FirstNet Authority Chair Benjamin gets White House post, will leave Authority in April

FirstNet Authority Chair Stephen Benjamin will be leaving his post in the organization in April after President Joe Biden today named him as the new head of the administration’s Office of Public Engagement, replacing former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the role.

Benjamin—a former mayor of Columbia, S.C., who filled leadership roles for multiple mayoral associations—will continue to chair the FirstNet Authority board through April 1, according to a FirstNet Authority spokesman. Benjamin was named chairman of the FirstNet Authority board in October 2021. FirstNet Authority board members are not scheduled to meet again in a regular open session until May 3.

President Biden said he believes that Benjamin’s background equips him to serve as senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement.

“Mayor Benjamin is a longtime public servant, who has served the people of South Carolina for over two decades statewide and as a three-term mayor of Columbia,” Biden said in a prepared statement. “As a former president of both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the African American Mayors Association, Steve’s deep relationships with communities across the country will serve our administration and the American public well.

“As mayor of Columbia, Steve focused on the economic development of Main Street, job creation and maintaining a just, diverse, and trusted law enforcement department. He understands what Americans across the country expect and deserve from their government.”

If a new FirstNet Authority board chair is not appointed when Benjamin leaves the organization on April 1, bylaws call for the vice chair—currently Richard Carrizzo—to “assume the duties of the chair.” Carrizzo—chief of the Southern Platte Fire Protection District in Kansas City—has served as the FirstNet Authority’s vice chair since September 2020, when he was named to the post by then-Chair Tip Osterthaler. Carrizzo has continued in the role throughout Benjamin’s tenure as the FirstNet Authority chair.

Benjamin’s successor will be the sixth person to chair the FirstNet Authority board and the fourth new person to serve in the role in less than five years.

Sam Ginn was the original chair when the board was created in 2012. In 2014, Ginn was replaced by his vice chair at the time, Sue Swenson. Swenson led the FirstNet Authority board for four years as the organization conducted a procurement that resulted in AT&T being named to build the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) in March 2017 and as all 56 states and territories declined the opt-out option later that year.

Ed Horowitz succeeded Swenson as the FirstNet Authority chair in September 2018 and served in the role for two years. Robert “Tip” Osterthaler succeeded Horowitz in August 2020 but he served a relatively short stint during the final few months of the Trump administration and the initial months of the Biden administration.

Benjamin was named as FirstNet Authority chair in October 2021, when the FirstNet Authority board had an unprecedented number of new members named to serve on the panel.

The announcement of Benjamin’s departure follows the FirstNet Authority board meeting earlier this month. No announcement of Benjamin’s future was made, but the meeting concluded with him thanking the organization’s board and staff members for their work, with Benjamin describing working with them as  “a highlight in my professional and personal life.”

Benjamin’s appointment in the Biden administration comes less than three weeks after the U.S. Senate confirmed his wife—Judge DeAndrea Benjamin—to serve on the 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.