The District’s new deputy mayor for planning and economic development comes from within Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration.
Valerie Santos, 36, will be charged with overseeing the city’s $13 billion economic development portfolio, expanding the District’s tax base, running an office of 65, and supervising multiple District agencies, including planning, consumer and regulatory affairs, and housing and community development.
“I believe we have hired the best and the brightest, and she will do a fantastic job,” Fenty said during a news conference Wednesday outside the still-under-construction Walker Jones Elementary School at New Jersey Avenue and L Street Northwest.
Santos replaces Neil Albert, who started Monday as city administrator. Dan Tangherlini, former city administrator, is now with the Obama administration, working for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Santos, Albert’s former chief operating officer, said her focus would be on business attraction and retention, and providing existing businesses with the tools they need for growth, “thereby creating jobs and new revenue for our city’s tax base.” While projects are moving forward citywide, she said there would be special concentration on initiatives east of the Anacostia River.
Santos, who holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University, was recruited by Albert to the D.C. government from her position as a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, where she specialized in urban public-private development. She called Albert her “mentor.”
“We’ve had some fantastic people from outside, but I think it’s a great sign for the D.C. government that she’s been hard at work serving the people of the District of Columbia for the last two years,” Fenty said.
At-large D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown, who has frequently clashed with Albert as chairman of the economic development committee, said in a statement that he “was disappointed that I wasn’t invited to the announcement,” but that he fully supported Santos, “who will face some of the toughest economic challenges our city has ever confronted.”
“I believe this is an opportunity to forge a new relationship between the council and the executive to create jobs for District residents, new opportunities for local businesses, more affordable housing and to efficiently move projects to completion,” Brown said.
