Friday, November 12, 2010

D.C. Government/Council media clips: Friday, November 12, 2010.

Good morning, Included: the lineup for today's Politics Hour with Kojo. I would not find the lineup for Plotkin. If anyone knows where it hides on the WTOP web site, shoot me an email. Also, I've had a bit of feedback and the PDF attachment doesn't seem to be needed and I'm thinking about dropping it. Your thoughts? Send to DCGovClips at gmail dot com. Enjoy your weekend.

Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips


D.C. Government/Council media clips: Friday, November 12, 2010.


Missed yesterday? http://bit.ly/d9TFsn


FULL STORIES BELOW

Pointing at the teachers unions works for Fenty - Washington Post

D.C. Council wants city to hire ex-convicts – Examiner

Nickles rejected offer to settle before suing Peebles, e-mail shows – Examiner

Viva Las Vegas: Despite Ban, D.C. Gov’t Trips Continue - WAMU: The Front Burner

D.C. GOP keeps hopes alive with special election - Washington Times

Fenty’s Future Remains Uncertain - Afro

Health and D.C.’s racial divide - Examiner

More on the special ed backlog - D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)

Getting away with murder in D.C. - Examiner

The Politics Hour - WAMU (88.5)

Today's DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/cQvbr 


Pointing at the teachers unions works for Fenty
Thursday, November 11, 2010; 7:12 PM 

"It is not the worst thing in the world to be a one-term officeholder," globalist pundit Fareed Zakaria told Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and a national TV audience on Friday.

Music to his ears.

Much as former president George W. Bush is now plying the talk-show circuit to plug his memoirs and try to recalibrate public impressions of his presidency, the outgoing District mayor is engaged in a campaign to color how his mayoralty will be remembered.

Thus far, his message - that Fenty (D) made the tough decisions to reform a poorly performing urban school district and was subsequently decapitated by teachers unions out for revenge - has found a sympathetic audience.

In an interview last month with a station based in New York, Fenty said he paid the price for being on "the leading edge of a movement" for urban education reform.

"If it's a war," he said, "someone's got to be at the front of the line, and they've got to get killed first. That's how you win a war, is by going forward."

He went on to criticize the teachers unions, which clashed almost continuously with former schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and worked to elect Vincent Gray mayor, calling them a "guaranteed obstacle" to progress.

"The teachers unions aren't bad per se," he said, "but the teachers unions are going to have to explain why when every tough decision is made to reform the school system, they are at the lead in opposing it."

Fenty returned to the same themes on "Real Time With Bill Maher," the HBO show hosted by the politically exuberant comic who fawned, along with Zakaria, over Fenty's undeniable accomplishments in the educational arena.

"Maybe people weren't ready for change that fast," Maher said, singling out the teachers unions as a reason for Fenty's demise.

But the road to martyrdom that Fenty has embarked upon paves over matters that might better explain his loss: His alienation of natural supporters - including some of those who lauded his educational focus. His inability to sell many parents on the reforms he undertook. His refusal to adapt his reelection campaign to political reality.

But the death-by-teachers-unions narrative persists. Perhaps no single fact about Fenty's campaign has been so often repeated by the national commentariat as the fact that the American Federation of Teachers had spent nearly $1 million to defeat Fenty - a figure first reported by Politico the day after Gray's primary victory, citing an anonymous Democratic operative.

Make no mistake: The union had a vested interest in seeing Fenty removed from office, and spent a significant amount of money to make that happen. But so did a lot of other groups - the teachers union was only part of a broader labor effort to get Gray (D) elected.

Chuck Thies, a consultant who has worked on local campaigns but also has ties to national labor organizations, said he approached a union contact in February, telling the contact that there was opportunity to be had in the District.

"I told them this exact expression: Adrian Fenty is eminently beatable," said Thies. "And Vince Gray is the guy to do it."

Two weeks before the election, the union launched radio ads in support of Gray on 10 area stations. The national teachers union also contributed to an independent interunion effort to oust Fenty.

But $1 million?

Thies said that was the figure sources inside the union shared with him; the union has repeatedly refused to comment on the value of its contributions to the District mayoral race. Meanwhile, insiders from the Fenty and Gray camps have expressed doubts about the million-dollar claim.

"I don't think it's credible," said Bill Lightfoot, who chaired Fenty's campaign. "I'm not sure you can measure what the unions did in terms of dollars. It's not money; it's manpower."

Joslyn N. Williams, who leads the Metro Labor Council AFL-CIO, agreed. "That is the figment of somebody's imagination," he said. "It's designed to try and taint Vince Gray as nothing but a tool of the AFT."

Said George Parker, whose Washington Teachers' Union is a federation affiliate, "I doubt if it was a million."

A recent filing with the city campaign finance office shows a $10,000 direct federation expenditure on the campaign. About $700,000 was spent by a variety of unions to influence the mayoral campaign. The remainder would have been spent reaching only their own members, and only about 2,000 live in the city.

Gray won by more than 13,000 votes.

If the federation indeed spent $1 million to oust Fenty, what it bought wasn't a new mayor so much as an unflattering story line about buying a new mayor.



D.C. Council wants city to hire ex-convicts
November 11, 2010

The D.C. Council wants to make it easier for the city government to hire ex-convicts.

A bill called the "Returning Citizen Employment Inclusion Act of 2010" would prohibit most District agencies from asking about the criminal records or histories of job applicants until after they've landed an interview. It's sponsored by Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. With six other council members co-sponsoring the bill, including Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry, who has criminal convictions on his record, and Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown, it already has enough support to pass.

The bill's backers believe that not asking about criminal history on government job applications will make it easier for ex-convicts to get city jobs. They say hiring ex-offenders will keep them from returning to prison. Critics say the legislation will worsen problems the city has with weeding out dangerous job applicants.

"The opportunity for released prisoners to obtain employment when they return to the District is critical to breaking the vicious cycle of re-offending and being returned to prison," ACLU legislative counsel Stephen Block told the council during a hearing on the bill. He added, "Crime increases the cost of doing business in the District. It is in everyone's self-interest to support a meaningful prohibition on discrimination against ex-offenders in employment."

The District is home to about 60,000 ex-felons, nearly 10 percent of the population, the ACLU estimates.

The bill would not apply to city agencies that are legally required to run criminal background checks. The police and corrections departments and most agencies that deal with children, including the school system, could still inquire about criminal records on job applications.

Barry has introduced three bills since 2006 that have had the goal of making it illegal for any employer to discriminate against ex-convicts by including ex-offenders under the protections of the city's human rights act. That would put ex-convicts under the same umbrella as race, religion, gender and sexual identity. None of Barry's three bills has passed.

Although this latest bill is focused more narrowly, it would still put the public in danger, said D.C. police union chief Kristopher Baumann.

"There is already too little deterrence from committing crimes in the city's justice system," Baumann said. "This bill would take away a disincentive to commit crimes."

The city's background checks already fail to catch dangerous criminals, Baumann said.

Both the police department and the D.C. school system failed to detect a murder conviction in the background of a mentor hired to work at Springarn High School. In June, 51-year-old Barry Harrison was sentenced to six years in prison for the 2009 sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl at the Northeast school. Harrison had spent 22 years in prison and was released in 2006. The criminal history check only went back 10 years, so it didn't reveal his conviction in 1984.


Nickles rejected offer to settle before suing Peebles, e-mail shows
11/11/10 2:20 PM EST

D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles rejected an offer to settle a billing dispute between the city and a company owned by billionaire developer Don Peebles one day before suing the company, an e-mail obtained by The Washington Examiner shows.

Peebles was a Mayor Adrian Fenty opponent and funded efforts to oust the now lame-duck mayor. Nickles has said he did not file the lawsuit against Peebles’ company out of political spite. In a statement, Peebles described the lawsuit as “retaliation” for his criticism of Fenty and Nickles.

