jonetta rose barras: Mayor Bowser’s game of musical chairs

Without having the benefit of reviewing a clear and concise blueprint for where Mayor Muriel Bowser intends to take the District government in her second term, her decision to reshuffle the leadership at key government agencies seems nothing more than a whimsical game of musical chairs.

When I was in kindergarten, I loved running around, always making sure I moved swiftly so that I wouldn’t be the person left without a seat.

However, the fate of a $14 billion public corporation, responsible for serving as many as 700,000 citizens, is no game. Further, the fact that the city’s budget is composed mostly of taxpayers’ money — whether local or federal — is reason enough for residents to be privy to what the mayor is doing when she moves a manager from one agency to another, the results she expects, and how citizens can evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of those outcomes.

Thus far, the reshuffling has offered little comfort that agencies will be better managed or that service delivery will be greatly improved. Consider the assignment of Ernest Chrappah as the interim director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). I mean no disrespect to him, but why choose someone who was the director of the agency that oversees regulation of “vehicles for hire” — meaning taxicabs, Ubers, Lyfts and other commercial vehicles — to lead the $33 million, multi-faceted DCRA?

Sure, both the vehicles-for-hire agency and DCRA are regulatory operations. However, the latter requires more substantive experience, skills and talents as well as a broader knowledge base.

Read for yourself:

“DCRA is responsible for regulating construction and business activity in the District of Columbia. The agency operates a consolidated permit intake center, as well as reviews construction documents to ensure compliance with building codes and zoning regulations. Construction activity, buildings and rental housing establishments are inspected and housing code violations are abated, if necessary. To protect consumers, DCRA issues business licenses, professional licenses, registers corporations, inspects weighing and measuring devices used for monetary profit and issues special events permits,” the DCRA website says.

“The Department of For-Hire Vehicles provides licensing, adjudication, enforcement, and Lost and Found service for approximately 8,500 drivers, over 90 taxicab companies/associations, and over 600 of limousine operators, as well as DC residents and visitors who use public and private vehicle-for-hire in District of Columbia,” says the Department of For-Hire Vehicles website.

Chrappah holds a master’s degree in strategy and marketing from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s in economics from American University, according to the announcement from the mayor’s office. Prior to his stint at the Department of For-Hire Vehicles, he was the chief information officer for the Child and Family Services Agency.

DCRA needs someone with much more gravitas as its director, even on an interim basis. It was poorly managed by its former director, Melinda Bolling. She may have broken a local government record by becoming the only executive to alienate nearly every constituent group she was charged with serving. Completely frustrated, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson introduced legislation to split the department in two. I had called for her termination on multiple occasions, so I do not lament her departure.

Bolling had been DCRA’s general counsel prior to becoming director. If she was out of her depth as its director, it seems likely that Chrappah will be as well — unless the mayor has decided that what ails the DCRA can be fixed with a few technology improvements and a slick marketing strategy.

Equally troubling is Bowser’s decision to shift Keith Anderson to the Department of Government Services (DGS). He previously led the Department of Parks and Recreation. Raise your hand if you were satisfied with the management of that agency.

DGS has been a disaster from the very day that then-Mayor Vincent C. Gray proposed its creation and the council went along with his propaganda that the new agency could cure all of the city’s real estate licensing and property management woes. It has been an endless money pit, mismanaging school construction and other large capital projects.

Greer Gillis, the outgoing DGS director, was just beginning to restore minimal confidence in the agency. Bowser has nominated Gillis to serve on the DC Public Service Commission while elevating member Willie L. Phillips to the position of chair.

Those nominations have drawn the ire of advocates who support solar or smart energy and who had opposed the Pepco-Exelon merger. They raised concerns over the weekend about what they called a “rushed” confirmation hearing while challenging Gillis’ qualifications, arguing her expertise is as a “transportation engineer.”

“Would the mayor pick a person with no law enforcement experience to serve as police chief, or a person with no education experience to run the DC school system?” asked Lara Levison, energy committee chair for the DC Sierra Club. “Why nominate a person with no experience in electric or gas utilities to become one of our three Public Service Commissioners?”

Supporters likely will ask: What experience did Betty Ann Kane have before she was appointed to the commission?

Other changes affecting the Office of Planning — including the replacement of director Eric Shaw with Andrew Trueblood — provide insight into the growing influence of Brian Kenner, deputy mayor for planning and economic development. Trueblood was Kenner’s chief of staff. Chrappah worked within Kenner’s cluster. That raises the question about the motivation for the change. Is Bowser blocking for her deputy mayor, clearing the way to advance his agenda? By the way, what is his agenda?

Hopefully, council members will ask questions and demand answers about these issues, rather than feeling obligated to allow the mayor the cabinet she desires. Legislators’ prime obligation is to the residents of DC, ensuring that they get competent, experienced managers who will properly handle the public’s money while providing high-quality services. Is it too much to expect the second time around to be far better than the first?

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.