Her departure comes amid an investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office into Pataki's tourism nonprofit organizations.
Pataki's leaving what is a taxpayer-funded appointed position comes after a Journal News/lohud.com investigation found that two nonprofits violate state law because they did not have functioning boards of directors. Such boards are meant to have oversight and control of money donated to the tax-exempt nonprofits.
The Putnam County Visitors’ Bureau, one of the nonprofits, gets some $250,000 a year in state and county money. The Putnam Tourism Corp., the other nonprofit, which Pataki set up in 2012, provided a second income source for Pataki for county tourism work, according to the Journal News investigation.
Pataki criticized those reports and characterized them as "false accusations," according to The Putnam County Courier.
“I regret that my last months on the job were marred by false accusations by a single reporter out to promote himself and harm the county. Public life, as I well know, is rife with slings and barbs, but this has been disappointing," Pataki was quoted as saying in The Courier.
"I respect Libby's decision," Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell said in a statement Friday evening. "I thank her for her service, and I wish her well. I did not have any advance notice of this but I understand she has been under a great deal of fire lately, much of it unfair, but I understand."
Alexandra Ballantine, a local merchant who has spoken out at County Legislature meetings, said she had not heard anything official about Pataki's leaving, but said "I hope that means they're reconsidering the whole value of the whole tourism bureau" because "I think it's been around for the better part of 20 years and I don't see any measurable results. I see nothing that shows that it's made any sense at all to improve the economy."
Ballantine said, "I'm not surprised, given the facts that your excellent colleague's reporting revealed that it was a double dip" and "that she's been paid a great deal for an activity level that I didn't think justified the money that she received." Ballantine called it a "good thing" that Pataki is leaving the position.
Ken Harper, of Patterson, the Putnam County Democratic Party chairman, said he noticed a dearth of mentions about tourism in Odell's State of the County speech, Thursday night.
County Legislator Dini LoBue, R-Mahopac, said that Pataki's leaving "spared herself and the people of Putnam County further turmoil and humiliation."
County Legislature Chairwoman Ginny Nacerino, R-Patterson, said she was "a little surprised" that Pataki stepped down at this time, saying that Pataki "did work hard and did put her heart and soul into the job."
The state attorney general's office began its investigation in February.
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