Adrian Malik Fenty (born December 6, 1970) is an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

who served as the sixth mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term, from 2007 to 2011, losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Vincent C. Gray. Though Fenty won the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

mayoral primary as a

write-in candidate A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...

, he declined the Republican nomination and said he would likely not seek elected office again. Gray went on to win the general election for mayor in the overwhelmingly Democratic District. Since leaving office, Fenty has become a special advisor to the venture capital firm

Andreessen Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Andreessen H ...

, and as a member of the business development team at the law firm

Perkins Coie Perkins Coie is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1912, it is recognized as an Am Law 50 firm. It is the largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and has 20 offices across the Un ...

. Fenty has also held advisory and business development roles with Rosetta Stone, Everfi and CapGemini. In addition, he has served on the boards of directors at two nonprofits: Genesys Works-Bay Area and Fight for Children. He has also embarked on a career as a paid speaker, part-time college professor, and adviser for the state and local government with an information technology consulting firm. Previously, Fenty was a D.C. Council member for six years. A Washington, D.C. native, Fenty is a graduate of Oberlin College and

Howard University Law School Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the old ...

Early life, education, and family

Fenty was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the second of the three children of Jeanette Bianchi Perno Fenty and Phil Fenty. Fenty's mother is

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

. Her family immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

from the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

Monte San Giovanni Campano Monte San Giovanni Campano is a ''comune'' (municipality) of about 12,800 inhabitants in the province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio, located about southeast of Rome and about east of Frosinone. Monte San Giovanni Campano is in the Lat ...

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in 1920. His father, who is originally from

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, has roots in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. Phil and Jeanette Fenty moved to Washington, D.C., in 1967. Fenty was raised in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. While he was growing up, his parents owned and ran a Fleet Feet athletic shoe store in the D.C. neighborhood of Adams Morgan. Fenty graduated from Mackin Catholic High School, where he ran track. He earned a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in English and economics from Oberlin College, and a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law. He remains a member of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

fraternity.

Early political career

Before becoming involved in local D.C. politics, Fenty worked as an intern for U.S. Senator

Howard Metzenbaum Howard Morton Metzenbaum (June 4, 1917March 12, 2008) was an American politician and businessman who served for almost 20 years as a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Ohio (1974, 1976–1995). He also served in the Ohio Hous ...

(D-OH), U.S.

Delegate Delegate or delegates may refer to: * Delegate, New South Wales, a town in Australia * Delegate (CLI), a computer programming technique * Delegate (American politics), a representative in any of various political organizations * Delegate (Unit ...

Eleanor Holmes Norton Eleanor Holmes Norton (born June 13, 1937) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a delegate to the United States House of Representatives, representing the District of Columbia since 1991. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Ea ...

(D-DC), and U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-MA). He then served as an aide to Councilmember Kevin P. Chavous, was elected to the

Advisory Neighborhood Commission Advisory Neighborhood Commissions are bodies of local government in District of Columbia, in the United States. The ANC system was created in 1974 through a District referendum (73 percent voted "yes") in the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. ...

(ANC), district 4C, and also was president of the 16th Street Neighborhood Civic Association.

Council of the District of Columbia

In 2000, Fenty won a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia, defeating longtime Ward 4 Councilmember

Charlene Drew Jarvis Charlene Drew Jarvis (born July 31, 1941, in Washington, D.C. Unopposed in both the primary and general elections in 2004, Fenty was reelected for a second term. ''The Washington Post'' described Fenty's performance as a Council member as "independent" and "contrarian". During his time on the council, he opposed public funding for a new

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

stadium, saying the owners should pay for it. He proposed a $1 billion capital improvement program for the public schools—which the Council initially opposed, but eventually passed. According to ''The Washington Post'', Fenty's legislative style was to focus on constituent services and take attention grabbing positions.

2006 mayoral campaign

Fenty began his campaign to replace retiring mayor Anthony A. Williams in 2005. Then-Council Chair Linda Cropp, businesswoman Marie Johns, then-Councilmember

Vincent Orange Vincent Bernard Orange, Sr. (born April 11, 1957) is a former American politician from Washington, D.C. and former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. An attorney and a certified public accountant, Orange represented Ward 5 on the Co ...

