Two out-of-towners start at high profile city posts today
McKenzie of Boston and Burkeen of Miami recruited to run economic development and parks departments.
Above: Brenda McKenzie at City Hall last month when her appointment was announced.
Today is the first day on the job for two high-level appointees of the Rawlings-Blake administration.
Brenda McKenzie will assume the presidency of the Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC), the city’s economic development arm, and Ernest W. Burkeen Jr. will become director of the Department of Recreation and Parks.
McKenzie, 45, hails from Boston where she was economic development director for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. She replaces M.J. “Jay” Brodie, who retired last February.
Burkeen, 64, of Miami, will be the latest in a line of rec and parks directors, most with brief tenures. Gregory Bayor left the post last April after less than two years on the job.
Here, here and here are more on their backgrounds and the issues that face each agency.
Other Recent Appointments
McKenzie and Burkeen join other out-of-towners who have been appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in 2012.
They include Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts (former Oakland, Calif., police chief); Christopher Tonjes, Chief Information Officer and director of the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology (formerly CIO of the District of Columbia library system), Ronnie E. Charles, director of the Department of Human Resources (formerly with the city of Suffolk, Va.), and Harry E. Black, director of Finance (formerly an aide to ex-Richmond, Va., Mayor L. Douglas Wilder).