Fenty Lists Accomplishments in SOTDC
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty delivered his annual State of the District speech today at the Hattie Holmes Senior Wellness Center in Ward 4, the section of D.C. he used to represent on the D.C. Council. To call Fenty's remarks today a "speech" is actually a bit a of a stretch; the mayor referred to the prepared text distributed to the media beforehand only loosely, instead relying on it as more of an outline to dole out a list of facts and figures on what his administration has accomplished over the last year.
Fenty arrived about 45 minutes late to deliver the address, leaving the audience, made up largely of senior citizens from the neighborhood, to grow restless enough that a handler decided to lead them all in stretching exercises while they waited.
When he finally took the podium, Fenty made a few glowing remarks about the Holmes Wellness Center, and then launched into what he came there to do: read off a bunch of numbers. The number of students who graduated from DCPS's summer school class increased from 155 to 470. Schools facilities chief Allen Lew completed more than 27,000 work orders. The city hired 151 new police officers. More than 600 families and individuals were placed into supportive housing. DC Circulator bus service has grown by 16 percent. 220,646 potholes filled. And so on.
The address was almost completely devoid of sentiment or grand new ideas, as well as nearly any mention of the future, save a few nods to tomorrow's expected 2010 budget proposal—it will be smaller than last year's, nearly every agency is facing cuts, but still the mayor promised to "protect critical city services" and do so "without raising taxes" (the latter to much applause). Fenty used the speech instead to spell out a laundry list of what's already been done, from his perspective of a data and results-oriented manager.
"Since the day I took office, my agency directors have done an amazing job of increasing efficiency," Fenty said.
One potentially controversial item in the State of the District address was the inclusion of the accomplishments of the Summer Youth Employment Program, considered one of the mayor's major failures of the last year thanks to controversial payroll and contract issues that caused its budget to spiral out of control.
"Last year, we hired 19,000 young people," Fenty said. "As a preview for the budget, we plan to increase that number again this year."
When asked about why he decided to include the program among his accomplishments, the mayor said that while he held himself personally accountable for last year's problems, it ultimately isn't about him.
"The youth are our number one priority," he said.
Fenty ended his speech by touching on the funds the District will receive from the federal stimulus package, mentioning specifically the city's plans to make improvements to the city's fire stations.
"Increased investments will be made to perform infrastructure maintenance and improvements while also recognizing the importance of our environment, parks and recreation facilities," Fenty said, in a nod to the room he was standing in.
Notable items that the mayor didn't address: not a single word about Inauguration Day, which we would have thought he'd want to tout as a major accomplishment for the city. He also made no mention of the ongoing Office of the Chief Technology Officer scandal (all questions on that were referred to a separate press conference set for 2 p.m.) and, perhaps tellingly, dropped a paragraph of his prepared speech that talked about government transparency. As prepared, Fenty had been meant to say:
When I took office in 2007, I pledged to lead a government that's as open, responsive and accountable as humanly possible. We continue to find new ways to meet that challenge.
But the mayor dropped those lines from the speech as delivered. When asked about the omission by a reporter afterward, Fenty largely dodged it, saying he hadn't really noticed. Fenty has been criticized over the last week for failing to fully disclose two lavish trips that were paid for by the governments of Dubai and Beijing, and when pressed on the issue again today by the media, he maintained that he felt he had done nothing wrong, and that there have been no formal allegations of ethics violations.
The mayor fielded a number of tough questions after the speech today on his Dubai trip, for which he recently disclosed that he received $25,000 from the Dubai government to cover his personal travel expenses. Once and for all, was this a personal trip or an official one? If you're looking for "a legal definition, I'll refer you to the attorneys," was pretty much the mayor's standard line, as he continued to deny that he owed anyone any more explanations. The trip was his idea, he said, but was less than forthcoming about whose idea it was for Dubai to pay for the trip.
"There is no relationship between the D.C. government and the government of Dubai," Fenty said.