A close ally and confidant of Mayor Eric Adams, Sheena Wright, is resigning from her role as first deputy mayor. She now becomes the seventh senior official to leave the administration amid a crisis in New York City government.
Wright has been succeeded by Maria Torres-Springer, previously deputy mayor for housing, economic development, and workforce. Mayor Adams announced the leadership change during his weekly City Hall press conference on Tuesday, stating it was effective immediately, though the specific timing of Wright’s departure was not clarified.
Wright’s resignation coincided with the arrest of Mohamed Bahi, Adams’s former chief liaison to Muslim New Yorkers, who faces federal charges of witness tampering and destruction of evidence. His arrest is connected to the investigation that led to the mayor’s indictment last month.
The wave of resignations includes Wright’s husband, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, and her brother-in-law, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety. On September 4, federal investigators seized the phones of both men, Wright, and several other senior officials. With Wright’s departure, all of those targeted in the investigation have either resigned or announced plans to step down.
These exits appear to signal a larger administrative overhaul, a change that both Governor Kathy Hochul and some of Mayor Adams’s own advisers had called for as City Hall grapples with four federal investigations, casting doubt on Adams’s ability to govern effectively.
In promoting Torres-Springer, Adams seemed eager to shift focus by elevating a respected civil servant, moving away from his practice of appointing close allies to key city positions, regardless of their expertise. He emphasized that the recent staff changes were unrelated to the federal probes, despite all those who have resigned being connected to at least one investigation.
Adams projected resilience in the face of mounting inquiries, stating his intention to run for re-election and even reintroducing the walkout music at his press conference, which he had paused the previous week.
With Wright’s departure, the group of senior leaders who were loyal to Adams has been significantly reduced, leaving Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s chief adviser, as one of the few remaining. However, she too is under legal scrutiny, with investigators recently seizing her phones and searching her home.
Wright, a lawyer and former president and CEO of United Way of New York City, led Adams’s transition team and later joined his administration as deputy mayor. Her ties to Adams were seen as particularly strong due to her relationship with the Banks family, who have been closely connected to the mayor for decades.
“Sheena has chosen a career in nonprofit and public service, when she had the credentials to be a high-flying corporate lawyer,” said Kathryn Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a business group. “I think she gets a lot of credit for bringing her wisdom and her capabilities to City Hall, and it should not be diminished by her being collateral damage in this investigation.”
