ST. CROIX — Kimika Woods, Office of Management and Budget associate director of Budget Operations, has been named OMB acting director following the resignation of Jenifer O’Neal amid an ongoing federal investigation, according to the Government House spokesperson.
Woods has served as OMB associate director of Budget Operations for just under two years, Richard Motta Jr., Government House communications director, said.
“She was essentially the director’s second in command,” he said.
Prior to becoming OMB’s associate director of Budget Operations, Woods served as chief financial officer at the VI Bureau of Internal Revenue from June 2021 to December 2022, Motta said. He said she previously worked as a budget analyst at the VI Housing Finance Authority. He said she was a senior budget analyst with OMB from 2016 to 2020.
Governor Albert Bryan Jr. said while briefly discussing the federal probe during a press conference Monday morning on St. Thomas that he requested O’Neal’s resignation. He said he received her resignation letter, but that he had not yet named an OMB acting director. Motta said the governor named Woods as OMB acting director later that day.
The Office of Management and Budget was scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance today for a fiscal year 2025 budget hearing along with the Department of Finance and Public Finance Authority/Office of Disaster Recovery. Woods submitted a letter that was read into the record requesting to reschedule OMB’s portion of the hearing because of O’Neal’s resignation.
Senator Donna Frett-Gregory, committee chair, read into the record an email she received from Karl Knight, the governor’s chief of staff. Knight also requested that OMB’s portion of the hearing be rescheduled because of O’Neal’s resignation.
The committee subsequently approved a motion to remove OMB from the agenda.
