D.C. Government/Council media clips: Tuesday, November 9, 2010.

Good morning, Welcome to our new list members. If you're on Twitter, follow me (@DCGovClips). I'm following most reporters who cover D.C. and as they post articles, I retweet them. Also, I've been posting the link to the DCGovClips blog throughout the day for those who aren't on Twitter before 7:30 a.m.

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

D.C. Government/Council media clips: Tuesday, November 9, 2010.

Today's edition:

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

FULL STORIES BELOW

Fenty hires given exit instructions - Washington Business Journal

Gray launches transition website - Examiner

Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown announces transition team - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)

Kwame Brown names Nats VP to head transition team - Examiner

Kwame Brown Prepares To Lead D.C. Council - WAMU

Biddle, Patterson, Orange, Robinson pursue at-large D.C. Council seat - Washington Post

D.C. settles for $10 million in foster care abuse case - Washington Post -

D.C. Homeless Services Face Major Cuts - WAMU

Betts murder led to juvenile justice agency's overhaul - Examiner

Congress prepared to pounce on D.C. - Examiner

DCPS still digging through special ed backlog D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)

McMillan Plans Start Taking Shape - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)

Unavailable online on November 8 (full article below):

Dangers Ahead for Mayor-Elect – Jonetta Rose Barras (Examiner)

Fenty hires given exit instructions

Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/2010/11/fenty-hires-given-exit-instructions.html#ixzz14m8uUSGn

Date: Monday, November 8, 2010, 5:16pm EST - Last Modified: Monday, November 8, 2010, 8:38pm EST

The end of the Fenty administration is formally beginning.

In the last couple days, District government employees in executive and excepted service were told, via the Department of Human Resources, how to resign from their jobs. It's traditional that one mayor's appointees and top hires resign ahead of the next mayor's arrival.

But this news makes it so, well, real, that Mayor Adrian Fenty's brief reign is quickly coming to an end. Hundreds of employees will soon be out of a job, to be replaced by appointees of Mayor-elect Vincent Gray.

"I think that's customary," Gray said the day after his general election victory, on the resignations. "But that doesn't mean everybody will go."

The human resource documents, essentially walking papers, direct certain employees to submit resignation letters, at the request of the mayor, effective Dec. 31. They describe, said one recipient, what happens if the resignation is accepted, when the last check goes out, how long insurance benefits remain in place, options for continued medical coverage and what happens if the employee accepts a new government job after Jan. 1.

Executive service employees are typically the heads of agencies. They are appointed by the mayor, subject to approval by the D.C. Council, and serve at the pleasure of the chief executive. There are roughly 80.

Excepted service employees include the mayor's personal staff and his policy team, the city administrator, the Mayor's Office of Community Relations, directors of the Office of Campaign Finance and Board of Elections and Ethics, members of the Public Service Commission, administrative law judges, executive director of the Public Employee Relations Board, and the chief tenant advocate.

Most will not survive the transfer of power, though there is certainly pressure on Gray to keep some popular Fenty hires, like Police Chief Cathy Lanier, Transportation Director Gabe Klein and Planning Director Harriet Tregoning.

Applications for appointed positions with the Gray administration, or a seat on a board or commission, are being accepted through Gray's transition website. The site asks only for a resume delivered to employment@graytransition2010.org, and the "role of interest in the subject line."

Gray launches transition website

By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/gray-launches-transition-website-106915278.html#ixzz14mCxh2G1

11/08/10 4:50 PM EST

Mayor-elect Vince Gray has launched his transition website.

The website focuses on the transition team’s two main tasks:

1) To draw the blueprint that will serve as the foundation for the Gray administration. To this end, the website provides space for users to submit ideas.

2) To determine the best candidates for jobs within the administration. The website has a page where job seekers can submit their resumes.

It also includes a third, that lists the names and jobs of transition team members.

Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown announces transition team

By Ann E. Marimow

D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2010/11/council_chairman-elect_kwame_b.html

November 8, 2010; 12:47 PM E

D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame R. Brown said Monday he will use his eight-week transition period to conduct a top-to-bottom review of council operations. Brown said he wants to "improve the way the council does business" and to ensure that the government is more "open and responsive to residents."

