Jonetta Rose Barras

Jonetta Rose Barras: D.C. Council's incomplete response

D.C. Council members saluted themselves earlier this week for approving emergency legislation in response to the controversy surrounding contracts awarded by the D.C. Housing Authority to companies headed by friends of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. But the bill, halting payments to DCHA and requiring advance reporting on transfers from the Department of Parks and Recreation exceeding $75,000, misses the mark. It doesn't resolve the fundamental problem of a constipated contracting and procurement system, which lead Fenty and his predecessor to circumvent the process using DCHA as a conduit. The system is so sluggish and ineffective many managers have sought and received separate powers. At...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: The pot and the skillet

Do you love a farce? If your answer is yes, then you would have loved the roundtable convened Friday by D.C. Council members Harry Thomas, Kwame Brown, Mary Cheh and Marion Barry to probe how the D.C. Housing Authority awarded contracts to friends of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. Some background: Earlier this year, the Department of Parks and Recreation transferred capital funds totaling $86 million to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. The deputy mayor sent that money to the housing authority. The DCHA selected through competitive bid Banneker Ventures and Regan Associates as project managers to oversee renovation or construction of select recreation...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Education reformers, don't retreat

Gingko biloba is being served on the Fifth Floor of the John A. Wilson Building. That herbal supplement protects against mental fuzziness and memory loss. Some D.C. Council members are suffering. They have forgotten changes they made to their approved 2010 budget. They could be forgiven the lapse, if they weren't trying to whip up a citywide frenzy over the D.C. Public Schools' reduction in force. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, siding with unions, has blamed the mayor and schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, asserting the legislature isn't responsible for the layoff of more than 300 workers. He has fueled flames by spinning numbers: A cut is called a savings; the budget comparison is...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Procurement patrol

D.C. Council members were shocked to learn last week Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration routed millions of dollars to the D.C. Housing Authority so it could contract with favored companies to renovate select playgrounds and recreation facilities. It's hard to understand the legislators' surprise. Circumventing procurement rules has been standard fare for decades; ask the federal Government Accountability Office. And issuing project management contracts, as the housing agency did with Banneker Ventures LLC and Regan Associates, also isn't new. The project manager model gained popularity during the control board's and Mayor Anthony A. Williams' tenures. Neil Albert, then the...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Bruce Johnson's heart mission

"The pain was intense and unrelenting," Bruce Johnson wrote in his recently released book "Heart to Heart: 12 People Discover Better Lives After Their Heart Attacks." My hands moved to my chest to put pressure on a hemorrhage that wasn't there. No blood. No hole in my starched, white dress shirt. The pain was somewhere deep in my chest where I couldn't get to it. Johnson, a television reporter with local CBS affiliate WUSA 9, was having a heart attack. He was on assignment at East Capitol Dwellings in far Northeast, when it struck. His cameraman rushed to the nearest fire station. Johnson was taken to Greater Southeast Community Hospital and later flown to Washington Hospital...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Politics and schools in D.C.

"Schools, school, schools," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty answered when asked for the top three issues of his re-election platform. His response came as he and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee were being publicly excoriated for firing hundreds of employees. "[People] are looking at what is happening and saying, 'If [the mayor and Rhee] are willing to take this type of criticism -- if they really want to put decisions affecting children ahead of decisions affecting adults -- this is a city that has its priorities straight,' " Fenty continued. Some critics want the D.C. Council to rescind his authority over schools. Joslyn Williams, head of the Metropolitan Council...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Image repair on hold

First, a meeting was scheduled. Then, it wasn't. Truthfully, when I heard D.C. Councilman Jim Graham planned to hold a public roundtable on the taxicab industry, I was incredulous. So, I fired off an e-mail Sunday to his spokesman. Is it true the Ward 1 legislator intends to hold the meeting? "Yes," he replied, adding the "hearing" has been scheduled for Oct. 26. Where's the telephone book? Should someone call St. Elizabeths Hospital? The councilman may be certifiable. How else can anyone explain his decision to hold a hearing given the sensitive environment in which he finds himself? Graham's chief of staff, Ted Loza, recently was arrested and charged with two...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Race propaganda in D.C.

Told ya! I wrote last week that if the D.C. Council didn't confirm Ximena Hartsock director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, it would take heat. Not surprisingly, the 7-to-5 vote against the Chilean native has been characterized by supporters and some in the media as a racist act. This ugly campaign isn't happenstance. Individuals in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration and some legislators circulated e-mails and made telephone calls -- even before Tuesday's vote -- stirring flames of hate with misinformation. On Friday, Hartsock joined the fray, asserting she and her "entire heritage" were mistreated. Give me a break. The rap is that Marion Barry and...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Feeding at the trough

When did the District government assume the obligation of prime funder for nonprofit organizations? I asked myself that question while reading reports in which local officials were blamed for potential financial woes and service delivery problems of several groups, including a Virginia school. Once upon a time, nonprofit and faith-based organizations supplemented the government's work, acting as a second safety net. Money for their work came from commercial private-sector corporations, congregants or members of their resident communities. Now, many nonprofit organizations feed year-round from the government trough. In some instances, the boards of directors of these groups have...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Walking the ethics line

It's not $90,000 in a freezer (a la former Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.). It's not a yacht on the Potomac (invoking images of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif.). Still, no one should dismiss the recent arrest of D.C. Council staffer Ted Loza on charges of taking a bribe. Nor should anyone ignore media reports that his boss, Ward 1's Jim Graham, is under scrutiny by investigators who are probing the taxicab industry in the District and the government agency charged with regulating it. Those allegations are serious. But, Chairman Vincent C. Gray and other members don't seem to get that. The council passed a Code of Conduct that among other things admonished officials not to do...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: D.C.: The capital of no consequences

Raise your hand if you agree with D.C. City Administrator Neil Albert's vote against renewing Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr.'s contract. Just as I thought, a whole bunch of you agree with Albert. But five other Metro board members didn't -- so Catoe will be around for another three years, raking in your money and mine. Reportedly, he will receive a salary of $315,000 a year; another $6,000 to augment his health insurance; and an annual housing allowance of $60,000. (Wait, wait: Where is the man living? Why can't he pay for his housing out of that very generous salary?) Catoe makes nearly as much as the president. With such lucrative compensation and benefits packages, it's easy...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: No muscles on D.C. Council

"They are intimidated by [Mayor Adrian M. Fenty]." That was the reason one D.C. Council member gave me Monday for why members were unlikely to take legal action against the executive. Ward 5's Harry Thomas Jr. had hoped to persuade his colleagues on Tuesday to vote on a resolution authorizing the council to join the lawsuit recently filed by the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2741. As an alternative, he had discussed the possibility of the legislature initiating its own suit against the mayor; Fenty continues to ignore laws prohibiting the closing of Department of Parks and Recreation day care centers used mostly by low-income parents. But as predicted, the council...

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Jonetta Rose Barras - Mission accomplished

When Adrian M. Fenty arrived in the mayoral suite with his now-infamous assistant, Dan Tangherlini, and his bulldog legal counsel, Peter Nickles, he must have decided the first order of business would be rearranging the government landscape. He has aggressively re-established executive prerogatives, expanded his field of authority and placed handpicked sentries at every door. His imprint hasn’t just been placed on a Columbia Heights soccer field. Fenty has marched through the government, leaving his mark on everything, including independent agencies once considered untouchable. Loyalists have been left to ensure captured territory doesn’t fall into others’ hands. The...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Ensuring election integrity in the District?

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics is investigating signatures that appeared nearly two years ago on the D.C. Republican Committee's presidential nominating petitions. It's all very strange to Paul Craney and me. But judge for yourself. Craney, the committee's executive director, and its chairman, Robert Kabel, had been giving Mayor Adrian Fenty grief about his proposal to raise taxes, following the revelation of a multimillion-dollar revenue shortfall for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. They thought that rather than create additional burdens for residents, the mayor should cut his salary, which is larger than some of the nation's governors. To press their position, Craney called into a...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Hurting District children

"I'm not rich. I believe my child deserves the best and want what any parent would want for his child," said David Washington, a single parent rearing a young daughter. "At the end of the day, it's the welfare of the children we should be concerned about." Washington was among dozens who testified last week before the D.C. Council's Committee on Recreation and Libraries. Ward 5's Harry Thomas Jr. called the unusual summer recess hearing after it became apparent Mayor Adrian M. Fenty was continuing to dismantle the Department of Parks and Recreation's day care program in violation of local laws. The American Federation of Government Employees has filed a lawsuit. Fenty and Attorney...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Mentally ill in D.C.

He has been a near permanent fixture in the "Park of the Birds" at 16th Street and Columbia Road NW. For years, he waved an American flag as he pulled huge pieces of luggage, no doubt stuffed with his worldly possessions. He talked out loud to people who weren't there. Sometimes, the agitation in his voice prompted me to glance around, assuring myself there wasn't anyone else with whom he was speaking. Walk the District's sidewalks or visit any park -- Franklin Square, Lafayette, Dupont Circle, "Malcolm X" -- and hundreds of mentally ill people can be found. Some with flailing arms, or menacing looks, and voices calibrated at high decibels appear violent. Passers-by, sensing danger,...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Election complications in D.C.

