\u201cEverybody was talking about Brad Lander as deputy mayor, though he\u2019s also [thinking about] running for Congress. But there\u2019s a lot of talk that he\u2019s thinking about City Planning,\u201d said Sid Davidoff, founding partner at law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron<\/a> and chair of the firm\u2019s Government Relations practice, and a man who has served New York City mayors from John Lindsay to Eric Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n Davidoff\u2019s take would position Mamdani\u2019s close campaign pal Lander to fill Dan Garodnick\u2019s enormous shoes should the latter vacate his current post as director of the New York City Department of City Planning and chair of the Planning Commission.<\/p>\n The well-respected Garodnick, though, has himself been rumored, according to several sources, as a potential choice to serve as Mamdani\u2019s deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce.<\/p>\n (Lander confirmed to amNewYork<\/a> last week that he is \u201cseriously considering\u201d running for the 10th District congressional seat currently held by Rep. Dan Goldman<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Another name being bandied about for a potential high-ranking position in the administration, according to several sources, is Anthony Shorris, who served as first deputy mayor in the de Blasio administration from 2014 to 2017, and who has also served as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey<\/a> and deputy budget director at the New York City Mayor\u2019s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).\u00a0<\/p>\n As Mamdani ramps up his staff, Shorris sounds like just the sort of veteran insider who could help quell doubts about the millennial mayor-elect\u2019s own lack of managerial experience.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n One well-placed source tells Commercial Observer that both Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation<\/a> (NYCEDC), and James Oddo, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings<\/a> (DOB), have expressed interest in remaining in their current positions. There is no official word yet on Mamdani\u2019s plans for either of those roles. (Officials in the Mamdani transition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n Another source mentions that Paimaan Lodhi is also being considered to head the Department of City Planning. Lodhi is a senior director at developer and owner Tishman Speyer<\/a>; a former senior vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York, where he worked on the Midtown East rezoning; and a former urban planner for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. (Lodhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n But another source with deep government connections tells CO that so far the Mamdani administration has been exceedingly disciplined in keeping a tight lid on most of the names it\u2019s seriously considering, even going so far as to say that too much gossip about any one prospective appointee could work against them.<\/p>\n That said, the source noted that Steve Banks, commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services for eight years under de Blasio, is in the mix for several possible roles, including deputy mayor for health and human services; and that City Councilman Justin Brannan, de Blasio\u2019s director of intergovernmental affairs at the city Department of Education, is someone that Mamdani would like to place in some role within his administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Kimball, Oddo and Brannan did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Shorris and Banks could not be reached for comment.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, all of this is simply conjecture until more of Mamdani\u2019s staff announcements roll out between now and his Jan. 1 inauguration. But there are some ways in which the few appointments he\u2019s made so far can educate us about how Mamdani will govern.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The best thing a big city mayor-elect with questionable big government experience could do immediately following his election is to reassure the electorate that he\u2019ll have experienced hands by his side, as he undertakes to learn his new role with the eyes of the world laser-focused in his direction.<\/p>\n Since his Nov. 4 election, Mamdani has been doing just that.<\/p>\n Presumably understanding that his earliest appointments could signal much about his administration\u2019s general direction, priorities, deference to experience and ideological slant, Mamdani is taking pains to show that his administration will have smart, veteran leaders.<\/p>\n The first such signs came the Wednesday after Election Day, with the announcement of a five-person transition team of well-respected politicos from different administrations.<\/p>\n Led by Elana Leopold, a veteran of the de Blasio administration whom Mamdani named executive director of his transition team, the group also includes de Blasio deputy mayor for health and human services Melanie Hartzog; United Way head and veteran of Michael Bloomberg\u2019s administration Grace Bonilla; former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan; and Maria Torres-Springer, Eric Adams\u2019s former first deputy mayor.<\/p>\n Then, on Nov. 10, Mamdani named the first two high-ranking members of his administration: Dean Fuleihan, a 74-year-old veteran of city government who served as both first deputy mayor and head of the OMB under Mayor de Blasio; and Elle Bisgaard-Church, a Democratic Socialist like Mamdani who is regarded as the brains and the engine behind her fellow 34-year-old\u2019s mayoral campaign.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While some of the names will no doubt rankle business leaders (Lina Khan, known for aggressively enforcing antitrust laws, is particularly notorious), these announcements have spread optimism among others about Mamdani\u2019s hiring choices, as they show that the mayor-elect is approaching staffing with a marked seriousness of purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are good first steps,\u201d said Travis Terry, founder and CEO of the strategy consulting firm Immortal Strategies. \u201cDean is a well-respected government official who understands the city and state very well. And, given that a lot of Mamdani\u2019s agenda is going to require state cooperation<\/a>, I think it\u2019s a smart move by him.