Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani broadcasts Sam Levine as commissioner of the NYC Division of Client and Employee Safety.
Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani introduced Monday that Sam Levine, the previous director of the Federal Commerce Fee’s Bureau of Client Safety, will lead the town’s Division of Client and Employee Safety.
Levine labored below former FTC chair Lina Khan, who now co-chairs Mamdani’s 400-person transition crew, serving within the federal client safety workplace from 2021 till 2025.
The Harvard Legislation College graduate shall be tasked with combating wage theft, worker misclassification, labor abuse and misleading or predatory company practices, the mayor’s workplace stated, together with taking over efforts to guard the 80,000 deliveristas working throughout the town.
He brings expertise cracking down on massive tech, together with GrubHub’s exploitation of supply staff and eating places; Amazon’s paid subscription traps; and Meta’s and TikTok’s data-stealing practices.
“I believe that the law is a tool for justice. It’s not a static text, but a living and breathing instrument that has the power to transform the lives of working people,” Levine stated at a Monday press convention.
Levine beforehand labored as an legal professional adviser to former FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra, and earlier than that, labored for the Illinois legal professional normal.
He cited Khan’s and Chopra’s steering as he acknowledged that he’s a “relatively new New Yorker,” however pointed to his household’s roots within the metropolis, together with a grandmother who grew up on the Decrease East Aspect.
“She was a teacher here in the city, and it’s a great honor to carry on that tradition of public service,” Levine stated.
Mamdani kicked off the press convention by reiterating his workplace’s dedication to making a authorities that advantages on a regular basis New Yorkers, together with customers and small enterprise house owners.
“New Yorkers often associate government with an irrelevance to their day-to-day struggles,” the mayor-elect stated.
“I want to write a different story from our city hall: a story of ambition, of reinvention, where working people know that they have fierce champions at every level of government.”
Levine will work below Julie Su, incoming deputy mayor for financial justice.
“From cracking down on price gouging to prohibiting junk fees, Sam has defeated corporate greed throughout his career. He’s a perfect addition to our team and I can’t wait to work together to win our affordability agenda,” Su stated in a press release Monday.
On the press convention Mamdani additionally fielded questions on his inauguration; at midnight on Dec. 31, New York Legal professional Common Letitia James will swear within the new mayor, earlier than Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders does the identical at a separate occasion on Jan. 1.
Mamdani was additionally requested concerning the short-lived appointment of a staffer who resigned after antisemitic social media posts from over a decade in the past got here to gentle, and a report Monday by the Anti-Defamation League highlighting hyperlinks between the mayor’s employees and anti-Zionist teams together with College students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace and Inside Our Lifetime.
“I have always spoken out against antisemitism and hatred in any form and have made it clear that the commitment I have made to protect New Yorkers, to protect Jewish New Yorkers, is one that I will uphold as the next mayor of this city — and we must distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government. The ADL’s report oftentimes ignores this distinction, and in doing so it draws attention away from the very real crisis of antisemitism we see not only just in our city but in the country at large,” Mamdani stated.
Levine returned to the rostrum to supply his personal ideas:
“I was on the transition committee. I’m also a Jewish New Yorker. I have every confidence that the mayor-elect will be a mayor for all New Yorkers; if I had any doubt whatsoever, I would not be standing here today.”
