Top Adams official heading for the door

NEW YORK — Roberto Perez, head of the city’s intergovernmental affairs office, is leaving for a job in the private sector — the first high-profile departure of Mayor Eric Adams' young administration.

Perez handled the mayor's relationships with city and state officials as the administration navigated budget negotiations with the City Council and a rocky Legislative session in Albany. He was one of the few holdovers from former Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration, where he ran the Community Affairs Unit.

“Roberto is a distinguished public servant with a long career in government, and we asked him to stay on to help this administration hit the ground running, build the best intergovernmental affairs team in the business, and work with us through the first budget,” Frank Carone, the mayor’s chief of staff, said in a statement. “We’re grateful he agreed to extend his stay, particularly given how difficult his role was during the covid crisis.”

Perez is joining tech firm CGI as its director of business development, capping a tenure in city government that also included a stint as director of intergovernmental affairs for the Department of Education.

Perez’s departure has been whispered about in political and government circles for months, as squabbling within the mayor’s intergovernmental team persists.

The dynamic is exacerbated by hazy lines of authority in a unit that Perez officially runs, but which has several overseers. In addition to Carone, whose portfolio includes the intergovernmental division, the mayor’s political operation is managed at times by his closest aide — Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, according to four people familiar with the situation. Senior Advisor Tiffany Raspberry and Carone’s deputy, Menashe Shapiro, have also exerted oversight of the division, the four said.

As Perez heads for the door, State Sen. Diane Savino, a staunch supporter of Adams, is expected to soon join the administration in a political role after declining to run for reelection.

Savino, a moderate Democrat representing Staten Island, endorsed Adams during the contentious primary last year and has since been one of his biggest defenders. She has announced she would not seek re-election and the mayor recently endorsed her preferred successor, Jessica Scarcella-Spanton.

Savino did not immediately respond to questions about her upcoming transition to City Hall, which was confirmed by a city official.

The mayor's office did not name a successor to Perez, who will leave at the end of September.

“This is a bittersweet announcement for me, but I’ll always treasure being a part of the Get Stuff Done team and I look forward to helping from the outside in the months and years ahead,” Perez said in a statement.