Council Panel Slaps Down Fenty Picks
The D.C. Council has delivered another slap at Hizzoner.
The government operations committee this afternoon voted unanimously to disapprove four mayoral nominees to the Public Employee Relations Board, tasked with resolving city labor disputes. In hearings, James Byles, Diaa Nour, Brenda Oliver, and Darryl Wiggins all faced pointed questions from committee chair Mary Cheh about their thin qualifications in the field of labor relations. All four have personal connections to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty—Byles is a running partner, Nour is the brother of a running partner, Wiggins is a political confidante, and Oliver is wife of Fenty's general counsel.
In today's markup, fellow committee members Kwame Brown, David Catania, and Harry Thomas Jr. joined Cheh in voting to disapprove all four nominees. They could still be approved if seven members of the full council vote to change the panel's recommendation.
PERB has been essentially unable to hear cases since last summer, when it last had a quorum, creating a massive backlog. Currently, the board has only one member.
To address the problem, Cheh says she'll be introducing emergency legislation at Tuesday's council meeting to allow a single-member quorum while the mayor comes up with new picks. "I'm hoping to work with him collaboratively on it," she says.
5:53 pm
The mayor is trying to union bust. The city almost always loses at the PERP that's why he is trying to rig the board instead of treating its employees fairly.
11:40 am
Bravo to Councilmember/Chair Cheh and the committee. Although I appreciated Councilmember Schwartz not moving the nominations forward last year, I love the fact that the committee affirmatively, publicly told the Mayor "NO, his buddies going before the council (and by extension, the residents of DC) posing as labor experts, are nothing but charlatans.!" I think it's an important thing that needed to be said in an official action. Good job Council!
11:52 am
Citizens that work in the District Government already have no due process and the Mayor wants to further that for it's own citizens. Shame on you Mayor Fenty. Great job Council of the District of Columbia. You remembered to put people first, I mean my goodness, these are the same residents who put you in office.
4:25 pm
Finally we get to see government operate for the people! I hope that this is just the beginning of shutting down the "F Troop" that seized and terrorized the town.
F TROOP- FENTY'S FAMILY, FRIENDS AND FELONS
7:54 am
Fenty has a long history of attempting to rig the boards of various agencies throughout the City (UDC, the DC Housing Authority and WASA). Fenty attempts to do everything in his administrative power to get people appointed, and gets them to vote in his direction by offering them sports tickets, government contracts to their family members or creating a makeshift job somewhere in DC government for their sons and daughters.