The campaign posters for the 2010 election already are popping up on lawns in the District. The mayor and seven D.C. Council seats, including the chair, technically are open. But while some residents have labeled Mayor Adrian M. Fenty a dictator in training, the dissatisfaction isn't significant enough to seduce a sane and serious politician to enter the race. Fenty has money in the bank and a machine revving up in the garage. Incumbent council members Vincent Gray, Jim Graham, Mary Cheh, Harry “Tommy” Thomas and Tommy Wells are hoping to retain their seats. Challengers have yet to appear. The most bruising action may occur in the race for two at-large council seats. Phil...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Fenty ignores D.C. law

It's not surprising the American Federation of Government Employees-Local 2741 filed in federal court a lawsuit against Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, hoping to prevent the firing of day care workers at the Department of Parks and Recreation. What's baffling is the D.C. Council hasn't taken similar action, although the executive consistently has challenged its authority. In May, the council passed legislation that prohibited the mayor from privatizing DPR day care services until Fenty presented an impact report. While that bill was approved unanimously, it was superfluous. More than five years ago, the council established by law procedures for privatizing any government service. Among other...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: School safety in the District

The Metropolitan Police Department received 3,500 reports of crime in D.C. Public Schools -- including homicides, sex offenses, robberies and assaults -- during 2007-2008, according an Aug. 24 report by The Heritage Foundation and the Lexington Institute. "It's stunning stuff," Lexington Institute's Don Soifer told me. David B. Muhlhausen, Dan Lips and Soifer received data from MPD through a Freedom of Information Act request. Soifer said 2007-2008 was the most recent full year for which information was available. Not every matter in the incident reports led to charges being filed, but those initial accounts provide a portrait of the school environment. Jennifer Calloway, spokeswoman...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: D.C. public schools playing a numbers game

Poor Michelle Rhee. The D.C. Public Schools chancellor seems perpetually locked in the proverbial damned if you do, damned if you don't posture. She took heat this week for not reaching the enrollment goal of 45,000 for the 2009-2010 school year. The complaint came on the first day of school -- even as parents continued to stream into buildings around the city to register their children and before an official enrollment audit has been conducted. From my vantage, there's reason to celebrate: Last year this time only 11,400 children had formally registered to attend traditional public schools. By comparison, on Monday 39,000 students were officially enrolled in DCPS. Translation: DCPS...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Blinding light

Installing a fancy scoreboard, an 18-foot fence, stadium-style seating and lighting: worthless. Maintaining the character of a neighborhood playground and its surrounding community: priceless. Nevertheless, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration seems intent on spending more than $1 million to make changes to Chevy Chase Playground -- even as the city raises taxes, reduces services and delays development projects to close a $700 million revenue gap. "Where is the money coming from?" asked Pat Cunningham, one of dozens of Chevy Chase residents who have waged a year long fight against the changes. John Stokes, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said funds...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Calling security

True story: The head of the park rangers at the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation received a frantic late-night telephone call from a Hawk One female security guard protecting and patrolling the swimming pool near Francis School. She was having trouble. Call 911 or protective services, the ranger advised. She didn't want to bring in the police and insisted he come. When he arrived, he found her on the floor. The chair she was sitting in had collapsed under her. Her weight prevented her from getting up without assistance. That story is legend and provides a glimpse into why Mayor Adrian M. Fenty decided to terminate Hawk One's contract as the city's prime security firm. Many of...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Fannie Mae and D.C.

You cheered last week when you heard that President Barack Obama's administration is analyzing how to reorganize Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The housing giants have lost a bunch of money during the recession because of bad mortgages and foreclosures. Not unlike a large percentage of the American public, the twins are obese. Few complained, however, when they were eating everything in sight and spitting out huge payments to stockholders. The fat and happy crowd disappeared, as the economy took a nose dive and the market plunged. The duo went hat in hand last year to the government. The feds forked over your money to bail them out. You were never one of crew eating at Freddie's and...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Lawsuit time in D.C.

What's there to investigate about the fire that destroyed the home of former D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz on Chain Bridge Road? Either fire hydrants worked or they didn't. Either the water pressure was adequate or it wasn't. It's just that simple. But the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority and fire department are doing the butt-covering dance. "We have already begun a thorough and transparent review of the performance of the distribution system [and] expect this comprehensive review will be completed within days," Johnnie Hemphill Jr., chief of staff to WASA's interim general manager, wrote on July 30 in response to concerns raised by D.C. Councilwoman...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Reducing spending in D.C.

The D.C. Council Friday will vote to make massive and deep cuts in the city's budget for the next two years to close a nearly $700 million revenue shortfall. That's a good thing. But, don't expect the crew of liberals to close that gap solely with reductions in spending. They won't be able to restrain themselves from so-called "revenue enhancements" -- a euphemism for fee and tax increases. The council's action may not be enough, however. There are reports the recession will continue beyond 2010. So, when Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi updates revenue projections this fall, the adjustment likely will be downward, yet again. During last week's public hearing, Council...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Wasting millions in the District, part 2

As I predicted, Tompkins Builders, a District company trying to save the city $4.8 million on the construction of a proposed forensics laboratory, filed a complaint last week with the contract appeals board. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration seems intent on selecting Whiting-Turner of Baltimore as the contractor, regardless of the cost to taxpayers. “The District’s justification for awarding the contract to the higher-priced offeror is irrational and unreasonable,” Tompkins Builders wrote in its complaint filed last Monday, the same day I wrote in this space about the growing controversy. Claude Bailey, formerly with the D.C. Convention Center and the...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Economic reality comes to D.C.

Hallelujah! D.C. Council members finally landed in the real world, acknowledging that the city will have to reduce the size and cost of government. Even Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has offered a list of potential spending cuts -- though not nearly enough. Like other states and local jurisdictions, the District's revenues have plummeted, and tapping into the rainy day fund to cover the loss won't be sufficient. Elected officials and managers have to close a projected two-year revenue gap of nearly $700 million. "It's 1995 all over again," said At-Large Councilman David Catania. That's when the city had a similar shortfall. Then, recalled Council Chairman Pro Tempore Jack Evans,...

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Wasting millions in the District

The District faces a $600 million revenue shortfall. Every dime should count. So, why is Mayor Adrian M. Fenty throwing away $5 million? He wants to award the Consolidated Forensics Laboratory construction contract to Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. of Baltimore. But, Tompkins Builders Inc., a District company, submitted a bid that’s $4.8 million lower. In a July 10 letter to David Gragan, head of the Office of Contracting and Procurement, at-large D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson asked, “What about the winning bid is worth $4.8 million more to the District?” Good question. Fenty administration officials and others agreed to speak with me only on condition of anonymity;...

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Education reform continues in D.C.

After a week of smut, lowlife dramas, allegations of contract and grant fraud, and other unpleasant vagaries of politics in the District, there is good news. Public education reform is working. Hallelujah! "We are showing better than steady progress," D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee told me during an interview earlier this week. "We're really happy." There is reason to be. In 2006, only about one-third of DCPS students were proficient in either reading or mathematics. Today -- two years after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty took over schools with the blessing of the D.C. Council -- nearly half of students in elementary schools, who took the D.C. Comprehensive...

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Public money, public image

The D.C. Council should be applauded for starting an investigation into Marion Barry's awarding of a contract to former paramour Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Chairman Vincent C. Gray's decision to tap Robert S. Bennett, a former federal prosecutor, to lead the probe gives it a patina of seriousness. "We want the public to be as satisfied as they possibly can that this issue has been addressed," Gray said during a news conference attended by several council members, including Barry, who shamelessly accused the U.S. Park Police of wrongdoing. Notwithstanding the contract examination, Gray and his colleagues haven't gone far enough. Moreover, some seem confused about what's at...

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Public money, public image

The D.C. Council should be applauded for starting an investigation into Marion Barry’s awarding of a contract to former paramour Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Chairman Vincent C. Gray’s decision to tap Robert S. Bennett, a former federal prosecutor, to lead the probe gives it a patina of seriousness. “We want the public to be as satisfied as they possibly can that this issue has been addressed,” Gray said during a news conference attended by several council members, including Barry, who shamelessly accused the U.S. Park Police of wrongdoing. Notwithstanding the contract examination, Gray and his colleagues haven’t gone far enough. Moreover, some seem confused...

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Constituent services, Barry style

People may think there’s always some drama attached to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But they don’t know drama, and they haven’t been around D.C. Councilman Marion Barry. The man is the International King of Drama. His theatrics almost always involve a woman who misused him. The-woman-done-me-wrong blues is the soundtrack of his life. Barry’s latest performance came this week when the U.S. Park Police arrested the septuagenarian for allegedly stalking a former paramour. Initially, Barry called 40-year-old Donna Watts-Brighthaupt a constituent to whom he had provided assistance. She betrayed him, he claimed. The charge of “betrayal” is akin to...

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Life or death on Metro

By Jonetta Rose Barras EXAMINER COLUMNIST See what I mean? Last Monday, I wrote in this space that poor management -- not insufficient funding -- was the prime cause of the Metro Red Line crash. Three days later, the public learned that while maintenance had been performed on the track near the accident site, the circuitry malfunctioned. What's worse, the problem registered at the central command center and could be identified on backup computerized data. But no one at Metro caught it, until investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived. (What's the purpose of backup data if it isn't reviewed regularly?) Someone should be fired. General Manager John Catoe...

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Dual downers for traditional values

District residents attempting to retain some semblance of traditional values were given a double whammy this week: A congressional subcommittee removed a prohibition to the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Then, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Retchin ruled against their push to get a referendum on the ballot that would overturn a recent law mandating the city recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states. “It’s interesting that this [marijuana] measure, [with] its own controversy, is allowed to go on the ballot with the full support of the city. Yet, the controversial subject of same-sex marriage or definition of marriage cannot,” said Ward 5...

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Inhaling in the District

District residents attempting to retain some semblance of traditional values were given a double-whammy this week: A congressional subcommittee removed a prohibition to the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Then, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Retchin ruled against their push to get a referendum on the ballot that would overturn a recent law mandating the city recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states. "It's interesting that this [marijuana] measure, [with] its own controversy, is allowed to go on the ballot with the full support of the city. Yet, the controversial subject of same-sex marriage or definition of marriage cannot," said Ward 5 civic leader Kathryn...

