New Yorkers want their mayor to be a good manager. What does that mean?

It’s not called the second-hardest job in America for nothing.

Even during periods of stability, being the mayor of New York City is a colossal task more akin to running a nation than a city. Consider the scale. If you were to measure New York City’s population of more than 8.4 million people against all 233 countries and dependent territories, it would come in 103rd, nestled between Sierra Leone and Laos. More people live in the five boroughs than in Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia combined.

Enter the mayor, the head of a municipal workforce more than 306,000 strong – bigger than most state governments. They oversee a budget somewhere in the realm of $110 billion, sets City Hall’s agenda and seals the fate of City Council legislation with a stroke of the pen. It’s their job to wrangle the largest police force and education system in the country, negotiate contracts with powerful unions and play ball with a press corps hungry for dirt. The position doubles as a highly influential bully pulpit – at home, in Washington, D.C., and abroad.

“Mayors have to recognize that no matter what they do they are probably going to be criticized,” said Stu Loeser, a longtime political operative who served as former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s press secretary from 2006 to 2011. “New York is the most crowded place in America. Every square foot of land, there are multiple good ideas on what to use it for.”

As New York City reels from a year of scandal and a revolving door mayoral administration, each candidate vying to oust Mayor Eric Adams has claimed they will bring competence and good management to City Hall. Brad Lander has called himself “a good manager who loves New York City.” An ad paid for by a super PAC supporting front-runner Andrew Cuomo trumpets: “He’s the one to get things done.”Scott Stringer’s motto is “Vision, Experience, Competence.” Adrienne Adams frequently describes herself as “no drama, no nonsense.” And critics of Zohran Mamdani, a junior Assembly member from Queens who has rocketed to second place in the polls, frequently say he lacks adequate management expertise. “Legislative skills are one thing. Executive skills are something else,” Cuomo charged during a recent interview with The Free Press’ Bari Weiss. “I’m an executive.” 

But what does it mean for a mayor to be a good manager? Political observers and former government officials agree on some common themes: Good managers come to City Hall with a clear vision of what they want to accomplish; they hire a broad spectrum of talent and give them space to make decisions; they understand the workings of city government and its hefty budget; they have a strong moral compass (and expect the same of their staff); and they embody that quintessential New York grit. In short, to quote The Onion, it’s not so easy to find a mayor who doesn’t suck shit, huh?

Hiring people who know what the hell is going on

A long line of mayors have burst into City Hall with a bold vision for what they hope to accomplish. Rudy Giuliani’s tough-on-crime crusade helped get him elected and was widely credited for driving down crime rates in the early 2000s (while also driving up jail populations and racial profiling). Bloomberg, a technocratic, data-driven leader often seen as the city’s most effective mayor this century, fought to improve public health, banning public smoking indoors and increasing life expectancy by two years in the city. Bill de Blasio, an idealistic progressive, successfully championed universal pre-K – a landmark program that remains deeply popular today. Adams made decisive strides toward his “moonshot goal” to build 500,000 new homes in a decade, getting his ambitious zoning reform plan across the finish line with the help of the City Council.

“New York City doesn’t reward caretakers. We reward mayors who are builders and dreamers and doers – people who are always fighting for what’s next: more housing, more opportunity, more justice, more security,” said Maria Torres-Springer, a government veteran who has served in various roles across three consecutive mayoral administrations. “People have to know what you are managing toward first and foremost.”

Each of the Democratic mayoral candidates are currently pitching their own ambitious policy visions, wooing voters with intoxicating promises of universal after-school programming, free bus routes, frozen rents, tens of thousands of new housing units, targeted tax cuts and broad mental health services.

These bold visions are necessary, but ultimately meaningless if the mayor lacks the manpower and talent to bring them to fruition. Nearly a dozen former government officials and political observers interviewed for this story agreed that hiring – specifically hiring well – is the single most important aspect of managing the city. The mayor holds the power to appoint and remove commissioners of over 40 city agencies. When a new mayor is elected, filling their Cabinet is a delicate dance, a chance to demonstrate their values and an early barometer for how effective they’ll be.

“Very few mayors have come into office with the administrative experience to know what is in front of them,” said Sid Davidoff, a lawyer and lobbyist who got his start in politics as a special assistant to then-Mayor John Lindsay. “They’ve got to look for advisers, put a transition committee together of people who really understand what they need to run government while determining their first 100 days.”

