Color of Cabinet Has Fenty on the Defensive
Some Residents Give Latitude, but Others Say Lack of Blacks Doesn't Reflect City

By David Nakamura, Yolanda Woodlee and Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Michelle A. Rhee thought she knew the type of candidate Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wanted when he sought her recommendation two months ago for a chancellor to lead the D.C. public schools.

"I said, 'I assume you want an African American?' " Rhee recalled asking a mayoral aide. Just the best person for the job, she was told.

Fenty ultimately decided that the right person was Rhee, a Korean American who is poised to become the city's first non-black schools chief in nearly 40 years. Yesterday, parents and educators praised Rhee during her confirmation hearing, but her appointment surprised many residents.

Since taking office six months ago, Fenty (D) has replaced African Americans with non-black people in four of the city's highest-profile jobs: city administrator, police chief, fire chief and schools chief. Among those who hold arguably the 10 most influential positions, five are white, three are of Asian descent and one is Latino. Only one -- Neil O. Albert, the deputy mayor for planning and economic development -- is black.

In a city that is 57 percent black and has a predominantly black government workforce, the mayor's choices have not escaped criticism.

In dozens of interviews, residents, particularly African Americans, said they are concerned that Fenty's choices have created a Cabinet that does not reflect the city it governs. They also said he has made many of his appointments in virtual isolation, consulting few city leaders or residents.

"How can there be a scarcity of blacks for positions in the city with the most qualified black people in the world?" asked Carlos M. O'Kieffe Sr., 63, a black Ward 4 resident who voted for Fenty. "If you can't find qualified black people in Washington, D.C. . . . it makes me wonder: How hard did he really search?"

At the same time, many say they will give Fenty time to improve schools, make the city safer and solve a social class divide.

"You let the king make his appointments," said Albert "Butch" Hopkins, the black president of the Anacostia Economic Development Corp. "If they work out, everything is fine."

As to the racial makeup of his inner circle, Fenty points out that he has appointed black directors to lead critical city agencies, including transportation, public works and the sports commission. Of 48 appointees, 21 are black.

"I look at my entire Cabinet and I absolutely see people who are African American. I see Asians. I see Latinos, Indian Americans, Caucasians," Fenty said. "I think that's what people would want to see in cabinets. They want to see themselves in it. I've tried very hard to do so."

Race has long been intertwined with District politics. Marion Barry, who served four terms as mayor, famously told white residents who did not support his reelection in the mid-1990s to "get over it." Former mayor Anthony A. Williams was criticized for failing to bring development to largely black neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, even as he oversaw a renaissance downtown in Northwest. Further, the Cabinet has been viewed as a reflection of which constituencies the administration is aiming to serve.

During his campaign, Fenty, 36, cast himself as a part of a new generation of mayors who would focus less on politics and more on improving accountability and outcomes, lifting all parts of the city through hard work. He has made a point to appear in Ward 8, the city's poorest ward, as often as possible and delivered his State of the District address there.

"The mayor believes in diversity, but he's not playing a numbers game," said former D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous, who gave Fenty his first job in city government and advises him on education issues.

"He really is focused on finding people to be in his Cabinet whom he feels share his vision," added Chavous, who is black. "He understands this dynamic of race and class in D.C. and how people feed off of signals. But I also think he feels that competency and getting the job done will be the best gauge of his effectiveness."

Fenty, who rarely talks about race, wasted little time selecting his deputies. His choices have often been bold and unpredictable.

He named an obscure commander, Cathy L. Lanier, to become the city's first female police chief, replacing Charles H. Ramsey. He plucked Linda Singer, a friend of City Administrator Dan Tangherlini, from a social justice organization to become his attorney general, even though she did not have a license to practice law in the District. Fenty installed Albert to head the economic development post, even though his experience was limited to overseeing parks and recreation and youth and family services in the Williams administration.

Some say the mayor has the right to pick people without interference because he must trust them to carry out his agenda.

"It's a great period to take risks, and you can apologize later," said Mark Lerner, a white resident of Ward 3 who chairs the board of directors at William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School. "The District doesn't need incremental change; it needs drastic change. . . . Bravo, mayor. Do it. Just do it."

Some who worked closely with Fenty on his campaign had pushed him to hire Rodney D. Monroe, a black police chief from Richmond, just days before the mayor made his surprise announcement of Lanier.

"Fenty is moving along with breakneck speed to make appointments without any concern or care for all the constituencies of the city," said the Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, 53, the black pastor of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ.

Fenty has made a point to consult other big-city mayors such as New York's Michael R. Bloomberg (I) and Chicago's Richard M. Daley (D).

"During the whole campaign, he was hugged-up on black people," said Michelle Erway, 26, a black federal government contractor from Northeast, whose 3-year-old son will enroll in a charter school this fall. "Now that he's in office, he's hugged-up on white people. I lost a lot of respect for him after he was elected."

To Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, the mayor's secretive approach might explain some of the angst about his appointments.

"I wonder if the race concern isn't a surrogate of the issues of process," said Filardo, who is white. "Washington is funny that way. When people are upset about anything, they turn it into race."

Those who work closely with Fenty said he has a clear template for the kind of deputy he will hire.

"He just looks at your work ethic and dedication and the energy you bring to the table," said Josh Lopez, 23, who worked on Fenty's campaigns and was appointed by the mayor to the Commission on Latino Community Development.

William Lightfoot, a former D.C. Council member who co-chaired Fenty's campaign, said he believes there is a generational shift of thinking in the mayor's office. Fenty, born to a black father and white mother two years after Washington's race riots of 1968, came of age at a time of far greater opportunity for blacks, Lightfoot said.

"The criticism in large part comes from older Afro-American people who grew up in a time when we were very racially conscious because there was a great deal of segregation," said Lightfoot, who is black. "Today we live in a world where people of Adrian's age did not live through segregation."

But Guitele Nicoleau, a black Ward 7 resident who headed the education committee on Fenty's transition team, said Fenty would be unwise to disregard race as an issue that could have a direct bearing on his ability to govern.

Nicoleau said that whether parents, teachers and administrators in a school system whose student body is 84 percent African American will respond to Rhee is a real question.

"It's an issue of visibility and trust in a city where race matters," said Nicoleau, who recently left her job at the Public Education Network. "Race matters in this case for another reason. There's an element of shame in this system because it is [predominantly] black and has the money it needs but still can't produce results. People hold a private shame because they have not been able to self-govern. They may not want her to succeed as an Asian American."

Gie Kim, president of the D.C. chapter of the Korean American Coalition, thinks such fears are overblown. She said Rhee's presence presents an opportunity to bridge racial gaps in a city whose Asian population is just 3.1 percent.

"This can be seen as a positive thing because whether you're a parent who is African American or Asian American, all parents want kids to do as well as possible," Kim said.

At Eaton's Barbershop on U Street NW, Troy M. Johnson, 72, who is black, said he's willing to give Rhee a chance. After all, he said, African Americans have been in charge of the system for so many years without success.

"I feel like African Americans had the school board all along," Johnson said. "Adrian Fenty is the best thing that has happened because this ain't no Chocolate City no damn more."

Staff writers Ashlee Clark, Jenna Johnson, Omar Fekeiki, Theola Labbé and Robert E. Pierre contributed to this report.