Gregory A. Bayor, who championed a controversial plan to privatize some youth rec centers as director of Baltimore’s Recreation and Parks Department, is stepping down, according to department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Chambers.

“It is with great sadness that we inform you that BCRP director Gregory Bayor has informed Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake that he has accepted the job of director of recreation and parks in Tampa. Bill Vondrasek, chief of our Parks Division, will serve as interim director, beginning April 6,” Chambers wrote in an email sent out late today.

Bayor’s departure from the $128,000-a-year post, the first major Rawlings-Blake appointee to leave office, comes less than two years after he took over as head of the department.

Along with Bill Tyler, chief of the recreation bureau, Bayor has been the point man for Rawlings-Blake’s efforts to consolidate and privatize city rec centers.

The plan, which has sparked strong opposition from City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, has placed four of the city’s 55 rec centers under private management.

Five other bidders, seeking control of four additional centers, are involved in a second round of bidding that has yet to be finalized.

Bayor officiated at a crowded public meeting at Chick Webb Recreation Center last November where nearly every speaker voiced opposition to the rec center plan.

Billed as the first of several meetings to drum up support for the mayor’s plan to “transition” about 20 centers to third parties, the meeting format has not continued.

Bayor has maintained a low public profile in recent months.

A former Montgomery County official in charge of special recreation events and cultural programs, Bayor’s roots go back in Baltimore.

He is a 1971 graduate of the University of Baltimore and worked at Rec and Parks as a young man. More recently, he headed UB’s alumni board of governors.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake released the following statement:

“I would like to thank Mr. Bayor for his service to the citizens of Baltimore and for increasing staff morale in the department during the last two years. Mr. Bayor has laid significant groundwork, creating new public-private partnerships with local businesses, foundations, and community organizations that will strengthen recreational opportunities for Baltimore going forward. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Spokesperson Chambers confirmed tonight that Tyler remains chief of the recreation bureau.