Ex-FDNY boss during 9/11 says Commissioner Laura Kavanagh was pushed out by ‘old boys club’
The head of the FDNY during 9/11 is blasting the department’s “old boys club” and City Hall for helping to “set up” Commissioner Laura Kavanagh “to fail.”
“The devil is in the details,” ex-fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen told The Post, referring to the recently announced resignation of the department’s embattled, outgoing, first female commish.
“The old boys club of staff chiefs at FDNY was sure to come after [Kavanaugh,” he said. “She handled it poorly but was on target with trying to get more of the younger, talented lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs to come to headquarters with loftier goals than padding comp time and pensions.”
Von Essen, 79, who is intimately familiar with the inner workings of the FDNY, also toiled with agency officials and the FDNY’s front-line ambulance workers when he served as the NY-NJ regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said Mayor Eric Adams’ administration could have done a better job, too, of supporting Kavanagh as she led the country’s largest fire department.
“When Commissioner Kavanagh was appointed, they gave her a chief of staff from the NYPD — I mean, who thought that one up?” Von Essen said, referring to Luis Martinez.
“Well, it was a deputy mayor from NYPD — I suppose a good manager but clueless,” he said, referring to Phil Banks, Adams’s deputy for public safety who apparently put Martinez in the post.
Kavanagh’s announced departure a week ago came after a slew of controversies that left some members of Adams’ administration reportedly questioning her ability to lead the city’s Fire Department. Adams has publicly stood by his fire commish.
The issues facing the commissioner included rising FDNY emergency-response times, surges in lithium-ion battery fires citywide, repeated criticism from underlings and an age-discrimination lawsuit filed by department honchos she demoted.
An angry Kavanagh also ordered brass to hunt down smoke-eaters who mercilessly booed state Attorney General Letitia James – and cheered in support of Donald Trump – during a department promotion ceremony in March.
Von Essen agreed the booing and heckling at the ceremony was “inappropriate behavior” and called the age discrimination lawsuit “BS.”
He also praised rank-and-file firefighters and ambulance workers who do “such a good job” that they mask “poor management” at the FDNY.
The civil-service culture at the agency is a hindrance and long-term problem, said Von Essen — who oversaw the department on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists launched the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center.
“There are dozens of management improvements that need to be implemented at FDNY. They will never happen with the same old civil-service thinking,” he said.
He recommended:
- The leadership of FDNY/EMS and hospitals come up with a plan to slash “unacceptable” response times largely due to ambulance workers “spending too long” in hospital emergency rooms.
- Encourage more military vets to become firefighters to boost racial and ethnic diversity. “The military folks are already vetted, have work experience and are diversified,” he said.
- A business executive or retired military leader should be the next fire commissioner. “FDNY needs a strong manager who understands safety, efficiency, politics, accountability and leadership,” Von Essen said.
The FDNY and the mayor’s office, asked for comment, referred The Post to statements Kavanagh made Sunday on PIX 11.
Kavanagh said she wanted to be a role model as the first female FDNY commissioner.
“I knew how hard it might be … I knew it would be harder. There would be some parts messy and unpleasant,” she said.
But it was worth doing, she said — adding it is unfair to malign the FDNY because many organizations struggle with having a “first” female leader.
She said the next commissioner needs to be both “really tough” and self-reflective.
Kavanagh said her angriest moment was witnessing the booing and heckling behavior by FDNY employees at the promotion ceremony attended by James.
“That’s the most mad I’ve ever been in my tenure on the job. That’s the most upset I’ve ever been,” the commissioner said.
“I couldn’t stop it that day. I had to sit on stage. It was embarrassing. The fact that I couldn’t stop it that day was upsetting.”
She also called the discrimination suit filed against her and the department “preposterous”
