By Michael H. Cottman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 3, 1999; Page A1

Inaugural Address The new mayor delivers his inaugural address at Reagan International Trade Center. (Reginald A. Pearman Jr. – washingtonpost.com)   Anthony Williams says government will be a means, not an end.   The beginning, the mayor says, may be answering the phones.

Anthony A. Williams was sworn in to office yesterday as the fourth mayor of the District of Columbia and pledged a bold, new "back to the basics" era to provide D.C. residents with good, efficient and effective government.

"We need to fill the potholes. We need to sweep the streets. We need to exterminate the rats, wash away the graffiti, repair the road signs and collect the garbage," Williams told more than 2,000 well-wishers who attended his inauguration at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center. "We need to beautify the parks, inspect run-down buildings, organize our records. We need sewers that drain. We need 9-1-1 that responds. And, fellow citizens, we need to free ourselves from the tyranny of those DMV lines!"

Williams, 47, took office along with seven members of the D.C. Council at a pivotal time in the District's history. His inauguration formally ended Marion Barry's leadership in the city, where he has been mayor for 16 of the last 20 years. And it signaled a new relationship with the congressionally mandated D.C. financial control board, which for three years has managed most aspects of local government in the nation's capital.

The council members promised to provide better oversight of city government. The new mayor, in a 20-minute inaugural speech, promised better services.

"Our citizens deserve the best city in America," said Williams, a Harvard-educated lawyer widely credited with helping the District stabilize its finances after he became its chief financial officer in 1995. Residents, he stressed, should have strong schools, safe streets, clean communities, affordable housing, reliable transportation -- and a helpful response from their government.

"We need to replace, 'I don't know' with 'I'll find out,' and 'It's not my job' with 'Let me try to help,' " he said.

Williams, the adopted son of postal workers, said helping the city's children and young people will be the major focus of his administration.

"We have watched the sons of our city die in pools of blood on their front porches or trade the best years of their lives for a ticket to Lorton," he said. "We have seen the daughters of the District plan funerals instead of their careers or become mothers when they need mothering themselves."

Throughout the two-hour inaugural ceremony, there was an atmosphere of celebration, with shouts of "Tony! Tony!" When Williams finally took the stage, after council members were sworn in, the audience erupted in applause.

In his speech, Williams poked fun at his bureaucratic, management-oriented image. "I don't just wear bow ties; I actually like bow ties," he said. And in exhorting residents to get more involved in local government, he said, "So take it from the nerd: C'mon out of the stands, people. Suit up. Get in the game."

As Barry and the city's two other former mayors, Walter Washington and Sharon Pratt Kelly, looked on, Williams said his taking office would be "a time for renewal and recommitment, for dreaming and for doing, for healing and hope."

Williams's inaugural celebration started with an early-morning prayer breakfast at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, which was attended by numerous religious and political leaders. The program featured a diverse selection of music, including Williams's mother, Virginia, singing the Lord's Prayer.

Throughout the day, ministers, including the Rev. H. Beecher Hicks, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, reminded Williams that his role as the District's top elected official is not to socialize with the affluent members of the city but to provide adequate services for "the sheep. . . . It is with the common people that you must work. It is for common people that you must speak."

Williams is only the fourth person to serve as mayor of the District. Yesterday, local political leaders, including some who were or wanted to be mayor, said they would give the man once considered a political outsider their full support.

"I think he will do just fine," said D.C. Council member Harold Brazil (D-At Large), who challenged Williams in the September Democratic primary.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), noting that the control board is returning many day-to-day operational powers to Williams, said his election meant the beginning of a "new year with a vigorous new mayor and the wise, new control board that has had the good grace and good sense to stand back and let the new mayor do the job we elected him to do."

Washington, the District's first elected mayor, added his praise. "Tony Williams brings confidence, competence and integrity to the table," he said.

And Kelly, who served one term as mayor before Barry was reelected to a fourth term, said it will be critical for people to "close ranks" behind Williams.

"If everyone is collaborative and supportive and people don't take pot shots, but indeed get into the trenches, then all things are possible," Kelly said. "He is only an instrument of our will. That's all an elective official is."

