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Good morning, Today I'm including a story about Joel Klein leaving the New York City school system. While we are focused on DC Government, this story heavily discussed among the Twitter DC gov cognoscenti.
Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips
D.C. Government/Council media clips: Wednesday, November 10, 2010.
Missed yesterday? http://bit.ly/b9XILx
Gray to meet with Fenty on budget cuts - Examiner
Fenty cabinet briefed on resignations, severance - Washington Business Journal
Bonus! Easy $6k for Fenty Campaign Workers - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
D.C. Council OK's CareFirst restrictions - Washington Business Journal
Officials Break Ground For Washington Convention Center Hotel - WAMU
D.C. area tops in well-being survey - Washington Post
Study: D.C. residents less stressed but also less healthy - Examiner
House GOP to push for school vouchers - The Washington Times
Gray: 900 volunteer for transition team - Examiner
Professors Join Gray’s Team - The Hoya
Sorry I missed your funeral, here’s a D.C. Council resolution - Examiner
Vince Gray wants your help solving a D.C. mystery - Washington Post
Gray’s Transition Director is Also Low-Budget Movie Star - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Reuben Charles, the actor - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Kwame Brown creates transition website - Examiner
D.C. homeowners to get foreclosure reprieve - Examiner
Prepare For Mediation! - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Cheh: Capture critters humanely, kill them later - Examiner
New Website allows riders to track Circulator - Examiner
Shaping the District's legislature - Examiner
Race and Economics: A Nation and Its Capital Divided - Huffington Post
Being discussed
New York schools chief Joel Klein to resign; Hearst executive will replace him - Washington Post
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/gray-to-meet-with-fenty-on-budget-cuts-106980543.html#ixzz14sKX1Any
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/gray-to-meet-with-fenty-on-budget-cuts-106980543.html#ixzz14sKX1Any
11/09/10 3:00 PM EST
D.C. Mayor-elect Vince Gray said he will meet with Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office Tuesday afternoon to go over the latest draft of budget changes needed to slash $175 million from the District’s budget.
Gray said the budget changes being considered “look grim” for city agencies and services. He reiterated that he won’t consider tax increases until residents have had the opportunity to see how deep cuts will be without them.
On the campaign trail, Gray repeatedly told residents they should expect deep cuts to city services. But by not tossing aside the possibility of raising taxes, he’s also preparing the city for the likelihood that residents will have to fork over more cash.
Gray, in other words, is telling residents if they want to keep city services at the current level, they’ll have to pay more for them.
Fenty cabinet briefed on resignations, severance
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 2:56pm EST - Last Modified: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 3:58pm EST
Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet members, most of them at least, were briefed Tuesday on their looming unemployment during a meeting in the Wilson Building.
"How you doing, chief?" I asked Fire Chief Dennis Rubin as he left the Mayor's Press Briefing Room on the ground floor of the District building.
"Everything is great for me," he said. "Thank you, sir."
Perhaps because he read Page 2 of the "Transition Exit Information Packet," which spells out "separation pay." We'll assume Rubin, like other agency heads, worked out his exit salary well ahead of time.
Executive service, that is, Fenty's cabinet, reap a severance package "at the discretion of the mayor" in "accordance your employment agreement."
Excepted service employees — the mayor's policy, communications and community relations staff, among others — are due up to 12 weeks of severance as long as they don't resign before Dec. 17. They will also receive their unused leave time in a lump-sum.
What they will not get is a bonus.
Former Mayor Anthony Williams paid out more than $500,000 in bonuses to 28 top aides in the months just before and after he left office — a decision later panned by the D.C. Auditor. A top Fenty aide said the administration is "very sensitive" about the topic, and it "won't be like before."
Officials at the briefing included Chief Procurement Officer David Gragan, Chief Technology Officer Bryan Sivak, Consumer and Regulatory Affiars Director Linda Argo, Planning Director Harriet Tregoning, Health Director Pierre Vigilance, Public Works Director Bill Howland, Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon Swain, and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Valerie Santos.
Reporters (there was only one) were not allowed in the meeting.
"This is depressing," one participant said in the hallway.
Another described her last months on the job like the end of a college career: "What am I going to do now that the training is over?"
As we reported Monday, the packet provides details on insurance benefits, unemployment, retirement plans and other pertinent information that any person about to lose his job would need. The employees must return all District government property in their possession on their termination date — cell phones, personal digital assistance, parking space placards. All of their user names and passwords for D.C. IT systems "will be deleted immediately."
Brender Gregory, director of the Department of Human Resources, also includes a handy sample resignation letter. The letters must be turned in by Nov. 19. The incoming Vincent Gray administration, according to a Gregory memo, will decide who, if anybody, to retain by Dec. 15.
Bonus! Easy $6k for Fenty Campaign Workers
Posted by Alan Suderman on Nov. 9, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
LL wrote a month ago on a number of former campaign workers for Still Mayor Adrian Fenty getting city jobs just before Fenty ordered a hiring freeze to deal with the city's $175 million budget gap.
LL couldn't nail down whether the half-dozen or so Fenty faithful who were awarded $70k-a-year jobs for a couple of months of work in an administration that's cruising on autopilot until Jan. 2 would get separation pay.
Now comes the Washington Business Journal's Michael Neibauer, who got his delicate hands on a copy of the Fenty administration's "Transition Exit Information Packet."
The packet, prepared by D.C. Department of Human Resources Director Brender Gregory, appears to say that the newly employed Fenty campaign workers are eligible for four weeks of seperation pay.
Here's all the packet says about short-timers:
Excepted Service employees are eligible for separation pay upon separation. Separation pay will not be paid if an Excepted Service employee separates before December 17, 2010. Separation pay will be disbursed through a mailed check or direct deposit (whichever method is currently used to pay your salary). Your separation payment should be received within 3 to 6 weeks after the date of your separation.
Note: By law, separation pay for Excepted or Executive Service employees who have been employed by the District government for less than 1 year shall not exceed 4 weeks of the employees’ basic pay. Separation pay for other Excepted and Executive Service shall not exceed 12 weeks of the employees’ basic pay.
At $70,000-a-year salary, that comes to roughly a $6,000 parting gift. Which is a pretty nice payday after working only three months on the job.
