Photo by Matt Dunn

This morning, Mayor Vince Gray appointed two new senior officials to better coordinate communications with the media and District residents, saying that he believed that not enough of his administration’s priorities have been communicated to the public.

Sheila Bunn, a longtime staffer for D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, was appointed to serve as Gray’s Deputy Chief of Staff, while Pedro Ribeiro, who currently works for Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), will take over as Gray’s Director of Communications. That position is currently held by Linda Wharton Boyd, who is moving to the Department of Health to work as a special advisor. (Bunn’s appointment was first reported by the City Paper in early November.)

Though rejecting any indications that this was a staff shakeup due to concerns over any inabilities to handle the scandals that have plagued his administration during his first year in office, Gray’s move to bring Bunn and Ribeiro on board seemed like at least a tacit recognition that communications could be managed differently. Chris Murphy, Gray’s chief of staff, said that his team needed to better adapt to a faster news cycle, and that Ribeiro’s experience on the Hill would help in that quest.

Bunn is a Ward 8 resident and has worked for Norton since 1995, rising from the role of scheduler to Chief of Staff. She attended American University and Trinity University. Ribeiro has been in the District for over a decade, arriving in 1998 to attend Catholic University. He now lives in Columbia Heights.

This isn’t the first time that Gray has tried to shake up his communications staff since being elected Mayor. In late August, Gray appointed political consultant Andi Pringle to serve as his Deputy Chief of Staff focused on improving strategic communication, but her tenure was limited to 10 days after it was revealed that she had voted in the District while living in Maryland. That same month, Gray appointed Murphy to serve as his Chief of Staff; he remains in that post.

During today’s press conference, Gray lamented that much of the coverage of his administration had been negative.

“I believe that some of the things that we have done have not gotten out there as strongly as they should,” he said. “We would like to get our message out more strongly.”