\u201d<\/p>\n On the transition team, the choice of Torres-Springer, who served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services under de Blasio, in particular has been widely praised.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve known her since she was in Small Business Services \u2014 she\u2019s an absolute superstar,\u201d said Lou Coletti, senior adviser at law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron and the former longtime president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers\u2019 Association (BTEA). \u201cI wonder if maybe she ends up coming back, because she\u2019s a very public service-oriented individual, and very, very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n Davidoff echoed the sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cTorres-Springer is a pro who knows what the government needs,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s realistic and yet still very much a believer. I think she\u2019s a very smart choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Brad Gerstman, managing partner at the government relations and lobbying law firm Gerstman PLLC, is not surprised that Mamdani is leaning heavily on de Blasio administration veterans so far, and expects that we\u2019ll see more of this as the new mayor\u2019s team fills out.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to put together a competent administration \u2014 people who have been there and done it,\u201d said Gerstman. \u201cHe\u2019s going to rely heavily on de Blasio alumni. There are a lot of them out there, and a lot of them are looking to get back into the action since the Adams administration displaced a lot of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerstman said that de Blasio was \u201ca main figure in Zohran Mamdani\u2019s life,\u201d and that his staffers are likely to be people Mamdani can trust. \u201cThose are very progressive-minded people, and they are all very competent.\u201d<\/p>\n Coletti was at the annual Somos Conference in Puerto Rico last week with Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul and other New York political bigwigs, and he likes what he\u2019s seen and heard so far about Mamdani\u2019s staffing selections.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I heard at Somos is that he\u2019s talking to the right people,\u201d said Coletti. \u201cI\u2019ve heard him say that he isn\u2019t necessarily going to dismiss people from the Adams administration just because they worked for the former mayor \u2014 that he\u2019d make his decisions based on their ability and whether he thinks they would fit within his administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Coletti believes that Mamdani\u2019s early appointments provide an encouraging sign for what\u2019s ahead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHis chief of staff is a very bright woman who\u2019s worked for him for a long time. That\u2019s a very logical chief of staff selection,\u201d said Coletti. \u201cHis first deputy mayor is somebody who\u2019s got a lot of experience and knows how city and state government works \u2014 also a logical selection.\u201d<\/p>\n In discussing Mamdani\u2019s staffing approach so far, Davidoff recalls how former New York City mayors like John Lindsay and Ed Koch, both congressmen prior to becoming mayor, were light on managerial experience when they took office. But they learned on the job thanks to smart staffing decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made mistakes. Ed had like 11 deputy mayors or some crazy number that he realized was unwieldy,\u201d said Davidoff. \u201cBut he surrounded himself with professionals, people who gave him the opportunity to really emerge, as did John. I think this is the theory that Mamdani is going on. He\u2019s installed some professionalism and some idealism so far, and I think that\u2019s a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n Travis notes that Mamdani publicly set one very promising parameter for his appointments.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you take Mamdani at his word, he\u2019s going to be looking for people who are true experts in each of their fields,\u201d said Immortal Strategies\u2019 Terry. \u201cSo he wants his DOT commissioner to be a true expert in transportation who aligns with his vision of how you handle the public realm, he wants his HPD commissioner to be a real housing expert, etc. He wants to appoint people who have substantive expertise in those areas. Those are encouraging comments.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerstman believes that the picks so far should be viewed as encouraging signs even by those \u2014 including many in commercial real estate \u2014 who are no supporters of our new mayor-to-be.\u201cI may not agree with [his appointees] because I represent business interests \u2014 real estate developers, construction, etc. \u2014 as a lobbyist in New York City and state,\u201d said Gerstman. \u201cBut there\u2019s nothing worse than incompetence. That\u2019s scary. That\u2019s super dangerous. If [a mayor is] going to pick people to run agencies because they\u2019re his friends, and they\u2019re incompetent, that [would be] a scary thing for New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather, Mamdani has picked \u201ca very competent transition team,\u201d Gerstman said. \u201cThese people know government and they know a lot about politics. It doesn\u2019t mean that the business community is going to align with them necessarily, but at least they\u2019re competent, and that\u2019s really, really important.\u201d<\/p>\n One key appointment that may wind up somewhat out of Mamdani\u2019s hands, though, is that of police commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DanielGarodnick_112-credit-Yvonne-Albinowski-WEB.jpg\" "\\"Zohran")
Daniel Garodnick. PHOTO: Yvonne Albinowski\/For Commercial Observer<\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Brad-Lander-GettyImages-2234059992-WEB.jpg\" "\\"Zohran")
Brad Lander. PHOTO: Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jessica-Tisch-GettyImages-2187619414-WEB.jpg\" "\\"Zohran")
Jessica Tisch. PHOTO: Alex Kent\/Getty Images<\/p>\n