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Worker relief in D.C.

Relief may be on the way for “at will” District government senior and midlevel managers, who claimed they were victims of a mercurial, capricious executive. They lobbied D.C. Council members for several months, urging them to amend the city’s Management Supervisory System. Councilmen Harry Thomas, Michael Brown and Marion Barry responded to their pleas. The trio co-introduced last week the “MSS Employment Amendment Act of 2009,” which would provide that such employees only are “at will” during a one-year probationary period. Then, they “shall only be terminated for cause.” “You have to have an appearance of fairness,”...

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Lessons for Mayor Fenty

Earlier this week, as I was leaving my radio show, a woman I admire asked me whether I would help her and others unseat Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. She is a member of the ABF (Anybody but Fenty) Crew, which each day collects members at an amazingly rapid pace. I have disagreed lately with an array of actions taken by the mayor and some in his administration. Still, I am not ready to join the “kick-him-out posse.” I do worry about the increasing dissatisfaction I hear from residents around the city, however. Too many of the critics are people who worked tirelessly in the mayor’s campaign, helping him win every precinct — an unprecedented feat. “I like Adrian. I...

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It’s in the bag in D.C.

Environmentalists are over the moon about passage by two D.C. Council committees of the Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Act of 2009. The act would place a 5-cent tax on “disposable, non-recyclable plastic carryout bags provided by grocery stores, drugstores, liquor stores, restaurants, and food vendors,” and establish a fund where fees would be deposited. One of several residents I spoke with, who doesn’t consider himself a green-Earth-global-warming acolyte, endorsed the council’s preliminary action. In what bordered on a harangue, he talked about the bill’s importance, referring to a PBS television report, dredging equipment placed miles off the...

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Illinois politics in D.C.

Debra Daniels is telling me about being pushed out of the government by Mayor Adrian Fenty's administration — not once, but three times. I think maybe she's recalling some episode in Chicago, where machine politics, marked by patronage, heavy muscling and a tinge of corruption, are standard fare. But she assures me she's talking about the District. Despite the bruising she's received, she won't stay down. Last week, she and other former city employees met with D.C. Councilmen Harry Thomas, Michael Brown and Kwame Brown, hoping to persuade them to eliminate or modify personnel laws dealing with the Management Supervisory System. “The way the law is structured now, it leaves a...

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Blacks and gays in D.C.: It’s complicated

When I met Carlene Cheatham, I considered her then, as I do now, a dynamic black woman. A year later, I learned she was a lesbian. Other African Americans made that disclosure, using coded language common when heterosexuals discuss homosexuals. “I was never inside. I've always been able to be just who I am,” Cheatham said during a recent telephone conversation as we discussed the D.C. Council's 12 to 1 vote last week requiring the District to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. Cheatham is helping to organize a meeting Saturday where Democrats in the predominantly African-American Ward 8 will debate a resolution to support the “marriage...

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Gay marriage and political doublespeak

"If I don¹t get a lot of political demand, I¹m probably not going to have a hearing. [But] if suddenly the halls become filled with people who oppose it, I¹ll pull the bill and hold a [public] hearing." Those words were spoken by at-large D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson in an interview with me on April 27 less than a week before he and his colleagues gave final approval to legislation that requires District officials to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions. The same week Mendelson uttered those words, a group of residents, including clergy, held a rally outside the John A. Wilson Building protesting the council¹s initial...

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Political doublespeak

If I don’t get a lot of political demand, I’m probably not going to have a hearing. [But] if suddenly the halls become filled with people who oppose it, I’ll pull the bill and hold a [public] hearing.” Those words were spoken by at-large D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson in an interview with me on April 27 — less than a week before he and his colleagues gave final approval to legislation that requires District officials to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions. The same week Mendelson uttered those words, a group of residents, including clergy, held a rally outside the John A. Wilson Building protesting the council’s...

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The wrong way to privatize D.C.

Not surprisingly, most District residents prefer a lean, cost-effective government. The days when a job was guaranteed anyone who showed up at city hall have long passed. So, the idea of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty pushing to streamline operations using privatization or outsourcing isn’t some bugaboo. What is riling many, however, is the way the mayor and his chief magician, City Administrator Dan Tangherlini, have decided to implement their plans to reduce the size of the District government. Quietly and seemingly without regard for the law, the duo has been pinching off pieces of the municipal portfolio and feeding them to private sector companies. If the 2010 budget is any indication,...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Standing up for the children

Democrats are trying to slam the door on more than 1,700 children in the nation’s capital, who are recipients of a federally funded scholarship program. But DC Children First, DC Parents for School Choice and other education advocates are desperately working to keep that door ajar. That’s why they plan to rally Wednesday at Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest. Scheduled for 1 to 2 p.m., the event is the latest in the battle to save the program, which provides up to $7,500 to low-income families for their children to attend any private or parochial school. Earlier this year, House Democrats essentially killed the program, tacking on an amendment in the omnibus...

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Budget madness in the District

Some D.C. Council members continued their pandering to special interest groups this week as the legislature began reshaping Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s fiscal 2010 budget and five-year financial plan. Chairman Vincent C. Gray elevated the tradition by inviting to his news conference every constituency he and his colleagues had satisfied by performing fiscal contortions. Among other things, council committees initially approved restoring money to the charter schools for facilities; adding $5.4 million for pre-kindergarten programs; funding for the Emancipation Day holiday, which commemorates the freeing of slaves in the District; restoring the Office of Asian and Pacific Islander...

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Does D.C.’s mayor just love fighting?

Most mayors wouldn’t provide an opportunity for legislators to kick him in the gut, especially during a re-election campaign. Adrian M. Fenty may be the exception. This week, he unceremoniously removed Department of Parks and Recreation Director Clark E. Ray, and appointed someone without any background in managing such an agency. Ximena Hartsock is the former deputy chief for the Office of Teaching and Learning at the D.C .Public Schools. She created the Office of Out of School Time, which has responsibility for after-school, summer school and Saturday programs. She may be a great academic administrator but her resume in parks and recreation is weaker than all four previous DPR...

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A shotgun marriage in D.C.

The D.C. Council shouldn’t praise itself for passing a bill that recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other states. Its action, taken without benefit of a public hearing, bordered on cowardly. It also may have injured eventual passage of a true gay-marriage law. “I think this is going to be a much bigger issue than they think. Right-wing conservatives are going to crank up. I would be shocked if they don’t,” said Philip Pannell, who is a gay and supports “marriage equality.” But, those “conservatives” may be local residents. On the surface, the District appears liberal and cosmopolitan. At heart it’s old-fashioned. A same-sex...

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Party like it’s 1993

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham’s introduction last week of legislation creating a new income tax bracket is a short walk from that now infamous fifth-quarter tax year gimmick. Is a financial control board waiting in the wings? To understand the analogy, let’s go to the clips: It’s the early 1990s; Sharon Pratt Kelly is mayor. Congress, in an anyone-but-Marion-Barry mood, dumps a boatload of money in her lap. Three years later, red ink is rising like the Red River. Hoping to keep the city from drowning, Kelly and her finance expert propose a fifth quarter to the tax year. The council, as inept as the executive, approves the plan. What happened to the money? That’s the...

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Alarming politics

I accused D.C. Council members recently of being ambulance chasers. This week, the figurative became the literal: At-large member Phil Mendelson searched multiple locations for a 10-year-old firetruck and ambulance that had been on its way to a Dominican Republic town but, after a controversy developed, was returned to the District. The facts about the donation remain unclear: It appears someone in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration attempted to donate the vehicles using Peaceoholics, a local nonprofit, as a conduit. First reported by The Examiner’s Michael Neibauer, the transaction has created much speculation. Some people believe laws were broken. Others think someone...

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Gardasil war continues in D.C.

“This drug is safe; it is effective,” says D.C. Councilman David Catania about Merck Inc.’s Gardasil vaccine, which the company and others claim prevents transmission of the human papilomavirus, a cause of cervical cancer. Catania and Ward 3’s Mary Cheh persuaded the full council in 2007 to mandate Gardasil vaccinations of all girls entering the sixth grade in D.C. Public Schools. He cites approval by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration as proof of the drug’s safety and efficacy. “We have been too casual with health care in this city,” he adds. Faye Williams and the Committee of Parents and Citizens to Stop...

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No-show politics in the District

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles cited a letter from the U.S. attorney as the reason they didn’t participate in a D. C. Council briefing into the scandal inside the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. Jeffrey Taylor’s March 27 correspondence warned such a session could jeopardize the ongoing federal investigation and potential prosecution of perpetrators, who, in a bribery kickback scheme, may have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some people suspect the Taylor letter was requested. Nickles denies that. It doesn’t matter. The results are the same: another showdown between council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and the mayor and...

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A poet's confession

I know this man, I assert, picking up E. Ethelbert Miller’s new memoir, “The 5th Inning” (PM Press/Busboys and Poets), released earlier this month. I have known him since I first arrived in the District wearing a wild Afro hairstyle and an attitude to match. But after reading the book, I realize the fallacy about the breadth of my knowledge. Everyone has secrets, deep and personal, aggressively protected from others’ discovery. And then, there is the soul, a shy, intensely private creature. “Traditionally, it’s viewed as a female occupation, to strip away the layers and examine the experience of relationships with a partner, with children, within...

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Unfriendly business in D.C.’s budget

We’ve all seen it before: A car is plastered with not one but multiple parking tickets. Why? (Money, honey.) Companies and individuals doing business in the District will become that car, if several of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s fiscal 2010 budget proposals are approved by the D.C. Council. The mayor wants to establish new fines and fees or increase existing ones for a variety of licenses and services provided through the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. For example, production companies filming in the District will pay more to use the city’s public space; surveyors seeking building plats will have to hand over $50 for up to three maps; once free, a zoning...

