In the early 2000s, when Natwar Gandhi was first appointed the District’s chief financial officer, he gathered his team of bean counters, including those working in other agencies. He told them, “I want us to do whatever we can to help this mayor,” according to several people I spoke with who were in the room that day.
Those members of his team where shocked. The CFO is supposed to be independent, existing outside of politics in a universe ruled only by the spreadsheet.
But Gandhi — whom the full D.C. Council is poised to confirm Tuesday to a third, five-year term — always has crossed the line, cozying up to elected officials and currying favors with the city’s elite, as his multimillion-dollar shop failed at the basic financial management: preventing agency overspending.
“We spend more on the OCFO [$127 million this year] than Los Angeles and Chicago spend on their comparable agencies,” noted at-large Councilman David Catania. “Even President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget will have only a $92 million budget in fiscal year 2013.”
Several times a week for the past decade, Gandhi, like a politician or lobbyist, has spent exorbitant amounts of his time schmoozing: He has breakfast or lunch with council members, congressional representatives, key business owners and reporters. Taxpayers often have picked up the tabs.
The tete-a-tetes have served Gandhi — not District residents — allowing him to stay ahead of media reports, quietly satisfy the political needs of his allies and advance his own agenda.
Consider for example, just before Mayor Vincent C. Gray officially announced Gandhi’s reappointment, it seemed there might not be enough votes for his confirmation. Then Chairman Kwame Brown was forced to resign. Some of those anti-Gandhi legislators began changing their minds. Why?
“We don’t know what is going to happen with Vince,” one of them told me. He had just returned from lunch with Gandhi. “We can’t afford to change the CFO. Gandhi’s right; we need him. He’s a stabilizing force.”
That message was delivered by many who spoke at Gandhi’s confirmation hearing. Most of the folks who heaped big praise on the CFO were his kind of people: former Mayor Anthony A. Williams and the heads of the DC Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Washington Board of Trade, for example.
It’s no secret I believe Gandhi should not be reappointed. Under his watch, the public’s money has been poorly protected, agencies have routinely overspent their budgets and he frequently has overstepped his authority. These are matters that should have prompted termination.
“The city would have been far better served with a nationwide search that sought out and brought in the best talent the country has to offer,” said Catania, who voted in committee against Gandhi’s reappointment.
No one follows best personnel practices in the District. So, it’s Gandhi, again.
The city desperately needs an aggressive, more competent and more independent CFO, who will act in the interest of District taxpayers — not his favorite politicians or coffee klatch friends.
Jonetta Rose Barras can be reached at [email protected].
Jonetta Rose Barras’ column appears on Tuesday and Friday. She can be reached at [email protected].
