New D.C. Mayor Takes Office, Pledges ‘an Honest Deal’

Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of the nation’s capital today and pledged “an honest deal” for a city struggling with massive social and financial ills.

In inaugural ceremonies attended by many of the nation’s most prominent black politicians, Dixon vowed to “move our city beyond the troubles of drugs and crime, racial polarization and the mounting financial problems.”

Dixon succeeds Marion Barry, a three-term mayor who faces a six-month prison sentence for cocaine possession. Barry lost a bid for a City Council post in November after his conviction in August.

Dixon, a 46-year-old political novice, won election last fall with a pledge to rid the nation’s capital of waste and corruption. She returned to that theme in her inaugural remarks.

“We have too few people in the right jobs and too many people in jobs that shouldn’t even exist. What the people of Washington want most is an honest deal,” said Dixon, one of a small number of black women ever elected mayor of a U.S. city.

Looking on as she took her oath of office on the steps of the District Building were Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s only black governor; Jesse Jackson; Ronald H. Brown, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Jackson was being sworn in later today in unofficial ceremonies as a “shadow senator,” an unpaid position designed to lobby Congress to establish statehood for the District of Columbia.

Dixon became mayor only a few blocks from the White House, but her concerns will be almost purely local ones, ranging from a budget deficit estimated at $300 million, a record murder rate and social problems running the gamut from drugs to homelessness and infant mortality.

Earlier, in an interview on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” program, she said, “I think the people of the District of Columbia are eager for real change.”

She said they want a restoration of “basic values” such as a commitment to public service and investment in youth programs.