Editorial: Changes needed on D.C. Council

Poll worker Bernadine Woody reads her book at a polling place in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008. Voters were trickling in to the polls Tuesday for a statewide Nevada primary that drew little competition in all but a few contests and had election officials predicting record-low turnout. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Experience vs. change is the major theme of this year’s presidential race, and the choice D.C. voters have as they cast ballots in today’s primary. Here are The Examiner’s endorsements:

At-large: Patrick Mara

With Kwame Brown, D-at large, running unopposed, the citywide focus is on the at-large seat occupied by Carol Schwartz, the council’s lone Republican. A self-professed liberal on social issues, Schwartz stoutly defends her four terms as a conservative watchdog of the public purse.

But challenger Patrick Mara, a 32-year-old government relations manager, claims that Schwartz is really a Democrat in disguise - which explains her popularity in a city with only 7 percent registered Republicans. Mara upped the ante this year by taking the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to raise taxes in a tax-happy city perilously close to hitting its credit limit. Although Schwartz’s decades of service are substantial, she has never drawn such a clear and necessary line in the fiscal sand.

Ward 2: Cary Silverman

Jack Evans, the powerful chairman of the Council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, recently approved nearly $700 million in off-the-balance-sheet revenue bonds despite Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi’s urgent warnings to stop incurring more debt - already the highest per capita in the nation. And the 17-year incumbent has done virtually nothing to stop the rampant no-bid contracting documented in a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

Instead of tightening D.C.’s all-but-nonexistent financial controls, Evans has been busy making sweetheart deals with developers like Herb Miller, his former Georgetown neighbor. He even tried to hand over the West End library under “emergency” legislation until Ward 2 residents raised a stink. And Evans’ fingerprints were all over the no-bid Radio One deal, where valuable property at the Howard Metro stop was sold for less than its appraised value.

Cary Silverman promises open, competitive bidding for all city projects and a fully Freedom of Information Act-able financial reporting system. And more accountability and transparency is exactly what this city needs.

Ward 8: Marion Barry

Former Mayor Marion Barry would ordinarily be our last pick for re-election were it not for his unexpected support for charter schools. Impoverished households in Ward 8 can’t afford to wait and see if Mayor Adrian Fenty’s education experiment works. Charter schools give these families a way out of failing schools now - and charters need all the advocates they can get on the council. Even if that means bypassing newcomer Charles Wilson and sending Barry back for another term.