Nickles orders contracts sent to council
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
October 26, 2009
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| D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has ordered the Fenty administration to submit all contracts that exceed $1 million to the D.C. Council for review, rejecting an attempt to funnel more than a dozen deals through an independent agency. (Andrew Harnik/Examiner) |
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has ordered the Fenty administration to submit all contracts that exceed $1 million to the D.C. Council for review, rejecting an attempt to funnel more than a dozen deals through an independent agency.
In a letter Friday to the interim executive director of the D.C. Housing Authority and her general counsel, Nickles said DCHA "must abide" by a legislative opinion issued in 1996 by his predecessor: that no contract in excess of $1 million issued by an executive agency, independent or otherwise, could be approved without legislative consent.
"The opinion concluded that all Council-created executive instrumentalities are part of the District government and subject to provisions of the Home Rule Act," Nickles wrote. "It follows that DCHA, as part of the District government, must submit its covered contracts for Council review."
Charles Ruff, D.C.'s corporation counsel in the mid-1990s, wrote the formal opinion.
"A governmental entity enjoys no inherent freedom from executive or legislative control in particular areas, such as budgeting or contracting, solely because of its status as an independent agency," Ruff wrote April 16, 1996, to Charlotte Brookins-Hudson, the D.C. Council's general counsel.
Brookins-Hudson had sought Ruff's opinion regarding contracts issued by the executive through the Washington Convention Center Authority. The Office of the Corporation Counsel preceded the District's Office of the Attorney General.
The issue of procurement authority has come full circle. The Housing Authority recently awarded more than $72 million in contracts to a pair of companies with ties to Mayor Adrian Fenty, none of which were ever seen by the council.
Banneker Ventures LLC is the construction manager for at least a dozen parks and recreation contracts, 10 of which exceed $1 million. Banneker has ties to Fenty friend and former fraternity brother Sinclair Skinner.
RBK Landscaping and Construction is the general contractor for two projects -- the Chevy Chase and the Barry Farm recreation centers. RBK is owned by Keith Lomax, a Fenty friend who used to drive the mayor around town in a D.C.-owned Lincoln Navigator.
Four council members have scheduled an Oct. 30 joint oversight hearing into the contracts. Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr., chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee, said Friday that council members have developed several emergency resolutions "to cut this off or to even put a stop on work being done." The contracting and procurement process was ignored, he said, in favor of "political patronage." "Just the whole spectrum of accountability, a system of checks and balances, there's this huge question mark in my mind," Thomas said.
