Three weeks after taking office, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has tapped a 33-person transition team “to help build a professional and experienced team that will reflect New York City and its values.”
The group is co-chaired by former Councilwoman Una Clarke – who also serves on Mayor de Blasio’s transition committee. The new mayor and speaker are close allies, and his intervention in the speaker’s race tipped the contest in her favor.
The other co-chair is Rossana Rosado, former editor of El Diario, the Spanish-language daily newspaper.
On the committee are top officials at several politically powerful unions – Kevin Finnegan, political director at healthcare union SEIU 1199, which strongly pushed Mark-Viverito’s candidacy, Natalia Salgado, deputy political director at building workers union 32BJ, and Devin Maroney, deputy political director of the Hotel and Motel Trades Council.
It also features former borough presidents from three boroughs – Marty Markowitz and Helen Marshall, who just left office in Brooklyn and Queens, respectively, and former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.
The full list is below:
Co-Chairs
Dr. Una Clarke, Co-Chair – Former NYC Council Member, 40th District, Brooklyn
Rossana Rosado, Co-Chair – Former Editor, El Diario
Committee Members
Noilyn Abesamis-Mendoza – Dir., Health Programs, Coalition for Asian American Children & Families
Cira Angeles – President, LA Riverside Brokerage, Inc.
Ana Maria Archila – Co-Executive Director, Center for Popular Democracy
Don Mario Bosco – Counsel, Bosco, Ward & Nopar
Jose Calderon – President, Hispanic Federation
John Calvelli – Executive Vice President, Public Affairs, Bronx Zoo
Frank Carone – Partner, Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara & Wolf, LLP
Daniel Cassella – President, ATU Local 726
Humberto Cruz – Former Director, AIDS Institute of the New York State Department of Health
Francisco Diaz, Jr. – President, Los Higos Del Barrio HDFC
Soraya Elcock – Former Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Harlem United
C. Virginia Fields – President & CEO, National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS
Kevin Finnegan – Political Director, SEIU 1199
Jennifer Hensley – Executive Director, Association for a Better New York
Jacqueline Huey – Former. Sr. Director of Revenue and Management, NYC HHC
Virginia Kee – Founding member, Chinese American Planning Council
Victor Kovner, Esq. – Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer – Executive Director, Queens Council of the Arts
Jenny Low – District Leader, 65th Assembly District
Marty Markowitz – Former Brooklyn Borough President
Devin Maroney – Deputy Political Director, New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council
Helen Marshall – Former Queens Borough President
Shahana Masum – Director, Bangladeshi American Advocacy Group
Brette McSweeney – Executive Director, Eleanor’s Legacy
Suki Terada Ports – Former Executive Director, Family Health Project
Félix V. Matos Rodriguez – President, Hostos Community College
Allen Roskoff – LGBT Community Activist
Natalia Salgado – Deputy Political Director, 32BJ SEIU
Melissa Sklarz – Director, New York Trans Rights Coalition
Udai Tambar – Director, South Asian Youth Action
Javier Valdes – Co-Executive Director, Make the Road, NY
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