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Red flags repeatedly ignored at District's technology office

David Gragan, the District’s chief contracting and procurement officer, on the job for only a few months, sent a letter in 2007 to the inspector general asking for an audit of contracting inside the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.. “Something didn’t seem right to him,” a knowledgeable government insider explained. Meanwhile, an official at OCTO, Dan Palmer, publicly disclosed during a meeting with business owners that some program managers had been reprimanded for selecting their favored vendors, according to a businessperson who attended the session. “Reprimanded? Why weren’t they fired?” one owner asked. Both of these episodes...

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Education reruns

Former President George W. Bush may deserve a good amount of the criticism thrown at him. But he got it right when he talked about the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” It’s deadly, stagnating or destroying whole generations. We’ve seen its impact in the District. What’s worse, we’ve seen efforts of individuals and organizations dedicated to reversing these adverse effects completely thwarted. Consider former Mayor Anthony Williams’ 1999 proposal to improve the University of the District of Columbia. Speaking before the D.C. Council, he urged approval of a $5 million investment to establish an endowment, which was virtually nonexistent then....

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The big picture on education

Where is all this going? That’s the question D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray posed last week to Victor Reinoso, deputy mayor for education, during a public oversight hearing. The opening volley between the two men was heated and intense, filled with equal portions of frustration and an unspoken mutual distaste. But nearly two years into the movement to radically alter the downward trajectory of public education in the District, the question is more than just appropriate — it’s necessary. People know Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has instigated measurable improvements in the D.C. Public Schools. But most people, including legislators, are lost in the details. They...

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Procurement reform in D.C.? Not quite yet

More than 40 percent of the requests for proposals or invitations for bids issued last year by the District's Office of Contracting and Procurement resulted in only one response. That rate means the city didn't get that proverbial “biggest bang for the buck.” “It is critical that OCP increase its vendor outreach to raise the level of competition, both to reduce our costs and [to] improve the quality of the goods and services we purchase,” David Gragan, the city’s chief contracting and procurement officer, told D.C. Council member Mary Cheh and her Committee on Government Operations and the Environment. In 2008, the District spent $1.3 billion for contracted...

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Washington’s sign snatcher

You drive to a neighborhood supermarket, intending to make it a quick trip. But “emergency no-parking signs” prevent easy access. As you circle the block, you launch into an unscripted rant. Those signs are the bane of drivers’ existence. Just when you think you’ve found a space, you realize your illegal U-turn was for naught. There’s red and white cardboard posted to the meter. The District Department of Transportation charges $19 for a permit for emergency no-parking signs. The applicant also reimburses the agency for lost revenue when a meter is taken out of operation. The signs must be posted 72 hours before their effective date. A permit can be...

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District residents want to understand budget cuts

District residents want a lean, efficient, effective government. Budget cuts don’t really scare them. Not knowing about or not understanding the plan does. A growing number have complained about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s recent budget decisions; I’ve given voice to some of their concerns. A chief criticism is the lack of transparency “The whole system is actually transparent. We’re going to put everything we’re going to do in the budget process for 2010,” counters City Administrator Dan Tangherlini. The mayor’s budget request will be presented next month to the D.C. Council. Fenty can’t wait until then. He needs to answer...

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Dogs or day care in D.C.?

Some District residents are baffled by the budget-cutting priorities of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration. In recent meetings, they specifically were dismayed that the Department of Parks and Recreation seems to have made dogs its prime interest — above day care centers, maintenance of facilities, retaining sufficient program personnel and restoring athletic fields. “The recreation of dogs is more important than the education of our children,” one resident said last week at a hearing of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Recreation and Libraries. DPR closed several “gold-certified” child care centers, disrupting the education of dozens of...

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Taxes: Still a public matter

This week, Ward 8 D.C. Councilman Marion Barry finally submitted his 2007 tax return. Responding to reporters’ questions earlier this month about the delayed filing, he declared the matter “personal,” but added that he had been distracted, focused more on a kidney transplant that he needs. But Barry also didn’t file returns for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, until the U.S. attorney for the District brought charges against him. And even after that, Barry failed to file the returns as promised. In 2006, instead of being sent straight to jail, he was placed on probation. He offered yet another excuse for why he hadn’t mailed in his form 1040. Barry is a...

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UDC needs more money

There is a myopia epidemic at the University of the District of Columbia. That’s the only way to explain the reaction of some students, faculty and administrators to the proposal to increase tuition and enhance academic programs at the troubled institution. They can’t see the direct connection between UDC’s deplorable physical plant, its antiquated course offerings, its abysmal ranking in the academic community, and its lack of resources — financial and human. As dozens of students, meeting last week in UDC’s auditorium, displayed their inability to engage in an open, respectful dialogue about the future of the District’s only “public”...

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D.C. budget-cutting, sort of

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, facing a $131 million revenue shortfall for fiscal 2009, told the Department of Health last fall to cut $2.9 million from its budget. As partial response to that mandate, agency officials decided to offload the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and pledged to save $541,529. The total budget for the food program is nearly $1.4 million — about $766,000 from locally generated revenues and $631,000 from federal grants. “[The U.S. Department of Agriculture] pays the full cost of food and provides allocations to the District to help cover administrative expenses,” says Holiday Johnson, a DOH spokeswoman. While it’s not an expensive venture,...

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Democracy pays

When Dr. Carlos Cano, head of the District's Community Health Administration at the Department of Health, decided he wanted an outreach program, he didn’t go to the D.C. Primary Care Association or any other organization in the city whose prime mission is health education. He went to Strong Democracy, a New York-based group founded by political theorist Benjamin R. Barber. Barber is known for his best-selling book “Jihad vs. McWorld.” In 2007, he drew praise for his “Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens.” So, what’s a guy like that doing at the city’s health department? “They are personal...

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Seeing dead presidents — everywhere

Some D.C. Council members are seeing green — not the new environmental green that is all the rave thanks to former Vice President Al Gore. Rather, they are salivating over the possible dumping of millions of dollars on the steps of city hall. They predict the District will be flushed with cash should President Obama’s stimulus package pass the Congress. (The House already has approved the plan; the Senate is expected to vote on its version this week.) “There is an enormous amount of free money that’s coming,” said one lawmaker during a briefing Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi provided to the council on an audit report of the city’s spending for...

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Political checkmate?

When Paul Craney and D.C. Republican Committee leaders walked into Capital Hilton Hotel on 16th Street Northwest, the tension and excitement were palpable. The Republican National Committee was about to elect its chairman. During the presidential and congressional elections, Republicans took a drubbing. Locally, the November General Election left the DCRC without any representation on the D.C. Council. Who could help the GOP return to power? DCRC leaders had decided to throw their three votes behind Michael Steele. Maryland’s former lieutenant governor was one of five candidates vying to become RNC chairman. “He’s from D.C., he graduated from Archbishop Carroll and...

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A sense of repetition in D.C. government

District residents surely must feel sometimes as if they are caught perpetually inside a revolving door. They also may find themselves repeating that most quotable of Americans, Yogi Berra: “It’s deja vu all over again” — again. Think about D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson’s introduction of legislation to establish an elected attorney general. Since the District is simultaneously a city, a county and a state, an elected prosecutor makes a lot of sense. That’s why in the 2002 November general election, District voters overwhelming supported a ballot initiative creating that post. In essence, those voters signaled a desire to amend the city’s...

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New community college closing UDC’s open admissions?

One of the University of the District of Columbia’s attractive features is its open admission policy. You apply, you’re accepted. Well, say goodbye to all that: “[We] will no longer have open admission. The community college takes care of that,” UDC President Allen Sessoms told the school’s board of trustees during a fast-pace presentation earlier this month. Beginning this fall semester, an open door will await only students enrolling in UDC’s soon-to-be-established “Southeastern Community College.” All others will need a minimum 2.0 grade point average and 1400 SAT score for a seat in the classrooms. Sessoms also intends, among other...

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Ready for change, part 2

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in 1963. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” President Barack Obama's inaugural address echoed that sentiment among other things: “We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that...

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Ready for change

Hundreds of thousands of people will converge Tuesday on the nation’s capital. They will come to celebrate not just the election of the country’s first African-American president, but also to bear witness that the United States has overcome its ugly racial past. It’s embarking on a new era. In 1968, my high school class chose “The Impossible Dream” as its song. Most of us believed we would never see a black man attain the highest political office in the country. No doubt President Barack Obama will speak of this monumental change during his inaugural address. “Change” has become the word du jour. It screams from newspapers and billboards. One D.C....

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Politics as usual

The District’s lottery contract saga just got messier. Taxpayers likely will have to cover cleanup costs. Eric Payne was fired last week by Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi. Payne managed the procurement process that led to the recommendation that a new company, W2I, receive the multimillion-dollar, multiyear contract. That recommendation proved controversial and may have led to his dismissal, say government sources. Reached by telephone this week, Payne declined to comment on the specifics of his termination. But he said throughout his tenure he received impressive evaluations, leading to performance bonuses, a “special act” award and salary increases; his starting...

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Seizing the moment at the right time

University of the District of Columbia President Allen Sessoms saw an opportunity and jumped all over it — with both feet. Smart move. As reported in today’s Examiner, UDC is poised to acquire Southeastern University (SEU). The boards of trustees of both institutions are expected to vote this week on the offer crafted by Sessoms and Southeastern’s president, Charlene Drew Jarvis. Southeastern has been under financial pressures. Some elected officials may have known of the school’s growing troubles. In fiscal year 2008, At-Large D.C. Councilman David Catania pushed through a $1 million grant for SEU's Allied Health program. That injection of cash was insufficient....

