City Finance Commissioner Martha Stark will be honored with a prestigious award by a national gay-rights group, despite being investigated by Mayor Bloomberg on allegations she dated a former subordinate.
Stark will be one of two recipients of Lambda Legal’s 2009 Liberty Awards at the group’s national dinner gala next month at Chelsea Piers.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg ordered an expedited investigation of Stark’s relationship with Dara Ottley-Brown, who served as her assistant commissioner in the Finance Department’s property division between 2004 and 2006.
The Post reported last Sunday that the department hired Ottley-Brown’s ex-husband and three of Stark’s family members. Stark insisted she had never been involved with a subordinate and didn’t use her government post to benefit “any relative or personal relation.”
Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization devoted to gay rights, decided several months ago to honor Stark and didn’t consider reversing the decision, officials said.