No impropriety ever reported on Peck’s watch Re: “Gray and his political friends,” June 20
I strongly object to Jonetta Rose Barras’ long-running, tiresome and baseless personal vendetta against Suzanne Peck, the District’s chief technology officer from 1999 to 2007. In those eight years, Peck transformed the District’s technology systems from “worst to first,” making substantial capital investments necessary to achieve top-notch performance.
Remember the days when there were regular reports that the District’s E9-1-1 system “killed” one citizen after another, when you had to spend the entire day at DMV just to get your license renewed, and when police and firemen couldn’t communicate on their radios and had to use their personal cell phones to get their orders? Peck ended all that.
Her world-leading DC NET fiber optic communications system is saving the District tens of millions of dollars per year and is a net revenue generator, while providing top-notch reliability and performance for the city’s business and public safety systems.
Barras’ repeated assertion that Peck was a “serial violator” of personnel and procurement rules is absurd. All technology contracts during her tenure were pre-competed General Services Administration-type contracts let by the District’s procurement department. There was never a breath of impropriety or any cost overruns, as Barras falsely claimed.
Michael Latessa
Rockville
Organic farm should be preserved
Since childhood, I’ve been walking along the C&O Canal towpath, which was once slated to be turned into an auto parkway after World War II. Thanks to Chief Justice William O. Douglas’ efforts, it is now a national treasure with more than three million visitors enjoying this unique park annually.
Montgomery County’s plan to turn a 31-year-old, one-of-a-kind organic farm into a soccer field is as misguided and shortsighted as turning the canal into a roadway was so many years ago. No public hearing went into making this decision. At the very least, the county and the school board need to allow the community to be heard.
The democratic process should determine what becomes of Nick Maravell’s unique farm at a time when we are trying to teach our children the importance of healthy eating as well as the provenance of the food they eat. Shouldn’t we be preserving this extraordinary farm rather than paving it over to make one more soccer field when the county already has hundreds?
Tamara Meyer
Potomac
Barone confuses cause with effect
Re: “Obama skirts rule of law to reward pals, punish foes,” May 24
Michael Barone must be one of those people who think the use of umbrellas is the cause of rain. In the case of Boeing, the labor contract between employees and management has an exclusivity clause that makes any production outside the union’s contract a negotiable item.
Furthermore, Boeing announced publicly that it intended to expand production outside the union’s authority — a violation of the 1935 Wagner Act and subject to a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. George Will, who was aware of this fact, believes that because the NLRB ignored the law during the Reagan and both Bush administrations, it should do the same from then on.
Barone also omitted that fact that Obamacare waivers expire on or before the full implementation of the law in 2014. These waivers, which involve union contracts between employers and health care providers, allow time for compliance with the new law. This should lead everyone to agree that it rains first — and then the umbrellas are deployed.
Master Sgt. Kristopher Bickel (USAF-Ret.)
Grove City, Ohio
