Readers of my column might not get the sense that Councilman Phil Mendelson and I are buddies.
Of all the pols and cops and businessmen whose chains I have yanked, I have tried to give Phil whiplash on more than a few occasions. “Comrade Phil” I called him, because he seemed to take the ultraliberal approach to law enforcement.
He would dispute that, of course, but people who care passionately about public safety can disagree.
Still, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that Mendelson referred to me as his “friend” from the dais during a city council meeting Tuesday. He may have used the term in that insipid way senators refer to one another as “my good colleague,” (when they mean “that pinhead from Kentucky”), but I will take him at his word.
The at-large council member used his “friend” line to introduce a column I had written last week about the methods Mayor Adrian Fenty had used to maneuver $82 million in tax dollars to contractors building recreation facilities. “Fenty Puts Parks Projects Through the Spin Cycle,” the headline read.
By funneling the funds through the D.C. Housing Authority, rather than the parks agency, Fenty had bypassed city council review. And many millions wound up in companies run by Fenty’s buddies.
I had compared the way Fenty used the quasi-independent housing authority with the way mobsters use legal businesses to launder dirty money. Both wanted to quickly put money in circulation and avoid snooping eyes; Fenty wanted to end run the council, which by law has the right to review contracts worth more than $1 million; gangsters want to sidestep the FBI.
Mendelson read from my column, and for that I am grateful. He focused on a few paragraphs in which I flirted with calling Fenty a money launderer. Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham took issue. He said mentioning Fenty and money laundering was “totally inappropriate” because there is “no proof” of such conduct.
Graham, whose chief aide was recently charged with taking bribes from taxicab executives, has been studying up on federal criminal codes. So allow me to distance myself from any suggestion that Fenty was money laundering in the classic, criminal sense.
Shakedown, however, might apply. Businessmen have been saying for weeks that some of the mayor’s friends have been telling contractors to give them a piece of any deal they might want with the city.
“From everything I have heard,” says police union chief Kristopher Baumann, “if you want to deal with this administration, you had to hire one of his buddies as a ‘consultant.’ ”
These reports are precisely why the city council must review the $82 million in contracts.
“To whom and how they were awarded are the issues that raise concerns,” Councilman Jack Evans tells me.
I hope my “friend” Mendelson makes Fenty produce his laundry list.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected].