LL has, of course, reached out to the Fenty administration to make sure there isn't some rule LL doesn't know about prohibiting separation pay for the short-timers and for comment on the appropriateness of the separation pay for favored campaign aides. LL will update as needed.
D.C. Council OK's CareFirst restrictions
Washington Business Journal - by Ben Fischer
Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 5:53pm EST
The D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill imposing new limits on health insurance premium hikes on first reading on Tuesday, paving the way for final approval later this month.
Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, D-Ward 4, combined several older pieces of pending insurance regulation into the bill, including a ban on different health rates based solely on gender, and give the D.C. Insurance Commissioner new guidelines to determine whether rate hikes are reasonable.
It would also impose strict limits on the “age bands” that health insurance companies often use to set rates. If approved, rate increases based solely on the age of a covered person advancing by one year would be limited to 4 percent, and no age group’s standard rate could be more than three times the standard rate for any other age.
While the legislation applies to all health plans, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is the District's dominant market leader and generally is considered the target of the legislation. A final vote is expected Nov. 23.
Officials Break Ground For Washington Convention Center Hotel
Matt Laslo
Matt Laslo
WAMU
Listen to story (Windows Media): http://wamu.org/audio/nw/10/11/n2101110-38558.asx
November 10, 2010
Whenever groups have booked an event at the convention center since its opening in 2003, they have also had to reserve hotels across the city, which officials say is an inconvenience for out-of-town guests. The new hotel will allow thousands of those guests to stay right downtown.
Greg O'Dell, CEO of the convention center, says the $537 million hotel is symbolic of the D.C. metro region's growing economy.
"It really shows...the financial strength of D.C. at a time when other jurisdictions haven't been able to, unfortunately, move the ball in terms of economic development," O'Dell says. "We're not only getting this large-scale project under way, but also it's an attraction that shows D.C. is probably the strongest market in terms of foreign financial investment as well."
Across from the convention center at Modern Liquors, the owner's son, Shravan Dilawri, says local businesses are eager for the new hotel, because currently visitors just come to a convention and then leave.
"If there's a convention we get effectively five or 10 [people], nothing more...because they come on the buses and the buses drop them [at] their room," Dilawri says.
Located to the southwest of the convention center, officials hope the new hotel will spark an additional $100 million in spending from visitors.
But Dilawri admits local business aren't too excited about the 42 months it's expected to take to construct the new hotel.
D.C. area tops in well-being survey
By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111000004.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111000004.html
Wednesday, November 10, 2010; 12:02 AM
The Washington region ranks first among the country's 10 largest metropolitan areas on an index that measures life expectancy, education and income, according to a report to be released Wednesday.
The region's top score is driven in large part by the high education and income levels of whites and Asian Americans living in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, the report says. Although some of the information underscores what is generally known about the area, the report by the American Human Development Project, an initiative of the Brooklyn-based nonprofit Social Science Research Council, reveals some startling gaps in what it calls the building blocks of a good life.
White D.C. residents have the longest life expectancy of whites in any state, 83.1 years, the report says. That is 12 years longer than the life span, on average, for blacks in the city. The average life expectancy for blacks is 71, the lowest for blacks in any state. The average life expectancy for blacks in the District is about the same as what it was for the average American in the 1970s.
The index of well-being does not vary greatly among the top 10 metropolitan areas, said Sarah Burd-Sharps, a co-author of the report. The Washington region ranked first, followed by the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston areas.
In many cases, however, "there are enormous chasms when you pull the data apart," she said.
Those extremes are evident in the D.C. area. The District has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation. And although the District has a high drop-out rate and low school enrollment for ages 3 to 24, "it's also a place that attracts people with high levels of education to high-paying jobs," she said.
"What pulls it way up in scale is the number of people who have a bachelor's degree or a professional degree," she said.
Nearly half of the people in the Washington region - about 47 percent - have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 41 percent in the No. 2-Boston region, according to the report.
The report tracked health, education and income in each state and the District, each of the 435 congressional districts, and each of the five major ethnic groups in every state, Burd-Sharps said.
"If you want to know whether we're making progress, you need to measure these things . . . which are as critical to stock market gyrations and all the money measures which we measure with great intensity," she said.
The authors ranked the congressional districts because they are linked to elected officials. "Their job is to make sure people are not dying premature deaths at huge rates," she said.
Three of the region's congressional districts - the 11th and 8th in affluent Northern Virginia and the 8th in Maryland, which includes high-income parts of Montgomery County - were among the top 10 districts in the United States, the report says.
With a median household income of $85,000, according to the latest census data, and an unemployment rate well below the national average, the Washington region is considered the most affluent in the country.
The report used an index that is a composite measure of three equally weighted indicators: median personal earnings, life expectancy, and school enrollment of those ages 3 to 24 and highest degree attained by adults 25 and older.
The authors used 2008 census data for education and earnings and calculated life expectancy using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Study: D.C. residents less stressed but also less healthy
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Study_-D_C_-residents-less-stressed-but-also-less-healthy-1510876-106991663.html#ixzz14sIsVf6X
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Study_-D_C_-residents-less-stressed-but-also-less-healthy-1510876-106991663.html#ixzz14sIsVf6X
November 9, 2010
Residents in the D.C. area are less stressed than they were just one year ago, but those who remain stressed are suffering increasingly serious health problems and are struggling to combat the anxiety caused largely by economic concerns, a study released Tuesday shows.
The American Psychological Association's recent online poll found that many area residents are reporting lower levels of stress in 2010 than they did in 2009, and that most District residents were more likely to say they do a good job of exercising regularly and eating only a healthy diet. It's the third year in a row that stress levels have declined.
But the poll of 212 residents in the D.C. area also revealed increases in the number of people reporting serious stress-related health conditions such as high cholesterol (36 percent), high blood pressure (35 percent), and type 2 diabetes (13 percent, nearly twice the 2009 level).
"It's good news to see that fewer people in the region are reporting such high levels of stress," said Dr. Mary Alvord, public education coordinator for the Maryland Psychological Association. "But it's also alarming that more people have health problems and that they struggle with adopting the necessary lifestyle changes that can improve their health."
A majority of residents in the region, 62 percent, say they're doing enough to keep stress in check.
