Probe When Finance Chief Got Involved With Ex-Subordinate

MARTHA STARK: 'No relationship with any subordinate.'

Finance Commissioner Martha Stark last week insisted that her romantic relationship with a former subordinate began after that employee left the agency and that it did not influence the hiring of several of her partner's relatives.

Mayor Bloomberg nonetheless called the issues raised by a series of New York Post articles "serious" and asked both the Department of Investigation and the Conflicts of Interest Board to examine the matter.

Romance With Former Top Assistant

Last week, the Post ran a series of articles on Ms. Stark's relationship with former Assistant Commissioner Dara Ottley-Brown, who served from 2004 to 2006. It also reported that Jodie Brown, Ms. Ottley-Brown's exhusband, is a DOF Graphic Artist earning $78,000 and was hired a couple of months after he filed for divorce. In addition, their child, Kiera Brown, was a high school intern for the agency in 2005, earning $7.50 an hour for 12 days.

The Post also reported that relatives of Ms. Stark have held jobs at the DOF. One article included a photo taken by Kiera Brown of Ms. Stark embracing her mother that she posted on her Facebook page.

In a statement, Ms. Stark said, "I have not had a personal relationship with any subordinate. In my nearly eight years as Finance Commissioner, the department has hired close to 600 full-time employees and, last summer alone, hired 250 part-time student interns. It is therefore not at all surprising or significant that a small handful of the hundreds hired by the department over that entire period would have had some connection to me, but during my tenure, I have never used my position to obtain any advantage for any relative or personal relation."

Attorney: Did Nothing Improper

Ms. Stark's attorney, Randy Mastro, told the New York Times that he expected her to be cleared of any wrongdoing.

Ms. Ottley-Brown left the Finance Department to become a member of the Board of Standards and Appeals at a marginally higher salary.

For Organization of Staff Analysts Chairman Robert Croghan, the allegations highlighted the problems of discretionary hiring in city agencies, something he has said should be kept to a minimum, requiring that most jobs be filled through merit-based testing in order to avoid patronage.

"It's a shame that it appears that a great many individuals are currently in difficulty, and the extent to which this could have occurred due to discretionary hiring is obvious," he said.