District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty will announce a reorganization of the city’s beleaguered social services today in the wake of the deaths of four young sisters that exposed gaping holes in the city’s safety net.
The mayor is expected to announce firings of bureaucrats that failed the girls, and a task force to streamline and integrate city social services.
Fenty huddled with acting Attorney General Peter Nickles and City Administrator Dan Tangherlini over the weekend, discussing ways to fulfill his Friday promise to hold “accountable” those who ignored signs that Banita Jacks’ family was in distress.
Jacks is now charged with killing her daughters. The girl’s decaying bodies were found by federal marshals last week.
Some critics are asking why Fenty waited until the four deaths to take aggressive action. They point to Fenty’s schools takeover bill, which required the mayor to convene a working group to streamline service to children.
“We dealt with that issue at the mayor’s request a year ago,” said D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson, D-at large. “Nobody’s talked about it since.”
Aides to Fenty have acknowledged privately that the legislation was written on the fly and was redrafted several times to keep up with the escalating promises that the mayor was making to the public.
But Nickles, Fenty’s closest adviser, bristled at the suggestion that the administration has been unprepared to deal with governing the city.
“Am I surprised by the fact that there’s a lot of institutions in town that … are in desperate need of repair? No,” Nickles told The Examiner. “But there have been great strides in the last 12 months.”
Asked about the schools takeover legislation, Nickles said, “I don’t see what one thing has to do with the other.”
Mendelson, a longtime critic of the administration, said he hopes the mayor has learned from the experience.
“These tragic deaths point to doing something,” Mendelson said, “as opposed to just talking about it.”
Five Missed Chances
City officials repeatedly failed to intervene on behalf of the four daughters of Banita Jacks before they were killed.
– July 12, 2006 » Child welfare officials are called by a nurse from George Washington hospital. The nurse says that the family is living in the van, and Jacks and her boyfriend, Nathaniel Fogle Jr., are abusing drugs. Case closed because there’s no address.
– March 3, 2007 » Brittany Jacks, 17, the oldest girl, stops showing up for class at Booker T. Washington charter school. Her sisters soon stop showing up for school at Meridian charter school. The charter board has no unified policy on truancy.
– April 27, 2007 » A social worker at Booker T. Washington reports “educational neglect” to city child welfare officials, but officials say they can’t find the family.
– April 30, 2007 » The school social worker tells child welfare officials that Banita Jacks seems mentally disturbed and may be holding her daughters “hostage.” But again, the family is not located.
– Mid-May, 2007 » Child welfare officials close the family’s file, assuming the family has moved to Waldorf, Md.
