Mayor Adams is poised to name a former de Blasio administration official as his new sanitation commissioner, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Jessica Tisch — who served as commissioner of the city’s Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications under former Mayor Bill de Blasio — is in the final stages of the hiring process for the top sanitation job, the sources said.
The current head of sanitation, Commissioner Ed Grayson, is expected to retire in the coming weeks and has an upcoming retirement party set for the end of April, according to one of the sources. In a written statement, Adams praised Grayson for his service. “For more than 20 years, Ed has served New Yorkers tirelessly at the Department of Sanitation,” the mayor said. “We owe him a debt of gratitude and wish him nothing but best as he retires.” Sanitation Department spokesman Joshua Goodman also confirmed that Grayson plans to retire, but said he would remain on as head of the agency until Adams’ selects his replacement. “Ed is a professional above all else, and he’ll be here doing the job — as he has been since he joined DSNY in 1999,” Goodman said.
Before serving as the city’s DoITT commissioner, Tisch worked in the NYPD as the department’s deputy commissioner of information technology, a position also once held by Matt Fraser, who now serves as Adams’ chief technology officer. In her role at the NYPD, Tisch was instrumental in helping modernize the department through rolling out its body-worn camera program and outfitting cops with smartphones and tablets.She also served under de Blasio as part of his COVID team after being called in to troubleshoot tech issues associated with the rollout of vaccines.