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D.C.’s deputy health director under scrutiny over contracts

The D.C. Office of the Inspector General is investigating the Department of Health’s senior deputy director, Carlos Cano, after receiving complaints from individuals inside the agency regarding contracts and time and attendance reports. IG spokesman Austin Andersen confirmed the investigation, but added that “law enforcement agencies are prohibited from discussing the details of investigations.” What happened to transparency? Cano is a major figure in the health department. He’s responsible for the Community Health Administration, which includes more than 200 employees, who either operate or provide oversight for more than 50 federally and locally funded programs....

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Off and running: D.C. 2010 campaign season begins

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty may have already announced his 2010 re-election bid, but today is the actual start of the local election slugfest. Watch for these signals as D.C. Council members quietly begin announcing, through words and behavior, their various political intentions: » endless pontificating; » claims of being the last and best savior of District residents; » claims of rescuing public education, reducing crime and protecting the local economy; and » attempts to deliver body blows to Fenty, believed to have the strongest, most agile political machine — a machine that could take down a legislator or two, if he so decides. During last week's swearing-in...

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Saluting Robert Bobb: A public servant

He fought hard against Mayor Adrian M. Fenty winning control of the D.C. Public Schools. But despite his best efforts, which included presenting a competing proposal to the D.C Council's Committee of the Whole, Robert Bobb and his allies lost: Superintendent Clifford Janey got fired and the local Board of Education was reconstructed as the State Board of Education. In protest, one board member resigned. Bobb had promised to do the same. Instead, he stayed, putting aside his personal feelings while renewing his commitment to the children of the District and education reform. Some thought he and his members would sabotage the mayor's efforts. But the Office of the State Superintendent of...

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Fathers and daughters: the Greg Jones model

Greg Jones and I are sharing a few laughs. I’m reminding him of those e-mails he and others with Black Men Raising Girls Alone used to send out. Some messages hinted of desperation: “Does anyone know where to purchase a training bra? Actually, when should you purchase a training bra?” “I’m so glad that stuff is behind me,” Jones says with a chuckle. His daughters were 7 and 16 when he became the custodial parent; the girls’ mother made the decision to leave the marital home. “She’s a really good mother, now,” Jones says. On a day when the joys of family are magnified, Jones is celebrating his parental achievements and preparing...

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Pay to play — with your money

My grandmother, Rose Dejan, often warned about the incremental erosion of values and morals, which may lead to sin and corruption: “If you lie, you’ll steal; if you steal, you'll kill,” she’d tell my siblings and me. The actions of some D.C. Council members last week suggest they may want to reflect on her words. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray feigned ignorance when asked for his opinion about Ward 1 Coucilman Jim Graham’s possibly unlawful use of fire department personnel to serve as waitstaff at a holiday bash. Gray refused to publicly admonish his fellow legislator. His silence was comparable to the self-muzzling that Office of Tax and Revenue employees...

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Incompetence, inattention in D.C.

“What was remarkable about this entire thing was its simplicity,” said William R. McLucas, a partner at WilmerHale, which with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP conducted an extensive investigation into how Harriette Walters, a District tax office employee, walked off with nearly $50 million of the public’s money. More than 70 individuals were interviewed. Documentation associated with 26,000 refunds, policies and procedures, and employee records also were reviewed. WilmerHale and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP performed the work pro bono at the behest of the D.C. Council. Their report of findings is an indictment of the bureaucracy. Employees and managers were incompetent, or...

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Not for sale

Here’s a good thing — sort of: The mayor won’t be selling the D.C. Council seat being vacated by at-large Councilwoman Carol Schwartz. No doubt, with city- … and county - … and state-like duties, D.C. may sometimes drive Adrian M. Fenty to feel as confused as Faye Dunaway in the movie “Chinatown.” But, one thing is clear — the mayor can’t appoint anyone to a political office. That doesn’t mean there isn’t Rod Blagojevich-like action inside City Hall. Back-scratching and back-scrubbing occur and occasionally stink up the place. Consider Councilman Jim Graham’s proposed use of fire department recruits for his holiday...

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Craziness in D.C.

What’s up with D.C. Council member Jim Graham? The Examiner’s Scott McCabe reported this week that the Ward 1 legislator wants to use fire department recruits as waitstaff, serving drinks and cake at his holiday bash. Some people worry that the recruits might miss critical training. They should be more concerned about the standard being set. “This is not something we sought. It was something that was offered,” Graham said Tuesday during a telephone interview with me. “I am relying on the judgment of [Fire] Chief [Dennis] Rubin, who made this offer. “I don’t want this controversy,” added Graham. Too late. What’s more, Graham’s...

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Baby steps at UDC

When Allen Sessoms, president of the University of the District of Columbia, arrived in the city, he made a bunch of promises. Everyone hoped he could deliver. A string of other executives, with equal flair, did nothing but produce controversy. Not that Sessoms isn’t controversial. Appointed just this fall, he already has riled the faculty senate by abolishing it, without warning, and creating a new, handpicked leadership group. He has had a spat with schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee over visits he made to city schools, according to sources. And there seems to be a disagreement developing over the speed at which he is attempting to implement plans for a community college. Brookings...

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At D.C.’s tax office, it’s the culture

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray says the report on the legislature’s investigation into the $50 million embezzlement by Harriette Walters and others at the Office of Tax and Revenue will be released “somewhere around December 16.” It’s unclear what William R. McLucas, the attorney at Wilmer Hale law firm who conducted the inquiry, discovered. But a letter dated Sept. 8 to Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy G. Lynch from A. Scott Bolden, on behalf of his client Diane Gustus, hints at what McLucas’ report might reveal about how the criminal enterprise went undetected for decades. Bolden, managing partner at Reed Smith, called Gustus “unsophisticated,...

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The return of intimacy

I saw it briefly, just after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Americans removed the walls between them. They were no longer strangers. A terrible thing had happened on our shores, to our fellow citizens. We grieved together and prayed together for a safer future. But that intimacy — that of a circle of loving friends, neighbors and families — dissipated as the anthrax letters made us fearful, terrorist profiling made everyone seem suspect, and the war became the vision that filled our eyes, pained our hearts and eventually fractured the consensus of the nation. Now I think that societal intimacy may be returning. I could be wrong; maybe it’s just the start of the Christmas...

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Misdirected Thanksgiving

So, you’re sitting at your computer. You remember the sights and smells of holidays past: Seafood gumbo cooking in the pot; collard greens that almost melt in your mouth; cornbread stuffing; the baked Virginia ham topped with pineapple, which wasn’t your favorite. You never took to pork. The thing you wish for most each year is your grandmother’s stuffed squid. No one in the family knows how to make it. You regret that you didn’t ask her for the recipe while she was alive, burning up the kitchen and making it nearly impossible for anyone to pull away from the table. You miss those days; the old folks — Rose, Harold, Norma. Claudia and the others — are...

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A fair fight in Washington

Now that’s what I'm talking about. I love a good fight. The D.C. Republican Committee has picked one with the Board of Elections and Ethics. The D.C. Court of Appeals likely will be the next venue for the struggle. Last Monday, in this space, I urged the DCRC to “stand up and fight” for its place on the political scene. By week’s end, the DCRC had filed a challenge with the BOEE, hoping to prevent the certification of the Nov. 4 election of Michael Brown as winner of one of the two at-large D.C. Council races. The DCRC claimed that allowing Brown to be seated violates the Home Rule Charter, which provides that “at no time shall there be more than three...

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Spendthrifts in the District

I don’t envy D.C. Council members Jack Evans and David Catania. Though it’s clear they don’t enjoy the role, the two are fast becoming voices of fiscal restraint. Sometimes, however, even they acquiesce to colleagues’ pleas and special constituents’ demands. That happened earlier this week, when despite their better judgment, they supported legislation introduced by Ward 8’s Marion Barry ensuring at least $30 million is allocated for the Housing Production Trust Fund. “This is going to be at the expense of spending money on something else,” warned Evans. “This is not the season of a chicken in every pot. We need to be straight with...

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D.C. Republicans need a lifeline

If the national Republican Party has a cold, the local D.C. Republican Committee has pneumonia and is on life support. Sen. John McCain’s presidential defeat and vanishing congressional seats have instigated hand-wringing among conservatives across the country and prayers for a 2010 or 2012 recovery. Ross Douthat, the co-author with Reihan Salam of “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream,” sees the party’s potential revival in possible gaffes or debacles of President-elect Barack Obama’s administration. “The [national] Republican Party has reached a point where it has to hope and pray that contingencies...

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Botched DC elections should draw penalty

In baseball, three strikes send a player back to the dugout. In the criminal justice system, it could land an individual in jail for life. Today at a D.C. Council roundtable, residents may learn the penalty for officials at the Board of Elections and Ethics who botched, in varying degrees, three elections. The first problem came during the February presidential preference primary. After witnessing record numbers of voters coming to the polls in other states, BOEE officials in the District failed to provide sufficient ballots at several precincts, creating utter chaos. Then, in the September primary, which focused on local political offices, phantom votes appeared and disappeared; BOEE...

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D.C.’s endless campaign season

There's much to admire about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty: his sense of urgency in serving District residents; his unwillingness to accept the status quo; his sense of outrage when a worker absolutely fails at his or her job; and his political ferocity. The latter may not sit well with some people. But politics is a tough game. If you're going to play it, you can't be a wimp. Lots of folks think highly of the mayor. Private polls indicate his favorability rating is over 70 percent. That's remarkable given some of the problems that have plagued his young administration: the deaths of several children, the summer jobs program debacle, and an uptick in violent crime. Those are a sampling of the...