But the e-mail sent by the attorney general’s chief of the public advocacy section to Richard Aguila, general counsel for Peebles’ company 2100 Martin Luther King Limited Partnership, shows MLK was prepared to settle on Monday, the day before Nickles filed the lawsuit. Nickles did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.

The e-mail in full:

Richard,

Our settlement meeting ended this afternoon with no offer on the table. I then reported to the Attorney General that we did not have a settlement, and he confirmed for me that the District is to file a False Claims Act case against your client tomorrow morning.  Shortly thereafter, the Director told me that she had just received a telephone call from your client offering to settle the matter.

Only the Attorney General has the authority to settle False Claims Act claims on behalf of the District, and that authority has not been delegated to the Director. Your client’s telephonic offer to settle these claims has been rejected by the Attorney General, and the District plans to file its False Claims Act case tomorrow.

Bennett
Bennet Rushkoff
Chief, Public Advocacy Section



Viva Las Vegas: Despite Ban, D.C. Gov’t Trips Continue
WAMU: The Front Burner

Last month, the D.C. government issued a freeze on travel for its employees. It’s part of an effort to cut back on spending as the city tries to close a $175 million budget shortfall. But as government credit card records show, many departments have traveled since the freeze at a considerable cost to tax payers. (To see the full records, go to http://data.dc.gov/ and click on “Purchase Card Transactions”).

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — unless you’re using government credit cards. Last month, the city’s Fire and EMS department ran up eight charges at Harrah’s Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. But they weren’t the only ones in Sin City. Later that week, D.C.’s Department of Transportation spent more than $1,200 at the Mandalay Bay resort.

In fact, since Mayor Adrian Fenty issued the travel freeze on October 4th, government credit card receipts show nearly 20 different agencies have hit the road … costing taxpayers nearly $70,000.

The Department of Homeland Security may stand out for it’s discriminating tastes.

When employees traveled to Boston, a city with more than 200 hotels, they chose the Ritz Carlton. And on a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas they spent a $1,000 at the Peabody Little Rock. The hotel promotes itself as offering “unsurpassed luxury” and “well-appointed guest rooms.”

According to the mayor’s October 4th order, the only exception for traveling is if it’s for “training required by law to maintain certification” or if approved by the city administrator.

Attempts to reach agency officials for comment have not been successful.

The city’s Office of the Inspector General, the department charged with investigating government waste and abuse, is also on the list: it spent nearly $800 at a hotel in Dallas.

To view a summary of the expenses by department, click HERE.


D.C. GOP keeps hopes alive with special election
Eyes end to council shutout
Washington Times
6:17 p.m., Thursday, November 11, 2010

Republicans have another shot at winning a seat on the D.C. Council after losing all four of their bids last week.

With Kwame Brown, an at-large member, winning the race to succeed Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray as council chairman, he now will have to step down so the city can hold a special election in 2011 on a date yet to be determined.

However, the vote will be a free-for-all with no party affiliation listed, giving Washington Republicans a rare shot in this overwhelmingly Democratic city. In the last at-large special election, in December 1997, a Republican squeezed past two Democrats with a voter turnout of only 7.5 percent

Current law requires the city to wait 114 days after a vacancy occurs to hold a special election, but local lawmakers are eager to speed up that process. The council passed a measure that would cut the time to 70 days, and the District's nonvoting congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, introduced a similar bill that lingers in the House.

In the meantime, the D.C. Democratic State Committee will appoint a placeholder to the seat, in accordance with the D.C. home-rule charter.

But whether the election is held in March or in May, the issues defining the contest will seem like deja vu — spending, school reform, jobs and bridging real and perceived class and racial divides, which were central to the recent elections. And the timing might perk up voters, because the council and mayor will be beginning serious deliberations about taxes, which could bode well for fiscal conservatives, said Democrats and Republicans.

