Anonymous wrote:I work for DC and none of this is surprising. The mayor has always surrounded herself with pwerful men who advise abd control her. She has only ever cared about messaging, photo ops etc. Why was Fachichio both her Chief of Staff AND the Deputy Mayor? Who has two jobs like that. He was more powerful than the mayor honestly. She is surrounded by ass kissers and she just shuffles the same 10 people around in key leadership positions. Its all about rewarding loyalty, not competency. And they just made all the DC govt employees sign some kind of sexual harassment form acknoewledging the new policies.

I also work for the District and am in complete agreement. The environment is toxic to minorities and women, both of whom are treated like second class citizens. Have a complaint about your boss? Don’t go to DCHR! They will cover for them and make you disappear. And don’t say anything to anyone because that would embarrass your poor, racist, sexist boss.
What happened to the women who were brave enough to come forward is the NORM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having good comms and good control of the flow of information, who talks to the press and when is politics 101. You would think Fenty would have at least taught her that.

She could certainly take some tips from that team. He wasn’t perfect, but Fenty had a much stronger comms team and approach. he was also a disrupter and open to bringing in people that had outside expertise. Some of the top people on her team have come up through DC gov, and they lack the experience and/or sophistication required at this level, and it’s showing. Her comms director and team aren’t doing her any favors. She’d be wise to hire some folks from private sector to revamp the team, even if temporarily.

Very true. The responses from the MOLC are embarrassing - bordering on illiterate in some instances. I have never seen this under any administration. How do you let amateurs handle and comment on a lawsuit and investigation is beyond the understanding of any reasonable person. This is the one time you pay to bring in the experts who know how to handle a crisis.

This. It is a two step dance as old as time - if the press calls the Mayor, she refers them to her Communications Director; if the press calls her attorneys (the MOLC), they refer them to the Communications Team - if the press contacts ANYONE, you refer them to the Communications team so the press is getting the same information and messaging and there are no missteps and no-one waffling on, tripping over their words. This is so very basic.

I work for DC and none of this is surprising. The mayor has always surrounded herself with pwerful men who advise abd control her. She has only ever cared about messaging, photo ops etc. Why was Fachichio both her Chief of Staff AND the Deputy Mayor? Who has two jobs like that. He was more powerful than the mayor honestly. She is surrounded by ass kissers and she just shuffles the same 10 people around in key leadership positions. Its all about rewarding loyalty, not competency. And they just made all the DC govt employees sign some kind of sexual harassment form acknoewledging the new policies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having good comms and good control of the flow of information, who talks to the press and when is politics 101. You would think Fenty would have at least taught her that.

She could certainly take some tips from that team. He wasn’t perfect, but Fenty had a much stronger comms team and approach. he was also a disrupter and open to bringing in people that had outside expertise. Some of the top people on her team have come up through DC gov, and they lack the experience and/or sophistication required at this level, and it’s showing. Her comms director and team aren’t doing her any favors. She’d be wise to hire some folks from private sector to revamp the team, even if temporarily.

Very true. The responses from the MOLC are embarrassing - bordering on illiterate in some instances. I have never seen this under any administration. How do you let amateurs handle and comment on a lawsuit and investigation is beyond the understanding of any reasonable person. This is the one time you pay to bring in the experts who know how to handle a crisis.

Anonymous wrote:Having good comms and good control of the flow of information, who talks to the press and when is politics 101. You would think Fenty would have at least taught her that.

She could certainly take some tips from that team. He wasn’t perfect, but Fenty had a much stronger comms team and approach. he was also a disrupter and open to bringing in people that had outside expertise. Some of the top people on her team have come up through DC gov, and they lack the experience and/or sophistication required at this level, and it’s showing. Her comms director and team aren’t doing her any favors. She’d be wise to hire some folks from private sector to revamp the team, even if temporarily.

Having good comms and good control of the flow of information, who talks to the press and when is politics 101. You would think Fenty would have at least taught her that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I literally cannot believe what I just read but know it is true. I just don’t understand how we got here. How is any of this dysfunction acceptable? And what competent administration doesn’t have a press person who is out front and all over this instead of letting random staffers talk to the press. As someone who has worked in politics,
I find this completely baffling. The flow of information especially to the press should be tight and organized and managed by a person trained to deal with media.

She needs to revamp her whole comms team. Agree that it needs to be tighter and more strategic rather than this hodgepodge mess that is currently in place.

