Fenty aides bypass hearing on schools, vexing D.C. Council
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
July 14, 2008
WASHINGTON — The D.C. Council, a week away from its summer recess, is still lacking critical information about expensive school modernization plans, infuriating members who assert the Fenty administration is fixing education facilities slapdash.
The council is slated to vote Tuesday on nearly $60 million in school modernization contracts. A hearing Friday that might have cleared up confusion about those deals and others was paralyzed, to the Council’s dismay, because no member of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s team was available or able to testify.
Chairman Vincent Gray recessed the public round table with the intent of reconvening later this week.
Allen Lew, executive director of the Office of Public Education Facilities Management, came down with laryngitis. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee left the meeting before being called to attend a previously scheduled event. And Gray said Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso didn’t even acknowledge the invitation to appear.
"He’s paid a public salary to be the deputy mayor for education, and the deputy mayor for education ought to be here," Gray said of Reinoso. "If he doesn’t want to address these issues, then he shouldn’t be the deputy mayor for education."
Fenty spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the mayor sends aides to council hearings "who are responsible for the hearing subject matter on a day-to-day basis."
Led by Gray, the council has been slow to approve $124.6 million in reprogrammings and tens of millions in construction contracts sought by Fenty and Lew to facilitate summer school renovations. The work includes basic repairs and major overhauls, notably the preparation of 13 schools to handle an initial population of pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Lew has proposed defunding 22 school projects in order to fund a dozen others.
The council goes into summer hiatus this week, with several contracts and reprogrammings still to be approved. Too many questions remain unanswered, Gray and colleagues said, on policy, staffing, leadership and other points. It is unclear what will happen Tuesday.
"We’re groping around in the dark, and it’s really not acceptable," said Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh.
Fenty’s recent education-related decisions and "chaotic contracting," Gray said, have "proven vexing" to virtually everybody. The council is being asked to approve "massive policy changes," he said, yet there appears to be "no comprehensive model or vision," and "therefore I have become wary of spending so much money to implement them."
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com