City mayors have long leaned on strong deputy mayors to run the day-to-day affairs of the city – especially first deputy mayors and deputy mayors for operations. Lindsay relied heavily on then-First Deputy Mayor Ed Hamilton to govern the city as he mounted a presidential campaign. John Zuccotti, former deputy mayor for economic development, was widely credited as a steadying force in the 1970s amid the city’s near bankruptcy under Mayor Abe Beame. Stanley Brezenoff gained a reputation as a skilled manager as deputy mayor for operations and first deputy mayor under Mayor Ed Koch. Joe Lhota delivered news of the 9/11 terror attack to Giuliani. Under Bloomberg, Marc Shaw was renowned for his deep knowledge of the municipal budget and Dan Doctoroff oversaw a sprawling overhaul of the cityscape. The elevation of Torres-Springer to first deputy mayor helped restore a sense of stability to the scandal-scarred Adams administration in the fall. While technically not a deputy mayor, current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has been widely praised for corralling the New York City Police Department.

“The mayor can’t be an expert in everything,” said political strategist Chris Coffey, who recently started advising Cuomo’s mayoral campaign. “Maybe they are an expert in the things they run on, but they need other experts who are going to go out and knock it out of the park in their issue areas.”

Take the current mayoral field. The City recently published a quiz tied to the 2025 mayoral race, which sheds some light on what management style each candidate values. Cuomo, Eric Adams and former city Comptroller Stringer pitched themselves as “the decider” – someone who would “centralize decision-making with the mayor and close advisers.” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams described herself as “the partner,” who would “make decisions in coordination with the City Council.” Mamdani, city Comptroller Lander, state Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos, Whitney Tilson and former Assembly Member Michael Blake were categorized as “the delegator,” meaning they would “hire top talent to run agencies and rely on their judgment.”

Bloomberg was seen as being particularly good at selecting – and keeping – talent. Due to egos or a tendency toward control, many mayors struggle with this. Keechant Sewell, the first of four NYPD commissioners appointed by Adams, reportedly ended her tenure after 18 months because she had felt micromanaged by the mayor. Giuliani and then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton notoriously clashed over the limelight when the city saw a precipitous drop in crime, especially after Bratton was featured on the cover of Time magazine. The issue led to Bratton’s resignation. As governor, Cuomo forged a reputation for strong-arming lawmakers and underlings, many of whom charged that his proclivity for bullying made him difficult to work for.

The question of experience

When it comes to scale and complexity, very few jobs actually compare to leading the city of New York. The position is frequently likened to being the CEO of a $110 billion enterprise, but even that isn’t quite right. As an executive of an enormous company in the private sector, Bloomberg came somewhat close, but Koch came from Congress, Adams was a borough president, Giuliani was a former federal prosecutor and de Blasio was public advocate.

Good hiring can counter lack of experience, but only to an extent. And a mayor’s goals can easily fall flat without the operational skills and financial acuity to back it up. Muscle memory matters, especially during a crisis. And New York City has no shortage of those.

In terms of experience, Cuomo is the clear front-runner. He has more than a decade of executive experience under his belt – though his tenure as governor was marked by allegations of corruption, obstruction of a government investigations agency and workplace sexual harassment. Cuomo denies wrongdoing. Stringer and Lander have executive experience by way of serving as city comptroller, an oversight role with an office that employs around 800 people. As does Speaker Adams, whose position at the head of the City Council’s 51-member body makes her the second-most powerful person in city politics. While the managerial duties of comptroller and City Council speaker are still a far cry from the mayor, the positions offer their occupants a bird’s eye view of the city’s agenda. This is a strength, according to Democratic political consultant Yvette Buckner.

“Both the speaker and the comptroller see how agencies interact with one another, they see how the budget comes together and how it can fall apart. It’s like a game of Jenga,” Buckner said. “You pull one piece and something else can fall apart. They see those intricacies and how to put them together to make sure they are sound and strong.”

History isn’t exactly in Stringer, Lander and Speaker Adams’ favor. While some have tried, no City Council speaker has ever successfully made the leap to mayor. And every comptroller this century has tried, but none have succeeded. But in terms of job description, the chasm between state legislator and the city’s chief executive is even steeper. Mamdani’s charisma, grassroots outreach and populist policy platform has resonated with young and lefty New Yorkers, catapulting the 33-year-old democratic socialist to second place in the polls. But with his rise also comes serious doubts about whether he has the managerial chops so early in his political career to run the city. The same questions are tied to Myrie, Ramos and other candidates.

Torres-Springer put it this way: If the mayor doesn’t have experience managing a complex organization, they need to have a very clear sense of what they want to accomplish and they must surround themself with people who have steered the city before.

“It’s not the place to cut your teeth on management,” Torres-Springer said, noting she was not referring to any individual in particular. “New Yorkers deserve more and they will be unforgiving – as they should be – toward people who are training on the job.”

Stephen Goldsmith oversees a training program for executive elected officials through the Bloomberg Center for Cities. An urban policy professor within the Harvard Kennedy School and a deputy mayor under Bloomberg from 2010 to 2011, he said experience leading a large organization or city is a plus – but not a necessity.

“We’ve taught a lot of mayors from all over the world and many do not have executive experience,” Goldsmith said. “The ones that you have to be aware of are those who don’t have experience, but think they’re good at it.”

