NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Eric Adams told administration staff that all communications from every city agency must go through City Hall and that anyone who violates his “discipline of message” will be fired, according to leaked audio from a recent meeting in which the mayor briefed officials on the new policy aimed at dealing with a “gotcha” press corps.
The mayor’s Zoom meeting was held late last week with about 50 staffers, who he warned against “sabotaging” his administration. Audio from the call was promptly leaked to Politico in a Monday report.
“What is imperative to know is, you are assigned to an agency under a commissioner, but you work for me,” Adams said in the meeting. “The commissioner leads an agency, but I lead the city. I’m the mayor of the city, and all communications that come through this city government is coming through my message.”
Adams warned his administration is “dealing with a very aggressive press corps” that he said is mostly interested in “I gotcha” moments.
It's unclear what prompted the mayor’s frustration, though a handful of comments in the past few weeks showed agency heads contradicting the mayor’s stance on various issues.
“The first few months we’ve noticed that press advisories have gone out, or press releases have gone out, and number one, we knew nothing about it, or it was something that we were still contemplating here—and that’s just not how I operate,” Adams said on the call.
Now the mayor is telling staffers that all press releases will need to be approved by City Hall moving forward—with every submission personally reviewed by him each morning—even down to something as mundane as cherry blossom events.
The mayor said he’s a “big believer in discipline, discipline of message and discipline of action” and that anyone who violates the new policy will be fired.
“I do not accept people sabotaging this administration. If people want to be hurtful or harmful to this administration, this is not the place you want to serve,” he said. “And if I ever find out that happens, that someone intentionally does something that is inappropriate, they will not work for me as the mayor.”
On the call, Adams also let staff members know he has an open-door policy and that they can approach him with their concerns.
One official who participated in the meeting told Politico that the “total and complete control” Adams wants isn’t possible when you’re the executive of a city with 400,000 municipal employees.
Responding to the leaked audio, City Hall press secretary Fabien Levy told Politico, “I think the mayor made it clear — one team, one voice.”
Levy said he received a lot of positive feedback from agency staffers who were on the call.
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