By Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani Tuesday named Lillian Bonsignore, the FDNY’s former emergency services chief, as the fire department’s next commissioner, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Mamdani, who’s taking office on Jan. 1, was expected to officially unveil the appointment at a press conference in Queens on Tuesday afternoon.
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Bonsignore retired from the FDNY in 2022 after a 31-year career in the department. During her time in FDNY, Bonsignore was in the FDNY’s EMS unit, which is separate from the firefighting division and oversees the department’s paramedics and emergency medical techs.
When she retired, Bonsignore was the FDNY’s chief of EMS operations, having served in that role during the COVID pandemic. She was the highest-ranking uniformed female in FDNY at the time and the first female to achieve a 4-star rank in the history of FDNY.
Some FDNY sources said there could be concern around the fact that Bonsignore doesn’t have firefighter experience.
The selection of Bonsignore comes after the last FDNY commissioner, Robert Tucker, defiantly submitted his resignation immediately after Mamdani’s Nov. 4 election win, saying he could not continue serving in the role under the new mayor due to their sharptly different views on Israel’s war in Gaza. Tucker, who is Jewish and was appointed to FDNY commissioner position by Mayor Adams last year, served his last day this past Friday.
In a thinly-veiled shot at Mamdani, Mayor Adams, who’s leaving office Dec. 31, announced shortly before Mamdani’s press conference that he would later Tuesday swear in acting FDNY Commissioner Mark Guerra as the permanent head of the department. That swearing-in was expected to happen at Gracie Mansion.
As Mamdani continues to fill out his cabinet, some observers are getting antsy about his selection of a schools chancellor.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Mamdani has considered keeping current Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in charge of the nation’s largest public school system. Others under consideration for the top job include Meisha Porter, a former schools chancellor under ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, Kamar Samuels, a public school superintendent in Manhattan, and Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, a former principal of the Bronx Academy of Letters, sources said.
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