New York – Laura Anglin, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s deputy mayor for operations, fired Commissioner Joseph Esposito on Friday, according to the WSJ, the first official to suffer consequences after a November snowstorm crippled the city’s evening commute.
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But when Reached by phone on Sunday evening, Mr. Esposito said he was still on the job.
Mayor de Blasio didn’t answer a question about Mr. Esposito’s firing as he went to the Park Slope Y Monday morning.
Anglin met privately with Mr. Esposito, for a meeting about the Nov. 15 snowstorm. After the Friday meeting, she ordered him to resign, according to the Journal. When he refused, she told him he was fired and ordered him to also fire his second in command, Calvin Drayton.
Mr. Esposito, who was on vacation during the storm, was monitoring conditions while away.
City Council members grilled city officials last week about how they handled the Nov. 15 storm that dumped more than six inches of snow on Central Park. De Blasio declined to apologize after New Yorkers spent hours trapped in traffic.
But lawmakers expressed support for Esposito on Monday, saying he did not deserve to be fired.
Speaker Corey Johnson called Esposito “one of the competent folks in City government.”
I guess he knew too much
It took so many weeks for them to wake up and fire this person. Somebody is asleep at the switch!!
De Blasio should be fired! In 2015, while visiting NYC, I was traveling westbound on the Belt Parkway, and attempted to exit at Flatbush Avenue, going north. There were no warning signs, advising motorists well in advance, that the latter exit was closed. All of a sudden, I saw two NYC Construction trucks blocking the exit, far away from the exit ramp. I had already turned and was proceeding down the exi ramp.. The two trucks were just sitting there and doing nothing,and they didn’t even have any signs, warning motorists that the exitwas closed. Hence, while attempting to get away from that area, I had to back up. All of a sudden another motorist (who also didn’t know that the exit was closed), came very close to rear ending me. I had to proceed to Flatbush Avenue South, and make a U-turn, in order to come back. When I sent two letters to de Blasio complaining about that situation, I was never even given the courtesy of a reply. Yet, he had the gall to fire Esposito,for something that was out of his control. This is typical of the garbage which goes on, in city government.
Joe Esposito formerly of the NYPD and a long time Flatbush resident is a good man and can’t be blamed for the erroneous weather forcasts that caught the traffic nightmare in November.
Joe Esposito has an exemplary career in both NYPD and as commissioner of OEM. He has been fantastic in every role that he has had and has only shown himself to be competent as well as hard-working. De Blasio is a sleaze ball.
It’s just goes to show how incompetent liberals are at running their own cities.