, and lobbyist Michael A. Brown also vied for the position. The race was widely viewed as neck-and-neck between Fenty and Cropp through the spring of 2006. Fenty ran on a platform of bringing a more energetic and hands-on approach to district government,, advancing bold ideas for change, and sticking to them. Fenty said he would take his uncompromising style to the mayor's office, and cited with approval, Margaret Thatcher's saying that, "Consensus is the absence of leadership". Cropp stressed her 25 years of experience in district government and her desire to continue the progress made by Anthony Williams, who endorsed her candidacy. She also stressed her ability to cooperate with diverse groups and reach consensus. She criticized Fenty's proposed approach to governing; being mayor, saying the mayor's job is "not just standing up and saying, 'This is what I want done,' and miraculously it's going to happen." Both candidates raised significant and nearly equal amounts of money – roughly $1.75 million through June 10, 2006 – and neither gained any significant advantages from the numerous candidate debates and forums. By July 2006 polls showed Fenty with a roughly 10-point advantage; political observers debated whether it was due to Fenty's door-to-door campaign, Cropp's lack of engagement in the campaign, or the electorate's desire for a new direction. Cropp's campaign began running negative attack ads during the month before the primary, painting Fenty as unfit for the job and as a careless lawyer who had been admonished by the D.C. Bar. (That criticism is based on a 2005 incident in which he had received an informal admonition from the Bar for his role in a probate case in 1999.) The attacks backfired and Fenty won all 142 district precincts in the Democratic Primary—a feat unparalleled in earlier mayoral elections—defeating Cropp by a 57 to 31 percent margin. He received 89 percent of the vote in the general election and became the District's sixth elected

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

since the establishment of

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

Mayor of the District of Columbia (2007–11)

20070917 Jack Kemp, Adrian Fenty and Eleanor Holmes Norton

Education reform was a major focus of Fenty's mayoral tenure. On the first day of his term, he introduced legislation to vest control of the public schools in himself, rather than the elected school board. Previous attempts to reform the schools, including one in 1996 where a D.C. financial control board took charge of the schools, had failed. At the beginning of Fenty's term, student test performance scores and graduation rates were among the lowest in the nation and District residents had been demanding that the schools be "fixed". In April 2007, the D.C. Council approved Fenty's plan; the necessary legislation was approved by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in May 2007. Under the new structure, the existing superintendent was replaced by a chancellor selected by the mayor and reporting directly to him. The power shift also allowed Fenty to make swift changes in the system's central office, alter teacher qualification requirements, and implement a school consolidation process. His selection of

Michelle Rhee Michelle Ann Rhee (born December 25, 1969) is an American educator and advocate for education reform. She was Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools from 2007 to 2010. In late 2010, she founded StudentsFirst, a non-profit organizati ...

to manage District schools surprised the education establishment. In choosing Rhee, Fenty consulted with national education figures including

New York City School Chancellor The New York City Schools Chancellor (formally "Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education") is the head of the New York City Department of Education. The Chancellor is appointed by the Mayor, and serves at the Mayor's pleasure. The ...

Joel Klein Joel Irwin Klein (born October 25, 1946) is an American lawyer and school superintendent. He was the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States, serving more than 1.1 million st ...

. The restructuring has been credited with improvements. To better allocate resources, Fenty and Rhee significantly reduced the school system's central administrative staff and closed 23 schools with low enrollments. After 2007, student achievement tests at the secondary level reportedly rose 14 points in reading and 17 points in math. Student SAT scores rose 27 points in 2010. Graduation rates rose each year since 2007, and 72 percent of District students took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT),Mayor
. Dc.gov. Retrieved on 2010-11-13. which functions as a practice test for college bound students. Fenty's administration had also taken on a major, five-year maintenance and construction effort to improve school buildings by 2014. Fenty and Rhee successfully negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the Washington Teachers Union that establishes a system of performance-based teacher compensation. The Fenty administration also overhauled District agencies for efficiency. His choice of a woman for police chief, Cathy Lanier, received media attention. Under Fenty, Lanier added police officers to the streets and expanded community policing initiatives, for example, "beefing up" the policy of accepting anonymous

