Page "Anthony A. Williams" Paragraph 4

Williams first rose to prominence as the District of Columbia's Chief Financial Officer ( CFO ) during the final term of Mayor Marion Barry, who nominated Williams to the position in September 1995.

By that time, however, Washington was in the midst of a fiscal crisis of such proportion that Congress had established a financial control board charged with oversight and management of the District's finances.

The same legislation had created the position of Chief Financial Officer, which had direct control over day-to-day financial operations of each city agency, and independence from the mayor's office ; while Barry had the authority to appoint Williams, only the Control Board had the authority to fire him.

This gave Williams an unusual level of political strength in dealings with the mayor, with whom he had a number of very public battles ; Williams, who had the support of the Control Board as well as Congress, tended to win these battles, even gaining power in 1996 to hire and fire all budget-related city staffers.

Given this political clout, Williams began steering D. C .' s finances toward financial recovery, moving from a $ 355 deficit at the end of 1995 to a $ 185 surplus in the city's fiscal year 1997.