Kelly Denies Role in D.C.'s Financial Trouble

Former Washington, D.C. mayor and current Institute of Politics (IOP) Fellow Sharon Pratt Kelly denied responsibility for the city's near-insolvency in an interview yesterday.

The city is currently suffering from serious economic hardship and many have blamed Kelly and her successor, current mayor Marion Barry, for the fiscal problems.

But Kelly denied she was at fault for the city's economic crisis.

"I am at a loss to understand what more I could have done," she said.

Better than 70 percent [of the reforms I proposed] were started or accomplished [during my administration], with no help from anyone," she said.

Kelly added that she was the only person to raise the issue of structural reform of the administration of the federally supervised, partially autonomous city.

According to a report released by Congress's General Accounting Office last Wednesday, the city of Washington, D.C. is currently bankrupt.

"Given the combined spending levels above what is budgeted annually, it is now clear that the District of Columbia will run out of cash by this summer," the GAO report reads. "In fact, today the District of Columbia is insolvent."

The city furloughed many of its employees this Monday and plans to cut cost by scheduling nine additional unpaid vacation days this year, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Like many others in Washington, Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.), chair of Congress's appropriations subcommittee on the district, blamed Barry and Kelly equally, according to the Associated Press.

"They saw the train coming in November," Walsh said at a press conference last week.

But Kelly, although refusing to state her opinion explicitly, did insinuate that the problems should be attributed to Barry's administration.

"Unfortunately, there has been a lot of finger-pointing by people who have been there for a long time, but who refuse to take any responsibility," she said.

Kelly maintained that none of the criticism stemming from her tenure in Washington should affect her current role as a fellow at the Institute of Politics.

I can't fathom why it would," she said.

Kennedy School spokesperson Steven R. Singer agreed.

"We're not in any position to judge her actions as mayor of Washington," Singer said. "That's for the people there to work out with her."

Singer added that he doesn't think the affair will affect the way students perceive Kelly, a leader of one of the IOP's study groups.

"One of the purposes of the IOP fellowships is that students can see public officials up close and can hopefully get a sense of them as people," Singer said.

"Probably one advantage of having her here is that students can question her directly, rather than only reading about it in the newspapers," he concluded.

E. Michelle Drake '97, a member of the IOP Student Advisory Committee, agreed that the charges should not affect Kelly's role in the IOP.

"The reason the IOP fellows are here is that they've had unique, relevant experiences," she said. "Anyone who's been mayor of a city like Washington has a lot of worthwhile things to share."

"[As far as I'm concerned,] it doesn't affect her status as a fellow," Drake said.