The disarray of the District’s Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration; the rabid incompetence at agencies like the Fire Department/Emergency Medical Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation; and the culture of municipal narcissism indicate Mayor Anthony Williams has made little more than cosmetic changes to the internal workings of government.
Let us praise him for improving the overall image of the city nationally and internationally, managing the District’s fiscal resources and bringing economic vitality to communities that had never known it. Those neighborhoods would not have experienced revitalization were it not for Williams’s determination to toss the traditional political script of speaking only to the people who voted for him.
But the mayor knows, better than most, that enormous work must be done to transform the bureaucracy from one singularly focused on its own survival to one dedicated to providing high-quality services to District residents. He may want to dig deeper. But, practically speaking, the shovel will be passed on.
How deep do mayoral candidates intend to go? What are their plans for improving the weaknesses in the municipal delivery system, disclosed by the press, but largely in plain view for years?
Interestingly, last week top mayoral wannabes D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp and Ward 4 Council Member Adrian Fenty missed an opportunity to stand and deliver new ideas. Moreover, they deflected responsibility for the dysfunction at FEMS. Both have been in the legislature long enough to know about the systemic problems affecting that agency. Not to be held equally accountable, the two called for Fire Chief Adrian Thompson’s resignation.
Earlier in the month, they and mental health advocates celebrated the firing of Marsha Martin, as the 17th — no, maybe the 18th — director of MRDDA. To date, however, neither has offered any proposals to improve MRDDA. They haven’t even offered a cogent analysis of what ails the long-troubled agency.
Moving from condemnation to creation may be a difficult maneuver for some. Yet it’s one voters should demand. Talking solutions means the candidate has a micro-and not just macro-understanding of the municipal landscape and the realm of possibilities.
What, for example, would mayoral candidates Fenty and Cropp do to improve the quality of group homes being contracted by the District to provide services to mentally retarded and disabled residents who live here? What would the mayoral hopefuls do to ensure that workers are better trained and better paid? And how would the candidates improve the system of monitoring group homes?
Who knows.
They believe time is better spent attacking a lame-duck administration, performing an exquisitely choreographed cover-your-butt dance for their role in the abysmal state of some agencies, and creating a deafening collateral chatter that hides their dearth of answers.
Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU radio’s D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta. She can be reached at [email protected]
