New York Daily News
(TNS)
NEW YORK — Laura Kavanagh, the New York City Fire Department's first woman fire commissioner who had repeatedly butted heads with the department’s top chiefs, announced her resignation Saturday after less than two years in office.
“My dedication to the FDNY has never and will never waver,” Kavanagh said in a statement Saturday. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to devote the last 10 years — five as first deputy commissioner and more than two as commissioner — to advocating for the men and women of the FDNY.”
Kavanagh, who was an integral part of several mayoral, congressional, and presidential campaigns before becoming a special assistant to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, is stepping down to seek other career opportunities, sources close to the fire commissioner said.
Yet Saturday’s announcement comes amid a week of rumors about closed-door meetings with Mayor Eric Adams and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks about her stepping down over increased tensions between herself and the department chiefs.
Among the recent issues of contention was Kavanagh’s choice for the FDNY’s new chief of department to replace John Hodgens, who is currently on an extended medical leave with plans to retire, an FDNY source with knowledge of the issue said.
After ostracizing several seasoned chiefs she often disagreed with, many speculated Kavanagh would choose a younger, recently promoted chief who had been loyal to her, which would cause a mass retirement among the higher ranks.
Several top chiefs had asked to be lowered in rank and put back in the field after she demoted Assistant Chiefs Fred Schaaf, Michael Gala, and Joseph Jardin to deputy chief in February 2023.
“Whoever she chooses she chooses, the chiefs have no say in it,” the source said. “But if you elevate someone from one of the lower chief spots to be the highest-ranking uniformed firefighter in the city, you’re going to have a problem. A lot of high-ranking chiefs are going to ask ‘Why am I here?’ and retire.”
A second source close to Kavanagh said her decision to leave was made without any pressure from the mayor’s office or the department’s rank and file.
“The decision was all hers,” the source said.
Kavanagh will remain with the department for the next few months to help the city’s new fire commissioner get up to speed.
Adams has yet to name a replacement.
“While the decision I have made over the last month has been a hard one, I’m confident that it is time for me to pass the torch to the next leader of the finest Fire Department in the world,” she said. “I look forward to spending the next several months assisting the department’s transition in leadership, before embarking on my next professional challenge.”
Adams called Kavanagh a “trailblazer” for “not only serving as first female Fire commissioner in our city’s history but leading the department to new heights.
“She has helped usher in sweeping improvements to the FDNY’s technology infrastructure; increased funding for members’ health and safety, including for cancer reduction and mental health counseling; and overhauled how the FDNY recruits and retains members of color, leading to the most diverse Fire Department in our city’s history, while simultaneously tripling the number of women serving as firefighters,” Adams said, adding that he and his staff “made it clear that she could have kept this position for as long as she wanted.”
“We thank her for every minute she has given to running the greatest Fire Department in the world,” he said.
Kavanagh was also credited with vigorously tackling the rising number of fires sparked by faulty lithium-ion batteries used in e-bikes and scooters. While she reconfigured department resources and personnel to inform the public about their dangers and inspecting e-bike shops, she lobbied City Hall and then Congress to ban the sale of batteries not certified by Underwriters Laboratories or other testing labs.
Then Mayor de Blasio gave Kavanagh a leadership position in the FDNY in 2014. She was named first deputy commissioner four years later and was made fire commissioner in October 2022, replacing outgoing Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro.
She almost immediately ran afoul of the department’s high-ranking chiefs on how she wanted the department to be run.
During the impromptu meeting at the eighth floor conference room in February 2023 — one of the first with the staff chiefs since becoming commissioner — Kavanagh gave her staff chiefs a general idea on what she expects from the brass and rattled off several do’s and dont’s.
“Innovative and out of the box thinking,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting shared with The New York Daily News. “That is what I expect here. I don’t need to think how things have been done in the past. That is what we have rules and regulations for. That is how the department runs.”
She also dropped a major don’t: The leaders shouldn’t bully their subordinates. Ever.
“Bullying of any kind is completely off the table,” she said. “I will not tolerate (it). It is not effective. It does not do what you think it’s going to do. It is also not befitting of the New York City Fire Department. If you want to bully or threaten either your co-workers or your superiors, that will not be tolerated by me. That is a hard line.”
Those in attendance bristled by her line in the sand, even though she didn’t point out any one person, said a senior staff chief who attended the meeting.
In March of 2023, a half-dozen experienced FDNY brass filed an ageism lawsuit against Kavanagh and the city, claiming they were harassed, maligned and ultimately demoted because they seemed too old in Kavanagh’s eyes. Among the plaintiffs were Chiefs Gala and Jardin, who the fire commissioner demoted early in her tenure.
Each plaintiff was between 54 and 62 years old when the complaint was filed in March 2023.
In June, the city had asked Judge Patria Frias-Colón in Brooklyn Supreme Court to dismiss the case, claiming that the sweeping complaint fails to show the chiefs were specifically targeted because of their age. As of Friday, Judge Frias-Colon hadn’t filed her decision to the city’s motion.
Attorney Jim Walden, who is representing the plaintiffs in the ageism suit, said Kavanagh’s departure won’t stop them from keeping the pressure on.
“That lawsuit was never going to get dismissed. The timing makes it abundantly clear the city knew it was in trouble,” Walden said. “On behalf of all the victims of her misdeeds, we’re elated and we certainly hope a new commissioner restores sanity to the fire department because we all count on them.”
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(Colin Mixson contributed to this report.)
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