"He started removing the fence last week," Gray campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes tells City Desk.

Hughes says a city inspector visited Gray's property and told him that the fence at his Hillcrest home could be brought into compliance if the candidate merely tore down a piece of  it. "Just the portion of the fence at the front of the house," says Hughes. Gray began taking care of the task last Friday. According to Hughes, he had plenty of time. Though the politician was previously told that he was required to bring his illegal fence up to code by July 9, the inspector who visited Gray's property informed him the actual deadline is July 31. (Which puts Gray a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.)

Mayor Adrian Fenty's campaign has, occasionally, tried to make the fence into a political issue; Attorney General Peter Nickles has said Gray shouldn't have installed it without seeking a permit. Technically, Fenty oversees the Public Space Committee, which ordered Gray to tear down or modify the fence. Gray, for his part, probably wishes he'd never put the $12,600 thing up in the first place.

City Paper’s Unsolicited Political Advice of the Week

The candidate: Vincent Gray, mayoral hopeful

The challenge: Your opponent is trying to tie you to the early 1990s, one of the most ignominious periods in modern D.C. history, when you served in the failed administration of Mayor Sharon Pratt. Expect this to be a recurring theme his attacks. In an interview with City Desk, your spokesperson Traci Hughes assures that you will "lay out point-by-point how Mayor Fenty is presenting falsehoods in an effort to win reelection."

But that just might not be good enough. So here we present some suggested talking points:

-The biographical solution: “Early ‘90s? At my age, I’m more about the early ‘60s!”

-Turn the critique into a compliment: “So my former boss lost the Redskins. Big deal! Thanks to us, D.C. doesn’t have to call itself the home to Daniel Snyder!”

-Accuse the accuser: “I’m early ‘90s? Hey, Fenty is the guy who’s always doing the Running Man!”

-Go wonky: “It seems to me that the early ‘90s were known for a mayor who let the budget get out of control. Look in the mirror, Adrian!”

-If things really get desperate: If you really are good friends with your former patron, surely you can pick up the phone and ask Pratt to do you one little favor: Endorse Fenty!

*Michael Schaffer contributed to this blog post.

*photo courtesy of People Magazine.

I get a tip from a colleague that Traci Hughes might be out as the D.C. Police Department's spokesperson. This morning, I call her office to get confirmation.

I'm put on hold. After two minutes, I decide to hang up and try again.

I'm put on hold again.

Finally, a pleasant voice gets on the line at the D.C. Police Department's Office of Public Information.

I ask: What happened to Traci Hughes? Is she no longer the D.C. Police spokesperson?

I am instructed that the Office of Public Information can not answer such questions. I am then given a name and number of someone in "Strategic Services." His name is Kevin Palmer.

I get Palmer's voicemail.

I e-mail Mayor Fenty's spokesperson Mafara Hobson seeking answers. After some back and forth, I ask her: "Who is Kevin Palmer and why is he replacing Traci?"

Hobson writes back: "She is no longer there?"

It dawns on me that this is a fitting end to Hughes' tenure as D.C. Police spokesperson. This is an office that doesn't know anything about FOIA deadlines (I'm still waiting for one that I sent months and months ago). It is often an office overtaken by a more powerful office (the Office of the Attorney General).

Despite our differences, Hughes handled her job well. She brought a quiet cool to a job that is one of the most stressful and demanding in the city; she always replied in a perfect NPR voice. I can only imagine how many times she got an angry phone call from a reporter or, say, Peter Nickles. There are good people that run that office. But sometimes media inquires had a tendency to die there.

I call Hughes' cellphone. The call gets routed back to the Office of Public Information. I'm told to call Palmer.

Again, I get Palmer's voicemail.

I e-mail Hughes. And I get this: "I am no longer the point of contact for the Office of Communications..."

After more back and forth with Hobson, I get this from the mayor's chief talking head: "Kevin has taken over because Traci is no longer employed with MPD."

I ask why is Hughes no longer with MPD? Hobson replies: "I don't know."

I finally reach Kevin Palmer. He says he became the acting spokesperson roughly a week ago. I ask about Hughes and why she left. "She is no longer with MPD,"  he says, adding that he doesn't know why she left.

Palmer, who has been on the civilian side for seven years, assures that he hopes to foster good press relations. "We're here to try to make everybody's life easier," he says.

2 p.m. update: Hughes e-mails me back. She says she was told that she was being laid off due to budget cuts.

2:19 update: Hobson writes in to clarify her "She is no longer there?" response. She writes: "Jason I wasn’t asking you if Traci wasn’t there, I was telling you that Kevin has taken over her duties as she is no longer the head PIO. The question mark indicates my misunderstanding of your question of why he’s replaced her when it’s clear that someone has to assume that role."

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

The other day Carl Kerstetter sent me the above picture of his son David with his medals from his military service which included a tour of duty during the first Gulf War. The picture shows what David was before his mental-illness reared up and took over much of his life. On November 6, he was shot and killed inside his Logan Circle home by D.C. Police Officer Frederick Friday. While the incident is still under investigation, my cover story on the subject raises many questions left unanswered.

I am using this new picture of David as an excuse to complain about the latest stonewalling on the part of the D.C. Police Department's press office.

A month after the shooting, I submitted a FOIA to the D.C. Police Department's spokesperson Traci Hughes. The FOIA was very simple. I asked for e-mails sent from a few police officials to the officials at the Department of Mental Health. My request gave a specific time frame and a specific subject matter to search. But after I sent my FOIA, I heard nothing back from police brass.

I waited. And then I waited some more.

After a month, I started regularly calling and e-mail Hughes about my FOIA. She replied that I needed my FOIA number. I told her that I never received a letter from her with a FOIA number. How should I know what my "FOIA number" is?

To refresh her memory, I sent her a copy of my original FOIA with the date attached. I then waited some more. But I kept calling her office and e-mailing her.

I finally reached Hughes on the phone. She told me that she was writing my rejection letter while we were on the phone. Awesome! She said that my FOIA was being denied because it was "overly broad."

I asked Hughes: How can I fix the FOIA since it asks for specific information from specific officials for a specific time period. I mentioned that when a similar issue came up with the Department of Mental Health, its FOIA officer worked with me on a compromise.

Hughes said she wasn't going to help.

How sweet.

Even better: I am still waiting for Hughes' rejection letter. Now, Hughes is on maternity leave.

I'm gonna say it: She shouldn't come back to her post as police spokesperson. The city and the press deserve better from its public officials.

It has been four months since I sent my original FOIA request. And two months since I sent a follow-up FOIA on a related matter. I do not think D.C. Police Department could be more indifferent to FOIA regs.