WASHINGTON — District of Columbia leaders are looking to the city’s past as they search for someone to safeguard its fiscal future.

Mayor Vincent Gray announced Tuesday that former mayor Anthony Williams and former U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Alice Rivlin will lead a search committee that will recommend candidates for chief financial officer.

Longtime CFO Natwar Gandhi is stepping down in June after more than a decade in the powerful, independent position.

Williams and Rivlin were key players in the district’s emergence from insolvency in the mid-1990s. Williams was the first CFO appointed by a Congressional control board that took over management of city government in 1995. He later served two terms as mayor. Rivlin chaired the control board from 1998 until 2001, when it ceased operations.

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