Gov. Kenneth Mapp has appointed Hilarie Baker acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, effective Dec. 17.
Baker is a long-time OMB official who has served in top positions, including associate director, for more than a decade. She replaces Julio Rhymer, who resigned from the position earlier this month. Rhymer served less than a year in a post. He came to
OMB early this year from WAPA, where he had been chief executive officer for a little over a year Before that, he was CFO at WAPA for a number of years.
His departure from WAPA generated controversy due to an unexplained $90,000 payout from WAPA. When senators grilled WAPA board members about the payment in January 2018, they said the reasons were confidential.
“The board decided to move in a different direction. And so it was an agreed-to separation. It was not a termination for cause. Both parties agreed to separate,” WAPA Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Armstrong said at the time.
A number of Mapp’s commissioners have resigned with only weeks remaining in his term. Along with Rhymer, Attorney General Claude Walker and Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty have resigned in recent weeks.
