NYC sanitation boss Kathryn Garcia considers mayoral run

Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia is mulling a mayoral run — but she’ll have to overcome the city’s mounting trash woes first.

“Kathryn spoke to me some months ago and said it’s something she might consider,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday during a City Hall press briefing.

“To the best of my knowledge, she hasn’t made a final decision,” he said.

Politico originally reported the news of Garcia’s potential campaign.

De Blasio called Garcia “an outstanding commissioner” who’s “done great work.”

A source told The Post Garcia is considering throwing her hat into the crowded mayoral field because she knows the nooks and crannies of the city’s budget and bureaucracy and can help get both back on track following the derailments caused by the coronavirus.

Garcia believes she can sell liberals on the positive impact of municipal government by focusing on the nuts and bolts of delivering services, the source said.

But $100 million in coronavirus-induced budget cuts to her agency have led to piles of rotting garbage on city streets.

“With the trash we’re seeing all over, she’s got to get some of the blame because she sets the priorities in the budget,” Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) told The Post.

“It’s not her fault. We understand the cutbacks — every agency had to incur them — but taking out things like the weekend trash pickups from the baskets is not the smartest way to do it,” Holden said.

Sanitation cuts included $21 million for litter basket pickup.

Garcia is “competent, everybody likes her” and “she seems to know her business,” Holden added.

He blamed de Blasio for stretching Garcia too thin, by tasking her with multiple roles. She served as the interim head of NYCHA in 2019 in addition to overseeing the Sanitation Department and then took on the title of “emergency food czar” during the coronavirus crisis.

“She’s wearing a lot of hats, so I think you got to give her a pass on doing so many things. This is an example of the de Blasio administration running out of people,” Holden said. 

The Garcia-led emergency food program has delivered 100 million free meals to needy New Yorkers during the COVID-19 crisis, but it’s also suffered a series of logistical hiccups, including drivers dumping deliveries or bringing them to the wrong address.

A former top staffer at NYCHA said her ex-boss would be a hands-on mayor.

“The difference between her management style and everyone else’s is that she was focused on the operational details from top to bottom,” the Garcia booster told The Post.

“She looked at the numbers and how they were put together — and that’s how we found problems,” the source said.

If she were to run, she would have to step down from her post as sanitation commissioner this fall in order to avoid the conflicts of interest that could come from fundraising.