Within the midst of an abroad journey to Albania, Mayor Adams is skipping this yr’s FDNY memorial day ceremony honoring fallen members of the division — marking the primary time he has missed the solemn occasion since he took over the reins at Metropolis Corridor in 2022.
“Our members risk their lives every day to protect this city. To see the mayor overseas while the FDNY gathers to remember our fallen is deeply hurtful,” Ansbro stated Tuesday.
“We expect our city’s leadership to stand beside us — not just when it’s convenient, but when it truly matters.”
Wednesday morning’s ceremony on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights will honor eight firefighters and EMS employees who died previously yr, together with FDNY Captain Thomas LaBarbiera, who handed away at 51 from 9/11-related most cancers final September.
However Adams spokesman Zachary Nosanchuk confirmed Tuesday the mayor won’t be attending as he’s in Albania by means of Thursday assembly with that nation’s prime minister and different native leaders.
Nosanchuk stated Kaz Daughtry, Adams’ deputy mayor for public security, will attend Wednesday’s ceremony in his stead.
“With a more than two-decade career in law enforcement himself, Mayor Adams deeply values the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to keep New York safe,” Nosanchuk stated, noting that the Adams administration just lately spent $91 million on changing FDNY ambulances.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams is pictured on the FDNY’s annual Memorial Day Ceremony to honor FDNY members who’ve died within the earlier yr on the Riverside Park Firemen’s Monument on Oct. 12, 2022. (Michael Appleton / Mayoral Images Workplace)
Kayla Mamelak, Adams’ press secretary, disputed the notion that it’s unusual for New York Metropolis mayors to overlook the annual FDNY ceremony. She didn’t specify which mayor had missed the occasion.
Adams attended and spoke on the 2022, 2023 and 2024 FDNY memorial ceremonies. On the FDNY’s memorial day service in October 2023, Adams, a retired NYPD captain, spoke about how the annual occasion is particularly essential for him.
“When you come to an acknowledgment to reflect on the year, to be here with the men and women who are your colleagues, and stating that ‘never forget’ is more than a bumper sticker or a slogan, it’s an actual presentation as you honor those that we have lost,” he stated at that yr’s ceremony.
For the mayor’s Albania journey, the town’s masking the price of his flights and a few associated bills, whereas the Albanian authorities is paying for his lodging and floor transportation to the tune of about $290 per day, Mamelak stated. That fee construction has raised some eyebrows, provided that Adams’ now-dismissed federal corruption indictment alleged he took bribes from Turkish authorities operatives.
Adams departed for Albania early Monday, per week after he dropped his bid for reelection amid low polling numbers within the wake of the Trump administration’s controversial dismissal of his indictment.
With Thomas Tracy
Initially Revealed: October 7, 2025 at 12:46 PM EDT
