Along with newly inaugurated occupants of top city jobs such as public advocate and comptroller, the New Year brings in a host of other leaders at public agencies, nonprofits and elsewhere.

It also brings a notable void: Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen will soon leave the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, Gov. Paterson announced last week. No replacement has been named to follow her departure, effective Jan. 15, to the law firm Peabody Nixon (though she’s not a lawyer). Seems like the hefty task ahead of developing new rental policy in the wake of the far-reaching Stuy Town decision alone could keep the post empty. VanAmerongen’s move comes on the heels of Priscilla Almodovar’s Dec. 4 announcement that she was vacating her post, effective immediately, as President and CEO of the New York State Housing Finance Agency and the State of New York Mortgage Agency. State housing affairs need new leadership in the year ahead...

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Nekoro Gomes
Nekoro Gomes
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Last week also brought Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of Carole Wallace Post as Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. An attorney who began her city career in 2001 at the Department of Buildings, Post until Wednesday was Director of Agency Services in the Mayor’s Office of Operations. She replaces Paul Cosgrave, who retired last month after three and a half years helming DoITT.

The Fire Department has a new leader in Salvatore Cassano, a 40-year veteran of FDNY. The new Commissioner had served as Chief of the department since 2006. He replaces Nicholas Scoppetta, who ends eight years as Commissioner. A veteran civil servant, with past roles as head of the Administration for Children’s Services and the Department of Investigation as well as deputy mayor, Scoppetta is leaving to pursue teaching opportunities in academia.

Caswell Holloway IV is the new Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, leaving the Mayor’s Office where he served as the Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler since Feb. 2006. He replaces Acting Commissioner Steven Lawitts, who’s been filling in since Emily Lloyd left one year ago, and is anticipated to be named to another position with the city. No replacement has yet been named to succeed Holloway in Skyler’s office.

In February, Greenpoint native Vincent Schiraldi returns to NYC as the new Commissioner of the Department of Probation. Schiraldi comes to the department from Washington D.C., where he had been Director of that city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services for five years. Schiraldi will replace Patricia Brennan, who had served as Acting Commissioner in place of former Commissioner Martin Horn since August. Brennan will return to her post as Deputy Commissioner of Juvenile Operations with the department.

Other moves in city government include Fatima Shama taking the role of Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, replacing Guillermo Linares. Shama had been a senior education policy advisor to the mayor; Deborah Taylor succeeds her in that role. Linares, meanwhile, went on to become a key member of Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election team after failing to win the 10th District Council seat vacated by Miguel Martinez.

David Frankel was named Commissioner of the Department of Finance in September, replacing acting commissioner Michael Hyman, who was appointed following the resignation of Martha Stark in April. Hyman is now a deputy commissioner with the department while Stark went on to become a professor at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs.