Results tagged “mayorfenty”

Should the District's early-out/easy-out retirement payments be considered a "bonus"? This is the debate in the latest chapter of the overarching tiff between the Fenty administration and the D.C. Council. The Examiner's Michael Neibauer reports today that four District employees have been denied such exit payments by the Department of Human Resources, after the Council approved a 2010 budget which outlaws all "bonuses and special payments" to District employees.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty appeared on WRC/NBC4 this morning to take questions from Barbara Harrison on the whole cycling team police escort/WTOP brouhaha. The mayor actually did a pretty good job explaining himself to Harrison, noting (correctly) that his security detail has been greatly reduced since he first took office, but at the same time appearing contrite and promising to do away with the motorcycle escort during his training exercises from now on.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has named Bryan Sivak, a founder of the Silicon Valley company InQuira, as his new chief technology officer, both D.C. Wire and City Desk are reporting. Sivak, 34, was introduced for the first time by the mayor at a press conference at city hall this morning. The nominee takes over for interim chief Chris Willey, who had been tasked with minding the OCTO ship since the departure of Vivek Kundra, who left the agency for a spot in the Obama administration. OCTO has also been rocked by scandal this year, following a string of arrests in a federal bribery sting tied to the agency. Sivak will have to be confirmed by the D.C. Council.

Attention, Columbia Heights! The official word has just come down that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty will formally dedicate the new Columbia Heights Plaza and "Resonance" Fountain on Monday, Sept. 28 at 10:30 a.m. So let all the endless speculation cease. It does seem, however, that the plaza itself was pretty much mostly done and open last night.

A majority of D.C. voters disapprove of the job D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is doing, according to the results of a WJLA/SurveyUSA poll released this afternoon. Of 500 D.C. voters surveyed, 51 percent disapproved of his job performance, while 40 percent approved.

The final tally is in on this year's Summer Youth Employment Program, courtesy the Washington Post's Nikita Stewart. The program cost $41 million this year, which is "significantly less than last year, when the mayor promised a job to any youth who wanted one, but enough to eclipse similar programs in most big cities." This year's program was criticized less for payroll problems and more for employed kids either doing a crummy job or appearing to be doing not much at all. And of course, remember that the D.C. Council has limited the 2010 program to only $20 million, which would hardly cover the kind of all-inclusive program for which Mayor Fenty has always pushed. For his part, Fenty appears unconcerned: 'Fenty said he is determined to find a way around the council's caps on next year's program. "There's a long time between now and next summer," he said.'

                     

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty presided over the opening of a fabulously-appointed new dog park at 17th and S Streets NW yesterday (along with a refurbished park for all living things at 17th and T, but the focus was clearly on the pooches' new playground). As theses photographs illustrate, the park features a hill-shaped, artificial grass surface and a water fountain designed specifically for dogs.

We've been giving the largely lame-o @MayorFenty Twitter feed a hard time for a couple of days now. This is after word of the presumed official mayoral feed first came out earlier in August. But now, weeks later, the Mayor's Office is saying that the @MayorFenty feed isn't actually theirs, City Desk reports.

The ongoing saga of the abrupt eviction of the Recreation Wish List Committee, run by Cora Masters Barry, from the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center keeps attracting more and more big guns. D.C. Wire updates today that none other than Maya Angelou and Dorothy Height were trying to get a meeting with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty this past week to discuss the matter. And to make matters worse, sources are telling the Post that Fenty canceled not one, but two meetings with the women. And just when you thought Fenty's office couldn't appear to be any more callous on this issue. But wait! What's that you say, @MayorFenty?

Missed meeting with Dr. Maya Angelou & Dorothy Height was due to scheduling conflicts and not disrespect :-)

Perhaps you've been enjoying the often entertaining fake Adrian Fenty Twitter feed, @fentydc, for some time now. We know we have. A recent example why: "Reporters, go ahead and rail about my unexplained travel, compulsive workout schedule and Axe body spray-but lay off my kids. Seriously." That's funny stuff.

City Desk got the scoop on Friday that the ghost bike memorial for Alice Swanson -- who was killed over a year ago after she was struck by a vehicle near the intersection of Connecticut and R Street NW -- had been removed by the D.C. Department of Public Works.

