Vladeck will succeed Commissioner Renee Campion, who this summer made the surprise announcement of her retirement effective Dec. 1, after nearly a quarter century at the agency.
She will stay on as commissioner until that date, a City Hall source said. Vladeck will have a lengthy to-do list. The Mamdani administration is in the middle of negotiating funding for a health program that pays for civil servants’ prescription drugs, chemotherapy and other benefits.
Money for that program, known as PICA, was tied up in a cash pot that was declared insolvent days before Mamdani’s inauguration. Those talks are the main obstacle to beginning negotiations on a new contract covering members of District Council 37, the city’s largest public sector union with approximately 100,000 members, sources have told The City Reporter.
The current contract expires next month. “Public servants keep our city running and they deserve respect, support, and a City government that takes its responsibilities to them seriously.
I look forward to looking closely with Liz and our city’s unions to deliver real results for New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” Mamdani said in a statement.