Repeat after me: Vince Gray is not running for mayor. “If the filing to run for mayor was today,” Gray tells me, “my name would not be on it. I am truly enjoying being chairman of the city council.”

Why, you might wonder, would it be necessary to explore Gray’s intentions? After all, he has been chairman of the D.C. city council for just eight months; he has more than three years left on his term.

The overt reason is that people keep asking Gray if he wants to be mayor. The covert reason is that some on Mayor Adrian Fenty’s team are using back channel claims that Gray wants to be mayor every time the chairman happens to disagree with Fenty.

Says Fenty: “That’s just a rumor people like to spread.” He says it comes from his supporters, not his staff.

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“Vince and I have a great relationship,” the mayor tells me. “I think he’s an amazing person, and he’s doing a great job as chair.”

There is a natural tension between Fenty, the chief executive, and Gray, the chief legislator. We call it the check and balance system. Throw in politics, and the system can get constipated.

The actual conflict between Fenty and Gray has been low key, so far.

They butted heads over the Ward 7 council race. People associated with Fenty’s political machine backed a candidate for the seat in Gray’s home turf, against Gray’s hand-picked successor, Yvette Alexander. She won. Gray has backed developer H.R. Crawford, a pillar among the city’s old guard, to keep his seat on the Washington Airports Authority Board. Fenty nominated a young lawyer in his mold. Gray and his council members have held up confirmation of Victor Reinoso, Fenty’s deputy mayor for education. Fenty chose Michelle Rhee as school chancellor without consulting the council, as he had agreed.

Seems like penny ante stuff, as it should be during the honeymoon phase of the Fenty-Gray relationship.

When does serious oversight happen?, I asked Gray. He raps his fingers on a picnic table at the Turtle Park recreation center by the baseball diamonds on Van Ness Street and says: “Now.”

Gray, who grew up on the rough streets around D.C.’s Florida Avenue Market, already has been to a festival on H Street and is headed to a Boys and Girls Club this Saturday afternoon. Like Fenty, he gets around town.

And like the mayor, Gray talks accountability and competence. He has perhaps the most professional and experienced city council in D.C. history. He plans to develop a policy analysis arm, like the Congressional Research Service; and a budget panel like the Congressional Budget Office.

He will push for universal Pre-K classes and more tax relief.

What should worry Fenty is not whether Gray wants his job but how his government will measure up under the oversight of a committed and competent council.

“Sometimes I take a different position on an issue which I think is OK,” says Gray. “It’s not politically motivated.”

Until Fenty’s folks make it that way.

hjaffe@washingtonian.com