Mamdani Named His Fire Commissioner. Then Adams Did Too.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday that he had chosen Lillian Bonsignore, the former chief of New York’s Emergency Medical Services, to be the city’s next fire commissioner.

Ms. Bonsignore’s appointment marked a first for the nation’s largest fire department. She is the first openly gay person to lead the department and only its second female commissioner. She will be the first person who headed E.M.S. to run the department, a Mamdani spokeswoman said.

But a little more than 30 minutes before the announcement in Bayside, Queens, Mayor Eric Adams, whose term ends in eight days, announced his own hastily called news conference to swear in his own commissioner. Mark Guerra, who has been the interim head of the department for less than a week, will become commissioner for the next eight days.

When Mr. Mamdani is sworn in at midnight on Jan. 1, Mr. Guerra’s appointment will end.

Mr. Adams’s unusual, impromptu and largely ceremonial swearing-in was yet another clash with Mr. Mamdani in the waning days of the mayor’s tenure.

Mr. Adams has repeatedly critiqued Mr. Mamdani’s “socialist” policies, warning that the city is in danger. And last week, he appointed or reappointed four people to the Rent Guidelines Board, which could make it difficult for Mr. Mamdani to immediately fulfill his campaign promise of freezing the rent for those who live in the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments.

Asked about Tuesday’s competing events, Mr. Mamdani smiled.

“I can tell you that Lillian’s light is one that can’t be damaged by anything else that takes place,” said Mr. Mamdani. “And the mayor is free to to continue to be the mayor until the end of this year and make decisions as such.”