Transcript: Mayor Adams Appoints Fabien Levy as Deputy Mayor for Communications

August 14, 2023

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Good morning everyone. I'm Anne Williams-Isom. I'm the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services. And thank you this morning for joining us for this exciting announcement. When we make announcements, this administration often puts a mirror to ourselves and asks how can we do things better? How can we make sure this collection of people trying to get stuff done looks and feels like the diverse city we represent? Mayor Adams pushes us to reflect and to think deeply about those questions. I'm happy to say under the mayor's leadership, we have another appointee who will help us to make the city better. I'd now like to introduce Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Really excited to see our amazing AG here, and I would love if you could say a few words also. And you'll get the AG and Fabien connection. Fabien and I have been in the foxhole together for so many nights, so many days. And actually even prior to starting a job, he was so eager to just get in. And we need to be clear, he worked for an amazing AG. It wasn't like he didn't enjoy what he was doing, but it was a sense of purpose. Many people don't realize, or New Yorkers have a tendency to not know a crisis after they've traveled through it. But you remember January 1st, 2022. Covid was everywhere. We were unsure if we were going to recover our jobs. Tourism was decimated, violence was surging. Just the first few days we lost Officers Mora and Rivera, 11-month-old baby was shot. There was just a sense of total chaos and the apprehension was real. And we had to make sure that we could communicate to New Yorkers that everything was going to be all right.

And we were also in another phase that I spoke with Fabien about, and I say this as kindly as possible, but the antiquated method of communicating with your constituency of just through the daily tabloids, it's just not acceptable anymore. We have to communicate directly to our consumers, and I charge Fabien and Max with that awesome responsibility. How do we allow the press to do their job, but also that we could do our job, and see some of the amazing things that this administration has done in only 19 months. When I look over our list of accomplishments. I am blown away with what we've been able to do. Even with the constant incoming, we've been able to push through and not stay and live within the bubble of a crisis, but to move forward.

And we had to communicate that, and so we did that. We did it by bringing on a dynamic duo, Max who went on to other endeavors, and Fabien, who handled the press, scrapping with Michael Gartland from time to time, and just carved our message. He was sincere, dedicated, committed, and just dealing with the bureaucracy. So why the deputy mayor position? What we discovered probably after the first year, the disjointedness of the message coming from the large number of agencies. There was no real clear, concise message. And we started slowly, bringing in our communication of heads at each agency and allowing them to sit down and talk to each other and find best practices, how do we communicate? And we continue to evolve to hone the product. And we realized that we needed a deputy mayor to hold this position, to communicate and bring the entire family under one umbrella. And really there was no second guess or looking in any other direction.

Just every day, all day, Fabien is up delivering. 3 a.m. in the morning I'm en route to a crime scene because something happened, and he'll call me and say, "I'll see you there in a couple of minutes," and I'll say, "No, Fabien, we got it. You can stay home." I get there, he's already there. He loves his job and he loves serving the people of the City of New York, and that is really why we are just really proud to announce him as the first new deputy mayor for Communication in the City of New York. Fabien Levy.

Now, the folks in the press, they all know Fabien. I'm sure he called you and yelled at you at one time or another. But I think New Yorkers need to know who he is and this amazing story, and one day we are going to be able to look at the stories of everyone that's behind me, because they're New York stories, they're love stories, they're stories about people who have not given up on our city. A son of New York City, his and his family's stories like so many, his mom and dad are here, and there are many of the immigrant stories in our city. His mother was born in Iraq and his father, his dad was born in Iran. The two met in Iran and moved to New York City in search of the American dream like so many are. Even the 92,000 people who are finding themselves in our city.

Over the decades, many of his family members fled persecution and they all arrived in the city of immigrants seeking the promise of this great city. Fabien was raised by working class Jewish, Middle Eastern parents on Long Island. They work hard to give their children, Fabien and his two sisters, a shot at making it in the land of opportunity. And now their son will be our city's first ever deputy mayor of communication, and the first ever of Persian or Iraqi descent.