In his first formal news conference since the Nov. 2 general election, Brown announced his transition would be led by Gregory McCarthy, vice president for government affairs for the Washington Nationals. McCarthy, who was a deputy chief of staff to former mayor Anthony Williams, said he is coming up with recommendations that will serve as a "blueprint not a dust collector" for Brown's tenure.

Brown said he would not accept public funds to cover the cost of the transition and instead plans to raise up to $150,000 in private donations. Brown said he would accept individual contributions of up to $25,000 and disclose the names of donors after the transition period. District law prohibits contributions of more than $2,000 to a political candidate, but the city's campaign finance regulations do not cover the transition period.

Brown, an at-large council member first elected in 2004, said the money would pay for a Web site, research and travel. He said he plans to meet with the leaders of city councils in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Other transition team members include Walter Smith, head of the nonprofit public policy organization DC Appleseed; Jeffery Humber, past chairman of the board of the Washington Convention Center Authority; Rod Woodson, a lobbyist who was general counsel to the city's Housing Finance Agency; and Brown's campaign manager and chief of staff, Irma Esparza Diggs.

Brown called the news conference the "beginning of a conversation" and repeatedly declined to answer questions about the future structure of the council. When asked whether Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) would retain control of the finance committee, Brown said: "Everything is open. Everything is on the table."

Brown was also asked whether Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who was stripped of his committee chairmanship last spring, would again lead a panel when Brown takes over in January. He replied: "Everyone should be responsible for something - whether that's a committee, a sub-committee or no committee."

Kwame Brown names Nats VP to head transition team

By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/kwame-brown-names-nats-vp-to-head-transition-team-106897553.html#ixzz14mEsvKLJ

11/08/10 1:05 PM EST

D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown announced Monday  that Washington Nationals vice president Greg McCarthy will lead his transition team.

Like Mayor-elect Vince Gray, Brown won’t be using public funds for the estimated $100,000 transition.

McCarthy will lead the eight-member team that will help Brown prepare for taking the council’s reins.

McCarthy heads the Nationals government and municipal affairs and was Mayor Anthony Williams deputy chief of staff from 1999-2006.

Kwame Brown Prepares To Lead D.C. Council
Patrick Madden

WAMU

Listen to story (Windows Media): http://wamu.org/audio/nw/10/11/n3101109-38564.asx

November 09, 2010

Now that Vincent Gray is preparing to take over as mayor in D.C., his replacement on the city council is getting ready to pick up the reins.

Moments after his first press conference as council chair-elect ended, Kwame Brown faced his first real test -- a so-called 3 a.m. call politicians like to talk about.

An angry crowd of more than a hundred people was gathering outside the Wilson building -- they wanted answers about a recent death, and they wanted to speak to someone in charge.

Brown was whisked out outside and handed a megaphone.

"Anytime someone loses a life, that’s a problem. And we need a full investigation, and I call for a full investigation," Brown told the crowd.

There will be little on the job training for Brown as council chair, and with the city’s bleak budget picture, Brown has his work cut out for him. He says he looks forward to working with Gray, a former colleague on the council, but adds that the council will be not become a rubber stamp for the new mayor.

"We are going to be holding the executive accountable, making sure we have an independent council and representing the residents of the District of Columbia," Brown says. 

Biddle, Patterson, Orange, Robinson pursue at-large D.C. Council seat

Mike DeBonis  (Washington Post)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/debonis/2010/11/biddle_patterson_orange_robins.html?wprss=rss_blog&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

November 8, 2010; 5:18 PM ET 

With less than two months until city Democrats are scheduled to fill the at-large D.C. Council seat being vacated by Chairman-Elect Kwame Brown, the field of potential replacements is starting to shape up.

