Transcript: Mayor Adams Appoints Robert Tucker As 35th Fire Commissioner Of FDNY

August 12, 2024

Battalion Chief Mark Guerra, 35th Battalion, Master of Ceremonies, Fire Department: Thank you, cardinal. Please retire the colors. How about a nice round of applause for the FDNY Ceremonial Unit Color Guard and the FDNY Emerald Society Pipes and Drums?

Thank you. Please be seated. Once again, good morning. I am Battalion Chief Mark Guerra from the 35th Battalion, and it is my honor to be your master of ceremony this morning. I would now like to take a moment to introduce the members of our dais. The honorable mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks. Mr. Robert Tucker. Chief of Department John Hodgens. Chief of Staff to the Mayor Camille Joseph-Varlack. Acting Fire Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer. Acting Chief of Department John Esposito. Chief of EMS Operations Michael J. Fields. Acting Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods. Chief of Training Thomas Currao. Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn. FDNY Foundation Chairman Steve Ruzow. Timothy Cardinal Dolan. FDNY Chaplain Rabbi Joseph Potasnik. Pastor of the Christian Cultural Center A.R. Bernard. And Deputy Mayor of Communications Fabien Levy.

Nice round of applause for our entire dais. I would also like to acknowledge all of the FDNY chiefs, deputy associate and assistant commissioners, union officials, elected officials, FDNY members, and our family. Welcome to all. I would now like to invite Firefighter Regina Wilson, the president of the Vulcan Society, back to the podium for remarks.

Regina Wilson, President, The Vulcan Society: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here today to celebrate this occasion with us. Again, my name is Regina Wilson, and I'm the president of The Vulcan Society. And I stand here today with the mayor of New York, who we have a longstanding and great relationship with, as he makes the decision on making the new commissioner of the Fire Department of New York.

Our organization, as we have in many years, have worked with commissioners for our 84-year existence, and we look forward to working with Mr. Tucker as we improve the conditions of the Fire Department, dealing with a lot of issues this organization has brought forward. And for him to add on to some of the great work our organization has done to make this job more fair and equitable. So we look forward to this adventure, and we're more than happy to get to start the work with you. So thank you.

Battalion Chief Guerra: Thank you, Firefighter Wilson. It is now my pleasure to introduce Deputy Mayor Philip Banks.

Deputy Mayor Philip Banks III, Public Safety: Good morning. Public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. The mayor said it yesterday, he said it today, and he's going to say it tomorrow. I know you've heard it before. I've heard it about 100,000 times. And there's no agency that is as important as the FDNY.

We sometimes, we see that they put out fires, and they respond to people injured. But it goes much, much more in depth than that. The training, the education, the prevention, something that a lot of people will never, ever see. And that's why the mayor has been very deliberate about who he has chosen to be the fire commissioner. He said it is a great agency, and it needs a great leader. And he needs someone who has the vision, someone who has the skill set level, and the muscle to carry through.

So just like with a great, great baton race, where someone starts the race and they pass the baton off, Commissioner Kavanagh had done a fantastic job moving this agency to another level. It was time to pass the baton off, and now the baton will be passed off to someone else where the mayor has 100 percent confidence that can continue to merge their skill set level with just such great agency. With that, I'd like to introduce to you the 110th mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much. Barry, I was sitting here and I was asking, you know, where's your dad? He told me it was you. I think about when Jordan was born, I was in the delivery room. And as he exited his mother's womb, the doctor reached over to assist her. I moved the doctor's hand because I said, I wanted to be the first person to touch my son when he entered the world. And we sit here today and we see the elevation of your son becoming the commissioner of the Fire Department. But I know there's another narrative here. There's an underlying love story that only we know as fathers and as mothers. As we see, Robert is taking his son off tomorrow to go to college.

The continuous tradition of what we want for our children, how we hope that they can just have a fair chance in life. Robert is to you what Jordan is to me and what his son is to him. This is what this story is about. And oftentimes we get so used to the lyrics of what I talk about all the time, the Star Spangled Banner and our national anthem. Of the rockets' red glare of bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

This is the greatest country on the globe, folks. And we're the greatest country on the globe because we made it of the greatest people on the globe. And nothing personifies that more than what the men and women do who are first responders, particularly those who are part of the Fire Department, the FDNY.

And you're not perfect, but we don't have to be perfect. We have to be dedicated and committed and focused. And it doesn't matter who's the president, who's the mayor, who's the state senator. When the calls are made from the people of the public, you respond. That is why this is such a significant moment that's taking place on the stage of the FDNY history.

If you look through the resume of Robert, you will miss some of the things that he has done. The legacy of his mother and her role with Mayor Koch and how he started up looking starry-eyed at the beauty of being a member of this department and always wanted to have a role in giving back to the city.

