Fired Fenty Aide Strikes Back in E-Mail
Last week, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty fired his neighborhood services coordinator for Ward 6, and she is not happy about it.
In an e-mail to Fenty that has been passed around by Ward 6 community activists, Caroline Jhingory strongly criticized Fenty, saying she had lost "hope and respect for you and your administration." She strongly defended her work record in the e-mail and describes being told by her "tearful" supervisor that Fenty believed she was "not a 'team player.'"
What does that mean? Jhingory describes having been "fired 5 hours after not refusing, but questioning someone who was not my direct supervisor instructing me to use personal funds to purchase the mayor Chamomile tea" before a press conference.
She also describes her firing as "a somehow underhanded move to replace me with Forest Hayes and provide an opportunity to an individual that describes himself as a 'friend of the mayor for over 20 years' in addition to his being your fraternity brother."
Mafara Hobson, spokesperson for Fenty, confirmed that Hayes has replaced Jhingory Jhingory is no longer a city employee and that Hayes started as a Ward 6 neighborhood services coordinator this week. She had no comment on Hayes' relationship to the mayor. E-mails forwarded to LL from local community activists expressed strong support for Jhingory and satisfaction with her job performance.
Jhingory, contacted by LL, had no comment. Full e-mail is after the jump.
UPDATE, 1 P.M.: LL was wrong to say Hobson had confirmed that Hayes had replaced Jhingory. Hobson did confirm that Jhingory is no longer employed by the city and that Hayes has just started. There are typically two such positions per ward and Hayes had been slated to the vacant second position prior to Jhingory's departure.
Mr. Mayor: (you have been blind copied)
I write this email with both a heavy heart and with disappointment in regards to my being let go from my position last Friday as an Outreach and Services Specialist. However, please be advised that I am not contacting you as a disgruntle employee or pleading for my position. Both my heavy heart and disappointment grows out of a loss of hope and respect for you and your administration. Often I defended you against those who saw you as an unreasonable firing maverick and I never thought I would experience it first hand. Since my start date of June 9, 2008, I have never used leave (sick or annual), produced 2-3 or more Fix-It's every week and generated no personnel complaints against me. Each day I approached the job with integrity, never abused or boasted that I was from the "mayor's office" to get any of my work done and did my very best to provide constituents with a 24-hour response to their concerns. Despite my not having access to a car for 3 months, I made it to every community meeting, life-threatening crime scene and press conference. The one press conference at Eliot Junior High School where I did arrive late and leave early was the same day that my mother was being prepped and underwent surgery at Providence Hospital in which I did inform my direct supervisor Sarah Latterner. Instead of going into a laundry list of what I did or did not do, if you honestly felt that I was not a "team player" as you sent a tearful Sarah to say to me last Friday then why not give me an opportunity to improve? I have not even been in the position a full four months. I am more than confident that both my work ethic and the reports I presented to you each week exhibited my team commitment. And again this hurts a great deal, not because I merely lost my job, but I have lost the opportunity to work with individuals such as members of the Ward 6 Core Team, Sarah and CM Wells that I have grown to look up to and appreciate a great deal. Honestly, Sir beyond you sending Sarah to tell me that I am not a team player, I have no understanding as to why I was fired, which has forced me to explain to my family that I was fired 5 hours after not refusing, but questioning someone who was not my direct supervisor instructing me to use personal funds to purchase the mayor Chamomile tea before the Union Station press conference last Friday. I did proceed to purchase you tea, however my questioning was due to my feeling that purchasing tea was not within the scope of the community outreach for which I was hired and took me away from the conversations I was having with constituents outside of Union Station who were anxiously awaiting your arrival. Lastly, I do feel that this was a somehow underhanded move to replace me with Forest Hayes and provide an opportunity to an individual that describes himself as a "friend of the mayor for over 20 years" in addition to his being your fraternity brother. I will not send any future emails and no reply is needed and I wish you all the best in the duration of your administration.
Caroline A. Jhingory, MSW
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4:02 pm
This just seems odd. Not sure if I want to conclude that this is the "old boy network," well at work or yet another a case of Fenty upset that he didn't get his way and basically thought this woman was too low in the food chain to question anyone. From what I read on other blogs and Cap Hill listservs, she was a hard worker and residents, uh um, voters loved her.
5:45 pm
Sheesh, what did she say when they told her to get the tea?!?! "I don't get tea, I only get @#$%^& caramel macchiatos byotches" and went postal and handed Fenty the tea holding a bazooka. With questionable actions like this, the youth summer job debacle, the resignation of 3 cabinet members in one month (July 2008), I hope Fenty gets the clue that he's a one-term mayor and not the next Obama. And Fenty with these types of playground politics (incidents), stay the hell away from Obama!!!