Many D.C.-area residents say they're just too busy to get healthy. Twenty-three percent say they just don't have enough time to make the lifestyle changes their doctors recommend, such as exercising, losing weight and eating healthier. Only 7 percent of residents blame stress for preventing them from changing habits.
The poll found that financial concerns are the chief cause of stress among area residents. Some 72 percent say money is the source of their stress, up from 60 percent in 2009. Another 67 percent blame the overall economy, up from 56 percent in 2009.
On the upside, the study found that the D.C. region is less stressed than other major metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
House GOP to push for school vouchers
Revival of D.C. program eyed
The Washington Times
8:24 p.m., Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Despite the opposition of the incoming D.C. mayor and the Democratic president, key House Republican lawmakers say they will push a popular school-voucher program that was canceled by the Obama administration.
A spokeswoman for Rep. John Kline, Minnesota Republican and likely chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said her boss and other House leaders continue to support the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program and intend to pursue its revival.
"Congressman Kline is very focused on restoring the program," spokeswoman Alexa Marrero said.
She added that presumptive House Speaker-to-be John A. Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa, incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which oversees D.C. affairs, also "remain strong supporters" of the D.C. voucher program.
Advocates "can count on" Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican and the ranking member on the Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that oversees the District of Columbia, to push for re-funding vouchers, said his spokeswoman, Alisia Essig.
In 2009, Mr. Chaffetz co-sponsored Mr. Boehner's Preserving D.C. Student Scholarships Act, which would have re-funded the Opportunity Scholarships program, she added.
In 2004, the Bush administration established the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program to provide economically disadvantaged students up to $7,500 in tuition to attend private and religious schools of their parents choosing. But President Obama wanted to direct federal dollars elsewhere, and Congress obliged by prohibiting new students from enrolling in the program.
Local school-choice advocates said Mr. Obama opened wide the door for a renewed push for vouchers when, in post-election comments last week, he said that education is one area where he and Republicans might find "potential common ground" in expanding the voucher program to aid children trapped in underperforming D.C. schools.
"By taking action, reversing course and saving the endangered D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, President Obama will rescue the educational futures of thousands of low-income children who live just blocks from the White House," said former D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous, who advocates the three-pronged education-reform approach of public schools, public charter schools and vouchers.
"The president will find a ready and willing coalition of Republicans eager to help him on this — as well as legions of supporters, Democratic and Republican, in Congress and in the District of Columbia itself," Mr. Chavous said. "Even Education Secretary Arne Duncan indicated that education would be an area of mutual collaboration with Republicans. I submit that the D.C. [Opportunity Scholarship Program] is the place to start."
Despite his canceling the Opportunity Scholarship Program, Mr. Obama has been supportive of school-reform efforts, including the possibility of teacher firings, though, like most high-ranking federal elected officials, he sends his own children to a private school.
The U.S. Constitution empowers Congress with wide latitude regarding D.C. affairs, and federal lawmakers have traditionally exercised that prerogative during the appropriations process. Unlike his two predecessors, incoming Mayor Vincent C. Gray opposes public funding for school-voucher programs.
Long-standing spending-bill riders once prohibited the city from using local dollars on needle-exchange and medical-marijuana programs. But since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007 and did not extend these riders, the District of Columbia has passed liberal social-policy laws on gay marriage, medical marijuana and other issues.
The degree to which Republicans will push back the city's recent free run of implementing liberal social policies is uncertain as GOP leaders continue to focus most on transition-related issues. Also, while the scholarship program can be revived through the federal budget process, these other laws are now on the city's books and thus harder to reverse.
But the city's elected nonvoting House delegate said the city would try to work with the incoming Republicans for the next two years, and she played down talk of imminent disaster on D.C. oversight issues.
Don't "prejudge the new Congress," Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said after her re-election victory. "In 2012, we will have a much greater slice of the electorate out and can get back to business on voting rights and statehood."
Still, Washington's local pro-family activists are also calling on incoming and rising Republicans to put the brakes on the 112th Congress on some D.C. social policies, though the small D.C. Republican Party wants to pursue a cautious approach with their Capitol Hill counterparts.
When asked whether "tea party"-backed Sen.-elect Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, and other congressional conservatives threaten the city's laws on gay marriage and medical marijuana or its push for congressional voting rights, D.C. Republican leaders sounded more like Mrs. Norton, a liberal Democrat.
"With the gains we saw in Congress for the Republicans, we hope to work with the new Congress in educating them on D.C.-related issues," said Paul Craney, the party's executive director, who went on to warn D.C. city officials against picking a fight.
"It would be too early to prejudge the freshmen members, and we hope D.C. Democratic elected officials do not soil any potential relationships by casting Republicans as boogeymen or villains. Now is not the time for politics or name-callings; rather, it's a ripe time to build relationships."
But social conservatives rejected such a wait-and-see approach, saying the leadership in city hall and the halls of Congress encouraged Mrs. Norton, a gay rights booster and staunch opponent of vouchers, to push the city to the left.
Missy Reilly Smith, a pro-life, pro-voucher Republican who lost her bid for the delegate seat against Mrs. Norton, and other advocates of traditional marriage said D.C. elected officials are hypocrites to push voting rights but at the same time deny residents the right to vote on gay marriage and send their children to the schools of their choice.
Mrs. Norton "wrapped herself in the flag of voting rights, but denied education rights to children. It is absolutely imperative that all our children receive a quality education. Every parent should have a choice for their children," Mrs. Smith said.
Even some of D.C.'s conservative Democrats urge a reversal of city laws on the family-values front and see the incoming Republicans as allies.
"The marijuana bill is something else that should be revisited," said longtime Democratic activist Kathryn Pearson-West. "Washington, D.C., is too liberal and could use some moderation. For the first time in my life, I am excited about an incoming Republican Congress — though I don't want Congress to stay that way forever.
"I'm a lifelong Democrat, but now I am focused solely on issues and policies, particularly family values. Our D.C. leadership did a terrible disservice to the citizens of the District of Columbia when they chose to deny citizens the right to vote on the centuries-old definition of marriage," she said
Gray: 900 volunteer for transition team
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/gray-900-volunteer-for-transition-team-106979553.html#ixzz14sKafVwL
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/gray-900-volunteer-for-transition-team-106979553.html#ixzz14sKafVwL
11/09/10 2:45 PM EST
Mayor-elect Vince Gray says 900 people have asked to join his transition team as volunteers since he officially announced the team on Wednesday.