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Dorothy Brizill: D.C.’s own watchdog

Dorothy Brizill tools around in her SmartCar. A copy of the District municipal code sits in the rear along with a listing of the city’s 143 precincts. Asterisks appear near some; those are the ones she intends to visit. I’m along for the ride. Founder of DC Watch, a government watchdog organization, Brizill pushed the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to establish a hot line. She developed a survey and posted it on her organization’s Web site. She wants firsthand information from citizens about what they see at the polling places: Are there sufficient ballots; are the electronic machines working; and is there sufficient staff. “What I want to do is go beyond a...

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Mara and Long for Council

Sometimes, during meetings of the D.C. Council, it seems like someone has turned the clock back to the 1970s. I half-expect that at any moment one or all of the 13 members will start humming “The Way We Were.” That sense of living in the past is not a function of age — although several members are over 50 years old. Rather, it comes from the fact that the council’s politics and public policies often are anchored in the later part of the 20th century. The members seem tethered to old-world courtesies. They whine incessantly about perceived slights and violations of process. Atmospherics and stagecraft rule — while issues affecting the quality of life for...

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Fenty wants vote on UDC nominees

Unlike most public officials who seek privacy, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty prefers venues like Mocha Grind on 14th Street NW, where ordinary residents often interrupt his meetings. While most executives seek to avoid rejection by the legislature of their appointees, he pushes forward without regard for potentially negative political outcomes. Consider his insistence that the D.C. Council hold hearings on his nominees to the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia. “For everybody’s benefit, there should be hearings. I don’t believe [nominees] should be summarily dismissed,” he says, days after the council passed emergency legislation extending the...

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Redemption song: Can former Fannie executives carry a tune?

He waited for someone to sit next to him. But the chairs around him were empty, as if he were quarantined. Franklin Raines, the former chief executive officer of the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has become a “pariah,” said one person attending the same meeting. James Johnson — Raines’ predecessor at Fannie Mae — also is an outcast. When Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama chose Johnson to serve on his vice presidential search committee, the choice created a firestorm of criticism. Johnson removed himself from the committee. Critics say Johnson and Raines played key roles in Fannie Mae’s decline. They say the duo and the corporation...

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Child support is about more than money

The amount is stunning: $4.5 billion. That’s the total owed in child support by parents — fathers and mothers — in the Washington metropolitan area. By contrast, the uncollected payments for the region’s children are only $1 billion shy of the District’s local budget for fiscal 2009. The arrears amount in Maryland — nearly $1.6 billion — is greater than its current $350 million shortfall. States across the country have approved aggressive measures to collect money from “deadbeat” parents. Some laws make it possible to garnish paychecks. Others allow for revocation of licenses. More egregious violators can be thrown in jail. But, The...

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Legislative ambitions

It’s a fabulous fall morning in the District — the kind that invites hope. Mark Long, an independent candidate bidding for one of two at-large seats on the D.C. Council, is waxing optimistically about his aspirations and changing the city’s political and bureaucratic cultures. “I’m running to be a legislator. I’m not running to be junior mayor,” the 41-year-old native Washingtonian tells me. That’s important. The not-so-secret political imaginings of incumbent At-Large Council member Kwame Brown and so-called “independent Democrat” Michael Brown revolve around the mayoral suite. Their council bids are preludes to their run to...

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Lost in translation

Recently, I wrote in this space about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s nominees to the University of the District of Columbia Board of Trustees. The qualifications of the six individuals — William Keating III, Sean N. Gough, George T. Simpson, Marcus T. Ellis, Clarence Labor Jr. and Marvin Lee — gave me great pause. Some people who read that column called me expressing their surprise about my support for the current crew of trustees. What happened to reform? I was baffled by their confusion. I’m a straight talker — though I don’t tool around in a bus with those words in bold black letters on its side. Clearly something must have been lost in their...

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DCPS Needs tools to compete

When education choice first gained credibility and popularity, the notion was that traditional public schools, charter schools and private schools using vouchers would compete, thereby instigating reform and inspiring innovation. The federal No Child Left Behind legislation would aid the process, setting universal academic standards. Today, education choice is off track. The District is testimony to this misdirection. Everyone hailed Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and the D.C. Council last year for putting the entire education apparatus in the hands of the executive. That decision came nearly a decade after the District established charter schools. Among other things, principals in those...

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Channeling Connecticut in D.C.

A Democrat loses his party’s primary. He then runs as an independent — against the party’s official nominee. That ploy proves effective, and incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman returns to the U.S. Congress. Interestingly, some District politicos hope to channel Connecticut — if not the senator. At-large D.C. Council member Carol Schwartz lost her party’s primary. She subsequently announced a write-in campaign, setting her against her party’s nominee, Patrick Mara, and five other candidates. Not unlike Lieberman, she hopes popularity and name recognition pushes her to victory in November. Schwartz is no Lieberman. The District is no...

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Rolling down the river

Like most people, in my youth, I saw the world as filled only with pleasures. Age, coupled with knowledge, clarified that vision. There’s always a challenge waiting around the next corner. The United States certainly has traveled its own obstacle course; the credit and Wall Street crises are the latest hindrances. Recently, while reflecting on two flatboat trips taken by Ronald Drake, I was reminded of America’s difficult history and how it has moved ahead even when some may have thought the country doomed. A former Indiana state legislator and District lawyer best known for his fearless and tireless defense of children with special needs, Drake decided in 2006 to build a...

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Budget cutting: Knives and scalpels

District elected officials, faced with a $131 million revenue shortfall, don’t have the luxury of waiting to see what action Congress ultimately takes to rescue Wall Street. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and the D.C. Council are already examining ways to close the gap. “I’m sure council members will consider all spending and revenue [enhancement] possibilities,” says Eric Goulet, the council’s budget director. He’s preparing a list that includes recurring spending initiatives inserted by legislators in the fiscal 2009 budget. It’s not clear whether that includes the $62 million in earmarks for pet organizations like Ford’s Theatre. “But, the...

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D.C.'s no place for Pollyana

The District’s chief financial officer, Natwar Gandhi, morphed last week into Pollyanna. A man who riles elected officials with his conservative estimates presented news of a projected $131 million shortfall and a slide in value of District assets as if those events were nothing to worry about. “I think it can be managed,” he said. “The market will stabilize after massive federal investments.” It’s true the shortfall is minor in an overall $5.5 billion budget. But, when contextualized within the national reality — failure of more than a dozen banks, decline in value of personal and municipal investments, the rise in unemployment, and tightening of...

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Cheerleaders for UDC

The University of the District of Columbia can’t catch a break. Handicapped by flawed leadership, deplorable management, inadequate resources and political shenanigans, it’s a tragicomedy. Still, some people continue to believe in its potential. They sought to persuade Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray to include the university in the city’s education reform agenda. They pleaded for a new president with gravitas and management acumen. They urged the appointment of a stronger board of trustees. This summer, Allen Sessoms became UDC’s president, and the mayor nominated six individuals to replace current members. Don’t get too...

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Going to the mattresses, maybe

A friend is reiterating his point: The stock market is nothing more than an elaborate Ponzi scheme that if perpetrated by ordinary citizens would be cause to send the whole bunch to jail. But investment banks and corporations go untouched. You can’t explain the difference; he’s delivering a full-throated rant. At home, some neighbors stop you to offer their two cents about the financial crisis, the broad elements of which even you, without a degree in economics, saw several weeks earlier as similar to those that led to the 1929 crash. The proposal to create an entity like the Resolution Trust Corporation that rescued the savings and loan industry has enraged these working and...

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Close D.C.’s Franklin shelter now

It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t world for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. If he does nothing to help homeless people, he catches grief from activists and legislators. As soon as he starts moving men from a downtown shelter and into permanent housing, D.C. Council members slap on restraints. Pledging since April to close the Franklin School shelter at 13 and K streets NW by Oct. 1, Fenty recently began placing some of its occupants in government-subsidized apartments scattered throughout the city. The first group to move has been those who have lived in the shelter for two or more years. (Wait. I thought the city was providing “emergency, temporary” shelter.) “The idea is to...

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Organizers ‘R’ us

Jim Dickson and I faced the door of the house in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. He had knocked at the homes of complete strangers many times before. Not me; I was in foreign territory. I had arrived in the city a few months earlier. Before then, I was in Jackson, Miss., where I worked as a community organizer with Operation Shoestring. The Methodist Church-based program helped low-income residents. I was successful — organizing the first citywide rent strike, for example. But mostly I worked on instinct. Bert DeLeeuw, head of the Movement for Economic Justice, believed I had potential and sent me to San Francisco for formal training. There, I learned the Saul...

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Saying farewell to local playwright Oni Faida Lampley

When the telephone call came, Joy Jones was “surprised and thrilled.” She had already adapted her award-winning book “Tambourine Moon” for stage. Now, Oni Faida Lampley, a critically acclaimed actress and playwright, wanted to provide her own interpretation. “She’s the kind of artist I admired. I knew it would be in good hands,” recalls Jones, a native Washingtonian. The two women first met at a D.C. Public Schools-sponsored adult education program. Their paths crossed again at the Black Women Playwrights’ staging of the “The Dark Kalamazoo.” “It was interesting seeing that first draft, and then seeing it [again at Woolly...

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Warning signs for Mayor Fenty

A pattern of overspending in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration has some residents feeling as if they are witnessing reruns of the 1990s, when Sharon Pratt Kelly ran the city. A repeat of a great performance is pleasurable. I can watch that marvelous Vincent D’Onofrio of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” all day long. His character, Detective Goren, is good-looking, smart and quirky. That combination slays me. But a replay of ineffective fiscal management — like that during Kelly’s tenure, which included the creation of a fifth-quarter tax year — brings promises of unnecessary civic sacrifices and heartburn. City Administrator Dan Tangherlini...