"I'm giving running serious thought because a lot of people have expressed interest in me running," said Dave Hedgepeth, a Republican who endorsed Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and lost his Ward 3 council race against Democratic incumbent Mary M. Cheh, who backed Mr. Gray.

"You have to consider low turnout, and that it's a citywide race, so candidates have to get started as soon as possible," he said. "You also have to consider the Democratic field."

Well- and lesser-known Democrats began picking up nominating petitions from the city's Democratic Party this week. So far, interested candidates include former council member Vincent Orange, who has run in two citywide races; Anita Bonds, the city's Democratic Party chairman; Jacque Patterson, head of the Ward 8 Democrats; and Kelvin Robinson, who served as Mayor Anthony A. Williams' chief of staff.

"We may all be Democrats, but we're not all on the same page," said Mr. Patterson, who works for the Federal City Council. "How we go about education reform, the economy and fiscal problems are important to people who live east [of Rock Creek Park] and west of the park, but we have too few Democratic candidates who can bridge that gap."

D.C. Republicans haven't fielded an at-large council run since 2008, when upstart Patrick Mara upended the popular Carol Schwartz in the Republican primary, only to lose the party's only seat to Democrat-turned-independent Michael Brown in the general election.

The GOP knows D.C. voters don't have much of an appetite for the party — all Republican candidates lost on Nov. 2, but its leaders will contest the race and maintain major-party status.

"The election will be held as the council and mayor begin debating increased taxes and cutting spending," said D.C. GOP Executive Director Paul Craney. "It's a good time for Republicans to run and target different neighborhoods. We absolutely will run someone."

A Democratic Party leader warned that Republicans are within striking distance.

"Low turnout in such [special] elections can be a problem," said Doug Sloan, a member of the D.C. state committee, who lost his Democratic primary bid for the congressional delegate seat to Mrs. Norton. "Targeting voters is important, as is name recognition."

He mentioned the fact that there are more independent voters in each of the city's eight wards — city rolls list 73,178 independents versus just 29,728 Republicans — and that thousands of voters wrote in Mr. Fenty's name for mayor on their November ballots.

Nearly 28,000 D.C. voters wrote in a name, with most almost certainly being for Mr. Fenty, on whose behalf a write-in campaign was launched.

"Republicans are going to knock on the doors of independents," he said, adding that the D.C. GOP also has the "advantage of Paul Craney."

"He is sharp enough and politically savvy enough to pull in a win," Mr. Sloan said.


Fenty’s Future Remains Uncertain
by Dorothy Rowley
Afro
published November 11, 2010

The dismantling of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration, prompted by his 53-46 percent loss to City Council Chairman Vincent Gray in September’s Democratic mayoral primary, is continuing apace. Gray named the team that would facilitate his transition to the city’s helm late last week. And in recent days, hundreds of Fenty hires were given their walking papers in the form of letters from the Department of Human Resources, telling them how to resign from their jobs.

Now many are wondering about the future of the political wunderkind, who in 2006 became the youngest mayor in the city’s 40 years of home rule. While no answers are immediately forthcoming, according to a close supporter, Fenty will continue to do what’s in the best interest of the District’s children.

“He will keep on accomplishing and will not be a sore loser in making the transition as smooth as possible,” said Peaceaholics founder Ron Moten. “He’s been cooperating with Mr. Gray, even though I still believe it was an ugly and dirty campaign.”

Despite widespread criticism over Fenty’s brash, non-consensus-building leadership style, Moten maintained the politically astute mayor, who was overwhelmingly elected in 2006 by the city’s Black residents, always had their concerns at heart.

“To me, for all that he has done for residents and the way he was demonized during the campaign, he still showed a lot of class,” Moten said of Fenty. He added that while the mayor has received plenty of work offers, he will remain focused on enhancing education reforms established by former schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.