Fabien brings a depth of experience to his role. 20 years of public service across city, state, and federal politics. From the east coast to the west, he served as press secretary and senior advisor to New York Attorney General Letitia James, was communication director to then congresswoman and now Governor Kathy Hochul. And in the Obama administration, he served as press secretary at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Fabien's commitment to New Yorkers is clear and concise. When I asked him during his interview why he would come on board after leaving the attorney general's office, he didn't want to leave as I indicated, but he stated it was a sense of purpose. I knew right then. He said he loved this city and he wanted to be part of how we navigated this city out of Covid, and to bring America's biggest city back to it's glory. He wanted to make New York City a place where every New Yorker benefited from our prosperity, not just a few, and he started and hit the ground running and never stopped since. 19 months of a sprint of making sure we communicate firsthand with a solid message to New Yorkers.

And it's clear our city is back, our economy is booming, crime is down, tourism is up. And even as we deal with the crisis in front of us, we continue to navigate them and move forward and communicate that message. So I know he's not going to miss being up at midnight getting those calls from me, and he enjoyed being among his colleagues downstairs. But he has a larger calling and a bigger obligation as we hone and shape the message for New Yorkers. His respect and admiration of so many across the city and together we'll meet the challenges that we face and continue to deliver to New Yorkers. To mom and dad, should be proud of this moment. Your story is the American story. This is a land of opportunity. No place on the globe where a dream is attached to their name like America.

Your story, I'm sure one day we're going to stand here and talk about the migrants. One of those migrants are going to be standing where your son is standing because we showed the compassion that New Yorkers showed your families when they arrived here. You are a great contributor to our country, and every time this team behind me knocked down another barrier, we send a message that this city belongs to all of us. Work hard, stay committed, stay dedicated, love family, love public safety, and love the great city of New York that I believe is a symbol of the American dream. I thank you for giving us your son. Fabien, I thank you for being my deputy mayor. Thank you very much.

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications: Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you, Mayor Adams, I'm humbled that you have so much faith in me and beyond grateful for this opportunity. It's really one of the greatest honors of my life to serve as deputy mayor of Communications for the City of New York. But it is truly a team effort and I couldn't do it without all those working tirelessly here at City Hall and all the city agencies represented behind me. These are the communications professionals from across city government who do an incredible job day in and day out, and who help deliver this administration's vision to New Yorkers. So thank you for having my back and having New Yorkers back. I promise to do the same for you as well. I want to thank my sister and brother deputy mayors — Anne, Maria, Meera, Ana, and Phil, as well as our other leaders here at City Hall — Sheena, Ingrid, Gladys, Tiffany, and Camille. You've all been amazing friends. Lisa, I know today is your first day on the job, but I look forward to developing a close relationship with you as well.

I couldn't have gotten to where I am today without the support of so many along the way. It's truly all about the people. Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, you have the biggest heart of almost anyone I have ever met in my life. I had an aunt who when I was a kid, would tell my sisters and myself when we fought, which was a lot, to speak with love in your voice. Every time you say something or do something for this city I know it is with love. I appreciate you being my best friend here at City Hall and I couldn't do this job without you. I also want to thank my former boss, New York Attorney General Letitia James, for being here. You're one of the most principled people I have ever met in my life, and like the mayor said, I loved working for you every single moment. Thank you for being here again. 

Julie Wong. 20 years ago this summer, I walked up the steps of City Hall for my first job in politics on the mayor's press team, 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles. You took a chance on a kid from New York who just wanted to learn about local politics. You've given me countless opportunities and jobs and it all started because I organized a few thousand business cards for you. You've been my mentor and a friend, a sounding board, and a confidant. You made me feel like part of the team and seeing what you did as LA's deputy mayor of Communications inspired me to work in comms. I can't imagine how many others you've done the same for over the course of your career. Thank you so much for flying across the country for this. 

But more importantly, thank you so much for always being there for me. I want to thank my parents, my family, and my friends. My parents immigrated here from the Middle East almost 50 years ago. Both their families had previously been persecuted in different countries for their Jewish faith. They came here seeking opportunity and worked hard so they could send me and my sisters to some of the best public schools in the country.