It was with the Board of Rabbis, it was with Big Sisters, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, no matter what, he wanted to give back. And I knew what he was inheriting. He was inheriting more than just a department that had to put out flames of burning buildings. We had to put out the flames that are actually burning inside the agency. And it's going to take a level of honesty and ability to communicate to accomplish that task. That's why, Robert, it was crucial to me that before we did anything, I said, Deputy Mayor Banks, you must speak with Regina from the Vulcan Society and she must approve of whoever is the next commissioner that I bring inside this agency. She must believe she can work with them and mend some of the fences that have been broken for decades and how we can unite together because that is what we're going to need as we move forward and see the new challenges that this department is facing.

And I knew Robert was the one to do it. And with her agreement that he was the person to take this department to the next level, we're proud to be here today and announce Robert Tucker as the next fire commissioner of the City of New York, the FDNY, to lead the bravest, to lead them into a brave future.

And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the role that Commissioner Kavanagh played. And sometimes I say to the team, my chief of staff and my deputy mayor of communications often, sometimes our lives are a retrospective appreciation. We don't really appreciate the full scope of a person's existence during the time that they're here. It's a challenging task to be the first woman to be a commissioner in the Fire Department of the City of New York. And she stood up to that challenge and she leaned into some of the challenges, everything from the battery fires that challenges the lives of innocent people, to bringing on more women into the department and showing no matter how difficult it is, being the bravest is more than running into a burning building, it's running into challenging circumstances. And she did that.

She loved this city and she embraced the city. And I thank her for her service to the city. Now we pass the baton, we pass the baton to a young New Yorker, to a young person who believes that this is the greatest Fire Department on the globe. And we're going to reach the level and the plateaus that's reflective of this department. But it all started out with Barry and his mother.

It's a proud day for you. I remember watching Jordan graduate from American University. I was broke because college was expensive. But it was just a warm feeling in my heart. And I know you're feeling the same. So from one dad to the next, congratulations to you. And I wish you Godspeed as your son is now the commissioner of the FDNY.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do hereby pledge and declare.

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker: I do hereby pledge and declare.

Mayor Adams: That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

Commissioner Tucker: That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

Mayor Adams: And the Constitution of the State of New York,

Commissioner Tucker: The Constitution of the State of New York

Mayor Adams: And that I will faithfully discharge the duties,

Commissioner Tucker: That I will faithfully discharge the duties,

Mayor Adams: Of the position of Fire Commissioner,

Commissioner Tucker: Of the position of Fire Commissioner,

Mayor Adams: In the fire department of New York City,

Commissioner Tucker: In the fire department of New York City,

Mayor Adams: According to the best of my ability,

Commissioner Tucker: According to the best of my ability,

Mayor Adams: So help me God.

Commissioner Tucker: So help me God.

Mayor Adams: Congratulations, Commissioner Tucker.

Commissioner Tucker: Thank you, I'm gonna just give my dad a minute to get back to his seat and take it all in while he's doing that. I'm lucky my 86-year-old dad is here and taking his time. Walk a little slower. You've never walked this fast. Walk a little slower.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Your Eminence, Reverend, Clergy, good friends, Regina, of course, for singing that beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, and members of the FDNY, good morning. Thank you for being here. I'm honored to join you at the FDNY Academy, the best fire safety training center in the nation, and the location where FDNY recruits start their career and train vigorously to sharpen their skills in order to join the ranks of the greatest fire department in the world.

Public safety has been my life's work. I've had a long career in the public and private sector, and being appointed fire commissioner of the City of New York is the biggest honor of my life. I have been a committed servant to the City of New York, which started here at the FDNY in the summer of 1985 when I was a summer intern.

I've been an assistant DA. I've run a global security firm. I've served on numerous boards, including the FDNY and the Police Foundation, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I can think of no higher calling than serving as the fire commissioner for the City of New York. This is truly a dream come true.

I grew up in Manhattan in the 1970s, which as some of you may recall was a pretty rough time, especially for firefighters, rough enough that it was called the war years. Firefighters were taking it on the chin. Not only were they fighting an incredible number of blazes, but people who were supposed to be our neighbors were booby trapping refrigerators and tossing junk out of windows at them when they arrived on the scene.

Firefighters, along with our brothers and sisters in the NYPD, were the first line of defense against a lot of anger and civic dysfunction. They were my heroes. So while other kids were playing baseball and catching the Indiana Jones/Ghostbusters double feature, I was riding my bicycle up and down Lexington Avenue chasing Engine 22 and Ladder 13. During that summer of 1985, my first job was working in the FDNY communication office in Central Park. In between filing after action reports and filling cups of coffee, I became obsessed with learning how to map multiple alarm fires across Manhattan, which no one was really doing at the time, and concluded that most of the fires in Manhattan were clustered in specific pockets of the city.

