By Petra Bartosiewicz

January 27, 2002 | 7:00 p.m

On the morning of Jan. 18, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, a

puckish smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, delivered his annual-and ostensibly last-State of the Parks address at the department's headquarters in Central Park. The mood was nostalgic, as the onetime maverick and full-time eccentric reflected on his 15 years as Parks Commissioner. "I believe in evolution, not divine creation," Mr. Stern told his audience. A month into the Bloomberg administration, with nearly every major Mayoral appointment in place, evolution at the Parks Department continues, but Mr. Stern remains in stasis. According to sources close to Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Stern has embarked on a full-out charm offensive with his new boss, even as the Mayor has searched in vain for a suitable replacement. Also, the sources said, former Mayor Giuliani went to bat for Mr. Stern, urging his successor to keep the longest-reigning Parks Commissioner since Robert Moses. Mr. Bloomberg said at a recent press conference that Mr. Stern was assisting in the selection of his own successor and would be welcome in the Mayor's kitchen cabinet. On the surface, Mr. Stern, too, has given the impression of benignly handing himself over to the winds of fate. "I came cheerfully and, when it's time, I'll go cheerfully," he said in a recent interview with The Observer . Behind the scenes, however, the commissioner's allies-most prominently Mr. Giuliani-have been lobbying on behalf of Mr. Stern. According to a source close to the former Mayor, on the last night of his administration Mr. Giuliani asked his successor to keep Mr. Stern on as a personal favor. Mr. Bloomberg himself has had nothing but the highest praise for Mr. Stern. "Mike thinks Henry's absolutely terrific; he likes his goofiness," Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum told The Observer. "Henry has had more lives than a cat, so I wouldn't rule anything out," said Adrian Benepe, the Parks Department's borough commissioner for Manhattan, referring to Mr. Stern's ability to work for a Democrat (Ed Koch) and a Republican (Mr. Giuliani). Mr. Benepe is currently considered to be a front-runner for Mr. Stern's job. Not everyone in the new administration, however, shares Mr. Bloomberg's rosy view of the Parks Commissioner. Mr. Bloomberg's transition team reportedly was less than excited about the prospect of retaining Mr. Stern, according to a source close to Mr. Bloomberg. And yet, nearly a month into the new administration, Mr. Stern still rules his emerald empire from his office in the Arsenal on Fifth Avenue. So far, he has outlasted all serious attempts to find a replacement. Early candidates like Houston Parks Commissioner Oliver Spellman Jr. (formerly a New York City Parks employee) and former Prospect Park Alliance chairwoman Tupper Thomas interviewed for the job but reportedly fell short of Mr. Bloomberg's expectations. The transition team was more successful in pushing forward San Francisco Recreation and Park Department director Elizabeth Goldstein (also a former New York City Parks employee) and was elated when Mr. Bloomberg gave her the thumbs-up-only to watch slack-jawed as Ms. Goldstein subsequently declined the offer. (Patricia Harris, the deputy mayor for administration who oversees the Department of Parks and Recreation, would not comment on the specifics of the selection process.) Mr. Stern has often delighted in premature rumors of his own demise. First appointed Parks Commissioner in 1983 under Mr. Koch (a childhood friend), he was replaced seven years later when David Dinkins appointed Ms. Gotbaum. When Mr. Dinkins lost his re-election bid to Mr. Giuliani in 1993, Mr. Stern replaced Ms. Gotbaum the following year. Even if Mr. Stern is replaced-as is expected-he'll be remembered for a colorful and controversial tenure. In the last eight years alone, he has added more than 2,000 acres of new parkland and created programs like 2001 Greenstreets, a project that transformed 2,000 traffic islands of gray concrete throughout the city into miniature flower gardens. Mr. Stern, whose creative budgetary solutions in the face of decreased funding alternately elicited praise and raised eyebrows, went along with the Giuliani administration's plan to dispatch nearly 7,000 welfare recipients to jobs tending the city's parks and playgrounds. Though he carefully crafted an image as the resident eccentric of municipal government, Mr. Stern also was dogged by controversy, particularly in the last few years. In 1999, employee complaints of racial discrimination led to an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The  agency found "reasonable cause" to substantiate the claims. Mr. Stern dismissed the allegations. "The racial stuff happens when you appoint people on merit," he said in a recent interview. "In today's world, [people] play the race card; it happens in every organization." A federal class-action suit filed in March 2001 in federal court by 12 employees is still pending. Mr. Stern's budgetary machinations managed to get him in hot water as well. In 2000, the department came under fire for charging exorbitant fees (labeled "donations") for recreation-center memberships, tree-removal permits and events held in the city's parks. The City Council held a series of hearings; the Comptroller's office released an audit; and the Parks Department pledged to mend its ways. (A spokesman for the Comptroller's office said several portions of the audit are pending and are expected to be released some time this spring.) Passive Bystander? But many parks activists have reserved their most scathing criticism for Mr. Stern's appearing passive in the face of the budget cuts. "Very few people in the parks arena are boosters of Henry," said Gene Russianoff, a senior attorney with the New York Public Interest Research Group. "The view in the parks world is that … they hold Henry responsible that he wasn't able to get the parks funding." "If you're around long enough, there are always going to be people who hate you, who are going to sue you or give a ticket to your dog. It comes with the territory,"   countered Mr. Stern, pointing out that Mr. Giuliani had increased the Parks Department's capital budget by $200 million since fiscal year 1994. "It's absolutely ridiculous. If you're part of an administration, you do all you can to fight for funding, and you don't denounce your employer publicly if you want to continue working for him." Not even the commissioner's harshest critics, however, can deny that Mr. Stern has brought an unrivaled devotion to the city's parks. A career public servant who surrounded himself with an enclave of similarly minded parks lovers, Mr. Stern recruited heavily among Ivy League schools and amassed a cadre of devoted young graduates who might have otherwise entered more lucrative positions in the private sector. "There has never been and never will be anyone like Henry Stern," said Mr. Benepe. "When history is written, he'll probably be mentioned in the same breath as Al Smith and  La Guardia." Mr. Stern's State of the Parks address-with white-gloved park rangers standing at mock-solemn attention as guests tucked into plates laden with asparagus, salmon and fresh mozzarella-bore the flourishes that have become emblematic of the commissioner's reign: always festive, more than a bit tongue-in-cheek, anything but humdrum civil service. "Bureaucracy is a very difficult and troublesome thing; it's like Gulliver being trapped by all those little people," Mr. Stern told his audience. "Most people can't get through it because they haven't spent 40 years doing it." But while Mr. Stern may want nothing more than to continue doing the job he loves, in the end he, too, was forced to acknowledge the inevitability of evolution. "I will always be faithful to the parks movement," he told his colleagues, "wherever I may be found."