Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Friday that his administration plans to modernize New York City’s nearly two-decade-old framework for keeping government running during emergencies and formally designate Sept. 11 as a citywide Day of Remembrance and Service ahead of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Mamdani is set to sign two executive orders Friday afternoon, including one that City Hall says will modernize the city’s continuity-of-operations planning for the first time since 2007 and create a new senior interagency team charged with helping ensure essential services remain available during emergencies.
The city’s existing framework dates to an executive order signed by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in October 2007. That order directed the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to establish a standardized methodology for continuity planning across city government and created a Continuity of Operations (COOP) Management Team jointly led by the two agencies.
It also required every city agency to designate its own continuity-planning team and have a COOP plan in place within two years. The plans lay out how agencies will maintain essential operations when an emergency or other disruption prevents them from functioning normally.
Mamdani’s order will establish a new Continuity and Mission Assurance Team (CMAT) chaired by the deputy mayor for operations and made up of senior leadership from NYC Emergency Management, the Office of Technology and Innovation, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Office of Management and Budget.
The team will meet regularly to coordinate continuity planning and strengthen the city’s ability to maintain government operations during emergencies, according to City Hall.
City Hall’s announcement did not detail whether or how agencies’ existing COOP requirements will change under the new order, whether shortcomings have been identified in the current system or whether agencies will face new deadlines or testing requirements. amNewYork is awaiting further details.
“‘Never Forget’ is not a slogan. It is a commitment that we must carry forward through action,” Mamdani said in a statement. “And that is precisely what these two Executive Orders demonstrate.”
The other executive order will formally designate Sept. 11 as a citywide Day of Remembrance and Service.
It directs the administration to designate time that day for a moment of silence honoring those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93, and those who suffered health consequences in the years that followed. City agencies will also be encouraged to hold memorial ceremonies, educational programs and other commemorative activities.
The Mayor’s Office will work with NYC Service to promote volunteer opportunities and encourage city agencies to participate, per City Hall.
Similar remembrance observances exist at the state and federal levels, but City Hall said Mamdani’s order marks the first time a New York City mayor has formally established such a designation.
“I am honored to establish the City’s first Day of Remembrance and Service on September 11th to remember those we lost on that horrific day and the first responders, families and City workers whose lives were irrevocably changed in the aftermath,” Mamdani said.
FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, who recently spoke to amNewYork about the upcoming anniversary, said the designation would carry forward the spirit of service associated with the response to the attacks.
“The greatest tribute we can pay them is to continue serving one another with compassion, courage and a shared commitment to building a stronger New York,” Bonsignore said.