“Compass and conductor”

There’s at least one thing every mayor going back to Koch has in common – and no, it’s not a zest for transparency and accountability. Each without fail has at one point or another been subject to a sprawling corruption investigation.

Two of Koch’s longtime political allies in Queens and the Bronx were his undoing, engulfing his third and final term in scandal as the two men were ensnared in corruption probes. While David Dinkins’ tenure was far more tranquil, controversy reared its head when investigators accused his budget director of giving a company preferential treatment in city contracting. Under the Bloomberg and Giuliani administrations, a handful of lower-level employees were hit with corruption charges. Multiple agencies investigated de Blasio for corruption, harshly criticising him in 2017 for exchanging favors and influence for campaign donations. And though his charges were ordered to be dismissed by the Department of Justice in February, Adams remains the only city mayor to be indicted.

“You can get away with shit in the boroughs that you don’t get away with in Manhattan. As soon as you cross the bridge, you are subject to that intense scrutiny,” said Ken Frydman, a longtime political operative who once worked as Giuliani’s spokesperson and director of media relations. “Adams certainly wasn’t prepared for it, and de Blasio certainly wasn’t prepared for it.”

From the days of Tammany Hall to an array of recent political foibles, city politics is rife with deeply rooted corruption. The mayor must be the standard-bearer against this. Scandal can disrupt the delivery of services, lead staff to leave in droves, heighten public distrust and even force a mayor’s resignation – like Jimmy Walker in 1932 or William O’Dwyer in 1950. Corruption is antithetical to good management.

“You have to be both compass and conductor of 300,000 public servants and build a culture of integrity, courage and accountability,” said Torres-Springer, who stepped down as first deputy mayor in February amid ongoing turmoil at City Hall over Adams’ ties to Trump. “Demonstrating a sense of moral clarity sets the standard for everyone else to operate in the same way.” That means rooting out wrongdoing, and if necessary, taking responsibility for any transgressions that occurred in City Hall under their purview.

It’s often said that it was easier for Bloomberg to combat corruption because he couldn’t be bought. The billionaire businessperson funded his own first mayoral campaign with more than $70 million of his own wealth. Adams, who often calls himself a “blue-collar mayor,” is much more reliant on moneyed donors – and has been dogged by campaign fundraising scandals.

From the start of his tenure, the checkered pasts of some of Adams’ top appointees prompted concerns over what ethical concerns and conflicts of interest they might bring to City Hall. Take Frank Carone, then-chief of staff to the newly elected mayor. While the prominent Brooklyn power broker and well-connected attorney was a longtime confidant and ally, some of his business dealings had drawn scrutiny. More controversial was Adams’ pick for deputy mayor for public safety: Philip Banks III, a close friend who had resigned from his post as chief of department in 2014 while facing a federal bribery investigation. Mayoral aide Timothy Pearson, once a supervisor over Adams during their days in the NYPD, had been accused of sexual harassment. Even Adams’ little brother served as senior adviser for mayoral security before stepping down roughly a year into the gig.

Concerns over the mayor’s staffing decisions only grew as time went on – helped in no small part by the slew of federal investigations, early morning raids and resignations upending Adams’ inner circle. Phil Banks, then-schools Chancellor David Banks and then-First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigned after their phones were seized by federal investigators last fall. (None have been charged with any wrongdoing.) Several months after Pearson resigned under the same circumstances, the city Department of Investigation concluded he had committed misconduct by attacking two security guards at a migrant shelter in October 2023. A separate state corruption case against Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ former chief adviser, is currently moving forward. The list goes on.

“It was inevitable. You bring Frank Carone into City Hall, what do you expect?” Frydman said, referencing all that followed those initial controversial appointments. “Now you bring the fox into the henhouse.”

It all goes back to grit 

Lyndon B. Johnson once said: “When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.” At any rate, New Yorkers are known for relishing a challenge. Mayor Adams swaggered into the role and asked, “When does the hard part start?” It was an audacious question he continued to pose throughout his tenure.

Be it battling a global pandemic, rats, the housing crisis, crime or a federal government keen to enact sprawling funding cuts, New Yorkers expect their mayor to be both sword and shield. Solution and problem. Every decision is an inevitable minefield, primed to piss off someone. It’s not a matter of if or when, it’s a matter of who and to what degree.

Yet, cycle after cycle, a new crop of candidates step into the arena, hoping to take up the mayoral mantle. And like every mayor that preceded them, they’ll need grit to manage the city. Toughness is essential. It’s a job that’ll chew you up and spit you out if you let it. This is all the more true now.

“It’s got to be a rough haul for the next mayor having a White House that’s not only not sympathetic, but clearly hostile to a social agenda we like to attach to New York City,” said Joseph Viteritti, Thomas Hunter professor of public policy at Hunter College. “The responsibilities for the mayor going forward are going to be enormous.”