All Articles Tagged "vincent gray"
District's Credit Outlook Downgraded
(Washington Examiner) — Wall Street delivered a warning shot to the District on Tuesday by downgrading the city’s financial outlook. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings cut the city’s credit outlook from stable to negative, meaning that if the city’s finances don’t start improving, its credit rating could be downgraded next year. A credit downgrade would make it more expensive for the city to borrow money and taxpayers would likely carry that burden.
Mayor Partners with Private Sector
(Washington Informer) — Just days after D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) announced an aggressive new plan to bring more job opportunities to the city’s almost 36,000 unemployed residents, the local business community is climbing onboard. Lisa Mallory, director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES), said the private sector reaction to the One City, One Hire initiative so far has been impressive. ”The response has been incredible and we’ve only been at this for three days,” said Mallory during an interview over the weekend. “Georgetown University, George Washington University, the Courtyard Marriott, the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C. and smaller companies has signed on. I am impressed with the response.”
Gray Launches Jobs Initiative
(Washington Post) — D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray kicked off a citywide initiative Thursday that marks a more aggressive approach to matching the city’s 35,000 jobless residents with potential employers. One City, One Hire is modeled after Hire One Atlanta, a program that attracted attention this year when 5,000 unemployed people in the Georgia city were matched with local companies in the first six weeks. Gray (D), who promised to tackle the District’s nearly 11 percent unemployment rate during his mayoral campaign last year, said the jobless rate is more than double the citywide rate in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. “There isn’t a day that I don’t go into Ward 8 and people say, ‘Mr. Gray, Mr. Gray, Mr. Gray, I need a job. I need a job. I need a job,’ ” he said at a news conference at the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.
Sulaimon Brown Says His Records Are Under Federal ‘Subpoena’
(Washington Post) — Former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown said records that a special D.C. Council committee is seeking through a court order have been turned over to federal authorities under grand jury subpoena. Brown is scheduled to appear in Superior Court on Sept. 15 on the council’s efforts to get the records as part of the special committee probe into the Gray administration’s hiring practices. Brown has said he was paid and promised a city job by then-mayoral candidateand current mayor Vincent C. Gray’s campaign staff to disparage then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) during last year’s race. In a letter last month to Judge Judith N. Macaluso, who is overseeing the council’s records request, Brown explained that he could not fulfill the request because he handed over the records to the FBI at the request of the U.S. attorney’s office. The documents “are no longer in my possession,” Brown wrote in the Aug. 12 letter.
Andrea ‘Andi’ Pringle Resigns as Gray’s Deputy Chief of Staff
(Washington Post) — Andrea “Andi” Pringle, who was hired last week as part of a two-person team in D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration, resigned Wednesday after coming under fire for voting in last year’s District primary while she lived in North Bethesda. In an interview Wednesday evening, Pringle said she was stepping down immediately as deputy chief of staff because she did not want to become a distraction for the administration. “I’ve decided to take myself off the radar, get out of the way and let him govern,” she said of Gray. The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics is reviewing Pringle’s voting record. But she said she is confident that the board will find no wrongdoing. She said she voted in the primary last year because she had not officially established residence in Maryland. Pringle had moved to North Bethesda months earlier after living in Ward 3 for eight years.
Gray Aide Voted in D.C., Lived in Md.
(Washington Post) — Andi Pringle, the new deputy chief of staff to D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, voted in the District’s primary election last year even though she had moved to Maryland. The voting irregularity was revealed Thursday by community activist Dorothy Brizill on the Web site dcwatch.com. Brizill is known as a government watchdog and is considered well-versed in election law. “Anyone who has been in the District for a long time is concerned about people voting from outside the city,” she said. “It came to have a name, as voting from Ward 9.” Brizill said that she routinely checks the voter registration of new government hires and that she was “somewhat shocked” to learn the information because Pringle and new chief of staff Chris Murphy wereannounced this week as a fresh start for the Gray administration.
Mayor Gray to Name New Chief of Staff
(Washington Post) — Mayor Vincent C. Gray will shake up his administration this week by appointing a new chief of staff and deputy chief of staff — a team that he said will provide “fresh eyes” on his administration and which advisers hope will help him regain the trust of residents concerned about the integrity of his administration. Gray (D) has spent several months working to bring aboard the two District government outsiders: Christopher Murphy, a deputy chief of staff at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Andrea “Andi” Pringle, who was deputy campaign manager for Howard Dean’s presidential run. “I think you want some fresh faces, some fresh eyes on the business of government,” Gray said in an interview. “They’re not newcomers. They’re just newcomers to D.C. government.”
D.C. Council Faults Gray for “Nepotism and Cronyism”
(Washington Post) — A special investigative committee formed by the D.C. Council concluded in a report released Tuesday that “nepotism and cronyism” in the hiring practices of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration violated local and federal law and damaged the city’s reputation. The report, released after a six-month council investigation, portrays Gray (D) as “disconnected” and aloof as he allowed several top aides to control critical personnel decisions in the early days of his administration. The report also confirms allegations by former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown that a top Gray campaign official paid him to disparage then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) during the 2010 primary campaign, although the probe found that Brown exaggerated the amount.
D.C. Review Off-Limits for Discussion
(Washington Post) — Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration is requiring dozens of staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from revealing potential cost-saving and revenue-raising measures they discuss during a top-to-bottom performance review of city government this year. During the past two weeks, nearly 100 employees have been given the confidentiality agreements by Suzanne Peck, a former chief technology officer for the city and Metro, who is heading the One City Performance Review. Some employees, including agency directors, privately balked at signing the document, saying it contradicts Gray’s promise of a transparent government and infringes on whistleblower protections. The action by Peck, who is conducting the review pro bono, has generated tension in an administration that has tried to stay focused despite the distraction of current investigations into hiring decisions made earlier this year.
Gray’s Campaign Woes Hamper His Administration
(Washington Post) — Nearly eight months into D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration, he has been unable to shake the misdeeds of his 2010 mayoral campaign. Rather than being able to move forward with a clear message on how he’s running and changing the city, Gray has been dogged by mounting allegations that some members of his campaign acted illegally.
