‘Fenty Oops’
courtesy of ‘Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com’
It’s very rare for the mayor of a major city to be doing their own driving. Mayor Fenty is provided with a driver to get him from place to place and be able to maintain his hectic and packed schedule, but he decided as of two years ago to take the wheel himself.
WaPo talks about the dilemma here. The mayor was just recently involved in a crash, while driving his city-issued Navigator, in Chevy Chase and conflicting information surrounded the police report and the statement issued by the mayor’s office. A few months back, he collected a speeding ticket and was caught illegally allowing a friend to use his city vehicle.
Now these incidents are not exactly earth shattering, but for a major city mayor, they are headaches that could explode into very unnecessary drama for someone that has far more important things to focus on. I do applaud the symbolic nature of the move to show that he is a regular Joe and doesn’t need a security detail to drive him around – I’m sure that resonates with many D.C. residents who don’t have a personal driver (Seriously? Not everybody has their own driver? Seriously.) But sometimes things just make sense. And the mayor avoiding crashes, tickets and driving scandals by simply doing what he is allowed to do…simply makes sense.