“It’s a great way for people to get involved in the Democratic process,” Gray said Tuesday afternoon.
Gray said he got his start on District government in 1990 when he was asked to work on the Department of Health transition team. He was later hired to direct the $1 billion department.
Professors Join Gray’s Team
By Neil Quinn
The Hoya
Nov 09 2010
Just days after handily winning the D.C. mayoral election, Vincent Gray named a group of advisers to help him through the transition period before his inauguration. And at least four members of the team have ties to Georgetown.
Gray won the general mayoral election on Nov. 2, after defeating incumbent mayor Adrian Fenty in the Democratic Primary in September. Gray will be inaugurated on Jan. 2.
Two of the advisers will come from the Law Center, according to the Georgetown Dish, a neighborhood blog. Robert Spagnoletti (LAW ’87), a former adjunct professor and D.C. lawyer, will concentrate on law and public safety, and Peter Edelman, a Georgetown law professor, will advise Gray on health and human services.
Individuals from the main campus also have a hand in the transition process. Alice Rivlin, a fiscal policy expert and visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, will work on budgetary issues. Maria Gomez (NHS ’77), who runs a citywide network of nonprofit health clinics, will partner with Edelman on health and human service issues.
Not all of Gray’s first week has been smooth, however. On election night, he lost almost a quarter of the mayoral vote to Fenty in a write-in campaign. Fenty did not actually support the write-in campaign, but members of his staff aided volunteers.
Gray has also drawn controversy because of his seeming support of organizations and people who owe back taxes. He held his election-night victory party at Love, a nightclub in northeast D.C. that owes the city around $860,000 in taxes, and selected Reuben Charles, a fundraiser for Gray who owes the state of Illinois more than $200,000, to head his transition team.
Over the weekend, Gray was also heavily criticized for missing the funeral of Paul Dittamo, a police officer killed in an on-duty car crash, and instead breaking bread with Kwame Brown, the new chair of the D.C. Council. Gray said that his staff had forgotten the event.
Sorry I missd your funeral, here’s a D.C. Council resolution
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/sorry-i-missd-your-funeral-heres-a-dc-council-resolution-106987303.html#ixzz14sKRq1Oe
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/sorry-i-missd-your-funeral-heres-a-dc-council-resolution-106987303.html#ixzz14sKRq1Oe
11/09/10 4:20 PM EST
Mayor-elect Vince Gray took a shot at making up for missing the funeral of a fallen D.C. police officer last week by getting the D.C. Council to unanimously approve a resolution in Officer Paul Dittamo’s memory.
Gray was lunching with Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown while the District’s police department was parading through the city to memorialize and bury Dittamo on Thursday. The two-year veteran died Oct. 30 when his cruiser slammed into a utility pole in Southeast.
Not attending Dittamo’s funeral was Gray’s first misstep as mayor-elect after winning the general election two days earlier.
“The council of the District of Columbia commends and honors Officer Paul Dittamo for his kindness to others, his commitment to his family and community, and for his dedication to his position at the District of Columbia Police Department,” Gray said upon introducing the resolution Tuesday afternoon.
Vince Gray wants your help solving a D.C. mystery
By John Kelly
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110904548.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110904548.html
Tuesday, November 9, 2010; 9:41 PM
For who knows how long (really: Who? No one knows), a large, black plaque hung on the wall of a ground-floor corridor near the 131/2 Street NW entrance to the John A. Wilson Building, a.k.a. the District Building, home to Washington's mayor, city council and other government officials.
When I say the plaque was big, I mean huge. Made of several glass panels, it was about five feet wide and four feet tall and covered with names painted in gold. That's about all anybody's sure of.
When renovation of the District Building started in 1997, the plaque was taken down. It is not easy to take down big pieces of glass, and some of them broke. Or maybe they broke after they were put in storage. In any event, the plaque was absent for more than a decade, until WTOP reporter Mark Segraves heard about it and started poking around in the basement for it.
A janitor found the pieces last year in a closet across from the council chamber, which is where they were Tuesday morning, leaning against the wall under a couple of dusty ladders. One jagged piece had been removed and propped against a lectern in the council chamber, where Chairman Vincent Gray turned to the public for help in ascertaining the plaque's purpose.
For here is the problem: No one knows what the commemorative plaque actually commemorates. Even people who walked past it every day for 30 years are scratching their heads, trying to remember.
"We think it's World War II. We think it's District employees," Nelson Rimensnyder told me on the phone over the weekend. "But we need to confirm that."
Nelson's a history buff who has been working with another, Bill Rice, to glean information about the plaque. Cynthia Brock-Smith, secretary to the council, has been typing up the names from the plaque. She's up to 1,869, from W.S. Abell to George Zuras. Some of the names are unreadable, though, because of the way the glass shattered or the gold leaf flaked away.
And the real problem is this: Still missing is a panel from the top that presumably announced what exactly the plaque was for. There was an eagle up there, too. Or maybe it was an image of the District Building. (Memories vary.)
A single indistinct photo of the plaque in place has been found, and Tuesday it was on an easel in the chamber, the curious crowding around it looking for clues.
"My old office was that way," said Venious Parker, who has worked for the city since Mayor Washington. He can't remember what the plaque was for.
"People thought it was a world war," Nelson had said. "What world war, they're not sure."
There's already a monument on the first floor to the dozen or so D.C. city employees who died in the Great War. Nelson said that 3,839 D.C. residents were killed in World War II. It seems unlikely that half of them worked for the city.
"And some of the names are repeated, which we don't understand, either," Nelson said. There are also dozens of women's names (Geraldine F. Baron, June M. Cogswell, Anna M. Yost . . . ).
Whatever the plaque is, on Tuesday, Vince Gray announced what he called the "Chairman's Challenge." He asked for help solving the mystery, with the aim of restoring the plaque by Nov. 11, 2011.
I just hope it doesn't turn out to be Employee of the Month.
If you think you know what the plaque is for, send an e-mail to dcwarmemorial@dccouncil.us. Be sure to copy me: kellyj@washpost.com. The full list of names should be available within the week at www.dccouncil.us .