7:12 pm
I (don’t) Want To Work for Fenty
I worked in this division of Fenty’s office last year, and there’s a huge turnover. So much of a turnover that they limit how many business cards you’re given. It is already enough that you have to deal with the constant 24-hour request of city residents, but the extra addition of petty demands from a pompous mayor will have you feeling like you’re on an episode of The Apprentice or Survivor for that matter.
And your retraction here is not needed. Sure each Ward is supposed to have two neighborhood coordinators, but if one person is assigned to a Ward alone and doing the job of two people then obviously they’re gonna be paid more. Hence, Fenty’s firing of Carolyn Jhingory so that his toga-buddy could work the Ward solo and likely get a bigger salary with no question. Oddly enough the one other Ward where there is only one neighborhood service coordinator is Ward 3, where the coordinator is Fenty’s high school/neighborhood buddy Gilberto Solano.
Point blank if you worked on Fenty’s campaign and/or you’re one of his boyz from the hood that at least knows basic subject and verb agreement then…you’re hired!
2:36 pm
There may be some truth to this. I know the previous Ward 6 services coordinator, Hiram Breton, a few months back openly told folks that he attended Mackin high school with the mayor...and he too worked the ward alone. I think that all the ANC Com's across the Ward would agree he was a slacker, and Fenty got rid of him cause he didn't want to lose potential campaign $upport...every politician hires friends sure, but it gets dirty when it costs other folks their jobs...or its just croniysm at play:(((((
11:15 pm
There are other mid-level city employees who have been fired or reassigned for such petty behavior.
It is too bad this mayor is letting such power erode what are the few competent people in the city government.
1:31 pm
What fraternity does Fenty belong to anyway?
9:46 pm
Fenty is as dumb as a rock. If you ever talk to him, you learn this in less than a minute. He's also an egomaniac & has little self-control. The sooner District residents replace him, the better.
7:59 am
This is just a mess. I'm not a "Ward 6 activist," ANC or anything of that sort, but I do know that everyone in our community really appreciated Caroline's (quick) responsiveness to our concerns. She just better be prepared that the FEnty admin is gonna try to refute this with something to tarnish her character.
1:31 pm
Fenty is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. And I concur with most of these comments, Fenty is an arrogant asshole.
10:22 am
Hard working? She never returned my emails or phone calls when trying sort out several events in her ward. As a fellow District employee, this is not surprising, but nonetheless frustrating as all hell.
1:08 pm
Neighbors and I posted complaints of illegal dumping in our alleys on the MPD 1st District list serv and she was in our alley within an hour (on a Saturday) taking photos...and had a DPW crew there in the AM that Monday cleaning up the mess. Sorry that things didn't work for u, but I know the majority of my neighbors felt she was responsive and not the typically DC gov'ment lazy ass.
11:23 pm
This sounds VERY TYPICAL of this administration. If you disagree "not criticisze" then off with your head and any possibility to get a position in DC government. You can be a resident, qualified, tax paying citizen and yet he and his administrative team will ensure that you and your family will suffer at the hands of this administration. You have heard the old saying power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts ABSOLUTELY!!! Well, here it is, in spades!!!!
I too have had issues in Ward 6 and Caroline Jhingory has been STELLAR in her responsiveness and her delivery of the services need. This administration is not concerned with work or work ethic but merely with appearances and alot of ASS KISSING and HAND HOLDING!!!
Let's speak of his former Chief of Staff, Tene Dolphin, what makes her QUALIFIED to run DOES, what they fact that she is a friend of the Mayor. She was a PISS POOR Chief of Staff so you move her to be in control of the futures of hard working, eager to be employed members of your constituency....PLEASE, give me a break. So many folk in DC out of work and yet they cannot even get jobs in their own city, but Maryland and Virginia residents don't seem to have that issue and then they don't do what the hiring agreement states "move into the district within an alloted time frame and PAY TAXES". They and he are just here to make a BUCK and when that BUCK is made then they will move on.
If Fenty thinks he is the next OBAMA, think again!
7:36 pm
Fenty, Fenty, Fenty we're talking about the same idiot who pretends to be eco-conscious while driving a Smart Car to press events, but drives a gas guzzling SUV Navigator home from the Wilson Building every evening. With Fenty image is everything, while qualifications and work ethic means nothing. Without a doubt Fenty is not the next Obama and pretty soon he'll be starring in "Kwame Kilpatrick: The Sequel."
12:26 pm
Adrian MALIK Fenty just might be the next Kwame MALIK Kilpatrick, someone should review the text messages in the tax payer financed Black Berry’s between him and Veronica HOODRAT Washington, especially while on these out-of-town trips where Fenty is a hard ass about only taking Veronica and the city flips the bill for her room and board.
