Zohran Mamdani Needs a Staffing Plan

Zohran Mamdani could well be the next mayor of New York City. He’s captured imaginations with big, exciting promises: more housing, free buses and city-run grocery stores. The vision is bold, and the energy is real.

But translating that energy into real outcomes for New Yorkers hinges on a question every mayor must answer: Who’s actually going to do the work?

Government is powered by the people who process permits, pave roads, close affordable housing deals and design the bus lanes those free buses will drive on. When Bill de Blasio took office in 2014, he inherited a city government that was well-staffed and financially stable after years of economic growth. That foundation mattered. It made it possible to deliver big, complex initiatives like Universal Pre-K, IDNYC and Vision Zero at scale.

This time is different. After years of attrition, hiring freezes and budget cuts, the workforce is smaller than it was prepandemic, and the fiscal outlook is more uncertain than ever. What the city needs now is a smart, targeted rebuilding of its workforce grounded in fiscal reality and focused on service delivery.

Here are three ways Mamdani can quickly and decisively rebuild and reimagine New York City’s workforce:

1. Bring in operational leadership with deep knowledge of how city government works.

The next mayor needs a senior team that shares his vision and a desire to get to yes, but also understands all the reasons people inside the government will say no. These are the super-nerds — often with cross-sector experience — who know the nuances of ULURP (the arduous Uniform Land Use Review Procedure that development projects go through), the realities of municipal finance, how to navigate labor agreements and how to negotiate with both developers and community stakeholders in equal measure. Some senior roles will, and should, reflect the mayor’s values, but positions that make up the operational backbone of government must prioritize experience and execution.

When de Blasio took office with a big promise to deliver 200,000 units of affordable housing, he appointed Alicia Glen — a civic-minded leader with a decade of experience at Goldman Sachs — as deputy mayor for Housing and Economic Development. On paper, she didn’t fit the rhetoric of his campaign. But de Blasio understood that if he wanted to push developers toward more affordable housing at greater scale, he needed someone who spoke their language and knew how to move projects through both the private sector and the city bureaucracy. That bet paid off: The administration exceeded its audacious goal, largely because he brought in someone willing and able to challenge him and translate vision into execution.

The next mayor will need to do the same: build a leadership bench with people who understand how government works, how systems break down and how to push through resistance to deliver real results for New Yorkers.

2. Commission a real citywide talent and capacity assessment within the first 90 days.

There’s no magic number for how big — or small — New York City’s government should be. The right size is the one that allows the city to deliver the level of service New Yorkers deserve, within the fiscal realities we’re facing.

That means starting with outcomes, not headcount. What services do New Yorkers expect? How quickly should housing applications get processed? How fast should potholes get filled? How responsive should emergency services be? Once the administration defines those service goals, it can work backward to determine the staffing levels, skills and organizational changes needed to deliver them.

Sometimes that will mean hiring more people. Other times it will mean streamlining, innovating, or rethinking how work gets done — especially given new and emerging technologies. But without a clear, data-driven picture of current capacity and gaps, the City risks either overcorrecting or continuing to under-resource critical functions.

This kind of operational workforce planning isn’t radical. It’s standard practice in the private sector. When companies start missing performance targets, they conduct a capacity and talent analysis, mapping where work is getting done, identifying bottlenecks and deciding where to redeploy, retrain or make targeted hires.

And once the City knows the workforce it needs, it can’t ignore the structural barriers to building it. Hiring for critical roles often takes months — or years — thanks to outdated civil service rules. Comptroller Brad Lander’s recent mayoral campaign offered some proposals to address these challenges, including civil service reform, faster hiring processes, and stronger retention strategies. It’s a good start for whoever takes office next.

3. Rebuild morale and retain the workforce we already have.

Before focusing on recruitment, the City needs to re-engage the people already doing the work. That starts with visible, sustained outreach to frontline and mid-level civil servants. Restoring pride in city service is critical.

Every City employee should feel clear on why they love serving New Yorkers and feel equipped and excited to share that story with others. At Work for America, we’re partnering with cities across the country to help workshop what makes their workforce special. We help frontline employees identify their own “why here, why now” story — why this job, in this place, at this moment matters to them. We pair that with marketing materials that humanize city government and help prospective applicants see the real people behind public service.

Brand matters. Messaging matters. And no one can sell the value of government work better than the people already doing it.

This is an area where Mamdani is especially well-positioned to excel. His campaign has shown a deep understanding of how to connect with people on the channels they actually use, with messages that speak to them as humans, not as faceless constituents. That same approach can, and should, extend to how the City recruits, engages and retains its workforce.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia famously said there’s no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the trash. The same holds true today: There’s no Democratic Socialist way to build a bus lane or respond to an emergency. There’s just service delivery, plain and simple. 

With the right people in the right roles, and a serious plan to strengthen the city workforce, Mamdani has a real chance not just to imagine a better New York, but to make it happen.