Recent years have seen the retirement of longtime village administrator Robert Schoelle. The latest announcement to be made regarding veteran village administrators deciding to move on is that of James Olivo, who’ll be moving on to fulfill his lifelong ambition of teaching. First hired to be an accountant for the Village of Garden City back in 1977, he ascended to be the village’s auditor in 1982. The North Merrick resident leaves behind him an impressive list of accomplishments that came about during his 38-year run — the village attaining the highest credit rating any municipality can receive from Moody’s and earning Certificates of Excellence in Financial Reporting for 19 consecutive years due to the superiority of his annual financial reports. Olivo ran a tight financial ship and it was reflected in his embracing of technology, where he converted the village’s manual accounting system into integrated systems information processing. With the complexities that go into overseeing budgets, crunching numbers and making sure all the figures add up, James Olivo has done an exemplary job in helping keep the Village of Garden City in solid financial straits. To that end, Garden City Life wishes him the best of luck in his new endeavors and is confident that his successor, Sandra Yu-Clarson,c will be inheriting a solid legacy.
—Dave Gil de Rubio