FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh announces resignation
FULL INTERVIEW: FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh speaks with FOX 5 NY about some of the challenges she has faced since becoming Commissioner, including a lawsuit by four demoted FDNY chiefs demanding their jobs back, the deadly threat of e-Bike batteries that has plagued the city and other public safety issues.
NEW YORK CITY - Laura Kavanagh announced on Saturday she would be stepping down as commissioner.
Kavanagh said in an email she is going to pursue other opportunities.
Mayor Adams appointed Kavanagh in 2022.
A separate statement from Adams shared with Fox News Digital bolstered that claim, saying the city "respects her decision."
"Commissioner Kavanagh has dedicated her life to keeping New Yorkers safe and while we’ve made it clear that she could have kept this position for as long as she wanted, we respect her decision to take the next step in her career," Adams said.
She was the first female commissioner in the 159-year history of the FDNY.
Kavanagh has come under fire of late, with criticism coming from both inside and outside FDNY walls.
Most recently, Kavanagh was jeered while marching in the annual NYC St. Patrick's Day parade in March, after she promised to "hunt" down protesting firefighters who booed Attorney General Letitia James during an FDNY ceremony a week before the parade.
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
In 2023, she was hit with an age discrimination lawsuit that alleged she targeted older top FDNY staffers with demotions, retaliation and forced retirements.
Several high-level staffers in their late 50s and early 60s sued Kavanagh for unspecified damages, back pay and the return of job titles under the state’s human rights laws, according to a 53-page lawsuit filed in the Brooklyn state Supreme Court first published by the New York Post.
The lawsuit claimed staff members were forced to work in a hostile and retaliatory work environment.
"While the decision I have made over the last month has been a hard one, I’m confident that it is time for me to pass the torch to the next leader of the finest Fire Department in the world," Kavanagh said in her resignation statement.
"I look forward to spending the next several months assisting the department’s transition in leadership, before embarking on my next professional challenge. Thank you Mayor Adams for the opportunity you gave me and for your continued support of me and the FDNY," she added.
"It has been the honor of a lifetime to devote the last 10 years — five as first deputy commissioner and more than two as commissioner — to advocating for the men and women of the FDNY."
Kavanagh says she will stay on the job while they find her a replacement.
Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller and Andrea Vachianno contributed to this report.