Pressure is mounting for mayor-elect Bill de Blasio to reappoint the city’s long-serving Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty — at least through the most brutal winter months that will mark the beginning of the new administration.
“Winter is war,” said a sanitation insider. “It’s not the time to change horses midstream.”
Multiple sources said people were recommending that de Blasio’s team stick with someone seasoned in snow removal for now.
“He would be crazy to bring in a new person while in the middle of the snow season,” said another source. “In many parts of the city, snow is more important than safety.”
Doherty oversees 9,000 city employees and a $1.3 billion operating budget. Having served for 12 years under Bloomberg, and before that under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, he is the longest serving commissioner,
The sanitation veteran started his career as a street sweeper in 1960 and has held every uniformed rank in the department, a spokesman said.
He would also check off another box for de Blasio: Doherty is a native Staten Islander and could represent “the forgotten borough” in the administration. He moved to Brooklyn last year, a spokesman said.
Doherty would not comment about whether he had been asked to stay on in his $205,180-a-year post.
But at a recent City Council hearing, he said he would consider staying on if he was asked.
“I like my job,” he reiterated at a press conference Tuesday.
De Blasio would not be the first mayor to keep a holdover in the a-political post.
When Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor in 1994, he reappointed Sanitation Commissioner Emily Lloyd from the Dinkins administration.
But some people involved in the transition process are advocating for a fresh leader who would focus more on green initiatives such as composting and other innovative recycling measures, according to a source close to the transition process.
A de Blasio spokeswoman would not comment on the appointment.
