D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty abruptly fired his popular parks and recreation director and replaced him with a D.C. Public Schools official with no parks experience.
Clark Ray, Fenty’s director of the Department of Parks and Recreation since August 2007, was canned by City Administrator Dan Tangherlini during a late Sunday evening meeting at the John A. Wilson Building.
“I stand behind the work we did,” said Ray, a staunch Fenty supporter going back to the mayoral campaign. “I’m going to walk out of here the same way I walked in, with my dignity and self-respect intact.”
Ray said he knew what was coming, but he accepts that he works at the pleasure of the mayor and can be dismissed at any time.
“When you get called to the Wilson Building at 7 p.m. on a Sunday, you don’t expect a fruit basket,” he said.
He will be replaced by Ximena Hartsock, former principal at Ross Elementary School. Most recently, Hartsock served as a deputy schools chief, during which she created the Office of Out-of-School Time and expanded after-school, summer and weekend activities.
Parks and recreation is “definitely on the right track” and each successive director has “helped to advance the ball,” Fenty said Monday during a news conference at the Ferebee Hope Recreation Center. But “we needed to shift” the focus away from fields and facilities and into programs, the mayor said.
Educated in Chile and the United States, Hartsock said her goal was to “provide the District residents with the best possible programming.” She starts Monday.
The mayor would not get into specifics on Ray’s firing, except to say that “sometimes you need a new set of eyes.” He also would not say whether the removal was tied to a lawsuit filed by a former Ray deputy who alleges he was dismissed for questioning why Fenty’s 9-year-old twin boys were playing in an 8-and-under basketball league.
Gay activist Peter Rosenstein called Ray’s firing “appalling.” Ray, who may take a job with the Greater Washington Sports Alliance, was the only openly gay member of Fenty’s Cabinet.
