The D.C. Council on Tuesday roundly rejected Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal to extend the already-overbudget Summer Youth Employment Program by 1 1/2 more weeks.
The rejection will allow about $4 million to be directed elsewhere, but at the cost of an extra $200 in the pockets of each of the city’s 20,000-strong youth work force, weeks before the start of the school year.
The council’s 9-2 vote came one day after hand-wringing and jaw-dropping over revelations of more than $7 million in overspending on the program, which employs youth for District jobs from tree planting to making copies to completing credits toward graduation.
“The council’s action today was a response to the mayor’s continuing gross mismanagement of the [program],” said Council Chairman Vince Gray, a mayoral candidate who used the moment for a bit of electioneering.
Muriel Bowser, D-Ward 4, and Harry Thomas Jr., D-Ward 5, supported Fenty’s proposal.
Despite outrage from the council’s majority, the spending troubles hardly came to them as news. In an open letter to the council in May 2009, representatives from area nonprofits including the Brookings Institution scolded members for supporting a program “which already is well beyond its budget” and “is too large and diffuse in its goals to be high-quality.”
Previous years proved no more frugal. A report from D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols found overspending to the tune of $56 million in fiscal 2007 and 2008 combined.
The 2010 budget allotted about $23 million to the six-week jobs initiative, but that money was gone after about 3 1/2 weeks, said an official from the District’s finance office. To extend the program to Fenty’s desired 7 1/2 weeks would’ve brought the total spending to $34 million.
By keeping the program at its originally scheduled six weeks, the council held overspending to about $7 million.
The $4 million in “savings,” technically part of a federal grant for the city’s poorest residents, likely will go toward homelessness services, where it had been promised earlier in the year.
At least one summer jobs participant felt OK about the trade-off. Testifying before the council, the Mount Pleasant teenager set aside his prepared script.
“The necessity of the homeless families and youth to receive housing and services trumps my necessity to get paid for seven more days,” he said.
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