Get out the vote
It was not lost on anyone in the council chamber (especially since Mayor-elect Gray brought it up) that D.C. residents have given their lives for this country in every war. It borders on the obscene that they've done so while not enjoying full representation in Congress.
A new party will soon control the House. Will its members help right this wrong?
Gray’s Transition Director is Also Low-Budget Movie Star
Posted by Alan Suderman on Nov. 9, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Almost Mayor Vince Gray's transition director Reuben Charles is kind of a mystery. He met Gray in May, and quickly became his top fundraiser, de facto campaign manager, and now directs the transition team.
But we still don't know what much about him. LL has reported on part of his past in the Midwest, which includes some unpaid debts, and his financialbacking of a prison consulting firm.
Now we have a video (H/T to the Post) of Charles the movie star. The film is 12,a 2003 low-budget video that still exists on YouTube. Here's the plot summary on IMDB:
Best Friends since childhood, Jack, Steve and Larry found St. Louis an unlikely spot for the Pope's annual pilgrimage. Raised on the streets the three boys survived the harsh winters and harsher summers cheering their beloved Rams, Blus and Cards...they also dealt drugs. Jack's girlfriend now pregnant vows enough is enough and would not accept a drug dealer as father to her child... and Steve the ringleader has something very important to share with his lifetime cohorts...on this very special day...their lifes are about to change...forever.
Charles plays drug tycoon "Lowell Heschel." The film was directed by Lloyd A. Silverman. Back story from the Post:
Silverman gained acclaim as executive producer of 1999's "Snow Falling on Cedars," which was praised and nominated for an Oscar for its cinematography.
A few years later, Silverman was shooting a film in St. Louis, where Charles, a member of an art museum board at the time, was friendly with Silverman and his wife. Charles said he agreed to let Silverman shoot scenes in his office and he soon found himself in the film.
See the video clip after the jump:
Money line: "Everyman had his passions, religion's mine." Deep!
LL thinks Charles has got some good acting chops. What do you think?
Reuben Charles, the actor
By Nikita R Stewart
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
November 9, 2010; 12:10 PM ET
The more we get to know Reuben O. Charles II, the more we learn about him. Turns out that the St. Louis entrepreneur-turned-controversial chief of operations for Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray's transition once played a drug tycoon in an independent, little-known film directed by Lloyd A. Silverman.
Silverman gained acclaim as executive producer of 1999's "Snow Falling on Cedars," which was praised and nominated for an Oscar for its cinematography.
A few years later, Silverman was shooting a film in St. Louis, where Charles, a member of an art museum board at the time, was friendly with Silverman and his wife. Charles said he agreed to let Silverman shoot scenes in his office and he soon found himself in the film.
Charles said he'd had little acting experience, save for a role playing Paul Robeson when he was attending Barber Scotia College in North Carolina.
A Variety review in 2003 called the film "an artistic exercise" and said Charles's character, Lowell Heschel, had been "filmed like Lucifer himself."
Check out this YouTube clip. Heschel opens up the scene with: "My father told me a long time ago, the best way to gauge a man's loyalties is by understanding his passions."
Kwame Brown creates transition website
By: Cathy Gainor
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/kwame-brown-creates-transition-website-106974753.html#ixzz14sKducIW
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/kwame-brown-creates-transition-website-106974753.html#ixzz14sKducIW
11/09/10 1:45 PM EST
D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown has launched his transition website.
The website allows visitors to apply for jobs as they become available in the future chairman’s office. There’s also space for residents to volunteer to help the transition team, which Brown announced on Monday.
Brown has budgeted up to $150,000 for his transition. The website is one of the initial expenses and he said he expects it will expand as he uses technology to better reach out to residents. All of the funding will be raised from private donors. Brown said he will release details on donors when the transition is complete.
D.C. homeowners to get foreclosure reprieve
By: FREEMAN KLOPOTT
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/D_C_-homeowners-to-get-foreclosure-reprieve-1512275-107000153.html#ixzz14sGsq39C
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/D_C_-homeowners-to-get-foreclosure-reprieve-1512275-107000153.html#ixzz14sGsq39C
November 9, 2010
The D.C. Council passed an emergency bill requiring mortgage lenders to enter a 90-day mediation before foreclosing on a home.
Introduced by Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, the bill is designed to force lenders to provide homeowners with alternatives to losing their homes. Bowser said it was necessary that the council act quickly to slow down the number of residents being kicked out of their houses because they can't pay off their loans.
More than 1,300 houses in the District had foreclosure filings in September, according to online foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac.
The bill passed unanimously on Tuesday is similar to a law enacted in Maryland earlier this year, but Maryland's law has not had the effect lawmakers had hoped.
"Mediation gives the homeowner a neutral, open opportunity to find a way to keep their home," Bowser told The Washington Examiner. "Foreclosure isn't always the best option. Sometimes the loan can be modified."
The bill requires lenders to send homeowners a form to opt in or out of mediation when the lender sends the foreclosure notification. Homeowners then have 30 days to send it back. If borrowers choose to enter mediation, they will have an additional 90 days to hammer out a new deal. Homeowners currently have 30 days to agree on options other than foreclosure with lenders.
In the last three months of 2009, half of the 680,000 homeowners who were able to modify their loans through the federal loan modification program redefaulted in six months, according to a report from the Office of Thrift Supervision.
It will be up to the District's Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking to make sure lenders are following the rules, and to set the fee that mediators can collect. The fee can be no more than $1,000, of which homeowners would have to pay $50, although that can be waived.
Homeowners in Maryland have been slow to take up the option their state's lawmakers afforded them when passing a similar measure in the spring. The Washington Examiner reported that, as of last month, 130 borrowers had opted for mediation, making it unlikely that the state will reach the 4,360 it expected by July 2011.
Critics also say the mediation processes could slow down the economy's recovery.
"The longer this [foreclosure crisis] lingers, the harder it is going to be before a full recovery," Dan Caplan, a senior mortgage consultant for Monument Bank in Bethesda, said recently. "We need to get through this mess and be done with it -- put it behind us -- rather than drag it out."
Examiner Staff Writer Hayley Peterson contributed to this report.
Prepare For Mediation!
