Emergency Management Head Still On Job Despite Reported Firing

NEW YORK — New York City’s emergency management commissioner is still on the job despite a report that he was fired last week. Laura Anglin, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s deputy mayor for operations, sacked Commissioner Joseph Esposito on Friday after she slammed his agency’s response to the Nov. 15 snowstorm that crippled traffic and left kids stuck on school buses, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

But Esposito has not yet left his post. “Commissioner Esposito is in the office and is working,” Omar Bourne, a spokesman for NYC Emergency Management, said Monday afternoon.

Esposito reportedly met with de Blasio at Gracie Mansion Monday afternoon, but City Hall had not said where he stood by 6:30 p.m. The mayor canceled his weekly Monday evening interview on NY1 soon after news of Esposito's attempted ouster broke, citing an ongoing labor dispute involving the network's parent company.

"We'll talk to you later on," de Blasio told reporters on his way out of City Hall.

Esposito's reported firing came the same day de Blasio left the city for a progressive political conference in Vermont hosted by the Sanders Institute, a group founded by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders's wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders.

It's uncertain whether Anglin had the authority to can Esposito on her own. Under the executive order that established her position, Anglin can carry out duties "as the Mayor may direct," but it's unclear whether de Blasio ordered the firing.

De Blasio, a Democrat, declined to apologize last month after New Yorkers spent hours trapped in traffic and reported fallen trees across the city. While he admitted the city could have communicated better before the snowstorm hit, the mayor pinned the mess on a late change in the weather forecast rather than any particular agency.

City Council members grilled city officials last week about how they handled the storm that dumped more than six inches of snow on Central Park.

But lawmakers expressed support for Esposito on Monday, saying he did not deserve to be fired.

Speaker Corey Johnson called Esposito "a highly competent, accessible, responsive member of this administration." And Councilman Chaim Deutsch circulated a letter calling for Esposito to remain in his post.

"I don’t know what exactly is going on, but Joe Esposito I think is a very competent person inside of City government," Johnson told reporters Monday afternoon. "I think he’s someone who really loves this city given that he’s spent 50 years serving it."

Esposito took the helm of the city's Emergency Management office in 2014 after serving more than four decades in the NYPD, including nearly 13 years as chief of department, making him the longest-serving cop to hold that post.

Esposito was on vacation during the storm but monitored conditions while he was gone, the Journal reported. Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said his absence wasn't any reason for criticism.

"If you looked at the weather forecast the day before, this was not a trip you would have canceled your plans for," said Borelli, who chairs the Fire and Emergency Management Committee. "I came into Manhattan that day without a jacket, for example."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how long Joseph Esposito served as the NYPD's chief of department. It was nearly 13 years, not nearly 23.

(Lead image: Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito is seen in 2017. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)