De Blasio Names New Chief Deputy As City Hall Jobs Shift

NEW YORK, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced personnel shifts in the top levels of his administration Thursday as he prepares to start his second term. De Blasio named his budget director, Dean Fuleihan, to replace outgoing First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris, and said he's creating a new position of deputy mayor for operations.

Shorris is leaving City Hall at the end of this year after overseeing the day-to-day operations of city government during de Blasio's first term. Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, the architect of de Blasio's universal preschool program, will also leave after the mayor finds his replacement early next year.

The shifts are hitting positions close to de Blasio that have great influence over how the government is run and how policy initiatives are executed. Current city officials will replace those who are leaving, and many others will be sticking around for the foreseeable future, de Blasio said.

"You’re going to see in the updates we’re giving you today a lot of continuity, because it’s been a winning team, and it’s been a team that’s really achieved a lot," de Blasio said at a news conference Thursday.

De Blasio's other two deputies, Alicia Glen and Herminia Palacio, are staying put. Glen oversees the mayor's affordable housing intiatives and other economic development efforts. Palacio is in charge of health and human services programs.

Fuleihan has led the mayor's budget office for the past four years, a time in which city spending has grown from about $69 billion to about $85 billion. De Blasio praised his ability to create fiscally responsible budgets that fund the administration's often costly initiatives.

Melanie Hartzog, a deputy budget director, will lead the budget office once Fuleihan departs. De Blasio called her a "smart" and "earnest" official who's been involved with "some of the most complicated and important subject matter" that her office has handled. She'll be the first African-American budget director in city history.

Laura Anglin, the chief administrative officer in Shorris' office, will start in January as the first-ever deputy mayor for operations, bringing the number of de Blasio's deputies to five. And Emma Wolfe, de Blasio's director of intergovernmental affairs and one of his top political advisers, will become the chief of staff.

De Blasio didn't talk much about new policy initiatives during his re-election campaign this year, isntead focusing on the need to build on the progress made in his first term.

The new administrators will be in charge of expanding the progressive programs they helped create in the last four years, the mayor said.

"Everyone’s going to have more to do because we’re going to bring the goals up even further in a number of areas," he said.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio and Tony Shorris, his outgoing first deputy mayor, appear at a news conference on Thursday. Photo by Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)