She may want to revamp her budget team while she’s at it.

Anonymous wrote:I literally cannot believe what I just read but know it is true. I just don’t understand how we got here. How is any of this dysfunction acceptable? And what competent administration doesn’t have a press person who is out front and all over this instead of letting random staffers talk to the press. As someone who has worked in politics,
I find this completely baffling. The flow of information especially to the press should be tight and organized and managed by a person trained to deal with media.

She needs to revamp her whole comms team. Agree that it needs to be tighter and more strategic rather than this hodgepodge mess that is currently in place.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The administration is in disarray and Falcicchio is a disgrace...but whoever this "housing developer" is also sounds like a barely-literate hot mess.

Why is anyone surprised? She is a direct successor to the Barry machine:




Her election was a return to the same policies, same attitudes, and even the same people who were part of the disastrous Barry administration.

Maybe we need a definition of a Direct Successor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I literally cannot believe what I just read but know it is true. I just don’t understand how we got here. How is any of this dysfunction acceptable? And what competent administration doesn’t have a press person who is out front and all over this instead of letting random staffers talk to the press. As someone who has worked in politics,
I find this completely baffling. The flow of information especially to the press should be tight and organized and managed by a person trained to deal with media.

After two terms, executives tend to be checked out. It happened with Mayor Bloomberg too in his third term, except he had extremely capable deputies to run the city while he jetted off to Bermuda for three days per week.

Except for the first letter of their surnames, Bloomberg and Bowser have nothing in common. I’d rather have Bloomberg on his worst day than another minute of the incompetent, ethically challenged Bowser.

Anonymous wrote:I literally cannot believe what I just read but know it is true. I just don’t understand how we got here. How is any of this dysfunction acceptable? And what competent administration doesn’t have a press person who is out front and all over this instead of letting random staffers talk to the press. As someone who has worked in politics,
I find this completely baffling. The flow of information especially to the press should be tight and organized and managed by a person trained to deal with media.

After two terms, executives tend to be checked out. It happened with Mayor Bloomberg too in his third term, except he had extremely capable deputies to run the city while he jetted off to Bermuda for three days per week.

I literally cannot believe what I just read but know it is true. I just don’t understand how we got here. How is any of this dysfunction acceptable? And what competent administration doesn’t have a press person who is out front and all over this instead of letting random staffers talk to the press. As someone who has worked in politics,
I find this completely baffling. The flow of information especially to the press should be tight and organized and managed by a person trained to deal with media.

Well, who really cares how things “look” anyway?

^^ Right. Other than answering FOIA appeals (which they don't seem to be able to do on time), the MOLC has sort of an amorphous role. They have yet to carve out a true function for themselves. The Mayor's GC does her job well and she is NEVER in the press. The fact that this MOLC is often quoted or cited and shows up at all of the press conferences is odd. Where's Muriel Bowser's comms/press person? Why in the world is the MOLC so often speaking to the press? A comms person knows how to handle the media, put a story to rest and most importantly, manage the mayor's staff when/if it is absolutely necessary that they communicate with the press. It sounds like the people with reputations to preserve don't want to be on record defending this mess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly does the MOLC do anyway? I have been around for quite awhile and have never heard of the office.

Mayor's Office of Legal Counsel. My understanding is that all GCs in the Executive Branch (not OAG) are responsible not just to their agency head and to MOLC.

But the Mayor already has a very capable GC, who seems to be on top of things. Doesn't seem like the MOLC is serving much use. Especially given what was reported in this article, seems like the Mayor is picking from the bottom of the barrel for MOLC staffing.

The Mayors GC and the MOLC are totally separate. All you have to do is go to the MOLC website to see what they do. One only deals with the Mayors employees-GC—the other deals with agencies and the public which is MOLC. MOLC was created after DC started electing the Attorney General. Before the mayor appointed the AG, so the oversight of hiring attorneys was pulled from the AG and given to MOLC. They also oversee sexual harassment, FOIA and some other stuff.

MOLC should be a textbook lesson on why D.C. statehood should be considered skeptically, if at all. MOLC, which is separate from the mayor’s own general counsel office, was created after D.C. began electing an attorney general. There seems to be both duplication yet significant things falling through the cracks here, all while tax dollars are not being spent efficiently. D.C. unfortunately still stands for Dysfunctional City.