Those reforms and Rhee’s 2007 takeover of the troubled District of Columbia Public Schools system, in large part, caused the mayor’s appeal to wither among his constituency. Yet, he has repeatedly said that reform of the District’s 120 schools ? no matter how hardcore – has been the right thing to do.

While his office did not respond to the AFRO’s request for an interview, the outgoing mayor touted his accomplishments as mayor in statements posted on MSNBC.com. When his term began in January 2007, he said, DCPS’ African-American students ranked 70 percent behind their White counterparts in math. "We've closed that by 20 percentage points, which is a huge gain, but it still leaves us 50 percentage points behind," Fenty said. "The greatest worry is that we're just not moving fast enough. If I could do anything over, I'd have moved even faster, to be honest with you."

Meanwhile, as Fenty’s administration was being credited for expanding health care coverage for uninsured residents, public safety gains leading to a significant reduction in crime, economic development and affordable housing, he was heavily criticized over debacles involving Department of Parks and Recreation contracts handed out to fraternity brothers and associates and the beleaguered Children and Family Services Agency, among other sore areas.

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protective Reform and an avid Fenty critic, said whatever Fenty does after his departure won’t have anything to do with protecting children. “I have no idea what he’ll wind up doing, but I hope it has nothing to do with the child welfare system,” Wexler said, “because he did terrible damage for the one he was responsible for as mayor.”

Through it all, Fenty always stuck by his decisions for managing the District. He claimed, however, shortly after the September primary that it’s unlikely he’d run for public office again.

But, according to D.C.-based political analyst Mark Plotkin, Fenty – an attorney by trade – could find favor over at the White House. “He can work as a lawyer or in his family business,” Plotkin said. “But I’m sure he’d like to get some sort of feeler from the Obama administration… Although the president certainly wasn’t very kind to him in the past, there might be an opportunity for the administration to say, ‘Sure, we’d welcome someone with his talents.’”

While no official statement has been issued on what matters Fenty aims to accomplish in the waning weeks of his tenure, his office’s latest posting dated Oct. 4 states that that he and Office of Victim Services Director Melissa Hook have announced the launch of a newly designed website for The Lighthouse Center for Healing. Otherwise, since late September, Fenty has named an interim state education superintendent and awarded more than $8.4 million for victim services.

Both Fenty and Gray have pledged to work together to ensure a smooth transition, and as the City Council poises to tackle a $175 million budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2011, Fenty with Gray’s support has moved to put a freeze on hiring and promotions within city government as well as to restrict discretionary spending among agencies.
The pair, who have rarely met one-on-one in the past year, also have the joint tasks of continuing to run a city-owned hospital while determining the future of various appointees to boards and commissions that have yet to be confirmed.


Health and D.C.’s racial divide
11/11/10 11:55 AM EST

As mayor-elect Vince Gray begins to grapple with the economic disparity between the District’s black and white residents, he’ll also have to take a close look at it differences in health care as he promotes his “One City” message.

A report has found that the city’s black residents live 12 fewer years on average than the District’s white residents. It was detailed in a Washington Post story discussing the disparity among races across the region when it comes to well-being.

On the campaign trail, Gray focused a great deal of attention on closing the job gap between the city’s black and white residents as a way of closing the economic split that has divided the city.

The mayor-elect has talked, to a lesser extent, about a similar divide over health care. He has said that  keeping the doors open to the only hospital east of the Anacostia River was only a small part of creating a health care system that cares for the city’s poorer residents, the majority of whom are black.

This latest report might mean he’ll have to pay closer attention to the health care. It indicates it’s truly an issue of life and death.


More on the special ed backlog
By Bill Turque
D.C. Schools Insider
November 11, 2010; 11:10 AM E

Deputy chancellor for special education Richard Nyankori called to add a few details to Monday's post about the backlog of 400 incomplete special education evaluations and IEP meetings. Nyankori said he is not shirking ownership of the issue, but that about 17 percent of the cases are several years old, involving students no longer in the system or parents who chose not to continue with the special ed process. "These are cases that were never properly exited out," Nyankori said, and have remained on the city's books as incomplete.

