{"id":84971,"date":"2025-12-30T20:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/84971\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T20:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:55:23","slug":"mamdani-taps-de-blasio-alum-steve-banks-as-top-nyc-lawyer-elmhurst-hospital-exec-as-health-deputy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/84971\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani taps de Blasio alum Steve Banks as top NYC lawyer, Elmhurst Hospital exec as health deputy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is tapping de Blasio administration veteran Steve Banks<\/a> as the New York City government\u2019s next top attorney and appointing Elmhurst Hospital CEO Helen Arteaga to a key health post in his cabinet, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

Banks, who served as the Department of Social Services commissioner throughout ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s eight years in office, is expected to be named corporation counsel by Mamdani. Arteaga, Elmhurst Hospital\u2019s top executive<\/a> since 2021, is being selected as Mamdani\u2019s deputy mayor for health and human services.<\/p>\n

Both appointments are set to be officially announced by Mamdani during a press conference at Elmhurst Hospital<\/a> on Tuesday afternoon. It was not immediately clear if he may announce additional appointments.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The News before the press conference, Mamdani said Arteaga and Banks will bring \u201ceffective, principled leadership\u201d to his administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers deserve a working-class champion like Helen in City Hall, someone who is willing to work around the clock to protect and strengthen our city\u2019s commitment to essential social services,\u201d Mamdani said of Arteaga, in particular.<\/p>\n

The latest hires come just hours before Mamdani is set to be sworn in as the city\u2019s next mayor at midnight Wednesday. Mamdani has yet to announce several other key city government appointments, including his pick for schools chancellor.<\/p>\n

Banks is among a number of de Blasio alums<\/a> who are joining Mamdani\u2019s administration, signaling the ideological common ground between them. Other de Blasio veterans on tap for Mamdani\u2019s City Hall include his incoming first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, who served in the same role under de Blasio.<\/p>\n

Arteaga hasn\u2019t served in city government before, but has an extensive background in public health.<\/p>\n

The corporation counsel leads the Law Department, which represents city government employees, including the mayor and City Council members, in various legal matters. The role is one of the only top government posts picked by the mayor that requires approval from the City Council, making Banks\u2019 selection especially significant.<\/p>\n

Current Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant was confirmed for the role in late 2024 after the Council rejected outgoing Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 first pick<\/a>, Giuliani administration alum Randy Mastro. Adams later hired Mastro as his first deputy mayor.<\/p>\n

Before becoming de Blasio\u2019s DSS head, a role that comes with oversight of the city\u2019s sprawling homeless shelter system, Banks was the attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society.<\/p>\n

Since leaving city government, Banks has entered private practice, and he played a leading role in fighting Adams in court over the mayor\u2019s attempt to roll back the city\u2019s longstanding right-to-shelter mandate amid an influx of mostly Latin American migrants in 2023 and 2024. The case was settled<\/a> in a way that preserved the mandate, but also allowed the Adams administration to boot migrants from shelter after 30 days.<\/p>\n

As de Blasio\u2019s DSS head, Banks was credited with overseeing a drop in the city\u2019s homeless population. He also attracted criticism for certain shelter contract processes, and some have questioned whether Banks<\/a> would as corp counsel be biased toward the Legal Aid Society, which often sues the city.<\/p>\n

As deputy mayor for health and human services, Arteaga<\/a> doesn\u2019t need to be approved by the Council. Her deputy mayor portfolio will include agencies like DSS and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.<\/p>\n

Arteaga is the first Latina and woman to serve as CEO of Elmhurst, one of the city\u2019s largest public hospitals. Elmhurst was an early epicenter during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Arteaga has a particularly personal history with the hospital.<\/p>\n

In 2020, she was admitted to Elmhurst with serious complications from a COVID infection. \u201cI said, \u2018Oh, my God, I\u2019m going to die in the same place where my father died,\u2019\u201d Arteaga said in an interview with NBC News<\/a> last year while reflecting on her hospitalization.<\/p>\n

But Arteaga pulled through and a year later was hired as Elmhurst\u2019s new CEO, a role in which she helped spearhead the hospital\u2019s response to COVID. Before landing at Elmhurst, she was a top executive at Urban Health Plan, a network of community health centers in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life\u2019s work has been dedicated to making this city a better place \u2014 ensuring that every New Yorker, no matter who they are or where they come from, has access to health care, safety and the services they need,\u201d Arteaga said in a statement on her appointment. \u201cThat commitment finds a home in Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration and vision for our city.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is tapping de Blasio administration veteran Steve Banks as the New York City government\u2019s next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20751,41412,41411,33501,22975,2953,22013,2400,9,56,63,65,64,5326,41410,82],"class_list":["post-84971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-government","tag-corporation-counsel","tag-de-blasio","tag-deputy-mayor","tag-elmhurst-hospital","tag-health","tag-health-and-human-services","tag-mayor-eric-adams","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-randy-mastro","tag-steve-banks","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}