It was an early-stage analog solution to saving lives that has been improved upon, but it started me down the path that has led me here. And from that summer job and that paper map, I became absolutely captivated with the business of public safety because, well, what's not to love? These people are real superheroes, and I couldn't respect them more.

The City of New York is the greatest city in the world, and as I noted earlier, we have never been immune to problems. Today we aren't dealing with booby-trapped refrigerators or junk being thrown from windows. Like this department, the public safety challenges of our time have evolved. Today we have new challenges, lithium-ion batteries, fentanyl, temperature-related environmental conditions, and many more.

So as this landscape, or should I say firescape, is changing, we must meet the moment and deliver real solutions for this city and the heroes who serve it. I am making a commitment today to do just that. While New York City's bravest fight fires inside burning buildings, my job will be to fight fires for them and the city from the outside. The women and men who choose to do this job are special people, and it's not just a job. A lot of time, it's a family tradition. In fact, we have numerous parent-child teams in the department right now, and we also have more than 70 9/11 legacy members who are paying homage to the sacrifices their parents made carrying on their work.

So these are the bonds formed by intensity, tested by pressure, and cemented by sacrifice. And as anyone in a firehouse will tell you, what affects one person affects everyone. Firehouse culture has come under scrutiny. It is important to remember that a house needs to be just that, a home for everyone who signs up for this line of work.

I will work to ensure our houses deliver the cultures and experience everyone deserves. Because the truth is, you want to see love? Go to a firehouse. You want to see bravery? Go to a firehouse. You want to see people who have each other's back? Go to a firehouse. You want to see teamwork? Go to a firehouse. You want to see dedication? Go to a firehouse. And so, FDNY, I say to you, you have an issue you need help solving, you come to me. You need different equipment? You come to me. You need someone to remind you how much this city loves you? You come to me. I know my role here. You're out doing the hard job. I'm here to make it easier and safer. And together, we're going to bring the FDNY its best days.

We're going to respect the decades of wisdom that can only be earned climbing the ladder and supplement it with the latest and most innovative technology to make your job safer. We're going to retain the best of FDNY culture and make sure it extends to all of our members. We're going to celebrate what's going right with pride, and we're going to be unflinching about admitting when we can do better. So what's my message, FDNY? It's simple. While you have New Yorkers' backs, I've got your back.

I want to thank outgoing Commissioner Laura Kavanagh for the work she's already invested on these fronts. We both care deeply about this department, and I'm grateful to her for her over 10 years of service. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, for entrusting me with this role, and thank you to the devoted professionals on the stage and in the audience who make this city run. It's an honor and a privilege for me to be among you now. I also want to thank my three extraordinary children, my sister, my dad, who has taught me that you learn everything you need to know about a person by their loyalty and the depth of their friendship, and lastly, but most importantly, my late mother, a woman who was a generation ahead of her time, a 12-year veteran of the Koch administration who raised my sister and I exactly the same, to work hard and persevere, and who taught us that a life of service is the highest calling.

To the EMTs, paramedics, and firefighters, this is the greatest honor of my life. I am here to serve you. I am honored to be the 35th fire commissioner of the City of New York. I know the work we will accomplish together will make this department even greater, and we will make this city an even safer place to live, work, and raise a family.

Battalion Chief Guerra: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the fire commissioner of the City of New York, Robert S. Tucker. Please remain standing for the benediction by Rabbi Joseph Potasnik.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Chaplain, Fire Department: Your Eminence, look at the weather I gave you today. What does it take to convince you? Reverend A.R. Bernard cautioned me when I got up to speak, remember that famous religious proverb, blessed are those who speak briefly, for they shall be invited back. Thank you. In all of our religious traditions, mountains play a prominent role.

We speak of Mount Sinai, we speak of Mount Ararat, we speak of the Sermon on the Mount, the reason being that you have to learn in life to make mountains out of moments. Today we come to celebrate that mountain of a moment. As we watch the Olympics, let us also remember that in the original Olympics, the winner of the race was not the one who finished first, it was the one who finished first, with the flame still burning brightly.

Commissioner Tucker, I know you well. You have run this race with your ideals burning very brightly. So I watched as you were sworn in on the Bible, on which you were Bar Mitzvahed, and I thought to myself, when we begin a new chapter of the Bible, we say in Hebrew, "Chazak, chazak, v'nitchazeik!" Be strong, be strong, and let us be strong together. May all of us stand with that strength, with one another, serving this great department that is ready to sacrifice lives to save lives, because they believe that we all belong to one family. So Commissioner Robert S. Tucker, as Cardinal Dolan will say, mazel tov on this great day.

Battalion Chief Guerra: Thank you, rabbi. On behalf of Mayor Adams, Fire Commissioner Tucker, and all the members of our dais, we would like to thank everyone for attending, and wish our 35th Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker, the best of luck. Thank you, and have a great day.

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