It’s Tuesday and I Would Also Be Eric Adams’s Friend for $241,000 a Year

Yesterday, The CITY reported a longtime friend of Mayor Adams holds one of the highest-paid jobs in city government, making more than $241,000 a year—even as the administration slashes nearly 5,000 jobs from the city budget. Lisa White was appointed as a deputy commissioner of the NYPD in May; she’d spent most of her career as a 911 dispatcher, retiring from city work in 2019. In addition to her new salary—which is about five times more than what she’d been making prior to rejoining civil service—she also receives a $30,000 yearly pension. 

We suggest you read the story in full, but as The CITY reports, White has been a close friend of the mayor for decades: In the ‘90s, she was a member of the group Adams co-founded, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. More recently, she served as a volunteer board member for a nonprofit that bolstered Adams’ political standing while he served as Borough President. She also worked briefly as a consultant for the politician in 2013. The relationship wasn’t strictly professional, though: the friendship was strong enough Adams rented and lived in a Crown Heights apartment White owned for four years. In case you're keeping track, this is at the same time that Adams owned a four-unit home in Bed-Stuy and a Prospect Heights place with another "good friend."

White’s current position in city government is essentially as an NYPD vibes coordinator. As the deputy commissioner of employee relations, she tends to the “health, well-being, and morale” of the city’s uniformed officers, coordinating chaplains and support for NYPD families. Coincidentally, the last person to hold this position was fired just days into Adams’ mayoral tenure. White joins a number of Adams’ friends and confidants who have been appointed to well-paying city positions (remember when the mayor attempted to appoint his own brother as his security advisor for $210,000 a year?)

“Her hiring was in line with the NYPD’s standards for identifying those best suited for their roles within the department,” an unnamed police spokesperson told The CITY. White's most recent job, an NYPD bio notes, was as a field supervisor for the U.S. Census Bureau, a job overseeing the data-collection efforts of six to 15 people.

Elsewhere in our corrupt little town: 

• Three years after closing for “at least six weeks,” the $67 million Bloomberg-era Flushing Aquatic Center is “0% complete.”

• A federal judge has allowed the Corrections Department to compile and submit a secret report analyzing jail data, preventing the public from seeing statistics about staff assaults and the use of force against detainees.

• According to city officials, an expansion of the Queens curbside composting program citywide would require 112 new trucks, each costing $450,000. 

• The controversial development Innovation QNS passed a council committee, clearing the way for final approval. The plan features 1,436 income-restricted apartments, up from 711 in the original project proposal.

• To meet 2030 climate mandates, New York will need to build 100 times more large-scale solar projects over the next five years than it has in the last 10. 

• An internal report compiled by the Administration of Childrens’ Services, but never released to the public, describes the city’s child welfare agency as fostering a “predatory system that specifically targets Black and brown parents,” subjecting them to  “a different level of scrutiny.” 

• As alluded to earlier, City Hall has mandated that city agencies cut around half of all vacant civilian positions, citing a $3 billion budget shortfall. The elimination of the positions will affect around 4,700 jobs. 

• Outgoing Manhattan representative Carolyn Maloney is facing a potential ethics investigation for soliciting a ticket to the Met Gala after she was removed from the invite list in 2016. “She has been coming to the party for years, and it is the one thing she cares about,” the former president of the Met wrote in an email submitted to the Office of Congressional Ethics. 

• Two years after the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes started granting funding, it can’t say where that funding actually went. 
• And finally, this one-man crime-wave is outta control!