After 7 difficult years, ACS chief John Mattingly to resign

The commissioner of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services will resign in September after seven years on the job, he announced Tuesday.

John Mattingly, 66, said he wanted to return to Baltimore to spend more time with his family and continue working in child welfare. He will go back to work at the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a senior fellow.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he asked Mattingly to reconsider, but wished him luck, adding, “few people have worked harder and more effectively in such difficult circumstances than he has.”

Mattingly had a difficult tenure, included accusations that ACS workers missed warning signs in the child abuse deaths of Marchella Brett-Pierce, 4, in 2010 and Nixzmary Brown, 7, in 2006.