Four prospective candidates today picked up nominating petitions. They are Sekou Biddle, the incumbent Ward 4 representative on the State Board of Education; Vincent Orange, the former Ward 5 council member whose campaign for the chairmanship fell short; Jacque Patterson, a Federal City Council staffer who also chairs the Ward 8 Democrats; and Kelvin Robinson, the former chief of staff to MayorAnthony A. Williams who ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 6 seat this year.

To be considered for appointment by the 81 members of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, each candidate will have to collect 1,000 signatures from registered city Democrats -- with a minimum of 100 signatures from each ward -- plus signatures from one-third of the committee members (27).

The committee will host a debate/forum with the qualifying candidates on Dec. 16. The final showdown is expected to take place Jan. 6; to keep the seat, the appointee would then have to run in a special election tentatively scheduled for early May.

Other possibilities: Harry Thomas Jr. has done nothing to tamp down speculation that he'll run for the post, but he is expected to focus on the special election, lest he risk his current seat. Clark Ray, whose at-large challenge to Phil Mendelson fell short in the primary, said today he's "definitely thinking about" mounting a run for the Brown seat but is undecided on whether to pursue the DCDSC appointment or just run in the special election.

One interesting possibility -- that Michael A. Brown, the at-large council member who won election as an independent in 2008, would switch his party affiliation to Democrat -- seems unlikely to become reality.

If Brown -- who does not mask his desire to rejoin the party that his father, Ron Brown, was once national chairman of -- were allowed to make such a switcheroo, that would leave all the Democratic maneuvering moot, and close the special election to Democrats. That's because the city charter requires that no more than three of the five citywide council seats -- chairman and at-large -- be filled by members of the same party.

Kenneth McGhie, general counsel for the Board of Elections and Ethics, said today it is his opinion that Brown may not change his registration, even in the short period between when Kwame Brown vacates his seat and when the Democrats are scheduled to make an interim appointment.

"There's no way he can switch his party and trump the home rule act," McGhie said -- which appears to forestall the possibility of a Democratless special election, one that could feature names like Adam Clampitt, Patrick Mara and Carol Schwartz.

Brown, of course, would still be free to make the switch and challenge the board's position in court. He said today that had not heard from the board and was waiting on "concrete information" before making a decision.

D.C. settles for $10 million in foster care abuse case

By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110805565.html?wprss=rss_metro/special/8

Monday, November 8, 2010; 11:43 PM 

An abusive foster mother nearly cost Rafael Pearson his life, and now the District has agreed to pay $10 million for placing him with the troubled woman, whose beatings left the boy with massive brain damage.

Rafael was just a few days old when he was taken from his drug-addicted mother and placed in the foster home in fall 2005. Beaten and shaken by his foster mother, the baby suffered catastrophic brain damage. He was on life support for days, not expected to survive. More than five years later, he remains profoundly disabled. He can sense light and shadows and movement but otherwise his vision is extremely limited.

The settlement, to be paid out in three installments, beginning with a $5 million payment this month, is one of the largest the District has ever agreed to.

But with a lifetime of round-the-clock care ahead of Rafael, the settlement is hardly a windfall, his attorneys say - the agreement is structured to ensure that Rafael's needs are funded for as long as he lives.

The lawsuit, filed in 2007 after the foster mother, Tanya Jenkins, was tried and sentenced to 12 years for cruelty to children, sought $50 million from the District. The suit was about to go to trial in early August in D.C. Superior Court when the parties indicated that they were closing in on a settlement.

Over the next three months, the agreement took shape, and late Friday, after a few final tweaks, the judge in the case, Judith N. Macaluso, approved the pact.

Sitting in the first row of Courtroom 415, in his tiny white Nikes and his black reclining wheelchair, was Rafael. He occasionally uttered sounds, but he cannot speak. Next to him was his grandmother, Sylvia Pearson, 57, who filed the lawsuit on his behalf and who has been his champion since the day in late October 2005 when it looked like Rafael would not survive.

"You can't replace what would have been a great, normal life," Pearson said after the hearing, "but I have faith in him and his ability to progress more rapidly than people expect."