But they still never imagined their son would one day become deputy mayor of the biggest city in this nation. Even if they never imagined it, that's exactly what this country and this city are all about. A Jewish kid with Middle Eastern roots from a migrant family who struggled to get by is now deputy mayor in the greatest city in the world. There's really nothing more in New York than that. So thank you mom and dad for everything you've done. Thank you to my sisters, Chantal and Charlotte, for always being supportive. 

As a middle child you both helped teach me a thing or two about diplomacy. I think I'm still working on that, right Mike? I want to thank all my friends and family who came here today. Some who came from as far as California and Washington DC. Bear with me for a moment. Arash, Bernie, Shira, Chad, Abe, Ben, Harris, Will, Britt, Delaney, Anna, Michael, Liron, Betty and Elise, I appreciate you all being here today. What can I say? Middle Eastern families are big and we collect some more people.

As I think of this large community of mine, one of the things I'm most appreciative of are the values we share. Since I was a kid, I knew it was my responsibility to give back and help others. One value that speaks to me is a Jewish tenant called ‘Tikkun Olam.’ It roughly translates to repairing the world. Think of the world as a big piece of glass shattered into a million different pieces, and it's up to each of us to take all those shards, all those pieces and put them back together as one because we all have a responsibility to leave the world in a better place than when we got here. It's that sense of responsibility, that sense of community that drives me every day. So whether we're talking about creating jobs for New Yorkers, giving an asylum seeker a place to rest their head at night, or making our city safer, it's all rooted in repairing the world. I'm excited to do even more as deputy mayor for communications where we deliver a vision to New Yorkers on behalf of the entire city.

This role will help further break down the silos between our city agencies and city hall and help provide New Yorkers with a better line of sight into how their city government and its hundreds of thousands of employees work as one for them. Whether it's growing our economy for working people, keeping our streets clean and safe, or keeping our city healthy, New Yorkers should know that we are delivering the services they need. Finally, I want to thank our City Hall Press Corps. It's been a pleasure working with you all. Your patience, good faith, and very rare admission that I was right are much appreciated. Like I said, very rare, Katie. In the 20 years since that first job for the mayor of Los Angeles, I've lived all over the country working on political campaigns. After every one, my dad's asked if I want to go to med school. I also worked for the California State government and the Obama administration, I lived upstate and in D.C. when I worked for former congressman and now Governor Kathy Hochul.

But after every one of those jobs, I always returned home to New York because there's no city like it, no person like a New Yorker, and there's nowhere I'd rather be. So mayor, thank you for your trust and confidence to give me the opportunity to now lead the communications across the city I love so much. I'm ready to hit the ground running and continue helping build a city that supports working people every day. A city that is safer, more equitable, and prosperous for all. And Dad, I may consider med school after this. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Well, now I kind of feel bad about what I'm going to say because he said I was his BFF here. But I got to admit, when I first met Fabien, I didn't like him. I thought he was too loud, too pushy, and frankly, he moved too fast. Every time he would come into my office, he would ask me a question, and then he would leave and be back in five seconds and ask me if I had the answer, I said, "Fabien, I haven't even had a chance to look at it yet." But then I slowed down and I decided to take a step back and to observe him, I mean really watch him work. I soon learned that the loudness was a reflection of his deep passion for the work and for the people he serves and the city that he loves. His pushiness is rooted in his tenacity and commitment to the mission and his desire to get it right every single time.

His attention to detail is like nothing I've ever seen before, and his ability to synthesize information quickly is a gift that everyone should have. I learned that his fast moving nature comes out of a sense of urgency because the work we do is important and it matters, and I think he wants to make sure that he does a great job every single day and delivers results on behalf of New Yorkers. Ultimately, I think it's a lesson for all of us. Sometimes we judge each other without giving each other a chance, and more importantly, taking a pause to see what we can learn from each other. The brilliance of Fabien is a unique set of characteristics and skills which often leaves us all wondering how he does what he does at the pace and intensity at which he does it. We all learn from him whether we want to admit it or not, and I believe knowing and working with Fabien makes us all better. I know it's made me a better deputy mayor and person. I now have an inner Fabien that I can call on when I need him.

