ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It is days before Malik Evans becomes mayor of Rochester, the city where he was born and raised, and he is not yet done preparing for it.

Evans' appointment calendar accordions by the hour. He meets with appointments to his senior leadership inner circle, with candidates for that team and with partners preparing for his arrival.  


What You Need To Know

  • Malik Evans will enter office with most, but not all, of his senior leadership team in place

  • Evans chose to wait until he took office to launch the national search for the city's next police chief

  • One of Evans' planned appointments resigned hours after she was introduced. The mayor-elect called it "part of the process" of forming his team

  • Monroe County Executive Adam Bello and Mayor-elect Evans intend to work closely and collaboratively to address the city's challenges

Building it was a challenge for someone who sees himself as impatient.

“But I’m learning that you have to have patience when you’re dealing with a process like this," Evans said. "Because things may not move at the calendar that you may like. Because you don’t control, you don’t control everything.”

The premier of Evans’ lead team in early December was tempered when hours after he introduced it he lost special projects director Hilda Rosario Escher.

Escher had gone on record in support of Andrew Cuomo after sexual harassment charges and other allegations against New York's governor came to light that would force Cuomo from office. His support of Puerto Rico was key to Escher's support.

But when a Cuomo accuser challenged Escher's appointment to Evans' leadership team, it was only hours after she was introduced that she stepped down.

The mayor-elect called it part of the process of forming a leadership team.

He said the same about the criticism of the promotion of Teresa Everett to executive deputy Rochester fire chief. Evans introduced her in a glass-ceiling-breaking moment during the introduction of other senior city leaders. Fire union backlash over Everett's appointment muted the moment. The union challenged Everett's credentials for leading the line division of the RFD when she had never served on one nor been an officer in a line unit.

“We made sure to use that time to really consult and be on the ground,” Evans said. “Listening to people who had ideas and thoughts for the city. We also used that time to go around to tell people we need them to be ambassadors for the city.”

After accepting an invitation to speak at a church near Jones Park during the autumn of spiking deadly violence, Evans spoke to a small gathering of neighborhood leaders.

“We need you to join our army,” he said. “And to help transform our community. To create economic empowerment where we can have a city that thrives and not just survives. So we can increase the home ownership rate we provide jobs for young people and to anyone so that they can get a job. Things that sound crazy. That sounds nuts.”

Evans realized he could stay on his feet 24/7 and not be able to answer all the requests for help and his time from the community.

“So when someone would say ‘We’re counting on you,’ I would say ‘yes you are counting on me, but I’m counting on you,” Evans said.

Evans says he is also looking to city council and state government support efforts that bring equity to underpaid brown and Black people. He wants to expand the city’s basic income pilot program; approaching philanthropists to make it happen, and to promote entrepreneurship

“You know that was at the center of everything I talked about economic empowerment,” he said. “So in order for us to get to a space where we’re really providing opportunity, certainly for African American entrepreneurs, we got to kick it up to the next level.”

That level will include demanding development at the city’s four corners and backing.  That includes big state projects like Constellation Brands’ move to downtown.

Optimizing new business is why one of the first teams Evans assembled will manage how Rochester opens the legal business.

“If people are left out," Evans said. "Particularly our Black and brown people, we will have missed a major opportunity."

Evans' biggest opportunity could come with public safety.

Police community relations have rarely been worse. Homicide in the city is at an all-time high. While he says the Police Accountability Board has little authority, Evans wants it to grow.

He’s also willing to have criminal justice reform data studies in his city to see if an adjustment’s necessary.  

And Evans will begin his tenure without a police chief of his choosing. Interim Chief David Smith will remain until the permanent chief's hired.

Evans could have asked for funding to begin the national search for the chief to begin during his run up. But as he’s done through the election camping and all of 2021, Evans respected Lovely Warren’s time in office.

"I’ve got names of people that I’m interested in,” Evans said. “But you’ve got to go through a formal process. And the process is you’re not mayor until January 1. “So, because I'm not in the media commenting on everything I’m doing doesn’t mean I’m not keeping my eye on people I think are good police chiefs. And the search firm is going to take a look at the people I’m thinking about.”

Evans never stops thinking about the people lost, or forever affected by deadly violence. He keeps a vase filled with pebbles, one for every person shot or killed in the last three years. The mayor-elect believes the few who perpetrate the violence are a small enough number that change can happen.

“I think violence is a challenge in our community,” Evans said. “I am heartened to know, and I always say this: you can’t whitewash. The vast majority of our people are good people in the city of Rochester. There are only a small number of people who are wreaking this havoc. And that should give everyone comfort.”

Comfortable is how city-county relations used to be. Evans and County Executive Adam Bello spent their summer and fall preparing to return the region to the days of Morin Ryan, when leaders from both governments could manage the challenges of the day as one.

"We really hit the ground,” he said. “I used that time. That’s how I was able to snag great people. That’s how I was able to have a plan of action that we're able to do.”

With just a few days left, Malik Evans, and the people he trusts the most, believe they have used their time; more time than any Rochester mayor has ever had to prepare for the job, wisely.

“Yes we had a head start,” he said. “But again, we also understand that you are only sworn in January 1. And all the other things that you do get you prepared. And that’s what we’re focused on.”