It still amazes me just how little D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty seems to understand about talking to reporters. The more he categorically refuses to answer a single question about the process that took place to enroll his two sons in the high-performing Lafayette Elementary School, even though their neighborhood school is West Elementary, the more journalists are going to keep after this story. If you've ever wondered what it's like to talk to Fenty in the middle of a press scrum, just check out the video below, courtesy NBC4's Tom Sherwood. Mike DeBonis has a write-up with full audio of yesterday's heated exchange over at City Desk as well.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is running for re-election, and so far no viable candidate has formally declared an intent to run against the incumbent (though there are plenty of rumors about At-large D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown). A story from the Examiner today may help persuade someone to step to the plate sooner rather than later, however. A recent poll conducted by D.C.-based Successful Capital Strategies shows that six in ten District Democrats would be "open" to voting for someone other than Fenty in the next election.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty likes to keep active. The man gets up almost every day and runs, bikes or otherwise exercises for a solid hour (if not more), and he likes to be seen always zipping across town to take care of his mayoral business, whether in his little Smart Car or his big Lincoln Navigator. But ever since Fenty got in a fender-bender about a week ago, the Washington Post has had a hard-on about whether or not the mayor did anything wrong to cause the accident, and today Nikita Stewart goes ahead and asks the question: Should the mayor be driving himself around the city at all?

Maybe it's just August doldrums, but I'm having a hard time getting too worked up about today's revelation that Mayor Fenty's weekend fender-bender may not have happened exactly the way his spokesperson first said. From the Post:

Spokeswoman Mafara Hobson wrote in an e-mail Sunday that "a vehicle ran a stop sign and pulled out in front of the Mayor's vehicle, causing a collision."

Continue reading "Fender-bendergate?"

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty was in what sounds like a fender bender last night, the Post is reporting. The mayor was driving his kids in the family SUV in upper Northwest at about 7 p.m. when another driver went through a stop sign and the two cars hit each other. No injuries were reported, and no word on who was at fault. Wonder how the mayoral Smart Car would have fared.

Mayor Adrian Fenty and Mayor for Life Marion Barry might need a little dose of humility with their morning tea, we think. Over the weekend we found out that Barry will once again dodge prison time for not paying his taxes for five years, and instead will face another two more years of probation. But rather than gracefully accept the ruling, the Post reports, Barry has accused U.S. prosecutors of harboring a vendetta against him and has demanded that their actions be investigated. Just as Barry justified his opposition to same-sex marriage by calling himself a "moral" politician a few weeks back, we think maybe it's time for the Ward 8 council man to not try and turn everything into a spectacle. Mayor Fenty might also want to tread a little more carefully. As we wrote earlier this morning, the Post reports that Fenty has allowed a close personal friend to chauffeur him around town in the mayoral SUV, possibly violating city regulations in the process. Is the mayor's buddy allowed to drive Fenty around? "He is if I let him," claims the mayor. We're guessing we aren't the only ones reminding the mayor today that laws aren't deemed applicable or not based on the mood of the city's chief executive.

There might be some shakeups in the way that the District's government celebrates the inauguration.

UPDATE: The Post has identified the hotel as the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown.

You might be able to rent your living quarters for Inauguration weekend at wildly inflated prices -- but you can forget about selling a ticket to the Inauguration ceremony on eBay. So says Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who, according to the Post, contacted eBay, StubHub, and other ticket resale sites last week to inform them that she plans on drafting legislation to criminalize such sales. (And yes, Feinstein's even gotten through to your shifty friend Craig, who was apparently selling tickets for as much as $40,000. Yikes.) The legislation could potentially be introduced during Congress' upcoming lame-duck session.

        

Economic struggles have hit many in 2008 - but it is this time of year, as always, when a large number of local residents will struggle mightily to find a holiday meal. Luckily, there's organizations like Bread for the City. The city's largest food pantry even had some extra help earlier this week from Mayor Adrian Fenty. Fenty arrived in his trademark black cap, ready to assist Bread for the City's Southeast distribution center begin the work of providing more than 10,000 low-income D.C. families with meals this holiday season.

DCist fanboy-in-chief Charles Gray tells us that Ryan Zimmerman found the zone for the Nats' stadium opener, swatting a tie-breaking walk-off home run for the win in the ninth. Woo! But Nationals fans — as well as residents and other visitors to the new stadium area — were less thrilled to find themselves in the Nats' new parking zone.

As you may recall, the luxury suite at the Verizon Center that owner Abe Pollin gave to the city as a thank-you gift for that $50 million check to upgrade the facility has caused some bad feelings between Mayor Adrian Fenty's staff and the D.C. Council. Each office thought they ought to have total access to the box, and the mayor's office even tried to block the Council from getting their hands on Wizards tickets. But now WTOP's Mark Segraves updates his ongoing Phone Booth saga to report that in order to douse the flames of indignity flaring up between the two governing bodies, Pollin has given the D.C. Council their own suite.

Good morning, Washington. It really is freezing outside, people are dropping like flies from this terrible cold going around town, and over in Iowa, we hear there's some kind of a fake election going on that's going to dominate the news cycle all day. It could all be enough to get us down, but yet, we carry on ... until we read this story about an 11-year-old boy in Burke, VA who has been arrested on charges of breaking and entering and sexual assault. Eleven years old! Kid hasn't even gone through puberty yet. WTF?

