City Councilman Dan Garodnick said he will run for city comptroller whether or not the embattled John Liu seeks re-election next year.

“The comptroller’s office needs a reset. The distractions over there have made it impossible to get some very important initiatives done, like the overhaul of the pension systems, which was proposed, or the fact that now audits that are being done are viewed entirely in a political lens,” Garodnick said in his announcement outside City Hall yesterday.

Garodnick, a Democrat from Manhattan’s East Side, is the first candidate to step forward for the comptroller’s race.

Liu has been vague about his political plans in the wake of the arrests of his campaign treasurer, Jia “Jenny” Hou, and one of his fund- raisers, Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, for allegedly breaking campaign-finance laws.