News
Highlights from Mayor Anthony Williams’ Remarks
to the Board of Directors
April 19, 2006
Baseball: Baseball will bring a tremendous amount of revenue and growth to the city over the next 10 years – Major League Baseball needs to name an owner, hopefully this week. The Mayor endorsed the Washington Baseball Club, in part for some of its members’ long work on education in the District.
Josh Bolten as White House Chief of Staff: It’s good for our city in many ways. He’s been very helpful on the issue of transferring federal land to the District to help boost the city’s tax base. He’s also a good friend to education in the city.
Education: Mayor Williams said it’s incredibly important for our city’s public schools and public charter schools to work together on issues. One problem with our schools is that there’s too much overhead, and our public schools have too many buildings. Everyone needs to come together and work together on solving those issues. Our Charter Schools are not going anywhere – so it shouldn’t come down to a debate about their future.
Voting rights: Mayor reminded the group about the importance of this issue – noting that Rep. Tom Davis has a bill in Congress that would give Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton a vote in the House.
Legacy : Mayor Williams noted that he thinks he and his administration have done a tremendous job, all of them working together, to put the city in a very special place. He said that what he’s proudest of is that he’s helped changed the debate in the city — and raised expectations in the city.
“We have people in our city asking questions and demanding things they would never have demanded seven years ago,” he said.
He gave one example of that. He told a story about a woman who had an issue she needed to resolve. First she called the city government on the phone, then she went to the city’s Web site, and then she paid a visit to an agency. “I got a different answer at each place,” she told the mayor. “Well, that’s progress!” he responded. “When I first took office, no one picked up our phones, we didn’t have a Web site, and there was no customer service at our agencies!”
