When Mayor Eric Adams wanted to appoint his brother, a retired NYPD sergeant, to a high-ranking security position, he turned to an old acquaintance and former police official for assistance.
When he required information from the southern border during an invasion of Latin Americans requesting asylum in New York, he dispatched that same acquaintance to Texas.
And when he was building the upper echelons of the New York Police Department — an organisation vital to his public safety goal — he sought advice from that friend, Timothy Pearson.
Pearson, whose relationship with the mayor dates back decades to their concurrent NYPD careers, plays a unique and unusual role in the Adams administration: he is one of the most trusted aides to a mayor who does not trust easily, yet he operates almost entirely outside of City Hall.
He is compensated by the city’s semi-private economic development arm, but focuses on public safety issues most of the time. He is one of Adams’ most devoted assistants, but he rarely appears in public with the mayor. He earns a great salary but was initially able to supplement his income through a lucrative arrangement that garnered investigation. Basic public information about him is kept private.
“He is without a doubt the most powerful person in City Hall besides the mayor himself,” a former high-ranking Adams administration official claimed, adding that Pearson is considerably more significant than most people realise. The individual was offered anonymity in order to talk honestly about a prominent ex-colleague.
According to Frank Carone, Adams’ former chief of staff, Pearson was instrumental in assisting Adams in establishing his administration’s public safety division, including the selection of Keechant Sewell to lead the police department.
“The NYPD is a family. During a brief interview, Carone stated, “It’s a bond.” He compared Adams and Pearson’s connection to two persons who “play[ed] on a championship football team.”
Pearson’s cheery nature and affable demeanour helped him gain favour in the government. Despite his outward secrecy, some colleagues within the administration saw him as an approachable person willing to offer advise in difficult situations.
“I simply fell in love with the guy.” “He was always in a good mood and asked great questions,” Carone remarked.
In mid-January, the character was on display for a particular occasion.
While other New Yorkers were still recovering from the holiday season, Pearson was celebrating his 63rd birthday on Long Island with a sartorial-themed event.
“It’s Time to Celebrate in Denim and White,” said Pearson, who smiled in a shot wearing a white collared shirt with a jeans pocket. Pearson can be seen beaming in a bedazzled navy blazer while holding a placard that reads “Aged to Perfection” in one photo, and emerging in a striped white jacket and Yankees cap as a halo of mock $100 bills swirled around him in another. According to photographs on social media and descriptions from attendance, a dazzling $1 bill adornment topped his tiered cake.
Many individuals who know Pearson, a retired NYPD inspector who helped people to safety when the Twin Towers collapsed, describe him as a convivial figure in Adams’ entourage who emerges in times of stress. According to several city officials, Pearson has a large Rolodex and a lengthy history of using it to help individuals solve difficulties. Pearson used his affiliation with the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives to help former Mayor Bill de Blasio when he was at war with rank-and-file police officers, one commissioner participating in the outreach remembered.
“I’ve known Timothy for a few years, maybe a decade. When he walks into the room, you know he’s one of those individuals. Brenda Goss Andrews, head of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said, “And I say that in a positive way.” “He’s that guy who’s always smiling, talking to everyone, waving, shaking hands, and hugging — especially before the pandemic.” He could literally light up the room. That’s the fun of knowing Timothy directly,” she explained in an interview.
“The mayor has a great confidante on his side in Timothy Pearson,” Andrews continued.
According to three administration insiders who would only talk on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss one of the mayor’s closest friends, Pearson, also known as “Timmy,” is clever and savvy despite occasionally employing old-fashioned or antiquated language.
Despite his huge personality and tight relationship with the mayor, few City Hall insiders could explain what Pearson did to earn one of the highest incomes in the Adams administration – $242,600 as “senior advisor for public safety and COVID recovery.”
His income was finally revealed last summer after The New York Times revealed his dual employment as a top counsellor to the mayor and a security official at a Queens casino. Pearson’s annual salary was published by the city’s Economic Development Corp., a mayoral-run organisation that employs him, in response to a freedom of information request from media outlets including AWN.
The pricey arrangement for the longstanding Adams confidante highlighted two managerial characteristics of the city’s 110th mayor: a strong emphasis on loyalty and a desire for secrecy.
Pearson was working without pay in an office hidden in a highly guarded, private tower across the street from City Hall, where Adams and some of his senior associates have furnished space for themselves even before his employment began in May of 2022. Pearson was observed driving an NYPD vehicle during that period, according to one former, high-ranking Adams official who witnessed it. (A subsequent question to the NYPD’s press team was merely routed to City Hall’s press office, which did not answer.)
According to two persons familiar with the incident, Pearson assisted in arranging for the mayor’s brother Bernie — a retired NYPD sergeant — to be sworn in as a deputy commissioner in anticipation of his role directing the new mayor’s security detail. The plan was rejected by the Conflicts of Interest Board, and Bernie Adams ended up working for $1 per year before resigning lately.
