Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty might be tucked away in the eighth floor of the Reeves Center plotting his administration, but he’s promised a transition accessible to all District residents.
Dan Tangherlini, the future city administrator, on Wednesday pledged a transparent transition, accessible to all through the Internet — www.fentytransition.org — or through eight town hall meetings.
On the Web site, 10 policy areas are separated into blogs, where residents can peruse and comment on Fenty’s evolving programs, in addition to offering ideas of their own.
“This is the most open, inclusive activity put together by a transition group that we ever saw,” Tangherlini said.
“Rather than small individually selected groups of people, maybe with a particular interest, we open our transition activities to anyone.”
The “Team Fenty” pre-transition, which started soon after the Ward 4 D.C. council member’s unprecedented primary sweep of all 142 precincts, included roughly 1,000 people, broken up into teams, who developed policy papers in multiple areas.
On Monday, the teams unveiled their suggestions for education, public safety, health care, affordable housing, environment, arts, technology and voting rights, among other fields.
Fenty’s transition office is wide open to his staff. Like the “bull pen” he’s planning for City Hall, the mayor-elect sits at an open cubicle among about 30 of his aides.
The setup is unlike anything the District has known, Fenty said, as it takes big decisions outside the proverbial smoky back room.
“Now this is where power is centered,” he said.
Part of the Washington DC Examiner’s 2006 election coverage
