Mamdani defends commissioner pick after right-wing attacks

Days after Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that he would appoint Lillian Bonsignore as commissioner of the FDNY, right-wing personalities who have long been critical of Mamdani attacked his choice. They included Elon Musk, who late last week joined a growing chorus of right-wing influencers and television personalities criticizing Bonsignore on the platform that Musk owns. 

Critics claimed that Bonsignore was unqualified because she does not have a firefighting background, and because of her identity as an openly gay woman.  

“People will die because of this,” Musk wrote on X – formerly Twitter. “Proven experience matters when lives are at stake.” 

Bonsignore is the first openly gay person to become FDNY commissioner, the first member from the FDNY’s EMS ranks to be appointed to the department's top job and the second woman to ever hold the job. Her 31 years of experience in the FDNY, including over a decade as a rank-and-file FDNY EMT, makes her far more experienced than two of the last three commissioners, neither of whom served in the department rank and file. 

Bonsignore has also received the backing of the leadership of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, and two EMS unions. Laura Kavanagh, the first woman to lead the FDNY, defended Bonsignore in a post made over the weekend on Linkedin.  

Kavanagh pointed out that the FDNY does much more than fight structural fires, and that over 70 percent of calls the department responds to are medical calls. In a similar fashion to former FDNY commissioner Robert Tucker, who, like Kavanagh, was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, Kavanagh argued that confronting the challenges facing EMS was crucial to the department’s future.  

“The primary operational challenge for modern fire departments is adjusting to this changing mission,” she said in her post. “EMS has not been funded to keep up with call volume, and they make significantly less than their counterparts in the fire service, leading to a very high attrition rate for EMS employees. This has negative consequences for everyone - EMTs who can't afford to stay in the job, firefighters who are less available for fires and other emergency calls as they pick up more and more medical work, and most of all the public who are looking at longer response times when they need an ambulance.” 

Mamdani defended his pick for commissioner on X a day after Musk posted. 

“Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS,” Mamdani tweeted in response to Musk on Dec. 27. “You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?” 

The FDNY declined to comment on the online back-and-forth. 

'Why is this now an issue?"

EMTs, paramedics, and EMS officers are some of the only city workers who didn’t reach a contract agreement with the city under the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. Members of FDNY EMS are currently working on a contract that was negotiated under the tenure of Mayor Bill de Blasio and expired in 2022. 

The unions representing EMS workers have long called for raises that get them to parity with other first responders like firefighters in recognition of the increased workload that EMTs and paramedics have taken on in recent years. EMT salaries start at $39,386 and increase to $59,534 after five years according to the union. Firefighters start at $54,122 and increase to $105,146 after 5.5 years according to the department. 

The city has been bargaining with the two EMS unions since 2024, but little progress has been made as the city insists on sticking to its bargaining pattern while union leadership demands much more.  

Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507 representing EMTs, paramedics and fire protection inspectors said in an interview on Jan. 2 that the critics of Bonsignore were “reckless and disingenuous.” 

“Many past commissioners had no fire experience. Why is this now an issue?” Barzilay said. “Now we have someone who came from EMS and can maybe be better for us instead of having someone who knew nothing about EMS.” 

EMS workers are hopeful that their wages will move closer to parity with other first responders under Mamdani, who said in his inauguration speech on Jan. 1 that under his administration “we will return the vast resources of this city to the workers who call it home.”