - 47 years to be exact. New Yorkers and Mamdani's opponents have been critical of the mayor-elect's lack of experience, questioning whether he is ready for such a powerful position at such a young age.

Fuleihan's appointment will be viewed as a step that can help alleviate some of those concerns. Fuleihan is an expert in fiscal policy and budget management, having worked in the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget, as well as serving as the chief fiscal advisor to the New York State Assembly, for over 30 years. 

Fuleihan has the knowledge and experience to help Mamdani implement his ambitious policy proposals, which are likely to face pushback from state leaders and will require billions of dollars in revenue to operate. 

De Blasio touted Fuleihan's leftist credentials.

Bisgaard-Church, who has been Mamdani’s chief of staff for the last five years in the New York State Assembly and his campaign manager for the mayoral election, will continue to be his chief of staff. It will be her first position in city government. 

Bisgaard-Church is credited with being a key part of the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) legislative analysis team, having written a guidance document in 2021 that served as the blueprint for how the DSA interacts with elected officials. She played a significant role in persuading the DSA to back Mamdani for mayor and helped him get his free bus pilot over the finish line, according to a profile in City&State.

She produced an anti-war radio show during college and worked in non-profit jobs focusing on adult literacy and decarceration.

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When Mamdani won the Democratic nomination in the primary elections in June, Bisgaard-Church took to the stage to buy Mamdani's speech-writing team more time to finish penning a speech after the unexpected result, which they had not planned for, according to City&State's profile of her. They had only prepared a concession and "too close to call" speech. 

While Mamdani will not take office until January, he is already facing challenges from state leaders. At the Somos conference in Puerto Rico on Saturday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani, threw a spanner into the works of his affordability agenda after she opposed free buses and raised questions about how he plans to fund universal childcare.

Fuleihan was undaunted by Hochul’s remarks. “I’ve been told many times in the past things could not happen, and directly,” he said. “And that’s not what we’re being told. We’re being told, let’s have a conversation, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Fuleihan was recently appointed to a position on the New York State Financial Control Board, which oversees the city’s finances, by Hochul. 

Transition team

Last Wednesday, the day after Mamdani swept to an unprecedented victory in the mayoral elections, he announced an all-woman transition team. 

Political strategist Elana Leopold will be leading the transition team. She is a former aide to de Blasio who joined Mamdani’s campaign as an advisor in September.

It includes former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan; former New York City first deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer; former New York City deputy mayor for health and human services Melanie Hartzog; and United Way of New York City CEO Grace Bonilla.

Khan’s selection was met with approval from both sides of the political divide, but she is widely viewed as a contentious pick in both the tech world and on Wall Street. She rose to national prominence for aggressively reigning in corporate power at the FTC under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Despite being the youngest FTC chair ever elected, she took on corporate giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Kroger, and Ticketmaster and cracked down on unethical business practices. 

Khan was born in London to migrants of Pakistani origin and has been living in the US since she was 11 years old. Khan's rise to prominence can be traced back to an article she wrote for the Yale Law Journal titled "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," which made waves in financial and legal circles.