Another City Hall replacement, after a year of turnover
In the last 12 months, 17 new supervisors brought in to head city agencies.
Above: Mayor speaks last February as two now-departed cabinet officers listen – M.J. Brodie of the Baltimore Development Corp. (right) and Ted Atwood of General Services (second right).
The appointment of a new director for the Department of General Services, announced late Friday by the mayor’s office, is another reminder of the turnover of senior staff in the Stephanie Rawlings-Blake era.
It came just days after it was learned that the mayor’s most senior advisor, Kimberly Washington, will leave as one of the mayor’s four deputy chiefs (formerly known as deputy mayors).
Robust
Staff turnover, a constant in city government, has been particularly robust of late, with the number of posts abandoned by their occupants in 2012 following Rawlings-Blake’s first full-term election as mayor far above the historic norm.
Steven D. Sharkey will replace Theodore Atwood, who resigned as director of the $72-million-a-year Department of General Services, but still remains on-board the city’s payroll.
Steven Sharkey has been named director of General Services, one of many staff reshuffles. (General Services)
Sharkey will become the third GS chief in three years.
Sharkey joined city government in 2005 and previously served as director of special projects for the Baltimore Police Department.
That makes him something of a veteran compared to the crop of newcomers who have landed top city positions.
Over the last year, nearly 20 city agencies have seen their bosses replaced with new directors – in some case, multiple times.
At the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Operations, for example, there have been four directors since March, while the office itself has been split in two.
Relatively Few Retirements
Retirement has played a minimal role in the exodus of senior administrative staff.
There have been three long-scheduled retirements (Edward Gallagher of Finance, Joseph D. Mazza of Purchasing and Shirley A. Williams of the minority and women’s office) plus two surprise retirements (M.J. “Jay” Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corporation, and Frederick H. Bealefeld III as police commissioner).
On the other hand, there’s been only one outright firing.
That happened when Rico J. Singleton, appointed Chief Information Officer by Rawlings-Blake in late 2010, was fingered for financial malfeasance at his former job as a deputy CIO for New York State.
Subsequent e-mails showed that Singleton wanted to retain his city job and, failing that, be an advisor to IT consultants doing city business. He was replaced by Christopher Tonjes, who was recruited from the District of Columbia library system.
Departures Often Not Announced
For the most part, senior managers leave city government either without an explanation or to accept jobs that are announced by their new employers.
The mayor’s office calls questions about why top staff depart “personnel matters” and refuses to comment on the circumstances even in broad generalities. Ryan O’Doherty, the mayor’s press spokesman, has characterized the departures as coincidental and said they do no fit a pattern of excessive turnover.
Resignation letters are not typically released by the administration. But Rawlings-Blake sometimes announces a retirement at the weekly Board of Estimates meeting, accompanied by her thanks for their service to the city.
List of New Department Heads
In an effort at providing more transparency, here is The Brew’s list of supervisors brought in to head city agencies since last January:
• Anthony W. Batts (from Oakland, Calif.), replacing Frederick H. Bealefeld III as police commissioner.
• Harry E. Black (from Richmond, Va.), replacing Edward Gallagher as director of Finance. (Gallagher continues as a $55,000 senior advisor to the mayor).
• Ernest W. Burkeen Jr. (from Miami, Fla.), replacing Gregory Bayor as director of Recreation and Parks.
• Ronnie E. Charles (from Suffolk, Va.), replacing Gladys B. Gaskins as director of Human Services.
Brenda McKenzie became director of the BDC in December. (Photo by Frn Shen)
• Thomas B. Corey, replacing Shirley Williams as chief of the Minority and Women’s Business Opportunity Office (MWBOO).
• Olivia Farrow, replacing Thomasina Hiers as director of the Mayor’s Office of Human Services. (Hiers briefly served as acting chief of staff last year.)
• Yolanda Jiggetts, replacing Christopher Thomaskutty as Deputy Chief of Public Safety and Operations.
• Timothy Krus, replacing Joseph Mazza as head of Purchasing.
• Leyla Layman, acting chief of the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice, replacing Sheryl Goldstein.
• Robert M. Maloney, replacing Yolanda Jiggetts as Chief of Emergency Management and Public Safety.
• Brenda McKenzie (from Boston, Mass.), replacing Jay Brodie as president of the BDC.
• Frank Murphy, acting director of the Department of Transportation, replacing Khalil Zaied.
• Sharon R. Pinder, replacing Carla A. Nelson as chief of Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-owned Business Development.
• Alexander M. Sanchez, replacing Peter O’Malley as chief of staff for Rawlings-Blake. (Sanchez, the former director of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, brought over his chief of staff, Kym Nelson, to serve with him in the mayor’s office.)
• Steven Sharkey, replacing Ted Atwood as director of General Services.
• Chris Tonjes (from Washington, D.C.), replacing Rico Singleton as Chief Information Officer and head of the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology (MOIT).
• Unfilled replacement for Kimberly C. “Kim” Washington, deputy chief of Government Relations and Community Affairs.
• Khalil Zaied, replacing Jiggetts as deputy chief of Operations.