Painting “Gray” over “Fenty” on signs now official priority

When Mayor Gray took office, we suggested he ask agency directors not to spend precious funds replacing all mentions of previous mayors with his own name on signs.

DC Water instead made a video showing them changing their own sign.

Now, an anonymous yet fiscally responsible source shared an administration email asking agencies to make it “a priority” to replace or cover over the names of previous mayors or their agency heads:

From: Robinson, Tony (EOM)

To: Hoskins, Victor (EOM); Hanlon, Brian (DRES); Harper, Ollie (OPEFM);

Cooper, Ginnie (DCPL)

Cc: Graves, Warren (EOM); Sousa, Jose (EOM); [Philip Artin]; Williams, George (DCPL); Jenkins, Ruth (OPEFM); Coleman, Lucian (OPEFM); Bonvechio, Jeffrey (DCPL)

Sent: Mon Mar 07 14:33:20 2011

Subject: Project/Site Signage

Victor, Brian, Ollie, Ginnie: All ongoing project and site signage must be updated as soon as possible to reflect the change in leadership. All projects signs bearing former administration leadership (Mayor, Agency Heads etc.) must either be replaced or covered with new leadership names. I believe the City Administrator has discussed this issue with some of you. If not, this is a priority he has asked me to work with you and your staff in accomplishing as quickly as possible. Please identify a point of contact on your staff who can provide updates on getting project signage changed and provide ongoing updates until completion. Should you have any questions about this request, please let me know. Tony Tony Robinson Director of Public Affairs Office of the City Administrator

Staff from Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, Department of Real Estate Services, Executive Office of the Mayor and DC Public Library appear in the email’s “to” and “cc” fields. The email also went to one non-DC.Gov email address: Philip Artin, Senior Vice President, Special Projects with construction firm McKissack & McKissack. It would be interesting to know whether these instructions were approved by Mayor Gray himself or represent an independent effort by City Administrator Allen Lew. In either case, the administration should immediately rescind this order to preserve tax dollars and focus agency leadership on legitimate high-priority projects. To avoid this problem in the future, Gray can ask that signs not list any names at all, and simply replace the old adminisration’s names on current signs with nothing. That will reflect the leadership change while removing the need to replace all names in the future every time a mayor or agency head changes.