NYC Mayor Adams remains quiet on First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo’s expected departure

Mayor Adams declined on Tuesday to provide any insight into whether he expects First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo to leave in the coming months — despite the revelation a day before that she’s likely to step down around the same time Adams’ Chief of Staff Frank Carone leaves.

Carone revealed Monday that he’ll depart the administration around year’s end and will work on the mayor’s 2025 re-election campaign. Soon after that news broke, sources with knowledge of City Hall’s inner workings revealed to the Daily News that Lorraine Grillo, Adams’ first deputy mayor, is also likely to leave around the end of the year.

When asked Tuesday, Adams wouldn’t really touch the topic.

“I’m not going to go into private conversations with our team,” Adams said of Grillo’s possible departure. “Lorraine has spent so many years in government. She has been an amazing anchor, and I was proud to have her join the team with her experience.”

Before joining Adams’ administration, Grillo served as head of the city’s School Construction Authority.

Sheena Wright, Adams’ deputy mayor for strategic initiatives, is gunning for Grillo’s job, according to sources familiar with the situation, who said that Wright is — at least on paper — less qualified for the job than Grillo and other top City Hall staffers like Maria Torres-Springer, deputy mayor for economic and workforce development, or Anne Williams-Isom, deputy mayor for health and human services.

The sources noted that Wright has less experience in government. Before coming to City Hall, she served as president and CEO of the United Way of New York City.

In praising Grillo, who he spoke of Tuesday in the past tense, Adams also criticized the city’s press corps, saying it didn’t focus enough on the talented civil servants he appointed to the upper echelons of his team.

“I saw very few articles that talked about the talent that I brought on board. You know, you may have picked off one or two people who you felt should not have been appointed because of something they did in their lives, but I did not see articles, I did not see reporting that Eric didn’t bring together an amazing team,” the mayor said. “And Lorraine was the anchor of that team.”

Adams added that, if given the choice, he’d like Grillo and “everyone” else to remain on board.

“Listen, I want everyone to stay forever,” he said, laughing.

He then added cryptically: “Except for me.”