De Blasio Names Replacement For Fired OEM Head Joe Esposito
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio has named a new head for the city's Office of Emergency Management.
Deanne Criswill will take over for Joseph Esposito, who was fired six months ago.
Criswill is a retired member of the Colorado Air National Guard and currently works at a Massachusetts-based consulting company.
She will start her new job on July 1.
MORE: Who Is Joe Esposito?
Esposito was dismissed following the city's poor response to a November snowstorm, but de Blasio claimed in December that his decision to replace Esposito had been made weeks prior to the storm.
Sources told CBS2 Esposito initially refused to quit because de Blasio did not speak to Esposito himself, but instead asked Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin to fire him. De Blasio was out of town at the time.
Esposito claimed only the mayor could let him go and continued to report to work. De Blasio later admitted that sending Anglin to fire Esposito was a mistake.
RELATED STORY: De Blasio On Botched Firing Of OEM's Joe Esposito: 'Obviously Something Went Wrong'
According to sources, the mayor wanted new leadership in the office because of a "pattern of non-responsiveness."
"The mayor wants someone with more of a sense of urgency," the sources told CBS2.
Esposito served as the emergency management commissioner for four years. Prior to joining the OEM, he was the only four-star chief in the NYPD and the highest ranking uniformed member of the department.
