[ad_1]
NEW YORK – New York City is speeding up the process of hiring a new schools chief, as embattled Mayor Eric Adams faces growing pressure to bring stability to a city government that has been dogged by searches, subpoenas and resignations. .
Schools Chancellor David Banks, whose phones were seized by federal agents last month, will move out Oct. 16, not at the end of the year as he originally planned, the city said.
Adams said Thursday the move will allow incoming Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, a former teacher and principal from the Bronx, to lead the nation’s largest public school system with a single voice. Adams cited conversations with aides and unnamed “other leaders” in making the decision.
“This is a time for real stability,” the first-term Democrat told reporters. “Having both Melissa and David there at the same time didn’t provide the stability we wanted.”
Adams has vowed to remain in office after pleading not guilty last week to charges that he accepted nearly $100,000 worth of free or deeply discounted international flights, hotel stays, meals and entertainment from foreign interests. Solicited illegal campaign contributions.
At a hearing Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Scotton said prosecutors are conducting “numerous related investigations” and that it is “likely” additional defendants will be charged and “possible” that more charges will be filed against Adams. .
Banks, who has led the city’s public school system since Adams took office in 2022, has denied wrongdoing and said last month that he is “cooperating with the federal investigation.”
“Last week, I announced my planned retirement, and I prepare to remain in my position until December 31 to make a responsible transition for our employees,” Banks said in a statement released through a public relations firm. Was willing and able.” “The mayor has decided to accelerate that timeline.”
Banks is one of several high-ranking officials to leave city government in recent weeks. He originally announced his retirement last week, the same day a grand jury indicted Adams — but before the news became public. His decision came just weeks after the FBI seized the phones of he and his longtime partner, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, from their shared home in Harlem.
Federal agents also confiscated the equipment of Banks’ brother, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks; the city’s then police commissioner, Edward Caban; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral advisor and former high-ranking New York Police Department officer. The phones of Banks’s other brother, Terrence, a former supervisor in the city’s subway system, were also confiscated. Terrence Banks is running a consulting firm that has promised to connect clients with top government stakeholders.
Cabán resigned on 12 September. Pearson stepped down on Monday. Wright and Philip Banks will remain in post.
Just days after Adams’s indictment, David Banks married Wright in a private ceremony on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, over the weekend. He told TV station Fox 5 on Wednesday that neither he nor Wright were “the target” of any investigation. He denied that he married so he could take advantage of spousal privilege, a legal concept that protects communications between married couples and prevents them from testifying about anything that happens during their marriage. Protects from.
“I think anyone who criticizes me has probably never been in love,” Banks told the station. “The reality is that Sheena and I have been together for a long time. We’ve been planning our wedding for some time.” Banks said she and Wright were motivated to marry because of her parents’ age and health problems, “and any suggestion to me otherwise would be superficial. But it’s ridiculous.”
The Justice Department defines the “target” of an investigation as a person against whom prosecutors or a grand jury have gathered sufficient evidence that links that person to a crime – as opposed to a “subject”, someone whose conduct Only within the scope of investigation. Those definitions are fluid and may change as new information develops.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, has privately urged him to clean up his administration, according to a person familiar with their conversations. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations and did so on condition of anonymity.
“I’m working to make sure that key positions working with the mayor are filled with people who will be accountable, but the decision to create them is ultimately theirs,” Hochul said at an unrelated Manhattan news conference on Wednesday. ” “I’m just telling him that we’re monitoring the situation. “We expect change, it’s no secret and change is starting.”
Hochul has not called on Adams to resign and said, “The process must be completed.” She said the resignation this week of Adams adviser Pearson was “a good first step” and that she would “see what else happens over the next few days.”
Adams declined to say Thursday whether he had talked to Hochul about Banks’ imminent departure.
In her retirement letter last week, Banks said she informed Adams over the summer of her plan to step down “after ensuring a good start to the school year” for the city’s nearly 1 million students. His letter made no reference to the multiple ongoing federal investigations.
Adams appointed Aviles-Ramos on September 25, initially saying she would take up the post of chancellor on January 1. She served as Banks’ chief of staff before becoming the school system’s deputy chancellor for family and community engagement and external affairs. On Thursday, Adams called him Banks’s “self-chosen successor.”
“It has become clear that our students will be best served by providing the same leadership throughout the school year as much as possible rather than changing the chancellor halfway through the school year,” the city said in a statement announcing the accelerated timeline.
Banks is a former teacher, principal, and founder of Eagle Academy, a network of public schools to educate young black and Latino boys who he believes are often poorly served by the educational system . Prior to her appointment, Banks ran the foundation that raises funds for six Eagle Academy schools, one each in New York City and one in Newark, New Jersey.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
[ad_2]
