What if the Guy Who Ran Rikers Ran Even More Essential NYC Services?

When you think of the best person to lead the City's Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which is responsible for much of the behind the scenes work that makes everything in our creaking bureaucracy run as smoothly as possible—hiring and training public employees, managing dozens of buildings, purchasing all the random shit agencies need—what kind of public servant do you picture? Perhaps one with a proven track record of capably managing a City agency, someone who, as DCAS's website states of its mission, has shown they know what it takes to "make City government work for all New Yorkers" and understands the importance of transparency and accountability.

Naturally, when seeking a capable replacement for DCAS Commissioner Dawn Pinnock, who announced her departure in April, Eric Adams thought of Louis Molina, the former jails commissioner who presided over deteriorating and deadly conditions at Rikers, refused to attend jail oversight hearings but loved to go on taxpayer-funded jaunts to Europe, engaged in cover-ups of the violence at the jail, and blocked efforts at oversight. (The mayor was seemingly so impressed by Molina's tenure at the Department of Correction that last year, he promoted Molina, naming him his assistant deputy mayor for public safety.) 

Mayor Adams announced his appointment of Molina to head the sprawling City agency on Monday. "Louis Molina is a proven and dynamic leader who has used his decades of experience, across multiple agencies, to make government run better and improve the way we serve New Yorkers," Adams said in a statement. "I could not think of a more deserving or equipped leader to serve our administration in this critical role."

If this is just the latest example of the mayor's love of giving his cop buddies cushy jobs (perhaps Molina needed some help—the CITY reported earlier this year that he was passed over for the role of police chief in Oakland, California), it also gives City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams more ammunition in her quest to give the council more power over mayoral appointments.  

Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who sparred with Adams administration officials during a hearing on Speaker Adams's legislation last week, had some testy if measured words on Molina's appointment. "It's pretty shocking, considering the impressive bench of deputy commissioners at DCAS, that they would choose someone outside the agency," Restler told Politico.

And some links we're handing out to you like Mayor Adams hands out jobs to his cronies: 

• "Mayor Adams agrees to reverse $127M in school cuts as NYC budget deadline looms: sources"
• The Parks Department cop who tried to arrest a 14-year-old girl selling fruit has been reassigned.
• Now do this for our boomer parents, please, I'm begging you.
• Kathy Hochul's war against opioid overdose prevention centers continues.
• "How the trans culture wars came to New York"
• The state's top judge wants more funding for public defenders. 
• Will it surprise you to learn that many teens in New York City report "feeling depressing symptoms"? (Same, teens.)
• I knew it.
• What's happening at the Columbia Law Review? (We know exactly what's happening.)

• And finally, should Hell Gate buy this spooky ferry?