Already, Raffy, as his grandmother calls him, has defied expectations. He made it out of Children's Hospital. He made it out of the Hospital for Sick Children. And by early next year, he is expected to leave the nursing home in Dunn Loring where he has lived for the past five years.

If all goes according to plan, Raffy will move into his grandmother's Fairfax Station home, which is being fitted with an elevator and other accommodations, and where he will have a home health aide around the clock.

It could, of course, have been worse. But it also could have been altogether different for Raffy, born Sept. 9, 2005, in a motel in Northern Virginia.

When his mother, Renee Pearson, brought him to Virginia Hospital Center later that day, he was 5 pounds 14 ounces and had traces of cocaine in his system. Concerned, the hospital called child welfare officials in the District, where Renee Pearson said she lived. The social worker couldn't verify the the mother's address in Northwest Washington and called the baby's grandmother.

Sylvia Pearson, who had watched her daughter succumb to drugs and the streets, told the social worker to take the baby. Pearson had already adopted one of her daughter's children, and her son had adopted the other. Now, they would have to find a way to help Raffy, who was going to stay in foster care while everything was sorted out.

He ended up with Tanya Jenkins, a new foster parent who was unemployed and lived in Southeast Washington with her 2-year-old son and her boyfriend. Earlier that year, another infant had been placed with Jenkins, but she had sent the child back after five weeks, saying she had health problems that made it difficult to care for the small child.

Despite the red flag, the Child and Family Services Agency came to Jenkins five months later when they needed a home for Raffy. Jenkins agreed but said she didn't have the money to care for the child and would need CFSA to rush the assistance that is routinely provided to help with costs such as additional food.

But even without the additional child, she was struggling, according to testimony at her trial. She told a neighbor that the financial assistance from the District would keep her from being evicted.

Once Raffy arrived, the stress mounted for Jenkins, according to the neighbor, who testified that Jenkins was complaining about never sleeping. Meanwhile, the city's long-troubled child welfare agency wasn't keeping tabs on Jenkins or the baby who had been entrusted to her. A social worker should have visited every week for the first eight weeks. The agency made one visit during the 43 days Raffy was in the home.

It was another harrowing episode in the annals of the District's beleaguered child welfare system, and when they filed suit, Pearson's attorneys, Sidney Schupak and Michelle A. Parfitt of Ashcraft & Gerel, planned to put the entire system on trial.

Instead, the District agreed to pay one of the largest settlements in its history, as well as $2 million in attorneys' fees.

Robert J. Spagnoletti, who was the District's attorney general under Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), said a settlement as large as the one in this case had never crossed his desk. "It's a very big settlement," but not necessarily unreasonable, said Spagnoletti, now a partner at Schertler & Onorato.

Patrick M. Regan, a leading plaintiffs attorney in the District, called the settlement a "significant" sum of money, but said the amount had to be viewed in the context of the needs the child and his family will face over a lifetime. "It's fair," Regan said.

D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, who was involved in the settlement negotiations, did not return a call today seeking comment.

D.C. Homeless Services Face Major Cuts
Patrick Madden

WAMU

Listen to story (Windows Media): http://wamu.org/audio/nw/10/11/n4101109-38565.asx

November 09, 2010

Homeless services and other safety net programs in the District are facing major budget cuts next year.

DHS Director Clarence Carter testified before city council member Tommy Wells at Monday's hearing on homeless services, and said he didn't want to be the boy who cried wolf.

But Carter says his department is losing out on $25 million in funding next year and the budget cuts will hit homeless services the hardest.

"I can without fear of contradiction tell you we have cut this budget to the bone," he said.

Wells responded, "So where do we find 25 million next year?"

"I do not have the answer to that one today, I do not have the answer," Carter replied.

As funding for homeless services faces drastic cuts, officials say the number of homeless families seeking shelter in D.C. continues to grow.