Lastly, I want to say that I first claimed him as my brother on one important day last summer. It was on the day of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision. Fabien came to me in tears and said that on that day, more than any other day, the voices of the women in the administration needed to be centered. I was hesitant to speak, we were all hesitant to speak, but in the end, we shared our stories. It was on that day, that very powerful and difficult day, that I saw his humanity and his allyship, which I have appreciated and relied on every day since. Fabien, thank you for who you are and how you are, and I'm so, so proud today to call you my brother, deputy mayor.

Okay, picture me looking like Ingrid Martin Lewis right now. I have a statement from her, from the senior advisor to the mayor: "Fabien, I'm away with my granddaughter or I would be here with bells on. I am proud to be a member of the administration that recognizes talent and allows for upward mobility of worthy team members, the ascension of Fabien Levy to the deputy mayor of Communications does just that. Fabien has been a member of Team Adams for just in excess of 18 months, during which he has distinguished himself as a trusted, seasoned professional, a member willing to go to the wall in order to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the pursuit to protect the interest of New Yorkers on behalf of the mayor. As the newest member of the awesome assemblage of New York City deputy mayors, I am positive that DM Levy's voice will be well-received and instrumental in getting stuff done. I look forward to continuing our great working relationship and know that Fabien will continue to serve the administration proud, as well as be a role model for younger team members who aspire to advance. Kudos, Fabien, for a job well done, and to the mayor for his newest appointment." You can clap. 

And lastly, as we have heard, Fabien's career in politics and communication spans beyond the five boroughs. We've heard from east coast to west coast, through federal to state to city, and Fabien has worked alongside some of the most important people in politics today. We happen to have one of them. I'd like to bring forward the attorney general, Letitia James.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James: Thank you. Yeah. I don't need that. I didn't want to speak today because I tend to get emotional about people I care about. Fabien, as you heard from his remarks, he pours into all of us. He recognized individuals in his life who have made a difference. He truly is an exceptional individual, someone who cares and someone who thinks about others before he thinks about himself. I would like to take credit, obviously, for training him but the reality is all of the credit should go to his parents. Humble individuals, individuals who embraced me, who were warm and who were dear. Fabien is a consummate professional, a wordsmith, and someone who can go toe to toe with the Press Corps. But most importantly, Fabien will be an asset to the city, to the mayor of the City of New York and to this administration. He will continue to get things done. And as someone said in the back, I think the reason why the press corp does not like Fabien is because Fabien has the best hair in the business, and for that, they go toe to toe with him.

I told Fabien, when he left the Attorney General's office, that there will always be a position for him here in the office. And I remember speaking to him one day and he told me, "Tish, I'm not returning. I'm going to stay with the mayor of the City of New York. The city needs me, the mayor needs me, and we need to get stuff done, and this is where I belong." And now as the deputy mayor of communications, truly, this is where he belongs. Congratulations, Fabien. I'm really proud of you, really proud of this day, proud of this city, and truly want to thank the mayor of the City of New York for his appointment. God bless you.

Question: So in terms of communicating the message, what do you think has been successful about communicating the city's efforts on the migrant crisis, and what do you think you have not communicated that the city is doing?

Deputy Mayor Levy: Sure. So we've done an incredible job of sheltering, feeding, clothing almost 100,000 asylum seekers at this point. I think what we can do more of is tell our story. As you probably have noticed in the last week, we've been doing more gaggles every single day about asylum seekers, making sure people are aware of what we're doing. We're doing tours of the different facilities, so we want to make sure everyone understands. We've done, like I said, an incredible job, but what we've done another incredible job of is hiding it from New Yorkers. People need to know all that we're doing. So one of the things we're going to do is all these agencies, there's thousands of people across city government working every single day on the migrant crisis, want to highlight a lot of those stories.

Mayor Adams: I just want to add to what Fabien said. I think that the plan that he put together, and as Max was transitioning of, hey, we are doing this amazing job and we need to make sure that message gets out. And there's been a real shift in conversations of engagement from our federal engagement, our state engagement, our local engagement. You are now seeing what we knew all along, that this was not sustainable. I hear, over and over again, my colleagues in government saying this is not sustainable. And it was his thoughtfulness of, "Hey, we need to really have a plan letting New Yorkers know what we're doing every day," of how Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom was just really pulling the rabbit out of the hat every day with Commissioner Iscol and all the teams. You didn't see what you see in other cities, but we had to get that message out to people.

