Mayor-Elect Mamdani appointed Jahmila Edwards as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Catherine Almonte Da Costa as Director of Appointments.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
With just weeks to go before he takes office, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday appointed longtime union leader Jahmila Edwards as his new Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Edwards, who has served as a top leader at District Council 37 for over a decade, will work to garner support for Mamdani’s policies with city, state and federal officials.
“When we are in City Hall, I will turn to Jahmila to help us build the coalitions we need to enact durable solutions and secure the political relationships necessary to follow through on these promises,” Mamdani said at a press conference at the Greenpoint Library on Dec. 17.
The role is likely to be critical for Mamdani’s administration, as many of the mayor-elect’s campaign promises — like free buses and universal childcare — will require support and funding from Albany and the City Council.
“New Yorkers have made it loud and clear that the affordability agenda is our mandate,” Edwards said. “In order to achieve this, it is absolutely necessary that we continue to foster relationships and partner with the City Council, the state legislature, and our partners in the federal government.”
A Brooklyn resident, Edwards is also a newly-elected District Leader in Assembly District 43 and has previously served in the office of the Public Advocate and at the Department of Education.
The mayor-elect also announced Catherine Almonte Da Costa as Director of Appointments. Da Costa — who worked in the Office of Appointments during the de Blasio administration — will oversee recruiting and hiring efforts for the new administration.
Mamdani has criticized the city’s current hiring process, which he said forces candidates to wait months for final approval as jobs sit empty, leaving city agencies understaffed and unable to provide quality service to New Yorkers.
More than 70,000 people have already applied to work in the Mamdani administration, and the mayor-elect has promised that applicants will be chosen based on their work, not existing political connections.
“Too often, government fails to attract talent. But New Yorkers deserve excellence, expertise, leadership equal to the scale of the challenges that we face,” Da Costa said. “Delivering for New Yorkers means building a government that is both mission driven and deeply capable, a government staffed by diverse leaders with skill and the experience to turn vision into results.”
Da Costa, who is also part of Mamdani’s transition team, said she has already begun reaching out to potential staffers. She expected “hesitation from folks,” she said, but has instead found “passion, urgency, and an overwhelming desire to serve.”
Since he was elected, Mamdani has announced just four City Hall staffers: Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, Chief of Staff Ella Bisgaard-Church, Edwards, and Da Costa. The mayor-elect, who is set to be sworn in on Jan. 1, said he expects to make additional staffing announcements later this week.