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Killing Them Quietly

John Cloud is seconds from losing it. The doublespeak he’s getting from John Thomas, head of the Urban Forestry Administration at the D.C. Department of Transportation, is the kind that makes citizens crazy. The Kalorama resident recently learned that two heritage oak trees were chopped down by the UFA in his neighborhood park at Columbia Road and 19th Street NW. Standing in the rain, he is demanding Thomas and his arborist explain their actions. “You cut down two trees that were alive and didn’t cut down the tree that has been dead for a year,” Cloud says. The trees were removed without notice, stunning Cloud, D.C. Council member Jim Graham and Department of...

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Republican slugfest in DC

Ten minutes after the six o'clock start time of the Fair Budget Coalition's At-large D.C. Council candidates' forum, Statehood-Green Party's David Schwartzman is the only pol present. Eventually, Republican incumbent Carol Schwartz strolls in with an entourage of yellow T-shirt-wearing supporters. Incumbent Democrat Kwame Brown and Republican challenger Patrick Mara never arrive. Their name signs sit on a conference table, whispering that issues like elimination of poverty, regressive tax structures, and healthcare weren't important to them. “The issues are very important,” counters Mara, days after the forum. But, there probably were few Republicans there. “I have to be...

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No such thing as undercover in D.C.

When the first one passed, you ignored what you saw. By the time you were confronted with the fourth woman's bra screaming, “Look at me,” it was hard to pretend your eyes weren't being assaulted. It wasn't simply a strap slipping out. Entire bras--hooks, eyes and labels--made their presence known from the top of sundresses and camisoles. Worse, the color of the bras rarely matched the outerwear. The exhibitionists weren't just young and uninformed; they appeared to cover the range of ages and socio-economic classes. You confess to thumbing through the pages of Vogue, Essence and other publications where women routinely are told what to buy-without regard for whether an outfit...

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Jahi impresses in Ward 4

Baruti Jahi stands jacketless, with a white shirt and red tie, outside the building where tonight’s candidates forum is being held. He smiles and shakes hands with each person. He says he spends as much as six hours a day knocking on doors, making his case to Ward 4 residents likely to vote in the September Democratic Primary. “I’ve always wanted to be a public servant. It’s a dream,” says Jahi, a Howard University graduate who left NASA to run for the D.C. Council. Jahi faces Paul Montague, Malik Mendenhall-Johnson and incumbent Muriel Bowser, who pushed back more than a dozen challengers to win last year’s special election to complete the unexpired...

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Renters rule in the District

Jim McGrath stands at the front of the sanctuary of Foundry United Methodist Church at 16th and P streets NW. Dressed in a summer suit, yellow shirt and tie, he has brought together portions of his TENAC flock many times before. This August evening, about 100 members of the D.C. Tenants Advocacy Coalition have convened to hear political candidates confess their love and devotion. Pssst. Here’s one of the best-kept secret in the nation’s capital: More than 60 percent of District residents are renters — mostly apartment dwellers. In Ward 2 alone, where Foundry is located and which, for more than a decade, has been quite ably represented by Councilman Jack Evans, at least 70...

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Safety, sanity: Slip sliding away

Save us from handwringers, panderers, preservers of ineffective public policy and the American Civil Liberties Union. They all want to play dodgeball and hopscotch with criminals. They haven’t seen a thug they didn’t want to "give some love" — never mind that thug may have just robbed an old lady or shot a kid.Even after District leaders’ declaration of a crime emergency, people continue to be killed or physically harmed. Youth under 16, facing a 10 p.m. curfew, still haunt the streets at ungodly hours looking for their next thrill......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Governing begins

Jim Gibson, the former head of the D.C. Agenda, and others predicted in 1994 that Marion Barry could be elected mayor but would be unable to govern. Barry’s tainted past, the city’s fiscal woes, and a Congress with no patience for the executive’s infamous shenanigans collaborated to deny him a full political resurrection.D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty, who defeated Council Chairman LindaCropp to win the Democratic mayoral nomination, doesn’t carry Barry’s burdens. Still, there are questions about whether he will be able to govern.He faces forces similar to those Anthony......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Changing of the guard in Washington

D.C. Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian Fenty has some employees scrambling for cover. Others, including Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, are feeling the love. Former managers, such as Dan Tangherlini, are being zealously courted.In Ward 4, the line of council wannabes is forming. Willie Flowers, Charles Gaither, Doug Sloan, Muriel Bowser and Michael "I’m-gonna-be-mayor" Brown are hoping for Fenty’s blessing. But Bowser’s the one. Fenty says she’d be a good legislator, but he won’t make any endorsement until after the general election.Meanwhile, Mayor Anthony Williams is creating his own storm. With......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Bobb announces his candidacy for D.C. school board president

Right at the top of the agenda for the majority of residents — even those without children — is the transformation of public education in the District. That’s been an unrealized goal for more than a decade.In the mid-1990s, the financial control board stripped the school board of its power and installed as Superintendent Julius Becton, a retired army general. Arlene Ackerman came next, followed by Paul Vance and Elfreda Massie. Remember her and that huge bonus she received — for nothing? Two years ago, without the congressionally appointed panel,......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Getting lost in the mayoral race

The D.C. mayor’s race feels like Newark, N.J., in 2002. Then, Sharpe James, the incumbent mayor, faced Corey Booker, a bright, savvy, 30-something councilman. Not to be outdone by someone he believed hadn’t paid his dues, James threw at Booker the entire political establishment — labor unions, the business community and civil rights leaders who had been feeding at the public trough since the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The real mudslinging came in Act 3, when James deliberately distorted Booker’s record and accused him of, among......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Mayoral race pushes city to move forward into the 21st century

This mayoral race provides the first authentic challenge to District voters' decision in 1998 to step away from "old guard, race-based politics" practiced by Marion Barry and his acolytes. The candidates voters faced back then included several D.C. Council members, most notably Ward 7’s Kevin Chavous. He was poised to become mayor after Barry declined to run for reelection. But citizens concluded that electing Chavous would mean more of the same. So, they reached for Anthony Williams–then the city’s chief financial officer. A nerdy guy satisfied with balance sheets,......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: The right moves, the right vision

The contentious D.C. mayor’s race is receiving most of the attention, but the council and congressional contests aren’t slouching toward irrelevancy. The campaigns to replace incumbents or retiring members have been pure political feasts. The pickings are finest in the competition for council chairman. Two remarkable people — Ward 7’s Vincent Gray and Ward 3’s Kathy Patterson — are vying to lead the legislature. I wish they weren’t opposing each other; both have been consequential players in constructing a new D.C. Gray is known best for his advocacy on behalf......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Don’t forget: It’s about the best interest of the city

The collateral noise being heard in this final stretch to the District primary election is deafening, distracting and wholly disingenuous. Despite major media endorsements, including from the editorial board of this paper, mayoral front-runner Adrian Fenty continues to be accused by his chief opponent of being inattentive and reckless — ludicrous and laughable charges. In the council chairman’s race, some critics have called contender Kathy Patterson, a shrew, a harridan or far, far worse. The line must be drawn. When a woman displays some of the same......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Here’s to your health care

Proposals to improve District government health care services have been like kudzu. D.C. General Hospital was shuttered by the control board, which advocated the creation of a HealthCare Alliance. This insurance program for the poor and working class, supported by Mayor Anthony Williams, got off to a rocky start, but is faring better.The closure of D.C. General was celebrated and cursed. The whiners, along with Howard University, pushed a proposal to create a National Capital Medical Center. That mushroomed into a $400 million plan to construct a 250-bed monstrosity, operated......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Dan Tangherlini: The wizard’s assistant

Folks who believe Adrian Fenty a wizard, capable of changing the District government into some warm and fuzzy steel bullet, cutting through an unresponsive corporation with a wave of his BlackBerry, don’t understand the contradiction of their desires. They certainly don’t understand the city’s entrenched, bloated and abusive bureaucracy.Fenty, who swept the Democratic primary the way former Mayor Sharon Pratt (then-Dixon) promised to broom the government, may be able to do many things. But the radical changes required in the District will not happen swiftly, or magically — even with......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: A pox on all their houses

Some want the private sector in charge of D.C. Public Schools’ multibillion-dollar modernization fund — not Superintendent Clifford Janey. Others want the D.C. Office of Property Management to handle routine maintenance. Security already is under the Metropolitan Police Department.Since his mayoral primary victory, D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty has been talking education takeover. Next week, he leaves for New York to scope out reforms implemented under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.Outgoing D.C. Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz sees disaster writ large. During the control board era, the Army Corps......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: A school takeover: More than widgets and lazy managers

D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty can look at today’s report from the State Education Office and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to understand a takeover of D.C. Public Schools means more than ensuring widgets are ordered, the bathrooms are cleaned and textbooks arrive on time. It certainly extends beyond whether the superintendent is supervised by the D.C Board of Education or a deputy mayor. The Bridgespan Group, working at the behest of the SEO and the Gates Foundation, looked at 4,300 ninth-grade students in the 2001-02 school year. Based......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Parking lessons from the D.C. Council

Folks tuning into last week’s D.C. Council session received a lesson in how not to conduct government business and how to imperil public funds. They also were treated to antics rivaling an Amos ‘n’ Andy/Three Stooges movie. Where is Moe when you needhim? How hard is it, really, to choose and fund a parking plan?Let’s go the clips: Mayor Anthony Williams, the council and the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission approved a legal agreement with Major League Baseball to provide 1,225 parking spaces by opening day 2008. To build underground......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: In D.C. public schools, there is nothing left to lose

