Former New York City Office of Emergency Management commissioner Joseph Esposito has died after a battle with cancer, Mayor Eric Adams announced late Monday. He was 73. Esposito, who most recently worked under Adams as deputy commissioner at the city’s buildings department, was described by the mayor as the “definition of public service.”

“He worked hard for his city, right up to the end. And he left it a better place,” Adams wrote in a statement posted to X. Esposito’s tenure in city government spanned decades and countless crises, including leading the response for the NYPD as the Chief of Department in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.