Mayor Anthony Williams showed up for work at the John A. Wilson Building yesterday.
This is news, if one defines news as something a public official does that’s out of the ordinary. Our mayor has spent about a third of his time the past year traveling abroad or around the U.S. He’s just back from a long weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Word around city hall is that Tony Williams has quit performing his job as mayor. People who work closely with Williams — in his executive branch and in the city council — tell me he lost interest about six months ago. The government, they say, has been running without him.
Thursday’s event was a news conference in the media room in the city hall ground floor. Williams summoned the press so that Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, could announce his efforts to get $4 million in federal funds to promote marriage in the District.
At 11:30 a.m. sharp, Brownback and D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton entered the media room. Council Member Vincent Gray was waiting. No mayor.
Was his flight from Belfast delayed?
Brownback and Norton disappeared. Williams apparently had beckoned them into his office to meet before facing the cameras. They walked back into the press room together at 11:45. Williams did well introducing Brownback, but he ran into trouble with Norton.
“Now we’re going to hear from Senator Eleanor Holmes Norton,” Williams said. “Oops, I mean congresswoman.”
Norton sounded the alarm eloquently and passionately about the dwindling number of African-American families and the struggles of single moms in DC.
Williams said, “I want to thank the senator. Why do I keep calling her senator?”
When you spend so much time flying around and meeting with foreign leaders, it’s hard to keep titles straight. Just Monday Williams was meeting with the Lord Mayor of Belfast and Belfast City Council members. It’s lucky didn’t call Norton Lord Congresswoman.
The facts are that Williams has visited Europe, Asia and Africa more than he’s visited Anacostia. While he was in Belfast, the deal for a crucial development around the new baseball stadium on the Anacostia River collapsed. Might his personal negotiating have saved it? Will he stick around long enough to make another deal work?
In his absence, City Administrator Robert Bobb has been making sure the government functions. He was at the negotiating table trying to keep the stadium deal within budget. But Bobb leaves his post today to focus on running for school board president.
Who’s in charge?
“The mayor’s working all the time,” says his spokesman Vince Morris. “When he’s traveling he’s working too — meeting people and attending conferences. He’s working here on the library system, the new hotel, the crime bill. He’s got a pretty heavy load this fall.”
Including a 10-day return trip to South Africa.
Back in June WRC-TV reporter Tom Sherwood started calling Williams “the former mayor.” He got a laugh. The joke is on D.C.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
