November 26, 2024
Kate Frese/For PhillyVoice
Mayor Cherelle Parker has appointed Candi Jones as the city's new chief human resources officer and Sabrina Maynard as the city's new budget director.
Mayor Cherelle Parker filled two top positions in her administration Monday as news broke that the head of the city's Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs has left her role.
Candi Jones was tapped as the city's chief human resources officer, replacing Michael Zaccagni, who is retiring after decades as a human resources official. Sabrina Maynard was appointed as the city's budget director, replacing Bob McDermott, who is leaving for the private sector.
Also, Celena Morrison-McLean, executive director of the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs left her post Thursday, the Philadelphia Gay News reported Monday. The city has not given the reason for her departure, but said it will begin a national search to fill the position immediately.
As chief human resources officer, Jones will develop strategies, policies and programs for recruiting and retaining city employees. She previously served as part of Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris' core team, which negotiated a one-year contract extension with AFSCME District Council 33, preventing a strike of 8,400 city workers. She also was part of a team that established the City College for Municipal Employment, a workforce training program at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Maynard is revisiting a role she briefly held during the Kenney administration, overseeing the capital and operating budgets and the city's grants office. She had been working as the city's deputy finance director for policy, analysis and grants, and as the chief of staff to the Office of the Director of Finance.
Morrison-McLean was appointed by former Mayor Jim Kenney in March 2020 — just before the COVID-19 crisis hit Philadelphia. During her tenure, she developed guidelines to support trans employees in the workplace and advocated for nonbinary athletes in sporting events. She was Philadelphia's first openly trans person to lead a city office or department.
In March, she and her husband, Darius McLean, who is the chief operating officer at William Way LGBT Community Center Darius McLean, were arrested during a traffic stop by a Pennsylvania state trooper who was fired for his actions. Morrison-McLean took a video of the officer detaining McLean on the side of I-76; she can be heard on the video saying the officer "just punched me." The video led to outcry from Parker and other officials. The couple was not charged.
