jonetta rose barras: Muriel Bowser’s administration — all shook up

Instead of cursing the Republican Party and its titular head, President Donald Trump, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser may want to thank them. Were it not for the increasingly bizarre distractions they have created over the past several months — and the focus of many Americans, including District residents, on the congressional midterm elections — she might be in big trouble.

Undoubtedly, people would be asking what’s up with the crumbling of her senior personnel infrastructure, including the departure this month of two deputy mayors. Consider the two major voids left in her education leadership cluster since February this year: DC Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson was fired, and Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles resigned before that.

Bowser made a political — not educational — calculation to name temporary replacements. Amanda Alexander, interim chancellor, and Ahnna Smith, interim deputy mayor, have been angling to make their appointments permanent. Only this week — several hours after this column first appeared — did Bowser announce the selection of a permanent deputy mayor for education; her nominee, Paul Kihn, is slated to begin work next week in an acting capacity. While considering his confirmation, the DC Council will have numerous questions to explore with Kihn, as he was in a key management position in Philadelphia public schools from 2012 through 2015. During that period, the city’s school system careened from one crisis to the next, including suffering from inadequate resources and personnel — perennial issues for DC Public Schools prior to mayoral control.

Bowser told The Washington Post that she expects Smith to stay as a senior adviser in her administration. Let’s hope that is only a temporary vehicle to ease her departure from the District government. Smith’s performance last week during a DC Council public roundtable about the creation of a research advisory board was absolutely appalling.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities also has an interim director. Angie Gates has been holding down that job — along with her original post as head of the Office of Cable, Television, Film, Music and Entertainment — since May, according to arts commission staff.

Bowser also has swept out constituent services staffers, sending them to far-flung agencies. At least some of the positions have been refilled. But is the mayor preparing to accommodate campaign workers who surely will be hungry for good government jobs during her second term?

Despite the inevitability of her re-election, Bowser has yet to present a clear, cogent agenda for the next four years. Over the past several months, she has attempted to unclog her administration, ensuring, for example, the release of various affordable housing contracts, loans and agreements that probably should have been implemented long before now.

Without strong opponents on the ballot, no one has asked her where she is going. What’s more, she hasn’t bothered to offer any clues. Her administration has appeared to be in a state of chaos.

Thus far, the DC Council has remained silent as Bowser has played her game of musical chairs. Further, it is unclear how the people holding down two jobs are being paid. Is there such a thing as hazardous duty pay? I raised that question with mayoral spokesperson LaToya Foster but received no reply. After this column first appeared, Foster called to say that “all salaries remain the same. They serve at the pleasure of the mayor.”

In the past two weeks, two deputy mayors have departed the Bowser administration. HyeSook Chung, the deputy mayor for health and human services, quit overnight, without any reasons being provided. Courtney Snowden, deputy mayor for greater economic opportunity, took a little longer to exit, but her departure also came without explanation, aside from a “new career opportunity” elsewhere.

I was never keen on Bowser’s creation in 2015 of the deputy mayor for economic opportunity post with an ill-defined goal that was supposed ensure coordination between agencies and spur growth in certain neighborhoods. It seemed designed to placate low-income residents rather than to challenge conventional wisdom or operation. Many people I spoke with about Snowden cringed at the mention of her name, asserting she was mostly a bully who proved to be an obstacle to progress and innovation, more concerned with political machinations than measurable change. She, of course, viewed herself with a different mirror. She took credit for getting the city off the U.S. Department of Labor’s at-risk list (where the District had landed due to problems with its unemployment compensation program) and spurring the creation of dozens of small businesses — even as she helped instigate the resignation of Ana R. Harvey, who was one of the most effective leaders of the Department of Small and Local Business.

Snowden’s flight from the District government could be celebrated were it not for the fact that Bowser has not provided any map to the future. Moreover, she has appointed Brenda Donald as the interim deputy mayor. Donald already has ample duties as head of the DC Child and Family Services Agency.

I followed Donald in her previous incarnations when she worked in Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ administration. When Bowser, at the start of her new tenure, announced Donald’s selection as deputy mayor for health and human services, I had a nauseous feeling of déjà vu all over again.

Unsurprisingly, Donald didn’t last long in the position. She was sent to child and family services. Now, she has been appointed as deputy mayor for greater economic opportunity, albeit on an interim basis — a position for which she has absolutely no experience (judge for yourself based on her official biography).

Is that deliberate? Does Bowser want someone holding that post who won’t raise questions or make a fuss about actions she plans over the next few months?

Was Chung kicked out the door as deputy mayor for health and human services because she asked too many questions or offered challenges about the right things at the wrong time? The former head of DC Action for Children, Chung came to the deputy mayor position with plenty of credibility among advocates and elected officials. She was seen as someone who cared deeply about children and families.

Wayne Turnage, the head of the Health Care Finance Agency, will continue to serve in that post and as interim deputy mayor. Then-Mayor Vincent C. Gray brought Turnage to the dance. He has proved himself a solid manager, although he has been named in a lawsuit challenging the city’s provision of mental health care services to disabled individuals.

Despite Turnage’s talents and skills, I think it’s fair to ask whether he can hold down these two important jobs. Will the needs of District residents, particularly those in low-income communities, suffer as he juggles responsibilities?

Does Bowser even care?

This post has been updated to include a response from mayoral spokesperson LaToya Foster and the appointment of Paul Kihn as deputy mayor for education.

jonetta rose barras is a DC-based freelance writer and host of The Barras Report television show. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.