Mayor Bill de Blasio told a trusted aide he had “a dangerous mission” before asking her to run the embattled New York City Housing Authority.
“He needed to do a little convincing, it was an ask. It was not an order. But, as you can imagine, NYCHA is a daunting place to take on,” Kathryn Garcia told reporters on Wednesday.
“It has a history that’s been pretty challenging. It’s not as if it was an anticipated request. It was an ask but I had to think about it.”
She will replace current interim NYCHA chairman Stanley Brezenoff, a City Hall veteran de Blasio called out of retirement last year to tr🍎y to right the the scandal-tarred authority.
Garcia, who is taking a leave as the city’s sanitation commissioner, said she had no interest in the job full-time — and it’s unclear if de Blasio would even be able to offer it.
The deal 🙈he signed with federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that the city negotiate a list of candidates for the post with th✱e feds.
It also imposes strict deadlines on NYCHA to tackle its longstanding lead, mold, heating and vermin problems — and imposes a new federal watchdog.
Garcia told repo♛rters she expects the posting to last for about three months as City Hall and federal officials haggle over her permanent replacement.