A mere 12 hours after his general election victory, D.C. Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty Wednesday launched his formal transition by naming his chief of staff and promising swift action on other leadership positions, from the police chief on down.
“I think you can expect for us to move as quickly as possible,” Fenty said. “We’re not going to do anything knee-jerk. I think that would be the opposite of over-deliberation and it would be just as bad, but we want to do it in a timely fashion.”
With future City Administrator Dan Tangherlini at his side, Fenty introduced Tene Dolphin as his chief of staff, the top aide charged with managing the executive officer of the mayor.
Dolphin, a former special projects director with the Democratic National Committee, was Fenty’s director of operations during the campaign.
Today, Fenty is expected to name his attorney general.
“In January, the dynamic and energetic Fenty administration will take office,” Dolphin said during a press conference at the Reeves Center, home to Fenty’s transition offices. “And the residents of the District of Columbia should expect excellence.”
A key part of the transition process will be combing each District department, Tangherlini said, not only to learn what works, but also to develop next year’s spending plans.
“We’re going to look at their structure,” Tangherlini said. “We’re going to look at their budget. We’re going to look at their leadership. We’re going to look at what issues they’re facing and try to develop action plans … that we can implement over the first initial periods of the Fenty administration as well as the entire Fenty administration.”
But D.C. residents should not expect the Fenty team to completely remake the government, the mayor-elect said: “Our campaign was always about not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, not trying to fix things that aren’t broken.”
Fenty was asked specifically about the future of Police Chief Charles Ramsey.
But as he has since the primary, he declined to say whether Ramsey will stay or go, though he is “very mindful of not keeping any Cabinet-level staff member at bay.”