Williams, who was sworn in yesterday wearing a beeper as well as his trademark bow tie, was overcome by emotion at one point during the inaugural ceremony.

Later, explaining why he had gotten so choked up, the once obscure U.S. Department of Agriculture employee said, "I had come so far and now was sitting there as mayor of the District. . . . I had connected with that crowd. . . . I am not just a manager, but a leader."

With expectations running high, his new job won't be easy. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) said Williams must move quickly and decisively to show that he can make the leap from financial guru to District leader.

"We know his managerial skills are excellent. This will test his political skills," said Davis, chairman of the House Government Oversight subcommittee on the District.

Davis added that he has "great confidence" in Williams and will work hard to ensure that Congress does not "interfere." But, he stressed, Congress still has an oversight responsibility.

Symbolizing the transfer of power, no members of the presidentially appointed control board sat on the dais with the city's top elected officials. And the promised memorandum of agreement transferring power over the District's daily affairs from the panel to Williams was signed in private by control board Chairman Alice M. Rivlin and the new mayor.

Williams said parts of the agreement bother him, particularly the need to get control board approval before he can fire top-level executives.

"It's a problem that you have to go through this clearance process to terminate people," Williams said at a news conference after his swearing in.

But the new mayor said he does not anticipate problems working with the control board on most matters or getting its approval for new appointments. And members of the board, which will remain in place until the city balances its budget for two more years, heaped praise on Williams.

"This is a great day for the city," said Constance B. Newman, vice chairman of the board. "Now all of us have to make the dreams of the city come true. . . . I really think it is a strong statement that knowing what he knows, he still believes this city can be a great city."

Invited federal guests made clear this was the mayor's day, even as many District officials struck a note of defiance at federal intervention.

Rivlin emphasized that the control board "is here to help. If we work together . . . we can all put the control board out of a job." She said she wasn't worried about overblown expectations. "Some things will happen soon. Some will take time," she said. "I think the citizens of the District understand that."

Williams said he would fight for the restoration of home rule.

"We must work for full representation for our citizens," he said. "Self-governance is a prerequisite of true freedom. A city that governs itself makes decisions that voters can evaluate. A city that governs itself finds joy in solving problems. A city that governs itself grows young leaders. . . . The epicenter of democracy must reflect the core values of democracy. And I promise that the Williams administration will be a tireless champion of that cause."

While District leaders renewed their call for self-rule, members of the chief obstacle to that dream, Congress, were in scant attendance.

And among those who did show up for the inaugural, only Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Davis shared the stage, which was packed with elected D.C. officials.

Sarbanes praised the mayor's emphasis on delivery of basic city services.

"He's going to do a good job," he said, adding that his congressional colleagues "are anxious for the new mayor to succeed."

They are not alone. Across the region, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia leaders watched Williams's ascension closely. On Tuesday, he will serve as host to the first "summit" of local leaders when Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Katherine K. Hanley (D), Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) and Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry (D) dine together in what Duncan yesterday called a "Big Four" meeting.

The gathering is intended to forge a new, cooperative relationship between the District and the suburbs that was missing during Barry's uneasy tenure, when the local jurisdictions needed to tackle transportation, economic and fiscal problems the federal government can't solve.

At his news conference, Williams laid down the law for D.C. government workers.

"People who do the work of our government ought to have our support and our respect," he said. "If people do their job, they are fine. If they don't do their job, they ought to worry."

The new mayor said the idea "that you have to go through this clearance process to terminate people, that does take a little bit away from the tone you want to set. People have to produce week by week, month by month. We have to see some immediate action."

Williams said that tomorrow he will press agency managers to come up in the next week with two lists: one showing what can be fixed quickly and another outlining what will take longer.

"Within the first six months, is everything going to be fixed? No. But will people notice better service from this government? Yes," Williams said.

"We don't need people up in the booth doing color commentary, or in the stands cheering or booing," he said. "We need folks down on the field, blocking and tackling, maybe getting sacked, but getting up and helping us advance the ball a yard at a time as we move toward victory."

Staff writers Hamil R. Harris, Spencer S. Hsu, David A. Vise and Yolanda Woodlee contributed to this report.