From there, he was plucked by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to be the Department of Finance commissioner and then the budget director during the previous administration. He worked as a parking lot attendant to pay for college and graduate school before entering government at the state level. He was born in Haiti and immigrated to Brooklyn at the age of 21. On paper, Jiha seems like an ideal pick for an administration that has prided itself on the diversity of its top appointments. Yet the cost of Adams empowering OMB at the expense of other power centers in the administration has manifested in unnecessary headaches, irked advocates and, in the most extreme scenario, city lawmakers outmaneuvering the administration so thoroughly that a simmering disagreement about housing vouchers is likely to end up in court. The final decision, he noted, is always up to the mayor. And in the case of PlaNYC, Jiha merely presented options. The job of the budget director, mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon told POLITICO, is to implement the administration’s priorities in a fiscally sound way.

Should the current trend continue, the mayor risks protecting the municipal purse at the expense of his own political flank, all as he approaches a critical juncture for delivering on campaign promises, establishing legacy items and convincing voters he should get another four years at the helm of the city.Ĭity Hall, which declined to make the budget director available for an interview, said Jiha has steered the city through two financial storms - Covid-19 and the ongoing asylum-seeker crisis - and proven himself an invaluable steward of the municipal pocketbook by balancing budgets without layoffs or tax cuts in two administrations.

In turn, that imbalance has pushed the administration into several political missteps - most notably around labor and housing - that have been more harmful than any hit to the city’s bottom line. The practice has saved the city money, but has crowded out important policy and political considerations in the process. In the name of prepping for an uncertain fiscal future, Adams has given Jiha wide latitude to reduce spending and quash initiatives sought by others in the administration. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, right, and Budget Director Jacques Jiha testify before the state Legislature in Albany earlier this year.

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