Betts murder led to juvenile justice agency's overhaul

By: FREEMAN KLOPOTT
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Betts-murder-led-to-juvenile-justice-agency_s-overhaul-1500004-106922173.html#ixzz14mLHOExf

November 8, 2010

The Brian Betts murder and the linking of four of the District's juvenile justice agency's wards to the crime shook the political ground under the Mayor Adrian Fenty-supported reform efforts at the troubled agency, eventually leading to the reform's demise.

The Betts murder was the latest in a string of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services wards. Just two weeks before the Shaw Middle School principal was found shot to death, two other DYRS wards were linked to a mass shooting on South Capitol Street that left four dead and five wounded.

On the day the teens were charged with murdering Betts, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles ordered an investigation into DYRS. Two months later, the report that the review yielded gave Fenty grounds to throw out interim director Marc Schindler. He was replaced by Robert Hildum, the assistant attorney general in charge of the public safety division.

Two of DYRS' top officials left with Schindler. They and Schindler's predecessor, Vincent Schiraldi, had administered a five-year-long reform program focused on rehabilitating DYRS wards by placing them in community treatment programs.

Nickles' report found the program too often allowed the agency's wards to run free when the adult system would have kept them behind bars.

Since taking over the agency in late July, Hildum has focused on reigning in the system. He has been reviewing each of the agency's 900 cases with an eye toward cracking down on wards who have committed violent crimes as he has sought to punish those who have absconded from community programs.

All of these changes have met Nickles' approval, he told The Washington Examiner on Monday.

"I am supportive of the measures Robert Hildum has taken," Nickles said. "He has placed the wards under a greater degree of scrutiny."

Late last month, another DYRS ward was linked to a high-profile murder. Deandrew Hamlin, 18, was found driving the Jeep Cherokee stolen from Sue Ann Marcum's home the night she was beaten to death. Hamlin hasn't been charged with her murder, but he was participating -- under DYRS' direction -- in an outpatient Department of Mental Health program when he was arrested. 

Congress prepared to pounce on D.C.

By: HARRY JAFFE
Examiner Columnist
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Congress-prepared-to-pounce-on-D_C_-1501311-106925278.html

November 8, 2010

What authentic local gifts should incoming Mayor Vincent Gray bring to President Barack Obama when he lunches at the White House Dec. 1?

A half smoke from Ben's Chili Bowl?

A Glock semiautomatic?

A Metro accident report?

"Why not a D.C. license plate?" suggests Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, which advocates for the capital city's full representation in the House. "He could put it on his limo."

Not a bad idea. George Bush removed the D.C. plates that read "No Taxation Without Representation." Obama, who professes to care about his current hometown, has turned down entreaties to reinstate the "taxation" plates.

The facts are that advocates for greater D.C. autonomy from the federal government are not going to get much from this White House. More funds for education and bike lanes, perhaps, but zero on the dream of getting a vote on the House floor for our currently neutered delegate.

Facts are that the District will be so back on its heels when Republicans take over the House in January that we will be lucky to keep Home Rule, limited as it may be.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the hard-core Utah Republican who will chair the D.C. oversight subcommittee, has said Home Rule is unconstitutional.

So when Vince Gray says he's going to push for statehood, I have to ask: Is the dude high on Ecstasy?

What we are likely to get from Congress is meddling like we haven't seen since the days Sen. Jesse Helms put antiabortion riders for D.C. into every bill that crossed his desk. It could be worse. Chaffetz could run the D.C. committee in the manner of Rep. John "Johnny Mack" McMillan in the 1950s. The South Carolina Republican, an avowed segregationist, ruled the capital city as a fiefdom to the great harm of its black residents.

Gun control is in play. The National Rifle Association wants Congress to ban the District's ability to regulate guns. The NRA had the votes last session and could try again.

"We have to be prepared for a fight on the gun issue," Zherka says.

Are we?

Gray and other local politicians play to the masses by advocating statehood, but is the District prepared to lobby against congressional intervention? Rather than running up statehood rhetoric, Gray might want to hire a lobbyist and make friends on Capitol Hill.

The District lost its best and most influential Republican when Fairfax's Tom Davis retired from Congress. In his place we have Frank Wolf, whose children run a charter school in D.C. He's a friend, but he's no Tom Davis.

