In a move designed to shore up the confidence of Congress, Wall Street and D.C. residents, the District’s trusted principal money manager has agreed to serve five more years under an Adrian Fenty administration, the city’s presumptive next mayor announced Monday.
Since his initial appointment by Mayor Anthony Williams in 2000, Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi has supervised the District’s economic boom, keeping a close eye on the bottom line to ensure no return to the catastrophic financial days of old. On Friday, Fenty asked him to stay through 2012.
“I always knew that one of the first things I would do is to say to Dr. Gandhi, ‘We need you on board for the next four years,’ ” Fenty said during a press conference outside City Hall.
Gandhi, who did not attend the announcement, said in a statement he would be “honored to have the opportunity to continue to serve the citizens of the District of Columbia as their chief financial officer.”
Gandhi’s broad, critical responsibilities include supervising all financial functions of the city’s $9 billion government, preparing the annual budget, promoting the city to bond rating agencies, estimating revenue, reviewing all legislation for fiscal impact and testifying before Congress on financial matters.
His nomination should send a signal to Wall Street and Congress that the city, once a financial disaster, “is going to be run in a fiscally responsible way,” Fenty said, and it is “a great signal to residents who want to make sure their tax dollars are spent wisely.”
Fenty, 35, is favored to win the Nov. 7 general election. He would represent the first mayoral transition since the disbanding of the federal Control Board that provided oversight of District finances, leaving some members of Congress nervous about what the future will bring. A rider attached to the District’s federal appropriation bill, which has yet to pass the Senate, extends Gandhi’s term through June 30, 2008.
Vincent Gray, incoming council chairman, said Gandhi’s reappointment “makes absolutely perfect sense.” Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, chairman of the Finance and Revenue Committee, said the move sends a “clear message right off the bat that [Fenty’s] serious about the finances of this city.”
