Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith — brought in last year from Harvard to help reshape the city — was pushed out today in what amounted to an embarrassing admission that Mayor Bloomberg’s third term is badly adrift.
The stunning announcement came in a two-page press release that, incredibly, listed Goldsmith’s supposed achievements.
The press release didn’t mention that he failed to return from Washington when the city was paralyzed by a massive snowstorm last December.
“His departure is an earthquake that hit the administration,” said one official outside the administration.
“This is a very public admission that the core of the mayoral operations was not functioning. It’s something people have said for a very long time.”
Named to replace Goldsmith was Cas Holloway, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection and a protege of former Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler.
“Cas is a good manager,” said another source. “Goldsmith was a thinker and not a doer.”
Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis, was hired in April 2010.
It’s virtually unheard of for someone at his level to leave after such a short stint.
“From the snowstorm to Cathie Black to CityTime to now this,” said the first official. This is something every Council member has been saying for years…that this is an administration totally adrift.”
The official said Goldsmith didn’t leave of his own volition.
“Encouraged I think is the word somebody used to me,” the official said.