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D.C. Transportation Officials Are Resigning

By: David Schultz // May 13, 2011
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Mayor Vincent Gray has yet to select a permanent director for the District Department of Transportation.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekstinkbreath/2924476045
Mayor Vincent Gray has yet to select a permanent director for the District Department of Transportation.

Karina Ricks and Leah Treat, two top deputies at DDOT, will be leaving the organization they've worked at for a combined 22 years.

Ricks says the department's career employees are in a sort of purgatory, because Gray still hasn't chosen a permanent director, five months into his term.

Council member Tommy Wells, who chairs the transportation committee, says the city will miss Ricks and Treat, but their departures aren't a sign that DDOT is undergoing a mass exodus.

"I have a lot of confidence in the department," he says. "The department's not gutted. We still have a lot of good folks there."

A spokesperson in the mayor's office says this kind of staff turnover is normal when a new administration comes in.

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