But Wolf does sit on the Appropriations Committee, which has the power to add riders that would eliminate local measures on medical marijuana, same sex marriage and the like. Alexandria's Jim Moran is on appropriations, too.

Our heroine might be D.C. appropriations subcommittee chair Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri. She's a moderate who has spoken against Congress stepping into D.C. affairs.

With Obama disinterested and hobbled, we could use a heroine in the House.

DCPS still digging through special ed backlog

By Bill Turque

D.C. Schools Insider

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/11/dcps_still_digging_through_spe.html

November 8, 2010; 11:39 AM ET  

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and former schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee can justifiably claim progress in cleaning up some of the school system's historically deficient delivery of special education services. In the summer of 2007, 979 court-ordered hearing officer determinations--formal orders to the school system to place students in special ed programs--languished unimplemented in bureaucratic limbo for as long as four years. That backlog has been rolled back substantially.

But a recent memo to principals from chief academic officer Carey M. Wright indicates that serious problems remain at the other end of the pipeline, before students are declared eligible for special education. When students are first identified by parents or school staff as having possible disabilities, they attempt to address the issues in a regular general education setting. If that doesn't work, children are supposed to receive a formal evaluation, with tests, observations and interviews.

But in August OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent of Education) informed the District that there were more than 400 incomplete special education evaluations and IEP meetings -- sessions between parents and staff to develop an Individualized Education Program for each special needs student. It's earned the District a "Needs Intervention" status for compliance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (IDEA)

"The untimely evaluations may equate to serious delays in providing necessary accomodation and supports to students with special needs," Wright wrote in the Nov. 3 memo. She said some of the evaluations may be showing up as incomplete because they were incorrectly entered into the special education data base.

In any event, she announced that DCPS would be "undertaking a major initiative over the next two months to address and resolve" the tardy evaluations and IEP meetings. Principals will be held accountable for cleaning up the situation--either entering the correct data, conducting evaluations or holding IEP meetings--by mid-January. 

McMillan Plans Start Taking Shape

Posted by Lydia DePillis on Nov. 8, 2010 at 7:07 am

Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2010/11/08/mcmillan-plans-start-taking-shape/#more-16302

Three weeks ago, the design and development teams tasked with the redevelopment of the McMillan Sand Filtration Sitestarted over on the long, painstaking process of doing something with the area that neighbors could accept. After another couple of salons with interested residents, the planners came back to St. Martin's Church on Saturday morning with some general ideas of what pieces might go where--but pretty much all of the details remain to be ironed out.

Based on the surrounding geography, master planner Matt Bell of EEK and landscape architect Warren Byrd of Nelson Byrd Woltz outlined a rough sketch of how the site's 25 acres might be apportioned: Office buildings would go on the north end, across Michigan Avenue from the medical center; townhouses would go on the south end, along Channing Street; with multifamily residential buildings and park space somewhere in between. They also proposed building higher towards the west side of the site, so as not to crowd the short townhouses on North Capitol Street, though that corridor was identified as the most viable location for retail (a representative from Councilmember Harry Thomas' office relayed North Capitol residents' strong desire not to have tall buildings across the street).

A few ideas seemed to have been removed from the table: Byrd said he had heard no requests for formal sports fields, but rather a few smaller green spaces for casual recreation. He also downplayed the possibility of "daylighting" Tiber Creek, which some community members have supported, saying it was buried too far underground to easily unearth.

Other than that, much of the development is to-be-determined before the next community meeting on November 20. The major issues raised include:

Traffic: A new traffic study will be done based on the draft development program, but there's no doubt that handling the new car trips generated by so much housing and new office space--with no metro stop and a potential light rail line certainly many years away--will be challenging. Bell mentioned the possibility of a transit center towards the north end of the site to handle increased bus traffic.

Park space: Where to put it, exactly? In the center, diagonally, or in a big belt from 1st Street to North Capitol? Byrd reported hearing a strong desire for culturally-focused programming, with spaces designed to accommodate art and public performance.

