Results tagged “ximenahartsock”

As the political fracas continues over the $82 million in parks and rec contracts that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty quietly funneled through the D.C. Housing Authority (much of it handed to contractors with cozy ties to the mayor), members of the D.C. Council are demanding accountability. None more so than Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large). Or not. No, he is. Really. We think.

So D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles gave Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh (D) some flowers today (City Desk even has a photo of said flowers). He did this in an attempt to apologize for telling a Washington Post reporter he thought Cheh, who recently criticized the Fenty administration for trying to keep Ximena Hartsock in her job at DPR for a while longer, was "stupid" and "an angry woman," remarks that struck this writer as pretty sexist. So it's hard not to raise an eyebrow at least partially at the act of giving this "angry woman" some flowers to appease her irrational temper.

Let's just say that the Fenty administration and the D.C. Council aren't planning any friendly get togethers any time soon.

Whatever you may think of the tenor of Friday's parks and recreation committee hearing, it looks like it won't end up mattering: the D.C. Council has just voted 7-5 to deny confirmation to acting Department of Parks and Recreation director Ximena Hartsock.

Marion Barry may be sick in the hospital today, but he and fellow D.C. Council member Harry "Tommy" Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) were taken to task today by the Washington Post's editorial board for making racist and sexist comments Friday night at a parks and recreation committee hearing on the confirmation of acting Department of Parks and Recreation director Ximena Hartsock.

Word hit the street this morning that Mayor Adrian Fenty had fired D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation director Clark Ray yesterday, and he's already named a replacement. City Desk has the scene at today's presser announcing former D.C. public schools principal Ximena Hartsock as Ray's replacement. Hartsock had been running afterschool and summer school programs for Michelle Rhee/DCPS. Earlier this morning, D.C. Wire reported that at least a few people are befuddled as to the decision to let Ray go, and there's speculation that it could have been related to a lawsuit recently filed by former DPR employee Michael Williams. Williams alleges that he was improperly fired after raising questions about whether the mayor's sons were participating in a youth basketball league that they were too old for.