Mayor Adrian Fenty isn’t much for perspective and reflection. He is hard to pin down when pressed to name the most weighty moment of 2007, his first year as the District of Columbia’s chief executive. Or his most decisive moment. Or what he would like to do over again.
Fenty, 37, is all about looking forward.
“All I think about is what work needs to be done,” Fenty said in a recent sit-down with The Examiner. “What we’ve done every day for the last 11 and a half months is work as hard as humanly possible. We hired great people. We’ve tried to manage them to meet the high expectations of the residents of this city. We’ve stayed in touch with the people as feverishly as humanly possible. And we’ve only been focused on results, as well as trying to make the tough decisions that need to be made.”
Fenty swept into office Jan. 2 having won all 142 precincts in both the primary and general elections. No D.C. mayor has ever started with such a mandate, and he certainly used it to his advantage. Virtually all of his major initiatives — the school system takeover, educationreform and emergency medical services reform, the sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital — have been implemented despite a modicum of community and D.C. Council opposition.
Fenty’s top priority was education, and the Council gave him unprecedented power over the public schools.
“Whether it’s facilities, personnel, budget, curriculum, management, accountability, transparency and decisiveness, whether it’s any of those things, there’s been more progress made in the schools since June 12 than there probably has been in years before that,” the mayor said. “In the same sentence, I also recognize that because of how troubled the school system is/was, there’s way more work in front of us.”
Fenty has had his struggles with the council, but nothing has derailed his agenda.
Legislators have complained, to no avail, that the mayor rolls out his major initiatives through the media such as the hiring of schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the closure of 23 schools and his decision to competitively bid development on Poplar Point.
“I think the council is tired of asking to be put in the game,” Council Chairman Vincent Gray said in late November. “We know how to run with the ball.”
But Fenty said the tension that existswith the Council is “healthy.”
“It’s the legislature’s job to hold us accountable,” the mayor said. “So I think there should be tough questions and there should be challenges.”
The mayor will face his share of challenges in 2008:
» In March, Fenty’s legal team will go before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue in favor of the city’s handgun ban. If the court ultimately decides against the District, Fenty will have to roll out a new gun-control law come summer. So might cities across the country.
» In April, all D.C. taxicab drivers will be required to operate with time-and-distance meters rather than the age-old zone fare system. The drivers, who generally oppose meters and have already walked off the job once in protest, are unlikely to give up without a fight.
» In September, several members of the D.C. Council will be up for re-election. If any Fenty allies lose their bids to return, it could turn the legislative tide against the mayor.
» The investigation into the largest corruption scandal in D.C. government history will continue into 2008. The theft of more than $20 million, allegedly by a pair of tax office employees, has revealed serious failures in internal controls, problems Fenty will have to fix.
» Fenty and Rhee will move to close two dozen schools next year, never a popular action among parents.
After a year in office, Fenty continues to stick to his mantra of priorities: “Family, work and working out.” There’s a million things he could have done differently on the job, he said, and “that’s just part of being a human being.”
But has the mayoral experience been more difficult than he expected?
“I don’t go into it with those types of expectations,” he said. “I just use my institutional knowledge of being a lifelong resident, having been in neighborhood politics and then being on the city council, just to assess everything that needs to be done and just build on the momentum.”
