As cloud of corruption passes in D.C., regular dysfunction back in spotlight – The Washington Post

dcogcadmin | August 4, 2015

Outside the mayor’s conference room, the line of D.C. cabinet secretaries and agency directors stretched down the hall. Each studied notes and prepared excuses, like schoolchildren awaiting a turn before the principal.

Inside, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) had begun the two-hour inquisition. At issue, however, was something more serious than a schoolyard dispute: more than $1.3 billion in mishandled taxpayer contracts.

“If there’s a problem like this,” Bowser told one of her new agency heads, “it’s your fault from here on out.”

After corruption charges in recent years brought down three council members and left a cloud of suspicion hanging over former mayor Vincent C. Gray, the District and its new mayor are trying to get back to the less salacious work of rooting out everyday dysfunction in D.C. government. [Read More]