Lillian Bonsignore named FDNY commissioner by NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has appointed Lillian Bonsignore, a former chief of the FDNY's emergency medical service, to head the FDNY.

Bonsignore, who retired in 2022, will be the second woman to be FDNY commissioner and, Mamdani said, the department's first openly gay commissioner. She is a paramedic by trade who was chief of emergency medical service operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, experience she cited at an appointment announcement, held Tuesday at the former Fort Totten, in Bayside, Queens, where EMS trains. 

"Leading during those difficult times reinforced my admiration for the extraordinary commitment of every member of the fire department," she said. 

Her career with the FDNY was spent in the emergency medical service. EMS has been a part of the FDNY since the late 1990s.

She replaces private investigation firm owner Robert S. Tucker, who was not a firefighter or first responder. His last day was Friday. Tucker's predecessor under Mayor Eric Adams, Laura Kavanagh, was a lifelong bureaucrat and also was never a firefighter. 

Asked about the extent to which it's important for a fire commissioner to have been a firefighter, Bonsignore said: "I can see how that might be a concern, being 'fire' is the primary word. And there's concern regarding it. I will I say, I spent 30 years working in this fire department." 

She added: "As far as firefighting experience, I would offer: I know the job. I know what the firefighters need, and I can translate that to this administration who's willing to listen."

Over 17,000 firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics and other personnel work for the FDNY, which has a budget of $2 billion. 

Standing beside Mamdani in Queens, Bonsignore said she's a "big supporter" of the so far unsuccessful push by EMS personnel to boost their pay to be on par with what firefighters are pay, which Adams promised but has not delivered on. 

Mamdani, who ultimately decides how much to pay EMS personnel, was noncommittal but said, "I care very deeply about fair wages."

Mamdani also announced that he was retaining, on an interim basis, the commissioner of sanitation, Javier Lojan, and the commissioner of emergency management, Zach Iscol, due the "importance of continuity, especially during the snow season."

On Tuesday afternoon, as Mamdani was about to announce Bonsignore’s appointment, Adams convened a last-minute scheduling update, noting that he was about to personally swear in Tucker’s first deputy, Mark Guerra, as commissioner, a post he's had since Friday and will hold for eight more days until the Mamdani administration begins Jan. 1. 

At Guerra's ceremony, held at the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, around the same time as Mamdani's announcement, Adams said he convened the swearing-in when he did because emergencies "don't stop." 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.