Eric Adams order lays out what happens if Sheena Wright leaves

Amid unprecedented turmoil for his political career, Mayor Eric Adams quietly updated a mayoral order laying out the roles and duties of his deputy mayors and senior leadership team. Adams released Executive Order 45 on Thursday, the day federal corruption charges against the mayor were unveiled. And as Adams’ administration undergoes significant upheaval, the updated order details new information about what happens if First Deputy Mayor – a position now held by Sheena Wright – is unable to carry out their duties. But City Hall denied that Wright is heading for the exits.

The only substantial change in the new order, which builds on a similar explanation of duties detailed in preceding executive orders – including Executive Order 40 in February of this year – is a statement that the work of the first deputy mayor would be delegated to the deputy mayor for health and human services if the former is unable to do their job. “In the event that the First Deputy Mayor is unable to perform such functions, powers or duties, or in the event that the First Deputy Mayor waives in writing the delegation contained herein, all such functions, powers or duties of the Mayor are hereby delegated to the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services,” the new text in the executive order says. 

The deputy mayor for health and human services is now Anne Williams-Isom, a former deputy commissioner at the city’s child welfare agency, who has played a key part in overseeing the city’s response to the influx of asylum-seekers over the last couple of years. She’s been in the position since the start of Adams’ term in 2022. On Friday, Williams-Isom told City & State that she is committed to staying on, and had been working on an assortment of issues under her portfolio throughout the day, including migrant resettlement and small business opportunities for asylum-seekers. “I can’t speak for everybody, but I think as a longtime public servant, this has just been my work and my calling, and I feel like this is a time when you have to really step up for all these 300,000 New York public servants, but also the New Yorkers that are counting on us,” she said, when asked if others are also carrying on their work as normal.

“Presumably, this type of change assumes that there might come a point at which the First Deputy Mayor can no longer perform their duties, and a clear decision-authorizing framework would need to be put in place to account for this,” observed one former government official who has served in multiple terms in City Hall, after reviewing the order.

Despite the odd timing of the order, coming after Adams’ indictment and as the administration has lost its police commissioner, chief counsel, and will soon lose its health commissioner and schools chancellor – City Hall denied that the new order signaled Wright’s departure. “Sheena is not resigning,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “It is simply good governance to establish a clear line of succession, for the sake of continuity, in the instance that the mayor or first deputy mayor are out of pocket.”  

Wright joined the administration as deputy mayor for strategic initiatives in January 2022 at the start of Adams’ tenure. Her portfolio included initiatives to reduce gun violence and improve timeliness of city payments to nonprofits. She was elevated to first deputy mayor in December of 2022 after the departure of Lorraine Grillo. As first deputy mayor, she is responsible for agencies including the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Finance, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Office of Policy & Planning and the Office of Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises.

Wright, whose partner is outgoing Schools Chancellor David Banks, had her home with him raided by federal authorities earlier this month in what appears to be a separate investigation than the one into Adams’ campaign. They have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Before joining the Adams administration, she was a nonprofit executive, leading United Way of New York City. The Sept. 4 raid was not her first brush with a federal investigation. In 2013, she was interviewed by federal investigators about Abyssinian Development Corporation, the nonprofit she previously led that was affiliated with the storied Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.