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Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams, who’s all but guaranteed to win the election, is refusing to say whether the fast-approaching vaccine mandate deadline for city workers should be delayed despite predictions that 20 percent of fire companies and ambulances will go dark.
“The mayor’s the mayor now and I think the worst thing we could do is have two mayors making decisions,” Adams, who would inherit the fallout from the mandate, said at a campaign stop in the Bronx on Thursday.
“I’m not going to supersede someone who’s in office. I wouldn’t want them to do that to me. If it should be delayed or not, that’s a question Mayor de Blasio needs to answer,” Adams added.
The outgoing Brooklyn borough president declined to answer a follow-up question by a Post reporter about how the city would fill the likely gap in services caused by the mandate.
The FDNY is preparing to shutter a fifth of Big Apple fire companies and take an equal number of ambulances offline when the mandate goes into effect Monday.
Trash is piling up on Staten Island and in parts of Brooklyn as part of a planned work slowdown by Department of Sanitation employees protesting the requirement.
About 65 percent of sanitation staff and firefighters have gotten the shot. Just over 60 percent of beat cops are inoculated against the coronavirus. The essential workers face suspension without play starting next week if they don’t get the jab.
De Blasio has downplayed concerns about labor shortages, insisting the gaps will be filled with overtime and redeployments.
While Adams punted on the mandate deadline, he’s been quick to contradict de Blasio on other major City Hall policies including the Gifted and Talented program and requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for school children.
He faces GOP opponent Curtis Sliwa in the general election Nov. 2. Early voting is already underway and a recent poll gave Adams a massive, 40-point lead over the Guardian Angels founder, who is against vaccination mandates.
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