Posted by Lydia DePillis on Nov. 9, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Well, that was fast. In today's blizzard of Council votes, Councilmember Muriel Bowsershoved through an emergency version of legislation she introduced a couple weeks agothat would require mediation between a lender and the person about to be foreclosed upon, and require the new owner to rent the property back to the old owner if he or she wants to stay. The mayor has ten days to veto it, after which the measure will take effect–though it'll take a little longer for the Department of Insurance, Security, and Banking to write up the regs that will govern who mediates and how. Once that happens, this could be a significant change for homeowners at risk of foreclosure. In certain circumstances, Bowser's bill allows for a Mediation Administrator to impose sanctions on a lender who refuses to cooperate, including loan modification "in the manner determined proper by the court."
It's important, though, not to lose sight of the fact that resources are scarce for counseling that can prevent that foreclosure notice from being sent in the first place. And that should be a priority, because it would be too bad if the system DISB sets up, either because of inadequate funding or incompetent administration, didn't run as smoothly as planned. For example, the three-member Rental Housing Commission has been without a quorum for many months now, creating headaches for tenants and landlords appealing decisions of the Rent Administrator (a position held by three different people in the last year).
So here's hoping the new Mediator isn't the first place a homeowner gets help with her mortgage. What Shaun Donovan said: A lot can be done on the front end to keep people from ending up in foreclosure in the first place.
Cheh: Capture critters humanely, kill them later
By: FREEMAN KLOPOTT
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Cheh_-Capture-critters-humanely_-kill-them-later-1511541-106997423.html#ixzz14sHTn3vB
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Cheh_-Capture-critters-humanely_-kill-them-later-1511541-106997423.html#ixzz14sHTn3vB
November 9, 2010
The critters that creep into D.C. residents' homes shouldn't rest too easy now that the D.C. Council has passed a bill designed to outlaw their inhumane slaughter.
Raccoons, opossums, foxes and other "nuisance" beasts can still face death once they're caught in the humane traps the council is now requiring professional animal catchers to use.
"This bill doesn't stop euthanasia," said its sponsor, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh. "They can still be killed, it just has to be humane."
The bill had a bumpy road to its unanimous passage on Tuesday. First there were concerns that it would prevent homeowners from trapping and killing mice -- the bill only applies to wildlife managers, not homeowners, and they can still kill most rats and mice. Then last week, a Virginia wildlife official said the state would not accept the District's overflow nuisance critters.
On Tuesday, Cheh said the Virginia official's concerns were "ridiculous" because the bill doesn't require captured animals to be taken to a rehabilitation center, as the Virginia official implied in a letter sent to the council.
"You can just kill them," Cheh reiterated.
But although those problems may be solved, others still loom, said Gene Harrington of the National Pest Management Association.
Chief among the association's concerns is that wildlife managers now would be violating the law if they set a snap trap -- the type commonly purchased in a hardware store that's set on a spring and snaps the mouse's neck -- and it catches a rodent listed as protected by the wildlife bill. Wildlife managers are allowed to use snap traps only to kill two types of rats and the common house mouse under the bill -- all others are forbidden and could result in fines. But once the trap is set, they can't control which animals wander into them.
"Now, they'll be afraid to trap any rodents," Harrington said. "The bill is misguided and it jeopardizes the health, safety and welfare of D.C. residents."
Cheh said the concerns are unfounded.
"All the bill does is attempt to regulate a business so that it doesn't use inhumane methods of trapping," she said. "If you understand this bill, then you shouldn't oppose it."
New Website allows riders to track Circulator
By: ANNA WAUGH
Special to The Washington Examiner
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/New-Website-allows-riders-to-track-Circulator-1511432-106993343.html#ixzz14sIUwz8S
Special to The Washington Examiner
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/New-Website-allows-riders-to-track-Circulator-1511432-106993343.html#ixzz14sIUwz8S
November 9, 2010
D.C. residents can keep a closer eye on the D.C. Circulator with a new Web site the D.C. Department of Transportation has rolled out.
Circulatordashboard.dc.gov allows residents to follow the progression of the 49 buses that span the six routes and carry more than 4 million passengers a year. The Circulator Dashboard offers data and information on 23 items such as safety and ridership as well as finance and customer service.
The site also will help DDOT map out how to expand the system, which was created in 2005 with two lines.
DDOT spokesman John Lisle said the Web site is intended to inform residents about the progress of the bus system over the next three to 10 years and to be more open about the inner workings of the system.
"I think the main thing from a standpoint of citizens is that this is a service that they pay for," he said. "We're really improving our transparency but also being more accountable to taxpayers and showing them here is how we're using your money in regards to the Circulator."
DDOT began a six-month study this summer to figure out where to add more routes, Lisle said.
The Web site features benchmarks that trace the modifications to the system, tying in information from the study. Lisle said the study will create a plan and help set goals and benchmarks for the service.
"As a consumer, I'd rather have more information about the services that I'm paying for and the services that I'm using," he said.
Visitors can download data for analysis, compare popular routes and view rider numbers, but must install Microsoft Silverlight, a free software download. He said the program is Macintosh-compatible but will not work on the iPhone.
Shaping the District's legislature
By: JONETTA ROSE BARRAS
Examiner Columnist
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Shaping-the-District_s-legislature-1508579-107010798.html#ixzz14sJO3Atk
Examiner Columnist
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Shaping-the-District_s-legislature-1508579-107010798.html#ixzz14sJO3Atk
November 9, 2010
It's hard to fathom innovation coming from D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown's transition team. Several members have been around the block a few times and inside city hall for decades, trying to influence people and policies.
For example, Rod Woodson, a partner with Holland & Knight and a registered lobbyist, has testified at many public hearings and worked as a general counsel for the city's Housing Finance Agency. He will lead the transition committee charged with evaluating council organization and rules; its recommendations could affect Woodson's law practice, which focuses on "administrative, regulatory and legislative" affairs in the District.
Is that a conflict of interest? Brown said no.
It's amazing the things we can't see when we close our eyes.
Brown said he has "all the confidence" in Woodson, who has served in previous transitions. Translation: No one complained before, so don't start crying foul now. Further, said Brown, "They are not telling us what to do."