text message Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

tips from local residents to cut down on potential retaliation. The homicide rate in the District dropped 25% in 2009; the homicide closure rate rose to 70%. with Fenty reporting that homicides were at their "lowest level since 1964" and that "both violent crimes and property crimes" had experienced a double-digit decline. Fenty championed development efforts including renovating libraries, parks and recreation centers. Under Fenty, 16 neighborhood and school playgrounds were opened and nine play courts and fields were completed. The District's largest shopping center, the DC USA Shopping Center, and the Camp Simms retail development were opened, and thousands of affordable housing units were established or renovated. The "Housing First" program to provide permanent supportive housing for the district's homeless was begun. The backlog of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations was reduced by improving the retention of social workers, building an experienced leadership team, and increasing the recruitment of social workers to fill vacancies. Additionally, the Fenty administration improved the delivery of emergency medical services and expanded health care coverage for the uninsured. It also finalized the sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital (now United Medical Center) in a public-private partnership that kept the facility open. In December 2009, Fenty signed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Act of 2009 to legalize

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

in the District of Columbia. While serving as mayor, Fenty was a member of the

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined forc ...

, an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

mayor Michael Bloomberg and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

. Fenty was known to carry three

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

devices: one directly connected him to the police chief, the second was for other district business, and the third was for personal matters.

2010 re-election campaign

On July 31, 2009, Fenty's 2010 mayoral campaign chest passed the 2006 primary fundraising total of $2.4 million. Fenty officially launched his reelection bid in April 2010, defending his management style and pledging to remind voters that had made the types of tough decisions that are necessary for real change. On August 1, 2010, the editorial board of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' officially endorsed Fenty, citing his attempts to fix the District's struggling public school system. ''

Washington City Paper The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial mix is focu ...

'' followed on September 9. January 2010 hypothetical polling showed Vincent C. Gray in the lead by 4 points; ''The Washington Post'' poll of August 29 found Gray with a 17-point lead; a Clarus poll conducted September 7 gave Gray a 7-point lead; and a

Public Policy Polling Public Policy Polling (PPP) is an American polling firm affiliated with the Democratic Party. Founded in 2001 by businessman Dean Debnam, the firm is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Debnam currently serves as president and CEO of PPP, while T ...

survey sponsored by WAMU-FM radio and ''Washington City Paper'' showed an 11 percent lead for Gray on September 8. Fenty lost the September 14 Democratic primary to Gray by a margin of 10 points—54 percent to 44 percent. While Fenty received the most write-in votes for mayor in the Republican primary election, Fenty had previously said he would not accept the Republican nomination. Following the reporting of the primary results, Fenty called it highly unlikely he will run for public office again. In August 2011 an investigation into the hiring practices of Mayor Vincent Gray found that during the 2010 primary, a Gray campaign official had paid another candidate, Sulaimon Brown, to disparage Fenty.

Forward Faster

Fenty, like all District mayors and council members, had a citizen-service fund that is intended to help the residents of the District of Columbia. Much of the cash held by the fund came from the money raised during his 2006 mayoral candidacy. Upon leaving office, District law required Fenty to donate the remaining funds in his citizen-service fund to a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

. Two weeks prior to Fenty's last day as mayor, his chief campaign fundraiser, John Falcicchio, incorporated a social welfare organization called Forward Faster as a legacy organization to carry out Fenty's vision. Fenty donated the $440,709 remaining in his citizen-service fund to Forward Faster. Forward Faster's board of directors consists of Falcicchio; George Simpson, Fenty's appointee to the

National Capital Planning Commission The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is a U.S. government executive branch agency that provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C., and the surrounding National Capital Region. Through its planning policies and review of developmen ...

