Deputy Mayor's Staffing Takes a Hit

By Theola Labb¿ and David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 13, 2007

School employees are on pins and needles as they wait to see whether Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee wins D.C. Council approval next week to fire central office workers in her reorganization effort.

The ax has already fallen in the office of Deputy Mayor for Education Victor A. Reinoso, where three of his aides have been terminated. Bonnie Cain and Julia Lara, both special assistants, and Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, director of the Office of Parent and Community Involvement, started working for Reinoso in January. They were officially let go last month.

A fourth employee, Wayne Cole, who was hired into Reinoso's office this summer, was transferred to the staff of school Ombudsman Tonya Kinslow.

Reinoso declined to discuss specific employees, saying only that the staff reduction came after the council asked for more justification of who was working in his office. "It's just a reorganization of my office," Reinoso said.

Reinoso was tapped by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to establish the Department of Education to oversee the mayor's takeover of the 49,600-student public schools system. Reinoso and his aides -- his staff has grown to as many as 11 -- have worked to improve coordination among city agencies and the schools. They have been central in assembling Rhee's plans to close 23 schools by next year.

Meanwhile, Pinckney-Hackett has quickly adjusted to life outside of the tight-lipped Fenty administration. She told the council that the city needs more parental involvement in school reform plans. And last week she was among the people who protested outside the John A. Wilson Building over school closures.

"I worked to effect change on the inside, and now that I'm on the outside, I'm still trying to effect change," she said.

Go-Go Daughter Not Ga-Ga for Fenty

Activist Cherita Whiting and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty go together like oil and water.

Whiting, a parent in Ward 4, Fenty's home ward, has railed against the mayor's takeover of the school system and lambasted him for leaving parents out of the decision-making over the plan to close schools.

But as Fenty (D) celebrated his 37th birthday last week at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, there was Whiting, sitting in a folding chair on the stage, right in the middle of the festivities.

What gives? Has one of Fenty's loudest critics been converted?

No way.

Turns out Whiting is the daughter of go-go music legend Chuck Brown, who was providing the entertainment for the party.

"I'm onstage everywhere he plays -- the 9:30 Club, anywhere," Whiting said.

She said she has played tambourine and keyboard during previous performances, although she never had a music career.

As for Fenty, Whiting hasn't found a soft spot.

"I'm just not happy with how he's making it a one-man show," she said. "Even with the school takeover, had he brought people to the table, even if some of us were against it, at least we would have felt included."

Sour Grapes Over Free Suite

When you can't beat 'em, don't join 'em.

The Notebook reported last week on the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war between Fenty and the D.C. Council over which branch of government should control the city's rent-free luxury suite at the Verizon Center.

Fenty's underlings want to keep a tight grip on the tickets, but some council members would like the same rules that applied to the less luxurious seating at RFK stadium to apply to the Verizon Center.

At RFK, the legislative and executive branches split tickets two-thirds to one-third, respectively.

Such logic has been cast aside for the Verizon suite, granted to the city by Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin as appreciation for $50 million from taxpayers the council approved to refurbish the 10-year-old arena.

As of Tuesday, there was still no resolution. But one idea making the rounds in private conversation is to ask Pollin for a second suite -- one for the mayor, the other for the council -- because apparently the Wizards have not sold all of them for the season.

Stay tuned.

Staff writer Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.