Brian Ware on WNYC. Now it's time to catch up with WNYC and Gotham's lead Mayor Adams reporter, Elizabeth Kim.

Every Tuesday, as many of you know, the mayor holds what they call an off-topic

press conference, allowing reporters to ask him directly about the issues of the week of their

choosing. And for the last eight months or so, it's been eight months already, Liz has joined us

on most Wednesday mornings after the Tuesday news conferences with excerpts and analysis and to take

your calls. Hey, Liz, welcome back to the show. Can you believe it's been eight months we've been doing

this? I can't, Brian. Those eight months have really flown by. It seems like eight minutes.

Right. So the mayor touched on a range of issues at yesterday's news conference. And I want to start off by asking about a story you've been covering for a while about the internal culture of New York City's fire department.

As some of our listeners know, the former FDNY Commissioner, Laura Kavanaugh, resigned last month after less than two years on the job.

She was the first ever woman to hold the position.

And while she didn't explicitly name sexism as a reason for her departure,

you've reported that the FDNY has been facing allegations of discriminatory practices for decades.

So people are putting two and two together.

So before we jump into the press conference and play a clip, can you tell everybody a little bit more about Laura Kavanaugh, what she was like as fire chief and what are people saying about her resignation that let this issue live on weeks later now in a Tuesday news conference.

Sure. She came on with really the full support of the mayor. You know, she was seen as a candidate

who was groomed for this job. She had worked at the FDNY since 2014 under Mayor de Blasio.

And as FDNY commissioner, she had to deal with several crises.

There were firefighters who were sick with COVID.

The Twin Parks Fire in the Bronx where 17 people died.

That was the deadliest fire in New York City in three decades. And there was also the

crisis over e-bike battery fires. But her tenure was also marked by internal strife. And that was

because early on she tried to demote three fire chiefs. And there was a revolt over this and a lawsuit over age

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