Eric Adams Taps Loyalist For New City Leadership Role

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams named Louis Molina, former head of the city’s troubled jail system, as the new head of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

The move places an Adams loyalist atop an agency overseeing enormous contracts for goods and services, the city’s real estate portfolio and municipal hiring operations.

“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,” the mayor said in a statement. “I could not think of a more deserving or equipped leader to serve our administration in this critical role.”

A City Council member who oversees the government operations committee — putting him in regular contact with Molina’s new agency — questioned the appointment of another mayoral ally.

“It’s pretty shocking, considering the impressive bench of deputy commissioners at DCAS, that they would choose someone outside the agency,” said City council member Lincoln Restler, who led a testy hearing last week about the legislative body gaining more control over agency head appointments.

After a tumultuous tenure atop the Department of Correction, Adams appointed Molina assistant deputy mayor for public safety in October.

Now he will helm a critical city agency with far less knowledge of its operations than other high-ranking department officials.

In April, POLITICO reported that the former DCAS commissioner, Dawn Pinnock, was heading for the exits. At the time, she had picked a top deputy, Beatrice Thuo, to handle the transition period. Thuo was expected to be a top candidate for the job along with several others within the agency, according to two city officials who spoke with POLITICO at the time. Jesse Hamilton, a longtime friend of both the mayor and his chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was also in the mix.

While the mayor praised Molina, a federal judge had criticized aspects of his oversight of the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, in particular his efforts to prevent the work of a federal monitor assigned to the facility. And that monitor had also complained of increased violence and reduced transparency under Molina’s tenure.