Embattled city Finance Commissioner Martha Stark quit today amid a probe of her dating a former subordinate, who quickly moved up in the ranks at the agency.
Mayor Bloomberg had tried to show her the door a week after The Post broke the story on April 12, but she initially refused to go, sources said.
Bloomberg issued a brief statement thanking “Martha for her years of service,” adding she “made the Finance Department, and our city, a better place.”
The mayor had asked the city Department of Investigation and Conflicts of Interest Board to investigate after the Post reported that Stark is romantically involved with ex-assistant commissioner Dara Ottley- Brown.
Post reports also said that Stark:
* Hired three of her own relatives.
* Gave a job to Brown’s ex-husband, Jodie.
* Secretly served as a director of a real-estate firm while she was commissioner. She resigned from the company, Tarragon Corp., after a Post report in March.
Sources said Stark had told the Mayor’s Office she did not have a relationship with any of her subordinates.
COIB and DOI representatives declined comment Tuesday.
A City Hall source said it’s “unlikely” that Stark will face criminal charges. Stark and her lawyer also declined requests for comment.
Dara Ottley-Brown was earning $65,000 in 2003 as a mid-level manager. She was named assistant commissioner in November 2004 with a salary of $120,984 and her pay rose to $138,013 in two years.
In 2006 she was appointed a commissioner of the Board of Standards and Appeals with a salary of $139,827. Brown’s husband was hired at Finance as a graphic designer earning $78,000 shortly after he filed for divorce in 2007.
Stark also came under fire recently for allowing an administrative judge with the Parking Violations Bureau who is married to her first deputy commissioner to bill for office hours when he was not at work.
Current and former Finance employees were elated to hear Stark is leaving.
“She should’ve resigned many years ago because there’s been a lot of stuff that she was doing that nobody’s caught. She got a lot of people that she knew into positions [even though] they didn’t know anything about the jobs,” said a former employee.
Her resignation puts Bloomberg, who is running for re-election this year, in the awkward spot of having only two African-American commissioners — Human Rights Commission head Patricia
Gatling and Veterans Affairs Commissioner Roger Newman.
Stark’s acting replacement will be Michael Hyman, deputy commissioner for Tax Audit, Policy and Enforcement.