Mayor of The District of Columbia
Once in office, Pratt's grassroots, reform posture met resistance. She made good on her promises to clean house, requesting the resignations of all Barry appointees the day after her election; however, as she began to slash the city employment payroll, her political support began to weaken. In particular, she angered labor leaders who claimed she had promised not to fire union employees, and made no friends among other employees when she began mandating unpaid furloughs and wage freezes citywide. In addition, even after removing Barry's political cronies from her administration, she was also unable to retain her own high-level staff members: three city administrators, two chiefs of staff, three deputy mayors for economic development, and two Department of Finance chiefs had passed through her cabinet by the end of her term.
Kelly also frustrated D.C. Council members with her expensive proposal to temporarily move the city government to the building at One Judiciary Square, ten blocks away from Washington's incumbent city hall, the District Building, while the latter underwent renovations. When Kelly moved her office and administration departments to One Judiciary Square in 1992, the Council refused to leave the District Building, although they had approved the proposal that spring; in February 1993, after accusing Kelly of deliberately neglecting maintenance in order to force them out, they voted to take full and exclusive control of the District Building.
According to the Washington City Paper, Kelly "was never able to get control of a city government still loyal to Barry, and she often mistrusted the advice she got from aides." In the spring of 1992, just over a year into her term, Barry loyalists mounted a recall campaign, which, although unsuccessful, weakened her administration and forced Kelly to tread more carefully with the public, backing away from her reform efforts.
Kelly also faced some racial opposition because she is a light-skinned black, often cited as a hallmark of elite African Americans in the District, thus distancing her from poor and working-class blacks in the city.
Read more about this topic: Sharon Pratt Kelly
Famous quotes containing the words mayor, district and/or columbia:
“when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the Community Chest
grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky!
And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him
When are you going to stop people killing whales!”
—Gregory Corso (b. 1930)
“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)