Democracy pays
By: Jonetta Rose Barras
Examiner Columnist
February 9, 2009
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 friends,” says one knowledgeable District government official. “What Cano did was circumvent the system. When he became the department’s acting director, he pushed this through.”
Truth told, the entire DOH sub-granting system appears to circumvent the city's contracting and procurement rules. Sub-grants rarely are competitively bid. More than a half-dozen organizations receive hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars under the guise that they provide some “unique service,” agency sources say.
Barber’s sub-grant — “Community Health Empowerment Program” — is for up to $190,000, and is to end September 2009. In the introduction he wrote, he notes that “it is the primary objective of the project to address the ‘democratic deficit’ of the community on the way to increasing overall participation in primary health care and preventive medicine in the community — strengthening the civic and participatory vigor of the community.”
I wanted Barber to explain his program and why he deserved so much of the public’s money. But he didn’t return my telephone calls.
I did reach his assistant, Holly Lane, in New York and told her why I was calling. She put me on hold; when she returned to the phone, she told me “I tried to catch Dr. Barber on his way out but I was unable to. He has your number, I’m sure he’ll call you.”
He didn’t.
Not surprisingly, some D.C. employees have complained about the Barber sub-grant; the city's inspector general recently opened an investigation.
Looking over the invoices submitted by Barber, there is reason for concern. He billed the city $44,200 for a three-month period — March through May 2008.
That included $24,000 for Barber’s services — a rate of $8,000 per month, or $2,000 per week. Tauno Bilsted, a community organization consultant, was paid $3,000; Wanda and Angelo Schell, videographers, were paid $3,000; and Lane, his assistant, received $600. He also included $8,100 for transportation and lodging for that three-month period, according to health department documents.
On June 18, 2008, he submitted a second invoice totaling $45,800, a copy of which was obtained by me. That document doesn’t include any details.
In Barber’s revised work plan dated May 15, 2008, he says, “We will, with DOH permission, file our first quarterly report by June 25.”
That would have been seven days after he filed his second invoice.
But there was no quarterly report — or any other report — in the documents sent by DOH in response to a request I made for all materials regarding this sub-grant.
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