); Sara Lasner, a former aide to Fenty; and Jason Washington, a former Fenty advance man. During its first year of existence, Forward Faster spent $88,700 on grants; $88,000 of salary to John Falcicchio as executive director; $49,500 to Tracy Sandler, also as executive director; and $3,000 to Jennifer Nguyen, also as another executive director. By 2013, Simpson, Lasner, and Washington were no longer connected to the organization. Since then, District law was changed to prohibit an elected official from incorporating a nonprofit organization at the end of his or her term in office and transferring constituent services fund money into it.

Post-mayoral life

After his term as mayor was over, Fenty signed with Greater Talent Network, a major speakers bureau, in January 2011. The same month, Fenty became an outside adviser and counsel to Heffler, Radetich & Saitta, an accounting and consulting firm based in Philadelphia. Also in January 2011, it was announced that Fenty would become a distinguished visiting professor of politics, a featured lecturer and a career adviser in the Department of African American Studies at Oberlin College in Ohio. In February 2011, Fenty became an outside adviser to

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancien ...

, which produces foreign-language software. In March 2011, Fenty became a strategic adviser for the state and local government practice of Capgemini Government Solutions LLC, an information technology consulting firm. In May 2011, Fenty became a member of the advisory board of EverFi Inc., an online education and certification firm. In July 2011, Fenty joined the plaintiff and litigation oriented law firm of Klores Perry Mitchell as special counsel. On '' Morning Joe'' on March 8, 2011, Fenty backed Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker's anti-union efforts and broadly condemned the concept of public employee

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...

. Saying that "Most governors and mayors would love to be able to manage their team without the interference of collective bargaining", Fenty expressed his faith in the ability of managers to set fair wages and hours, and to fairly reward or hold their employees accountable. He also said that the Democratic Wisconsin senators should be held accountable for leaving the state to delay the enactment of Walker's legislation.

Personal life

In 1997, Fenty married Michelle Cross Fenty, an attorney. The couple have three children—twin sons born in 2000, and a daughter born in 2008. In January 2013, the couple officially separated. Andrew is a tennis player who achieved a national

junior tennis Junior tennis refers to tennis matches where the participants are aged 18 and under. Eligibility to compete in International Tennis Federation Junior tournaments is not based on age, but year of birth: as a result, some players must move out of ju ...

rank of 4 before starting at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 2018 where he earned Freshman of the Year status from the

Intercollegiate Tennis Association The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches association of college tennis, both an advocate and authority, overseeing men’s and women’s varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NC ...

and the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

, and was named the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

's Rookie of the Year. In August 2013, the Washington Post reported that Fenty was in a relationship with

Laurene Powell Jobs Laurene Powell Jobs ( Powell; born November 6, 1963)United States birth records is an American billionaire businesswoman and executive. She is the founder and chair of Emerson Collective and XQ Institute. Powell Jobs resides in Palo Alto, Calif ...

. Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, also has three children. The couple was last seen together in 2016. Fenty is an amateur triathlete and runner. During his time as mayor, he participated in events such as the Nation's Triathlon and the Washington, D.C. Triathlon. Fenty is

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Electoral history

2000

2004

2006

2010

References

External links

Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty

Fenty for Mayor official Web site

Adrian Fenty radio interview on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi Show

Adrian Fenty radio interview on WTOP's Post Politics Program

Mayor Against Illegal Guns homepage

*
C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Fenty, November 12, 2006
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenty, Adrian Mayors of Washington, D.C. African-American mayors of Washington, D.C. Hispanic and Latino American mayors African-American people in Washington, D.C., politics Washington, D.C., government officials Members of the Council of the District of Columbia American people of Barbadian descent American politicians of Italian descent American people of Panamanian descent American politicians of Panamanian descent Education reform Howard University School of Law alumni Oberlin College alumni People associated with Perkins Coie People from Mount Pleasant (Washington, D.C.) Washington, D.C., Democrats Woodrow Wilson High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni 21st-century American politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American people 1970 births Living people African-American Catholics