O'Cleireacain named to fill OMB position

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 1, 1993

The events of last month's parking violation scandal has prompted executive changes within the Department of Finance.

Carol O'Cleireacain, former Commissioner of Finance, has been appointed head of the Office of Management and the Budget. That position was vacated when Philip R. Michael was asked to resign over alleged favoritism to one vendor.

First Deputy Commissioner of Finance, Kathleen Grimm, has now been appointed acting commissioner of Finance by Mayor David N. Dinkins. Grimm was acting commissioner during the changeover from the Koch to Dinkins administrations. O'Cleireacain holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics and served as chief economic advisor to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson during his 1988 campaign for president and later advised the Dukakis campaign. She was in Montana last week, giving a speech before a gathering of state governors.

OMB is responsible for developing the mayor's preliminary and executive budgets and for advising the mayor on all policy issues affecting the city's fiscal stability and the effectiveness of city services.

Grimm, who has been overseeing the day-to-day operations of finance, is an attorney who graduated from New York University School of Laws with an LL.M in Tax and from New York Law School. The Department of Finance is American's fourth largest taxing authority with a staff of 2,500 administering 23 taxes, including the country's largest property tax base with a million properties worth nearly $80 billion.