’Tis the season for New York government personnel changes. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday announced that Daniel Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, would leave at the end of the year to head up the financial information firm Bloomberg LP as president. Mayor Bloomberg is the majority owner of Bloomberg LP.That announcement followed news from New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office the previous evening that first deputy budget director Laura Anglin would replace budget director Paul Francis who will become director of operations at the end of the year. Francis will replace Olivia Golden. Doctoroff left his mark on the city as point person on 289 separate projects and initiatives introduced during his six years in the position. Bloomberg praised Doctoroff for his role in projects, which when completed will have brought to the city 130 million square feet of commercial and residential space, two baseball stadiums, and a basketball arena, the extension of the No. 7 subway line to the Far West Side of Manhattan, 2,400 acres of parks, and 60 miles of waterfront.“As the chief architect of our five-borough economic development plan, Dan Doctoroff has done more to change the face of this city than anyone since Robert Moses,” Bloomberg said in a press release. Although rumors circulated yesterday that the city’s department of housing preservation and development commissioner Shaun Donovan would be tapped to replace Doctoroff, the mayor’s press office stressed that a decision hadn’t been made and several candidates would be considered. Doctoroff has spearheaded the city’s effort to bring congestion pricing to Manhattan, but failed in his attempt to lure the 2012 Olympics and build a football stadium on the West Side. That he leaves behind a legacy is undisputed. “Doctoroff brought the city the first strategic approach to economic growth,” said Kathryn Wylde, president and chief operating officer of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit business organization. “In the past, our economic development activity was pretty much limited to real estate projects as opposed to investment in the infrastructure.”Wylde said she thought the changes Doctoroff brought to the city would continue. “Dan has put in place projects and programs that are designed to take New York through 2030 so there is a road map for another couple decades of aggressive economic growth and physical development,” she said. The state’s newly appointed budget director, Laura Anglin, comes to the office with nearly 20 years of pubic service, including serving as deputy comptroller of the division of retirement services in the state comptroller’s office and working as director of budget studies for the state Assembly Ways and Means Committee from 1996 to 2003. Anglin earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the State University of New York at Albany.