I'm not knocking experience. But far too often the folks with so-called experience have never operated outside the District. They have developed a compendium of "best practices" but know little about implementing them. The challenges facing the District mean elected officials and managers will be forced to cut spending while keeping the city moving forward. Under such circumstances, innovation becomes the prime directive.
Brown said he has scheduled meetings with representatives from other state and local legislatures to discern which policies or practices can be imported to the District. He also cited his decision to create a Budget Advisory Council as one example of his willingness to do things differently. "Plus, I think I've been known to bring some innovation, I'm not going to stop," he added.
Gregory McCarthy, transition chairman and a vice president for the Washington Nationals, later told me the team's structure departs from previous transitions. There's a committee for nearly every council function -- from organization, to policy initiatives and public engagement.
"We wanted to get into the weeds," said McCarthy. He noted the public engagement committee won't simply look at the council's Web site and links, "but the whole world of Twitter, apps and other online stuff. This will be one place -- though not the only -- where innovation comes forward."
McCarthy said the transition team would help provide resources and ideas for solutions to problems. "Things will be poised to kind of go where [Brown's] going."
Brown didn't provide details on council committees or even how he intends to address the city's looming fiscal crisis. But it was clear by the confident demeanor he displayed and his strong language about "making tough decisions" he doesn't intend to be timid or to stand in the shadow of his former colleague who's moving to the mayoral suite.
"I believe in an equal branch of government," he said. "I know Mayor-elect Gray believes in the same thing."
The transition team's recommendations could provide clues for how that "equality" thing ultimately plays out.
Dedrick Muhammad, Research Associate for the Institute for Policy Studies
Huffington Post
Posted: November 9, 2010 10:06 AM
It is said one has to get outside of Washington DC to get a proper perspective on the nation's problems, but the nation's capital provides plenty of insight into the challenges facing this country. Washington DC, like the country as a whole, is currently on a path of increasing division and inequality. The DC Fiscal Policy Institute notes that in Washington DC the average household income for the richest fifth increased by 81% or $78,900 from 1980 to 2006. For the middle fifth there was an increase of 31% or $11,000 and for the poorest fifth only a 3% increase equaling $400. In over 25 years, the richest of DC increased their household income by almost $80,000, while the poorest saw their increase disappear by spending an extra dollar a day over one year. Similarly, from 1980 to 2005 over 80% of the total increase in all of America's income went to the top 1 percent.
This growing economic inequality has strengthened racial and class divisions throughout the country, creating new dynamics in the defacto segregation that still exist in Washington DC and many of the country's urban centers. The new trend in the ongoing segregation of America is the urbanization of upper income whites and the suburbanization of the working class and disenfranchised minorities. The new trend is reversing the segregationist trends of the latter half of the 20th century..
In the early years of post World War II America, there was a second great migration of African Americans to urban centers in pursuit of employment. This was accompanied with a "white flight" to suburbia. This "white flight" was subsidized by federal dollars that expanded the country's highway system and provided mass housing subsidies to veterans, greatly increasing white homeownership. Black veterans attempted to take advantage of the government housing subsidies. However, lack of wealth, legal racial discrimination and violent resistance to integration limited African American housing choices and opportunities. Due to the increasing urbanization of Blacks and the suburbanization of whites, Washington DC, who had a substantial African American population since the 1800's, became one of the first major American cities with a Black majority by the late 1950's. The increased proportion of Blacks in major urban areas and the suburbanization of whites continued for decades all around the country.
The Black population in cities reached its peak as manufacturing jobs that served as a ladder to the middle class greatly declined. By the 1980's, urban centers, that were considered places of opportunity and upward class mobility, were transformed into the inner cities, the home of the permanent underclass. The call for urban renewal and diversifying the tax base set in motion urban policies that focused on attracting wealthier and most often white residents instead of strengthening low to middle income housing. By the 1990's and 2000's the urban poor, were being priced out of the cities they had lived in, looking to cheaper suburbs with the hope of finding a safer environment and better schools. For middle income whites and whites who did not move back to urban centers, another white flight occurred to more distant suburbs.
For over the last 30 years the African American population in Washington DC has declined from 70% of the population to 53% of the population while the white population has increased from 27% to almost 40%. Washington DC, like the rest of the country, has also seen a rise in the Latino population that is now 8.8% of the population. Yet the increasing difficulty of finding affordable housing in Washington DC appears to be slowing the rise of the Latino population as it diminishes the presence of African Americans. Between 2000 and 2007 the increase of Washington Latinos (9%) was a third of the rate of increase in Latinos nationwide (29%) and a fourth of the rate of increase Latinos saw in Washington during the 90's (37%). Urban renewal in Washington DC that focuses on creating space for upper income residents has become urban removal for African Americans and inhibits working class and poor Americans of all ethnicities from making the nation's capital their home.
This shrinking of space and opportunity for middle and working class Americans is a national phenomenon at the root of much of the populist surge occurring throughout different communities. In 2006 the American electorate voted out Republicans for the jobless "recovery" of the 2000's and a never-ending war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, in 2010, the Democrats have been voted out for a job loss "recovery" while the country continues to spend hundreds of billions in Iraq and Afghanistan. This most recent action to "get the bums out" is most often connected to the largely white populist movement of the Tea Party, yet the city of Washington DC has also had its own populist revolt led largely by African Americans. The Washington DC electoral uprising ousted the sitting mayor, Adrian Fenty, who seemed removed from and hostile to the everyday struggles of the average Washingtonian.
People of all races are tired with politics and economics as usual. The American people have shown the willingness to vote the "bums out" but the problem is the policies that reward the elite, weaken the middle class, and increase the disfranchisement of the poor persist. State and city jurisdictions across the country are facing mass cuts in housing, education, and other social services that provide opportunities for middle and working class families. The newly elected congressional Republican majority, who proclaim to care about the federal deficit and working class people, has made its top priority to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts which will cost 4 trillion dollars over the next ten years and will disproportionately reward the richest Americans. This is a prescription to continue the worst of contemporary Republican politics, express concern about the deficit and working Americans while enacting policies that increase the deficit and decrease opportunities for middle class and poorer Americans. The new Republican majority in Congress is driven to further concentrate the wealth of the nation into the hands of the wealthiest, to cut government investment into working families, and to drive the country into greater economic unsustainability.
