The city’s community development director has become the first member of Mayor Kristen Brown’s administration to reveal that he would not be retained in the next one.
Carl Malysz said he had contacted Mayor-elect Jim Lienhoop to express interest in retaining his position but was told by Lienhoop that he was going in a different direction.
Malysz announced during Wednesday’s Columbus City Council meeting that he has accepted a job as deputy director of project management and strategic planning for the Louisville Downtown Partnership. His resignation is effective mid-December, he said.
In his resignation letter addressed to Brown, Malysz praised the one-term Republican mayor for her work to improve the city’s neighborhoods and her efforts with the Mayor’s Task Force on Safe and Affordable Housing.
He also recounted a list of his achievements as community development direc- tor including:
A new apartment complex at the site of the former Golden Foundry.
Organizing the city’s fall and spring cleanups.
Securing $700,000 for blight elimination in the city.
Malysz was hired in April 2013 to replace Mary Ferdon, who had resigned five months earlier as Columbus’ community development director.
After the meeting, Lienhoop said he does not plan to make announcements until December about changes in city department head posts. However, out of courtesy to Malysz and others who would not be returning, Lienhoop said he notified people individually of his plans, allowing them more time to plan for their own future, he said.
Lienhoop was elected Columbus’ 37th mayor Tuesday, after defeating Brown by a near 2-1 margin in the May primary. Brown did not attend Wednesday night’s council meeting.
