Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the chief advisor to Mayor Eric Adams, has retired in the latest high-profile departure in the administration.
“I thank God, first and foremost, for allowing me to serve the city that I love for close to 35 years through volunteerism and employment,” she said in a statement, noting that it was “a bittersweet moment” to leave her role.
She planned to spend more time with her family, including her granddaughter, while still continuing “to do everything in my power to fight for this great city every day as a private citizen.”
In a statement, the mayor praised her work and their decades-old friendship. “Ingrid has not been just a friend, a confidant, and trusted advisor, but also a sister,” he wrote. “I, and every New Yorker, owe her a debt of gratitude for her decades of service to our city.”
Lewis-Martin’s name had remained above the fray as news reports beginning last November detailed multiple federal investigations into Adams, his campaign and members of his inner circle, eventually resulting in a string of high-profile resignations.
That changed in late September, when Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s friend for nearly four decades and closest handler for his entire career in politics, was intercepted by investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York and the Manhattan District Attorney as she landed at JFK airport returning from a trip to Japan.
She was traveling with a group of around seven other people, her lawyer told THE CITY, including Jesse Hamilton, another longtime Adams ally and the city’s deputy commissioner for Real Estate Services.
Her phones were seized and served with a federal grand jury subpoena, she described hours later in a live radio appearance with her personal attorney Arthur Aidala.
“We’re human beings. We are imperfect, but we are not thieves,” she said while denying any wrongdoing. “And I do believe that in the end that the New York City public will see that we have not done anything illegal to the magnitude or scale that requires the federal government and the DA’s office to investigate us.”
Decades with Adams
Lewis-Martin and Adams’ relationship dates back to 1984, when she met him through her husband Glenn Martin, who was at the police academy with Adams.
Before entering politics, Lewis-Martin — who grew up in Brooklyn and is of Bajan and Panamanian heritage — was a public middle school teacher and later worked at Medgar Evers College. When Adams became a state senator in 2008, she was his senior advisor and chief of staff. When he became borough president in 2018, she was a deputy borough president. And when Adams became mayor in 2022, Lewis-Martin was one of his earliest appointments.
At City Hall, Lewis-Martin wielded unusual power as one of the mayor’s closest confidants. The 63-year-old, who admitted in an interview with NY1 she hasn’t ridden the subway since she was 19, drew ire from street safety advocates after she interfered to roll back two Department of Transportation street safety projects in Brooklyn .
Lewis-Martin was behind the brief cancellation of an open street in Fort Greene temporarily killed before it was reinstated by the mayor, the New York Times reported.
THE CITY reported that Adams turned to Lewis-Martin over experts from the Department of Transportation to solicit community feedback on the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, ultimately killing the DOT’s original plan for the block and watering down the redesign, following a pressure campaign from a long-term donor and ally.
Lewis-Martin also had a hand in blocking a street redesign in Downtown Brooklyn that was opposed by a powerful developer and Adams supporter Two Trees Management, Streetsblog reported.
During her trip to Japan in September, Lewis-Martin told THE CITY she had “made it clear from day one that I am not doing eight years.”
But during her live radio appearance on her attorney Arthur Aidala’s radio show on Sept. 27, the same day she was subpoenaed, Lewis-Martin said the barrage of federal investigations made her determined to stay.
“Then they had the big rumor flying that I went away and I’m never coming back,” she said.
“I told everybody, ‘Listen, I’m not staying eight years.’ That may change, you know, because, you know, I feel like I need to be with my brother during this period.”
In her statement Sunday, she thanked Adams for “seeing in me things I did not see in myself.”
“I extend humble gratitude to you for encouraging me to be my authentic self and for having my back during some trying times,” she said. “As you would say, this has been a good ride; I will use author’s license and say that this has been an amazing ride.”
