With Fenty and Tangherlini out, deputy left in charge of D.C.
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
March 26, 2009
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Mayor Adrian Fenty left town again Thursday on a personal trip, and with City Administrator Dan Tangherlini also on leave this week, Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso appeared to be running the show.
An executive order, signed by Fenty on Tuesday, designates Reinoso as acting city administrator from March 23 through March 30, the time in which Tangherlini was scheduled off. According to the order, Reinoso “shall execute and perform the powers and duties of the City Administrator while serving in this Acting capacity.”
Mafara Hobson, Fenty’s communications director, declined to address the mayor’s absence. Fenty has been steadfast in providing minimal information about his personal exits from town, even as criticism of those trips has steadily increased. Attorney General Peter Nickles could not immediately be reached for comment.
The mayor has become an avid traveler, despite promises during his 2006 campaign that he would stick close to home.
Fenty’s critics have pounded him relentlessly for last month’s personal travel to Dubai — a $25,000 trip paid for by the United Arab Emirates government that he did not speak about publicly until after his return. While there he attended a tennis tournament that many other political types had backed away from, after an Israeli player was denied the right to participate.
His security detail cost taxpayers about $50,000 last year as he campaigned across the country on behalf of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. He accepted $11,300 from the Chinese government to attend last summer’s Olympics in Beijing.
And last week the mayor traveled to Philadelphia to watch American University’s NCAA basketball tournament game against Villanova. Fenty, WTOP reported Thursday, took his children, a couple staffers and a security detail. His tickets were donated by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com
