FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh faces mutiny over ‘breach of trust’

Armed FDNY chief Laura Kavanagh is facing mutiny from her top executives, with five already demanding demotions and others threatening to follow suit in solidarity.

The 40-year-old rookie commissioner caused a storm last week, breaking unofficial, long-standing fire department protocol and chain of command, insiders say.

Kavanagh, who was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as the city’s first female fire chief in late October, partly to address the department’s ongoing struggle to diversify, took the unprecedented step of demoting three officers without consulting her two senior uniformed officers.

In protest, Department Chief John Hodgens and Chief of Operations John Esposito immediately demanded the return of their positions as Deputy Chief in the public service, citing a “breach of trust”.

A few days later, two other chiefs of staff – Frank Lieb and Kevin Woods – also demanded demotions in a show of unity, with another, Michael Massucci, following suit on Friday. Insiders say they expect many more to follow.

The action stirred up the department, with unions representing firefighters and firefighters on opposite sides.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association says Kavanagh is doing a good job and has the full support of its members. The Uniformed Fire Officers Association is outraged by what it calls a lack of communication, transparency and respect from the downtown Brooklyn fire department headquarters.

Critics of the old guard accuse Cavan that the actions – and the actions they caused – could endanger the safety of citizens and firefighters.

“It’s easy to send firefighters into the building; Knowing when to pull them out saves lives,” Roger Sakowicz, a Manhattan borough commandant who retired in 2019, told The Post. “By eliminating experienced leaders, we are one incident away from disaster.”

But Kavanagh’s supporters said the department is simply resisting change.

Longtime activist and organizer Bertha Lewis said Kavanagh is being criticized “disrespectfully and unfairly” by “good old boy” subordinates, rebuffed by her attempts to “modernize and bring more diversity” to the FDNY.

“Why all this controversy? Because it’s not the man who makes the decisions? said Lewis, who lobbied hard last year for Kavanagh to become commissioner as a member of Adams’ transition team.

“She has the right to shake up her staff. She’s a commissioner now! Give this girl a chance and let her do her job the way she wants to – and then judge her!” added Lewis, whose advocacy group Black Institute honored Kavanagh at a gala last June.

Both Lewis and Adams are longtime allies who have known each other and worked together for decades, going back to the mayor’s years as an NYPD cop to leading a group that aimed to try and ease relations between the police and communities of color. . The relationship continued when he later served as a state senator and later as borough president of Brooklyn.

The FDNY has historically struggled to recruit women and minorities, having had modest success in recent years, paying $42 million so far to a court-appointed diversity monitor.

Over a decade ago, 91% of firefighters and firefighters in the department were white males. According to the FDNY, today 9% are black, 15% are Hispanic, 2% are Asian, and 74% are white. Less than 2% of firefighters are women.

In Kavanagh’s short tenure, she became the first black chief of emergency medicine, the first black female chief executive, and the first Hispanic chief of staff on the executive team. She is also credited with helping the city council pass legislation that is expected to help improve FDNY’s hiring practices.

UFA President Andrew Ansbrough praised Kavanagh for taking steps to diversify the workforce and regularly turning to the union for help to improve the department, adding that they have a “great working relationship”. He also said that the UFA “does not need to take sides” between the commissioner and the officers’ union on “the issue of union management”.

” [officers’ union is] frustrated by the lack of notifications, but this happens all the time with my members,” he said. “They are constantly being moved and can be sent anywhere.”

But other department insiders say Kavanagh has surrounded herself with several close allies who have little to no experience in the fire department.

Among them is John Paul Ogier, the civilian deputy commissioner for Dispatch and Public Safety Technologies, whom she brought in in 2019. immediately transferred to FDNY.

In addition to Ogier, Kavanagh’s close entourage includes Captain Brendan Deehan, Executive Director of Acting First Deputy Commissioner Lysette Kristoff, responsible for budget and finance, and Chief of Staff Luis Martinez, a former NYPD Lieutenant. Cavanagh’s reliance on a former cop is irritating to some of New York’s bravest, insiders say.

An FDNY spokesman countered that Kavanagh has regular meetings with all senior leadership, including firefighters, emergency medical services and civilian superiors.

Growing up in Half Moon Bay, a coastal city in northern California, Cavanagh rose to the top of the country’s largest fire department in part thanks to left-wing political connections established years earlier.

From 2006 to 2012, she worked for The Advance Group, one of New York’s leading lobbying firms, as its vice president of campaigns and elections. Her long list of clients included the controversial and now defunct Lewis community and housing group ACORN.

In 2012, Kavanagh served as assistant director in Pennsylvania in the re-election campaign of then-President Barack Obama, and a year later used her time there as a senior adviser in Bill de Blasio’s successful mayoral campaign.

After his election, de Blasio hired Kavanagh as a “special assistant” — a position normally reserved for politicians — but by mid-2014, she had moved to the FDNY as director of external relations.

Kavanagh quickly rose through the ranks, becoming first deputy commissioner in 2017 and then acting commissioner in February 2022 following the retirement of then-commissioner Daniel Nigro. Eight months later, she was formally named commissioner overseeing 17,216 FDNY employees and a $2 billion budget.

Sources told The Post that Kavanagh was privately ordered by Mayor Adams to “handle” the growing FDNY crisis, but in a statement to the newspaper, he stood by his appointee.

“Commissioner Kavanagh has my full support. She promotes a culture of true leadership, accountability and performance at FDNY,” said Adams. “New Yorkers can rest assured that the FDNY is more than ever prepared to keep them safe and respond to any emergency.”