The people behind DC Residents for Reasonable Taxi Fares, the web site that's been calling for Mayor Fenty to make some significant revisions to his taxi meter proposals, have sent out a last-minute push for residents to send like-minded input to the District. The deadline for public comment set by the D.C. Taxicab Commission on the proposed move from zones to time and distance meters, which Mayor Fenty has said would include a $4.50$4.00 flag drop, are due Monday, Jan. 7.

Good morning, Washington. Well, this is it: the holidays are finally, tragically over. You're once again sitting at your desk. And now we begin the slow, terrible death march toward spring, with only brief, inadequate celebrations of Presidents' and MLK Day to sustain us. Stay strong, D.C. — we'll get through this. Can You Hear Me Now? Hello? Hello?: The ball dropped, the phones came out and... nothing. "Y2K8 Bug" doesn't sound very catchy, but that seems to be what Verizon Wireless customers experienced in the first few hours of 2008, as WTOP reports. A software glitch affected some calls and text messages until around 4 a.m. on New Year's Day. Virginia Considers Mining Uranium: Walter Coles' family farm in Pittsylvania County sits atop what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium on the East coast — enough to power the nation's reactors for two years. But up until now he hasn't been able to do anything about it: as the Post explains, uranium mining has been banned in Virginia since 1982. Now Coles is undertaking a lobbying effort to have that changed. Although the landowner claims that he's avoided selling the land so that he can ensure the mining process proceeds safely and with a maximum benefit to the community, critics say that Coles is motivated solely by money and that uranium mining can't be conducted safely in Virginia's moist environment. String of Stabbings in Virginia: The Post reports on three separate incidents that occurred yesterday and overnight in Northern Virginia. A man was found stabbed in Falls Church; another in Reston; and three people sustained knife injuries after a man was barred from a party in Franconia. The Falls Church incident resulted in the victim's death. Police say the incidents aren't related. Briefly Noted: Maryland property assessments rising despite falling home prices... Third Democrat considers running for Tom Davis' seat... Union Station was briefly evacuated yesterday due to a french fry fire, lower level will remain closed today... Arlington chairman pledges to support affordable housing, pursue smoking/trans-fat ban and keep county pro-immigrant... This Day In DCist: One year ago Mayor Fenty was taking office, Washington was paying its respects to Gerald Ford, and the Post was cozying up to local bloggers. Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user Oblivious Dude

>> So Mayor Fenty and Schools Chancellor Rhee have scheduled 23 simultaneous school closure hearings at each of the proposed 23 schools to be closed. Logistics nightmare questions aside, what is a parent who has a child at more than one of the schools supposed to do? Pick which child they think is more important? [WaPo]

The Washington Post says that taxicab drivers are handing out surveys to riders about the impending change from zones to meters. Drivers have until Jan. 8 to hand in public comments to the D.C. Taxicab Commission and the mayor's office, which means that if you get in a D.C. cab between now and then, odds are pretty good you'll be asked to complete a survey.

The Washington Post has a fantastic story on today's front page accusing Sen. Mary Landrieu (D.-La.), in her role as chairwoman of the Senate's D.C. appropriations subcommittee up until earlier this year, of forcing an unproven reading program on the District's kindergarten and first grade classrooms in exchange for $80,000 in donations from the company that designed it.

Good morning, Washington. With the Christmas holiday looming, things are slowing down in workplaces around the region. Well, most workplaces, anyway — D.C.'s firefighters seem to be keeping plenty busy. Yesterday, of course, there was the fire at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Since then there's been a two alarm fire at the Chinatown Red Roof Inn, and this impressive gathering of firefighters just south of Logan around 6 p.m. last night. Here's hoping their holiday season calms down. More On The D.C. Quarter: The Post follows up yesterday's news with a longer article on the District's inclusion in the Treasury's state quarter program. First, the good news: the city government gets to decide on the design, and Mayor Fenty is promising that the process will involve "maximum resident input" — so it sounds like "No Taxation Without Representation" has a real shot at appearing on U.S. currency. The bad news: state flags aren't allowed in the designs, making the other half of the winning choice from yesterday's poll a no-go. Also, it turns out that we're only getting a quarter because Puerto Rico is. That stings a little, but I suppose we'll take what we can get. Maryland Gives Seventeen Year-Olds The Vote: Well, in the state's primary, anyway. WTOP reports that Maryland's Attorney General has issued an opinion that will ensure citizens can vote in the state's presidential primary on February 12, provided that they will be eighteen by the time of the general election. Both parties had requested such a measure. Briefly Noted: "Capitol Steps" creator passes away... Long-awaited "Stop Snitchin'" sequel nears release in Baltimore... Car crashes into Reston home... Surveillance photos of robbery suspects released... This Day In DCist: One year ago we chatted with Nethers and suggested some last minute gift ideas. Two years ago we checked out some new shopping options. Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user Nivad