Pearson, a member of the mayor’s transition team, reportedly recommended arming civilians assigned to guard City Hall, according to NBC.
Pearson’s position was not made public, as is common for senior aides. There has yet to be a public accounting of his personal finances: Anyone employed as of May 13, 2022 — 18 days before his official start date — was subject to an annual disclosure obligation for high-ranking city officials.
In response to a regular Freedom of Information Act request for his schedule, the Economic Development Corp.’s records officer responded with a letter indicating that the office “has diligently searched its files and has located no responsive records.” A request for reimbursement for work-related travel, including travels to Israel and El Paso, received the same result. When asked why the seemingly regular requests went unanswered, agency spokesperson Adrien Lesser simply stated, “EDC does not have the documents.”
When asked how Pearson’s excursions were funded, mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy directed AWN to file a Freedom of Information Act request. Levy also declined to provide an exhaustive list of Pearson’s official travels, instead stating that he travels to learn about new technology, observe security operations, and discuss public safety with other mayors.
Pearson resigned his work at the Resorts World casino in Queens as a result of the Times’ investigation, and the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board recently verified that it never granted him a waiver for the dual-employment arrangement.
Pearson, according to one former high-ranking Adams administration official, is a “mystery.” Another person described him as a “hell of a nice guy,” but added, “I can’t tell you exactly what he does.” A current City Hall employee described him as “another mayor’s friend with ill-defined responsibilities and outsized influence.”
Out of fear of upsetting the mayor, the majority of the 20 people questioned for this story would only speak on background and not for attribution. Nearly all acknowledged his unfiltered access to Adams, which dates back nearly four decades to their tours in the NYPD, and most said he’s been helpful in a pinch — even if they don’t know what he does.
Despite the mystery surrounding Pearson’s position, his responsibilities are broad and significant.
Pearson, according to the former high-ranking city official, is involved in personnel affairs within the NYPD, including putting Sewell’s chief of staff Donna Jones into the department’s senior personnel post. More crucially, the mayor, according to the source, relies on Pearson for insight and guidance on a wide range of critical issues.
Pearson, according to Levy, played no influence in Jones’ nomination as chief of personnel and only consults with NYPD as he would with any other public safety-related organisation. In an arrangement that has complicated Sewell’s management of the department, he works closely with Phil Banks, a former NYPD chief whom Adams installed as a deputy mayor managing public safety.
Pearson was tasked with developing and implementing a plan to keep public schools open during Covid-19, communicating with businesses about remaining open during the pandemic, and advising the mayor on how to set up security at makeshift facilities for the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have passed through the five boroughs.
Pearson led a trip to El Paso, Texas, with a few City Hall aides last September to review border circumstances for more than a week. He also accompanied Carone on a trip to Israel last July, according to the New York Post.
“Tim Pearson has had a long and distinguished career in both the public and private sectors, where he spent decades keeping New Yorkers safe and creating security plans that have protected millions,” said Levy. “New Yorkers are lucky to have such a knowledgeable and experienced 9/11 hero agree to serve and bring his expertise to the greatest city in the world, especially after he first did the job without being paid a single dollar for months.”
He declined Pearson’s request for an interview.
Pearson, who often phones into a daily morning call of top administration officials, is hardly the first City Hall advisor to work out of the Economic Development Corp. in a position that has little to do with the agency’s objective. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed ex-NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan to a comparable position, allowing him to enjoy both a police pension and a city income.
“I thought Bill de Blasio was smart for bringing in Monahan at that time, and I think I’m smart for bringing in Tim Pearson to do the same thing, so it’s not like I’m using my position as mayor to help anyone.” When asked about the arrangement in October, Adams said, “It’s to help New Yorkers, putting together a team that’s going to help New Yorkers during these multiple crises at the same time.”
“In the Economic Development Corporation, that position does whatever the mayor wants.” “What I did under de Blasio may not be what Tim Pearson does under Adams,” Monahan stated recently.
Monahan claimed he concentrated on Covid recovery, visiting local businesses, meeting with developers, Broadway executives, and IT companies, and strategizing how to entice employees and residents to return to the city following huge pandemic exodus.
“Then I coordinated with the police department on some of the issues that came up,” he continued.
He believes Pearson has a bigger portfolio now that the city is no longer under Covid’s control.
“He’s someone the mayor trusts, he has a long career in policing, he’s been involved for a long time, and he’d do whatever the mayor needed him to work on,” Monahan said.
Adams and Pearson remained friends after serving together in the NYPD. According to a copy of the then-borough president’s calendar, the mayor co-sponsored a bill honouring Person while he represented Brooklyn in the state Senate, and Pearson accompanied him to a dinner with the Turkish Consul General in 2015. Pearson joined Adams and a group on a five-day trip to Israel the following winter, “focused on developing transatlantic partnerships in public safety and economic development,” according to a press release.
Pearson was on stage with Adams’ friends and family when he took the oath of office in Times Square on December 31, 2021.