In 2008 there was a great national sentiment of hope that the nation could make a positive, progressive change. Today the country seems set on partisan battles as the economy for the average American continues to be mired in recession. The best hope I see for the country and it's cities, like Washington DC, is that sooner rather than latter the electorate recognizes that changing politicians isn't a change we can believe in, rather the country must radically change the trickle down, deregulated economy which has maintained racial divisions and increased economic inequality.
TBD.com
November 9, 2010 - 07:00 AM
I don't care who you are or what you think about the fundamental merits behind the idea of applying an arts district brand to the U Street, Logan Circle and Shaw neighborhoods, at this point you have to have some sympathy for branding project leaders Andrea Doughty and Carol Felix.
Throughout the months-long process that led up to Monday night's semi-final public presentation on their city-financed quest to develop the brand, these two individuals have diligently done their duty to gather community input and incorporate that feedback into their concepts. There was the initial round of panel discussions and q&a sessions. There was the (now closed) online poll. There was the independent survey of close to 200 randomly selected residents. There were the countless private consultations with interested community stakeholders, fellow designers and marketers, local politicians, and area artistic types.
If anything, the healthy supply of criticism leveled at this otherwise fairly innocuous project (we are talking about some light pole banners, after all) has forced Doughty and Felix to concede a not insignificant part of their creative vision to the naysayers. Over the course of the last three months, they've gone from contemplating an "Uptown" or "MidCity" Arts District to ruling out using either of those designations in any way in the final concept.
"We got some really serious push back to the MidCity name," Doughty told attendees at last night's presentation at the Hamiltonian Gallery, including, according to Doughty, from Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham. A couple of people in the crowd had started questioning why MidCity had since just last week been ruled out as a possibility as one of the mini-brands proposed for the banners. One even — gasp! —wondered aloud what the MidCity Business Association thought about the decision. While Doughty diplomatically declined to speculate on that one, I suspect we canprobably guess.
"The last thing that we want is to do something divisive," Doughty said.
Welcome to the publicly funded creative process, where everyone must be given a chance to say their piece, even if they have zero expertise or, worse, a particular axe to grind. Doughty and/or Felix's motives for taking on the project might not be 100 percent selfless, but there's no arguing that they've put themselves in the line of the firing squad more times than most of us would ever dare. And sure enough, each time, willing sharp-shooters have shown up to take aim directly at their foreheads.
And so it went once again Monday night, as a handful of newcomers to the project joined those who have been following it since the beginning, leading to a round of discussions over the nearly finalized logo and brand that ranged from vaguely helpful to derisive. One man asked why survey takers were not sent to poll residents east of the Anacostia River. Another actually coughed the name "MidCity" under his breath while standing in one of the break-out sessions following the presentation.
So what about the final logo options? The team has managed to narrow it down to just two names, either DC Arts District or Arts & Design District, which can be shortened to two not super appealing acronyms: DCAD (it's pronounced Dee-Cad) or A+DD (which would presumably be pronounced A plus DD, Add, or worse still, A-D-D, as inAttention Deficit Disorder -- Felix said she wasn't worried about that last interpretation, for what it's worth.)
As for the designs themselves, Felix and the other designers are focusing on two basic ideas at this point, either an abstract design scheme encompassing a series of circles in various forms, or a couple of options that play off the idea of locating the arts district somewhere on a map. Most of the constructive feedback offered Monday leaned toward some version of the map idea.
And the moment you've all been waiting for, when the banners are up and we can all finally stop talking about this, should still be coming in December, according to Doughty, although the actual launch date is now a moving target. There are still just a few more ANC meetings, civic association gatherings, and lofty living rooms to visit before everyone feels like they've had their say. Of course there are.
Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/9sprDK
Loose Lips (daily column): http://bit.ly/aQ86hI
DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/cVnhoe
Being discussed
New York schools chief Joel Klein to resign; Hearst executive will replace him
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110906229.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110906229.html
Tuesday, November 9, 2010; 11:21 PM
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) announced Tuesday that Joel I. Klein, an icon in the world of education reform, will resign as chancellor of the nation's largest school system and will be replaced by a publishing executive who once led USA Today.
The new chancellor, charged with overseeing public schools that serve 1.1 million students, will be Cathleen P. Black. She has been a top executive at Hearst Magazines for 15 years - most recently chairman - and for eight years led USA Today, Gannett's flagship newspaper.
Klein's departure after a long and generally successful eight-year run at the helm of New York's schools comes at a watershed moment for efforts to improve schools nationwide.
Klein's protege, Michelle A. Rhee, resigned as chancellor of D.C. Public Schools last month after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) lost his bid for reelection. Chicago schools chief Ron Huberman last week announced his departure from the nation's third-largest school system. And in Los Angeles, the second-largest system is in the midst of changes a few months after former Prince George's County schools chief John E. Deasy was named that city's deputy schools superintendent.
In addition to leadership flux in high-profile urban school systems, there is debate over the direction of the next phase of school reform. The Obama administration has doled out $4 billion in grants for school improvement through its Race to the Top program, including major sums won by New York state, Maryland and the District of Columbia. That money is promoting efforts to overhaul how teachers are evaluated and, in some places, how they are paid.
Congress may soon embark on an effort of larger scope: a rewrite of the 2002 No Child Left Behind school accountability law. The records of school reformers in cities such as New York and Washington could be a key factor in that debate.
Klein was known as a strong advocate of performance pay and limits on teacher tenure. He recently clashed with the United Federation of Teachers over his decision to publicly release teachers' names and their ratings derived from student test scores. The union sued to block him, and the issue is pending in state court.
New York students' scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress generally climbed during Klein's tenure.
Klein worked in the Justice Department before Bloomberg named him chancellor in 2002. The New York Times reported that he will now become an executive vice president at News Corp.
The mayor on Tuesday described Klein as "a landmark, transformational civic leader in our city's long history." Of Black, Bloomberg said: "She is brilliant, she is innovative, she is driven - and there is virtually nobody who knows more about the needs of the 21st-century workforce for which we need to prepare our kids."
Michael J. Petrilli, an analyst at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, said that "Joel Klein and other nontraditional superintendents have demonstrated that you don't have to be an educator to be successful, and [Black's] management savvy will be needed when it's time to right-size the district."
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