Question: Just for practical matter, I know you had a few departures from the communications office, and I know this is a promotion. So will we expect more hirings? There seems to be some shifting people. I don't know if you or the mayor want to speak about it.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Sure Absolutely. So we have a great team, as you can see behind me, that they're all supporting our efforts. Some of the team members are going to take on some additional roles. But yes, we're going to be hiring a new press secretary, a new communications director who will report to me, as well as some other open positions that we have.

Question: And will you still interact with the members of the press?

Deputy Mayor Levy: Absolutely, absolutely. Sorry, yes, but I will let the press secretary handle day-to-day.

Attorney General James: Any more poaching from the Office of the Attorney General?

Mayor Adams: I cannot say it enough... Working for me is a grind. It's a grind. It's sunup to sundown. 3 a.m. in the morning, Eric is sending me, he sees garbage on the highway. Why is this officer not on patrol? 1 a.m. in the morning, I walk inside your precinct... Why is everybody in the precinct? The crime is not in the precinct. Why aren’t you on patrol? I'm a nonstop worker because I love this city. They deserve a good product. And if you are going to say you're going to be the deliverer of that product, you have to be up to the pace. And Fabien is up to that pace. And there are those who say that pace is good for a certain period of time.

This has been a 19-month sprint, nonstop. Nonstop. 19 months of not being with your family, not being able to enjoy holidays off, having your family think that you are in a secret relationship because I'm texting you at 2 in the morning. And so, it's a drive. It's a grind being one of these folks who are working with me. And so, they do it. They do it every day. They deliver well. And so, there's going to be movement from time to time. But everyone that transitions out leave with one message, we're here if you need us. If you need to call us, we're here and we're going to be here for the City of New York.

Question: Thank you. Another clinical question, how will the role work in terms of certain agencies being under your purview? Will all press secretaries report to you directly? How will that work?

Deputy Mayor Levy: The communications director, press secretary, research director, Office of Ethnic Media, speechwriting, all the City Hall stuff will still be under me. And then, I'm going to be having a lot more close contact with all the agencies. And then we can determine how we can move forward. I'm going to sit down with all the different commissioners and figure out the best way to get out their message to New Yorkers as much as possible. So we're looking forward to having a collaborative conversation.

Question: I was wondering how big of a role the efforts to expand direct interaction with voters is going to be, your job? You're doing the podcast, the radio show... Do you have plans to expand that? And if so, can you describe them?

Deputy Mayor Levy: Sure. It's not voters, it's constituents, remember. But that's going to be a huge part of the job, but so is traditional media. All of it is part of the job. We have to expand direct to consumer. I'll point to City & State. They have a newsletter that comes out all the time. You guys do newsletters and stories. People do different things, podcasts... Let's meet New Yorkers everywhere they are. That's the goal here. What's that?

Question: But not TikTok.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Nope. We put out a notice on Friday. For security reasons, we've banned that from city devices.

Question: I’m wondering… talk about your relationship... Texting each other all the time. How does this new position change that relationship between you and the mayor? Are you talking every day now, once a week? How's that managing…

Mayor Adams: I think that there's certain staffers that we speak probably several times during the day. And it's clear that Fabien is one of them, and the counsel was another, Lisa Zornberg. There's just a constant communication, because things are always happening, always evolving, and that is not going to change. We will continue to speak, and probably even more, because of his real digging into the crevices of all of our agencies, to make sure that we continue to get the message out of what these folks are doing. 

These folks in the agencies are producing a good product, and we want to really lean into the product that they're producing so that it is not defined by others. And so, we're going to continue to be... If I had a list of the 10 people that I speak with repeatedly, he's going to continue to be on that list.

Question: Fabien, will you commit today to allow off-topic questions at all press events?

Deputy Mayor Levy: I'll commit to letting the press secretary make that decision.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Thank you, all.

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