Understandably, politicians hire friends, but hire friends that are qualified, have management or political experience, etc. You’re giving a six-figure salary to homies, your boyz from the hood who likely got their degree if any in the mail, (e.g. Veronica Washington,) while city agencies and Metropolitan Police continues to experience budget cuts which trickles down to a decrease in patrols…and we wonder why there are a lack of police patrols and folks are getting their asses kicked by teenagers via Potomac Avenue, Maryland Avenue and Gallery Place. Even more so we wonder why when Fenty’s predecessor Anthony Williams left office he left the District with a surplus, now the wounds of the Fenty administration have infected us with a deficit.
And enough with the blogs and commentary, get out there and do some serious investigative reporting. With the DUI cover-ups, criminal background cover-ups and no credential cover-ups of some of Fenty’s overpaid “executive” staff and their families, you just might give District residents a reason to wear, “Bitch Set Me Up,” t-shirts again.
8:12 pm
Second version
4:20 pm
I don't know what happened here but I do have to question the judgement of Sarah Laterner who heads up this department. Ward 8 had a service coordinator Isha Foster Lee who was not only rude but nasty. Despite Ms. Foster having been the subject of a series of Washington Examiimer articles about her trying to abuse her position with the Mayor;s office to get out of a ticket (and then verbally abusing the officer) who issued it she was allowed to keep her job. Then months later she was caught ON TAPE
4:25 pm
telling community members during a meeting to "Shut up" and "No one was talking to you" (she also used her goverment connections to get an ANC member to harrass a community member) Ms. Foster Lee was again allowed to keep her job despite copies of the tape being sent to Sarah Lattemer and Tene Dolphin and. Both Ms. Lattemer and Ms Dolphin receieved the tape of the incident as well as witness accounts and NOTHING happened and they refused to discuss it even further. At some point Ms.Foster Lee was transferred to another department but no idea where or when and it doesnt appear she was ever reprimanded (she should have been fired).
Luckily the new Outreach Coordinators are helpful, professional, committed and have an overall wonderful attitude.
Someone really should look into this. This was goverment abuse.
11:12 am
LL certainly knows how to beat a dead horse.
Despite, Ms. Isha Foster-Lee's questionable unprofessional work behavior Fenty PROMOTED her to a position at the Department of Employment Services(DOES) of all places Check for yourself I believe the salaries, pay grade/history of government employees is public information. Why would Fenty do this? Foster-Lee was one of Fenty's number one "hype-men" in Ward 8 during his campaigning for mayor...knocking on doors, stabbing lawns with Fenty for mayor yard signs and maybe getting tea!!!
12:35 pm
I am totally disgusted. If she was prmoted to a position at DOES then Fenty has just lost a vote for his reelection. The interim head of DOES is Tene Dolphin and Ms. Dolphin as Mayor Fenty's Chief of Staff at the time promised IN WRITING to investigate this incident. Ms. Dolphin even recieved audio recording of the incident (which she confirmed recieving) so if despite that Ms. Lee was promoted (let alone able to retain city employment) to a position in Ms. Dolphin's agency then that not only makes no sense it smacks of hypocrisy.
9:25 pm
Come on Toto,we're taking the broom to the Wizard of Oz and this Rhee reform is operational disorganization, proceedual violations flying and administrative, "out of control" ! Now all the teachers are going on a 90 day plan ? Another good principle resigns ! Fenty needs to ask Rhee to step down and hire an experienced superintentent provided with support and resources to "stabalize building operations" and get some strategic implementation and programs educationally moving that make a difference. NCLB is sinking and the law is in reauthorization and it's a matter of what to save before it sinks.Still think Fenty has a heart for the city and wants the school system straightened out but Rhee's not the educational administrative answer.
9:33 pm
Fenty can't focus on running the city and Rhee has him putting out fires left and right she's created.
3:19 pm
Fenty's record of hiring incomptent-underqualified people is just his making due on political and in some cases (personal favors.) Big examples: Sinclair Skinner, Summer Spencer, Michelle Rhee (a favor for a friend of NYC Mayor Bloomberg), MPD Chief Cathy Lanier (a favor for covering up domestic dispute police records in Ward 4.)
While these "favors" leave taxpayers with (1) boogled construction projects across the city...(2)our tax dollars being used to pay kids from Prince George's County to not work but be warehoused at schools and recreation centers last summer (3)senseless "all hands on deck" initiatives, which have not been proven to aid in crime reduction, but result in unfair arrests to produce BIG numbers for the Public Relations-addicted Fenty or should I say Mayor Nickles and Mayor Tangherlini.
And Rhee...where for art thou substantial teaching and/or management experience to truly rheeFORM an entire urban school district? Academic achievement, standards, student performance...that's great Rhee...but you can't even get our kids interested in coming to school!!!
Absenteeism, truancy, a reloving door of substitute teachers, wrongful terminations of principals and teachers, schools with 40 students suspended at one time...uh um...is my microphone on?
2:13 pm
Dayuuum, I so want I Know Waaaaay Too Much to become a blogger.