Is Fenty Already Punishing Mary Cheh? was originally published on City Desk on May. 01, 2009, at 4:20 pm
Wednesday evening, LL reported that Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh was proposing to trim a nice chunk out of the mayoral Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs—a proposal since ratified by the D.C. Council’s government operations committee.
And if there’s anything that’s become perfectly clear about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in recent months, it’s that he’s not above petty political payback.
So how else to explain this: Yesterday, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh held a “Ward 3 Education Forum” at Alice Deal Middle School in order to keep her constituents apprised of various ed developments. She invited representatives from the D.C. Public Schools, the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, the school ombudsman’s office, and the State Board of Education to attend in a purely informational role.
About 50 residents showed to the meeting, but three invited guests did not: Tony Robinson and Will Mangum of OPEFM and Jesus Aguirre of DCPS. Cheh explained to the crowd that she learned shortly before the meeting that the mayor had told the three not to attend.
Cheh declined to comment on the allegations; mayoral spokesperson Mafara Hobson said only that any suggestion that the employees were ordered not to attend are “false.” She has yet to furnish any further explanation.