Raise your hand if you’re fed up.Each day, D.C. Public Schools officials find new ways to display their incompetence and disregard for children.You’d think declining student test scores, first-quarter budget cuts affecting classroom instruction, and a facilities improvement plan that will see many of us collecting Social Security before it’s completed would be enough. Now, The Examiner’s Michael Neibauer reports that young professionals promised education stipends for working in DCPS have yet to receive their money. Central office administrators cite budget pressures. What pressures? DCPS has a $1.5 billion......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: For love of children

Initially, I thought to join others who will analyze every minute detail of Tuesday’s election: What should Washingtonians expect in the era of Mayor Adrian Fenty? How will he respond to estimates that the District may enter fiscal 2008 with a $200 million gap between spending and revenues? (I’m a pig in slop when it comes to this kind of stuff.)But, on the road to this post-election column, I met about 20 girls at the Hyde Leadership Academy in Northeast — one of the city’s best charter schools. They touched......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Williams comes back to Earth on District hospital proposal

D.C. MayorAnthony Williams finally said on the record what he has hinted for weeks: Speaking to a congressional committee and The Examiner’s Michael Neibauer, the mayor declared that declining D.C. Council support and the "fragility" of another hospital have forced him to consider alternatives to the 250-bed, $400 million National Capital Medical Center as jointly proposed by Howard University and his administration.Last month, Williams was dancing on a hot wire, asserting support during press briefings for the project but reminding everyone that a new hospital on the site of D.C.......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: The case of the disappearing neighborhood

Stephen Trachtenberg’s announcement that he is stepping down next year as president of The George Washington University was sweet for Foggy Bottom residents. For years, they have defended their community against his boundless ambition.Under his tenure, the school masqueraded as an educational institution but behaved like an insatiable real estate developer, swallowing whole parts of the West End, including hotels, businesses and once-private apartment buildings. Now, it wants the D.C. Zoning Commission to approve a new campus plan, which includes 1.73 million square feet of commercial development — office buildings......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Success becomes him

Joshua Bolten’s appointment as White House chief of staff is President George W. Bush’s Hail Mary pass in a game where the chief executive’s poll numbers are so low, Democrats are already choosing inaugural outfits.Those who know Bolten tell Democrats, "Not so fast." And don’t forget the untethered Karl Rove. Help us!Bolten may not be the political tiger Rove is. But he is no slouch. As the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bolten shook things up and improved the agency, if not the deficit. What few know......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Rolling over on renters

D.C. Council members and apartment owners were singing their own praise-hymns earlier this week after the legislature approved on first vote the Rent Control Reform Amendment Act of 2006. But tenants shouldn’t dance to the music coming from the John A. Wilson Building.The bill passed by the council abolishes rent ceilings. That is the death knell for rent control. Its death will be incremental — but certain. Rent ceilings, coupled with restrictions on how often and how much landlords could increase rents charged in the District, were the linchpins of......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: The D.C. Council is finding education in a political season

Like a dying sinner facing the pearly gates, the D.C. Council suddenly has found religion. Its conversion to rabid education advocate is spectacular. Wonder if it has anything to do with Sept. 12?First, the council approved a school modernization plan that taps $100 million in sales tax revenues for the next 10 years — this in addition to the D.C. Public Schools’ annual capital improvement budget.On the campaign trail, members who, only a few years ago, fought Mayor Anthony Williams about preserving an elected D.C. Board of Education, now want......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Creating a lean, muscular education machine

Predictably, D.C. Superintendent Clifford Janey is delaying the release of his master facilities plan until later this year. The plan was to have been made public last month. Meanwhile, the D.C. Board of Education launches its series of public hearings on Janey’s proposal to close or consolidate this summer a puny number of the system’s 144 buildings. And outgoing board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz last week on WAMU’s "D.C. Politics Hour" endorsed the Rev. Carolyn Graham to replace her. Graham’s tenure as deputy mayor for children youth families and elders......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: All in the family: Nepotism costly for District taxpayers

Talk about a day late and a dollar short: D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols took three years to report on violations of personnel laws, allegations of nepotism and misappropriation of funds inside the office of the chief technology officer.Nichols’ audit, launched after The Barras Report published a series of investigative stories about Chief Technology Officer Suzanne Peck in 2002, including the hiring of Kim and Pedro Agosto — a husband-and-wife team — was released last week.The audit concluded that hiring violated personnel laws; that the duo received payments for relocation expenses......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: The best is yet to come ... maybe

There is more urgency behind preparations for an elusive bird flu pandemic than reforming the D.C. Public Schools. District leaders are all chatter, "compacts" and caution, as tens of thousands of children are destined to poverty, unable to compete in their own country or the larger world.Years ago, when Mayor Anthony Williams proposed following the Chicago and Boston model of an executive takeover of public schools, residents and D.C. Council members declared their priority: preserving an antiquated, ineffective governance structure. Radically altering DCPS was set aside in favor of politically......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: I’m not all bitter pills and castor oil

While listening to the radio show she produces, Tara Boyle says one of her relatives asked, "So tell me about Jonetta; what does she like?"Boyle laughs, recounting her reply: "[Jonetta’s] having a good day today — she hasn’t called for anyone’s resignation."It’s true: I don’t suffer fools or incompetents. It’s cruel and unusual punishment. In recent weeks, I’ve called for the resignation of Kimberley Flowers, director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, and her team of imported, challenged managers. They’re making a mess of an agency that began......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Orange juice diluted

You think, if there was one candidate last year with contender status exploring the mayoral landscape that Anthony Williams eventually would abandon, Vincent Orange was the man.The Ward 5 D.C. Council member had an impressive record of delivering to his constituents. Yes, you know the executive branch drops off the bags of groceries; the council knows the route and may suggest a change or two. Ultimately, however, the prime responsibility falls to the mayor and his minions. But Orange had been a more active player than many of his wannabe......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Michael Brown lacks real vision for D.C.

If a warm smile and a high charisma quotient were all that were needed to be the next mayor of Washington, you think Michael Brown would be topping polls and running to the bank with pockets overflowing with cash. Instead, he’s near bottom in the five-contender lineup. You’re not surprised. He and his campaign operation have lived up to your predictions. But, those years on the city’s Boxing Commissionhave taught Brown a thing or two about hanging on the ropes, ignoring the busted nose, cut above the eye and managing......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Picking up where departing Mayor Williams leaves off

The disarray of the District’s Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration; the rabid incompetence at agencies like the Fire Department/Emergency Medical Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation; and the culture of municipal narcissism indicate Mayor Anthony Williams has made little more than cosmetic changes to the internal workings of government.Let us praise him for improving the overall image of the city nationally and internationally, managing the District’s fiscal resources and bringing economic vitality to communities that had never known it. Those neighborhoods would not have experienced revitalization were......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: No independence celebration here

You didn't sing the National Anthem, or fly the flag, or even light a firecracker. This Fourth of July celebration went on without you. Sure, you appreciate being an American. Growing up, you recited the Pledge of Allegiance and studied the country's history: the revolt against British rule, the Declaration of Independence. Still, it was difficult in the segregated south to believe any of it applied to you. So your family, like others on Mexico Street in New Orleans, took the day to eat hot dogs, potato salad, chocolate......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Residents expose leadership failures, save democracy again

When officials forget their sworn oath that obliges them "to protect and defend the laws of the District of Columbia," the results can be disastrous. During the past several weeks, a gang of thugs converged on the nation’s capital to get a slots gambling initiative on the ballot for the November General Election. They violated city laws and intimidated residents with impunity. All of this is as old as polyester bell-bottoms. Two years ago, a crew from California and Florida did the same thing. The D.C. Board of Elections and......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Marie Johns, she could have been a D.C. Council contender

Marie Johns should have taken the advice offered to her early in the mayoral campaign: Shoot a little lower — maybe the at-large seat on the D.C. Council. But as a retired president of a major telecommunications company, she couldn’t clip her ambition. She couldn’t imagine that she hadn’t won friends in all the right places. Didn’t she receive an award from the Greater Washington Board of Trade? Hadn’t she helped the D.C. Chamber of Commerce reconstruct its board-of-trade wannabe marquee into its own unique banner with......

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Jonetta Rose Barras: Adrian Fenty: The best choice for D.C. mayor

You remember when Adrian Fenty announced his bid for mayor. You brought out your best hammer and wailed: Who is this upstart just elected to a second term on the D.C. Council? He’s still asking for directions to the bathrooms. His chutzpah is off the chart. His constituents may consider him a near-God. But you are no idolater. Then you leaned toward Vincent Orange. But he sabotaged his effort. Linda Cropp entered the fray as producer of "The Barry Administration Redux," replete with disingenuous proposals like taking control of failing......

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Kwame Brown: Safe...almost

How did Kwame Brown land in the catbird seat? The freshman at-large D.C. Council member is up for re-election. A Democrat, he doesn’t face an opponent in the September primary. It isn’t like he hasn’t made mistakes; hasn’t disappointed a few of his friends; and hasn’t made enemies. Brown is still pretty green — just attend a meeting of his Committee on Economic Development. You know immediately there are things he doesn’t fully understand and the acronym he most often repeats, to my and others’ frustration, is LSDBE — local, small, disadvantaged, business enterprise, which translates into minority business — except when Brown is...

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Turning off the spigot in Washington

“The District wants to work with organizations that are professional and have the capacity to deliver,” Neil Albert, deputy mayor for economic development, said after news broke that the administration had threatened to end its relationship with the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) and the East of the River Development Corporation (EREDC), unless the groups finished government-supported projects and resolved complaints from homebuyers. “The District wants no role with mediocre organizations,” Albert added. Hallelujah! That the two organizations survived more than a decade is testament to the waste and abuse that have been allowed to thrive in...

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