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By: Ilana Siyance
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks has resigned following weeks of pressure and federal probes that have been plaguing Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. “He stated that he wanted to transition to some other things with his life and he doesn’t want this to be a constant burden on the work that we are doing in the city and I accepted his resignation,” Mayor Adams said. “I wish my good friend well,” he added, adding praise for his contribution to the city.
As reported by the New York Post, this is the latest in a long string of high-profile resignation from Adams’ administration amid the historic and expansive federal probe surrounding the New York City mayor and his allies. Banks’ resignation casts a doubt over whether Mayor Adams himself can hold on to his seat. Mayor Adams has professed his innocence and said that he has no intention of stepping down from office. Still, Gov. Kathy Hochul technically does have the authority to possibly suspend or if there are criminal charges even remove the mayor. Over the past few weeks, as Gov. Hochul has been pushing him to leave, Adams has been pushing the top brass in his administration to step down.
Federal agents had raided Banks’ home in Queens back in early September, seized his electronic devices. It is now apparent that the feds’ investigation of Banks focuses on whether he steered city contracts toward companies represented by his younger brother Terence’s consulting company, the Pearl Alliance, whose clients enjoyed millions of dollars worth of city contracts, per the Post.
Clients working with Terence Banks which reportedly enjoyed city contracts include: app-maker Saferwatch, IT companies Derive Technologies and SVAM International and grocery store delivery app Mercato, per city records. Banks didn’t have a squeaky clean reputation to start with. He resigned in 2014 as chief of the NYPD. It was later revealed that there was a federal investigation for a bribery scandal in which he was not charged but in which federal investigators named him an unindicted co-conspirator, and also found his accounts had $300,000 in mystery transactions, the Post reported.
Last week, Banks’ brother, David Banks, who served as New York City School chancellor, also resigned from his position, months earlier than planned. According to the information provided in The New York Post report, David Banks was Mayor Adam’s first appointment at the commissioner level, after becoming mayor in 2022. Adams also appointed Phillip Banks III, and had a long standing relationship with the entire family which began in the 1980s with their father Philip Banks Jr., who had been a police officer and a mentor to Adams.
Also, Mr. Adams appointed Sheena Wright, David Banks’s longtime partner and his wife as of September, to be first deputy mayor in late 2022. On Tuesday, she too officially resigned, as
a result of the federal investigation. Ana Almanzar will serve as her successor.
Per the Post, also, Adams’ friend Tim Pearson, a retired NYPD inspector who served as a top aide to the mayor and oversaw migrant security contracts, is stepping down from the administration last week.
