Mayor Adrian Fenty Friday laid out a modest set of priorities for his second year in office that are in sharp contrast to the major initiatives he undertook in his freshman year as mayor.
Where there was the high-profile D.C. Public Schools takeover in 2007, Fenty begins 2008 with an aim to create individual graduation plans for high school students and to increase the number of 9th- to 11th-graders taking the PSATs in October. An overarching objective to reintroduce community policing in 2007 is being followed this year with a pledge to improve police efficiency by deploying laptop computers, and to increase police visibility by reassigning employees to the field.
“These are the things that residents drive home time and time again,” Fenty said during a news conference at Kelly Miller Middle School in Northeast.
The mayor’s 2008 goals include reaching 4,050 sworn police officers (the city has about 3,800 currently), expanding school-based mental health services, inserting SmarTrip chips in D.C. driver’s licenses, establishing ward-based maintenance teams for recreation centers, installing pedestrian countdown signals, increasing nuisance property prosecutions, augmenting the summer youth program and reducing blighted properties.
Fenty said he was successful in meeting most of his 2007 targets and pledged to hold his agency chiefs accountable for delivering on this year’s schedule. In large part, he said, “the budget provides enough resources to do the things we want to do.”
The mayor’s 2008 goals are “certainly not lofty,” said Alex Padro, a Shaw advisory neighborhood commissioner.
“I think it’s clearly a reality check on the mayor’s part,” Padro said. “He’s realizing he tried to take on too much too soon. Now he’s got to make sure that his goals are really achievable rather than inspirational.”
Peter Rosenstein, a longtime D.C. government observer, said Fenty is making the natural shift from macro-reform to micromanaging.
“In addition to the large goals that the Fenty administration laid out, they are now beginning to get into the details of government, which is often just as important in getting things done for the citizens of the District,” Rosenstein said.