Historic assets: The old sand filtration plant has a number of concrete cells underground that some residents would like to see turned into usable space, so as to leave more room for parkland on the surface.

Developer Jair Lynch, who will be building the multifamily housing component, tapped away at his laptop in between greeting latecomers and chatting with attendees. His architects are waiting for all the community input to be digested before drawing up plans, he said. Asked whether he'd ever attempted a community planning process this contentious and drawn out--the development team first presented its plans in 2008--Lynch thought back to his days at Stanford 20 years ago, when he participated in the redevelopment of parts of San Francisco after theLoma Prieta earthquake. Seeing the residents' difficulty reimagining those gaping holes, he said, was the closest comparison to what he's gone through with McMillan. And he seemed happy with how the restarted process was going.

"To me, this is what democratic design is about," he said, before offering a thought on why it hadn't worked the first time. "People weren't quite ready to give their ideas. They were ready to say no."

Meanwhile, the project's wiki site--complete with voice intros from Bell and ANC 5C chairwoman Anita Bonds--is now live. Log in with your e-mail and zip code to access all the relevant studies and information about the development and design teams, sound off on message boards, post photos, etc.

  

From Monday:
Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/a0Ghvo

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


DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/drtm61



Unavailable online on November 8 (full article below):

Dangers ahead for mayor-elect

By: JONETTA ROSE BARRAS
Examiner Columnist
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Dangers-ahead-for-mayor-elect-106884489.html#ixzz14mFYL2WE

November 8, 2010

 

Vincent C. Gray faces several challenges: a looming fiscal crisis, a divided city, and associations with individuals and businesses with questionable ethics. Unless addressed promptly and forthrightly, they could severely damage his mayoralty — even before he’s inaugurated.

The current budget shortfall of $175 million has been addressed somewhat by the hiring and spending freeze ordered last month by Mayor Adrian Fenty. But Gray has said the problem could balloon to more than $300 million by 2012 — the first budget for which would be responsible. Before he talks tax hikes, Gray has to reduce spending, cutting programs and streamlining agencies. Failing to take such action could signal he lacks toughness.

Contrary to popular belief, the city’s poor and working class aren’t the only ones suffering. Middle- and upper-income citizens have seen dramatic drops in the return on their investments. The values of other assets also have declined. In other words, the economy has been an equal-opportunity destroyer. Few people can afford tax increases.

But reaching that delicate fiscal balance may be easier than bridging the city’s racial and economic divides or stepping away from friends and campaign associates who raise eyebrows among voters.

Nearly 28,000 individuals — 24 percent of voters in the general election — appeared to have participated in the campaign to write in Fenty’s name. The coalition that led the effort now has formed Progress for DC. The group has promised to scrutinize the new mayor’s policies and politics.

Gray spokesperson, Doxie McCoy, said Gray knows he has “a lot of work to do to bring together a divided city.” The “one city committee” under his transition team will “help lead that effort,” she said, adding, “[He] will work every day to reach those who did not vote for him.”
But that outreach could be for naught. Some of those voters already are comparing Gray with former Mayor Marion Barry. They cite Gray’s decision to hold a victory part at Love nightclub, whose owners owe the city nearly $1 million in business and personal taxes. It’s unclear whether Marc and Ann Barnes used the money from the event to pay down their debt.

Critics also have pointed to individuals Gray has appointed to his transition team, including its director. Reuben Charles II appears to have left a trail of unpaid taxes and bad debts in cities and states where he lived or worked before coming to the District three years ago. 
McCoy said Gray has “made an inquiry” to the city’s chief financial officer about the Barneses’ debt and that Charles is working “to clarify any concerns” about his finances. “While no appointments to the Gray administration have been made yet,” McCoy said, “we remain confident in Mr. Charles’ ability to play a central role in the transition.” 

The mayor-elect’s failure to cut the cord between himself and Charles won’t help connect him to disaffected voters, especially those who consider him a 21st-century version of Barry. Surely Gray knows once perceptions solidify, they almost never change.