"It was incomplete due diligence on our part," he said.

Overall, Nyankori said the news on special ed evaluations has been good, with the timeliness rate growing from 34 percent to 80 percent in the last year.

He said there has also been significant growth in timely IEP meetings -- where parents and staff discuss the document that will define the services a child will receive--but with room for improvement. About 30 percent of the time parents call to cancel, sometimes for unavoidable contingencies and sometimes for reasons that are less clear.

"We need to increase our parental show rate," he said.


Getting away with murder in D.C.
November 11, 2010

When Chandra Levy vanished in 2001, everyone suspected her lover, Gary Condit. A California congressman at the time, Condit was hounded by reporters and then rejected by voters.

"Guilty -- guilty -- guilty," the armchair judges and juries said. Actually, no. Condit was never charged with a crime. He was guilty of getting caught having an affair with his intern, a tawdry and tired narrative here in Power Town. After Levy disappeared, and cops suspected foul play. The FBI searched her laundry and found panties with Condit's DNA. This evidence linked Condit to poor Chandra, but there was no evidence that he had anything to do with her demise.

There is precious little evidence in the two most notorious recent murders in Washington, D.C. -- Chandra Levy, whose bones were found in Rock Creek Park; and attorney Robert Wone, who was stabbed to death in a Dupont Circle town house in 2006. And that's why we might never know what happened to these two innocent people, and their families might never find peace.

In both cases, everyone seemed to know who the killer was, or the killers. Open-and-shut cases!

In the Levy case, the press tried and convicted Condit. But there was no evidence for it. Now the killer has to be Ingmar Guandique, the man standing trial for murder now in Superior Court. Again, reporters have fingered Guandique, an illegal immigrant. Again, there is no hard evidence. And again, prosecutors are struggling to get a conviction.

In the Wone case, the killers had to be one or two of the three roommates who lived in the house where police found his body. Had to be, right? Or the three -- Michael Price, Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky -- had to know the killer. Open-and-shut case!

But there was a problem with the Wone case: no evidence.

Prosecutors brought charges against the three roommates for conspiracy and obstruction and tampering -- but never for the actual murder -- because they didn't have the goods.

We are a community of cops and lawyers, schooled in the ways of the criminal justice system by TV shows such as "Law & Order," "Criminal Minds" and "CSI." The cops always get their criminal, and the judge always puts them away. Justice done -- no muss, no fuss.

But down around Judiciary Square, prosecutors have to make their cases in superior or federal court with more than hunches and press clips. They need strong physical evidence, witnesses, or a confession. Having none of the three, they will rarely get a judge and jury to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

What you see on TV is perfect police investigations, sophisticated labs where forensic scientists find incriminating evidence in dust specks, and dashing lawyers who break down witnesses. What we have in the nation's capital is shoddy police work, no forensic lab, and prosecutors pressing cases with little ammo.

And that's why -- in real life -- murderers get off scot-free.


The Politics Hour
Friday, Nov 12, 2010 at 12:06 P.M. 
WAMU (88.5)

The District plans to cut $200 million from the city's budget. A Virginia Congressman survives election day with a razor-thin victory. Maryland's governor axes a campaign theme, and talks tuition hikes for the state's universities. Join us for our round of up of local politics and personalities.

Guests
·         Tom Sherwood: Resident Analyst; NBC 4 reporter; and Columnist for the Current Newspapers
·         Mike DeBonis: Reporter, The Washington Post
·         James Rosapepe: Maryland State Senator, (D- Dist. 21, Prince George's / Anne Arundel County)
·         Jack Evans: D.C. Council member (D-Ward 2); Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Revenue



From Thursday:

Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/ai4vns

Loose Lips (daily column): http://bit.ly/c0kosd

DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/9p2y8x


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