Head of NYC Child Welfare Agency Stepping Down
John Mattingly, Commissioner of the Administration for children's Services is resinging after seven years.
Richter was Deputy Commissioner of the administration under Commissioner Mattingly.
He also worked with Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Linda Gibbs and helped oversee ACS. While making the announcement Wednesday morning Mayor Bloomberg said, “Ron's intelligence, compassion and hard work are all highly regarded and because of his broad experience he has tremendous perspective on all parts of the system and a deep understanding of the work that ACS does.”
Commissioner Mattingly’s resignation comes at a time when ACS is under heavy fire for the deaths of children under their watch. Most recently was the death of Marchella Pierce, a four-year-old who weighed eighteen pounds. The Brooklyn District Attorney charged two ACS workers in charge of her case with homicide.
Despite this, the mayor says he still thinks that all of the decisions made by ACS have been rational and he still has faith in the organization. “Not every one of their employees is perfect, sometimes they do what they're supposed to do sometimes they don't, that's true every place. But this is an agency that has been very well led from the top all the way down and I trust that's what the District Attorney will find,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
Commissioner Mattingly says he is resigning so he can spend more time with his family in Baltimore. There he will return to the Annie E. Casey foundation, which is a private child welfare charitable foundation where he worked previously. He will step down as commissioner in September.
