Unlike most public officials who seek privacy, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty prefers venues like Mocha Grind on 14th Street NW, where ordinary residents often interrupt his meetings. While most executives seek to avoid rejection by the legislature of their appointees, he pushes forward without regard for potentially negative political outcomes. Consider his insistence that the D.C. Council hold hearings on his nominees to the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia.
“For everybody’s benefit, there should be hearings. I don’t believe [nominees] should be summarily dismissed,” he says, days after the council passed emergency legislation extending the terms of current members; six should have gone off the board in May. By law, they could serve an additional 180 days; that holdover period ends Nov. 11.
