City officials who are urging an overhaul of the organization former D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. used to steal more than $353,000 in public money are already bickering about whether possible changes lawmakers have floated will safeguard tax dollars — or put them at greater risk.
Mayor Vincent Gray and key legislators agree that they need to preserve in some form the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp., the public-private partnership that annually doles out millions of dollars to youth programs but has also drawn attention as a conduit for corruption.
“CYITC was created for a very important purpose,” Mayor Vincent Gray told The Washington Examiner. “I think that purpose continues to be very important.”
| More meddling? |
| Even though Ellen London, the president of the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp., said last week that she knows of no politicians other than Harry Thomas Jr. who pressured her organization to award grants, Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells thinks there’s more to the story. |
| “I don’t think now is the time to name any names, but I know of council members calling to try to direct funds to particular organizations,” Wells said. |
| He declined to say if he thought London, who testified under oath before a council committee, had committed perjury. |
| “I don’t know what she knows,” he said. |
And while Thomas awaits his May 3 sentencing, his former colleagues are grappling with how the CYITC should meet that purpose in the future.
Last week, Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who chairs the D.C. Council committee that oversees CYITC, raised the idea of converting the organization into a commission.
“We have the Arts and Humanities Commission here in D.C. that gives away millions of dollars in grants to arts organizations, and I am not aware of major controversies associated with that,” Graham said in a later interview with The Examiner. “It’s one of a series of models that we ought to examine.”
He at least wants to see what he termed a “rebranding” of CYITC.
“It’s an agency in trouble, but there is good that can come out of this,” Graham said. “Sending a different message is going to be important.”
Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells said a commission could heighten the threat of corruption.
“The main problem with what happened was related to the government,” Wells told The Examiner. “To now say it should be even closer to government where there can be more meddling by a mayor or a council is really going in the wrong direction.”
Both Graham and Wells — the only two legislators to attend CYITC President Ellen London‘s testimony at an oversight hearing — want changes to the governing board.
“The board needs restructuring,” Graham said. “If you look at the board members during the period of time when these problems were occurring, they seem to be very much politically engaged.”
Wells said those changes start with the selection of members, all of whom are appointed by the mayor or council.
“The power we have comes in oversight,” Wells said. “We shouldn’t also be appointing board members.”
Gray, who declined to speculate on Graham’s commission proposal, said the only idea he was ruling out was a total dismantling of CYITC.
“I don’t see the point of eliminating it,” Gray said. “If you eliminate it, you’d have to come back with something else to serve that need.”
