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Good morning, Thanks for your feedback; I'm trying something new today. I've heard that it would be easier on readers if I broke things into clearer sections. I already group articles by topic, but headers night make things easier. Let me know how you like it. Also: Kudos to the Examiner for the new website design.
Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips
D.C. Government/D.C. Council media clips: Monday, November 22, 2010.
Missed Friday? http://bit.ly/9EGSiH
Twitter: DCGovClips
Transition
Gray to deliver live address on budget Monday - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Taxes, cuts on table for Gray era - Washington Times
Gray to discuss budget - Examiner
Gray says budget gap won't stop 'robust expansion' of infant and toddler care - Washington Post
Campaign operative's past looms large in his future with next D.C. mayor - Washington Post
Inside Gray’s Very Secret Transition - DC Watch (blog)
Planners Versus Residents - DC Watch
Council
A needed conversation on welfare in D.C. - Washington Post
Marion Barry to Post Edit Board: Drop Dead! - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
D.C. council members ask judge to block payment to Banneker Ventures - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Dear Judge, Help Us! - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Nickles Compares Self to Train, Says He’s Still Waiting For Team Thomas Docs - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Potential Republican candidates for at-large D.C. Council seat - Examiner
Budget
H Street storeowners seek tax relief - Capital Business (Washington Post)
D.C. failed to monitor school spending of federal funds - Examiner
GAO report: Where did D.C. school dollars go? - Washington Times
D.C.'s calculator miscalculates - Examiner
Economy
Investors wonder if Jemals can keep properties - Capital Business (Washington Post)
Wal-Mart eyes existing sites – Capital Business (Washington Post)
Did Walmart Call You? - City Desk (Washington City Paper)
City Urged Not to Offload Franklin School - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Rush of applicants at D.C.'s new IHOP illustrates distress of a stalled economy - Washington Post
Developers are proceeding with plans to demolish a historic church - Capital Business (Washington Post)
Ellwood Thompson’s Bails From DCUSA - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
DYRS
DYRS chief sees self as 'part of solution' - Washington Times
'Anti-prison' at root of DYRS problems - Washington Times
Police / DCPS / Metro / Other
D.C. police official Diane Groomes placed on leave over allegedly 'compromising' a department test - Washington Post
Hardy Middle in Georgetown suffering in transition to new leadership, some say - Washington Post
Turning point for Metro - Washington Post
Missed:
With bond sale, D.C. creeps up against debt cap - Washington Business Journal
District auditor thumps developers on CBE goals - Washington Business Journal
* * *
Transition
Gray to deliver live address on budget Monday
By Nikita R Stewart
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
November 19, 2010; 4:08 PM ET
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray will deliver an address Monday morning on the city's fiscal crisis as he tries to get out front on one of the biggest issues facing his administration, said Doxie McCoy, spokeswoman for his transition.
McCoy called it a "state of the D.C. finances" address.
Gray hinted at the event during a speech Friday morning before pre-K advocates at the National Press Club. McCoy confirmed the event with details. Economist Alice Rivlin and former mayor Anthony A. Williams, who are heading a budget committee on Gray's transition team, have been invited to join Gray, along with chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi.
The event, tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m., will be held at the John A. Wilson Building and carried live on Channel 13.
"He wants to set the tone," McCoy said.
Gray, currently council chairman, used town halls before the General Election this month to foreshadow the cuts that could come with a current $175 million shortfall and a larger deficit going into fiscal 2012. The council was expected to get a gap-closing proposal from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty by early next week.
Taxes, cuts on table for Gray era
Washington Times
6:14 p.m., Sunday, November 21, 2010
The numbers don't lie.
Neither Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's revisions nor the fiscal 2010 or 2011 budgets passed under the stewardship of D.C. Council ChairmanVincent C. Gray kept the city in the black.
The city is facing a $175 million gap this fiscal year and a potential deficit as high as $400 million in the coming months, and those numbers have left officials saying they are going to run the table with tax increases and spending cuts.
Stakeholders will learn some details Monday, when Mr. Gray, who now is the mayor-elect, delivers what's being billed as his "State of the District's Budget and Finances Message." The political implications of that message are stark.
Mr. Fenty, who leaves office Jan. 2, pledged his administration would not raise taxes. Mr. Gray said agency budgets already have been cut to the "bone marrow."
Council member Jack Evans, the only lawmaker to cast a "no" vote on the 2011 budget, wants cuts to social service, public safety and school spending.
Council members Muriel Bowser, David A. Catania, Mary M. Cheh, Phil Mendelson and Harry Thomas Jr. all support unspecified increases in taxes and fees.
All 13 lawmakers agree the city's onerous 9.5 percent unemployment rate pushes down revenue and hurts families. In fact, declining income and sales taxes led to a drop in $100 million in revenue, and voters said putting residents to work is the No. 1 issue for the incoming Grayadministration.
Organized labor and advocates for the poor are also on record. They are pushing tax increases, as is renowned economist Alice M. Rivlin, who happens to be a member of both the Gray transition team and President's Obama's deficit-reduction commission.
Like D.C. lawmakers Mr. Brown and Mr. Wells, proponents of a so-called millionaire's tax, Ms. Rivlin supports new and revised plans.
Currently, D.C. residents who file individual taxes pay a tax rate of 4 percent on the first $10,000 earned and 6 percent if they earn between $10,001 and $40,000. Residents earning more than $40,000 pay 8.5 percent plus $2,200.
Gray to discuss budget
D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent Gray is scheduled to deliver a "State of the Budget Address" Monday morning, when he is expected to set the tone as the city prepares to slash $175 million from its budget to fix a shortfall.
He is scheduled to be joined by economist Alice Rivlin and former Mayor Anthony Williams, who are heading the finance team for Gray's transition.
Gray held town hall meetings in each of the District's eight wards in the weeks leading to the Nov. 2 general election. At each stop, he delivered a message designed to prepare residents for deep cuts to city services.
Gray said he will look at cutting spending before considering tax increases. - Freeman Klopott
Gray says budget gap won't stop 'robust expansion' of infant and toddler care
By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111904244.html?wprss=rss_metro/special/8
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111904244.html?wprss=rss_metro/special/8
Friday, November 19, 2010; 10:43 PM
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray said Friday that the city's financial predicament will not keep his administration from expanding access to infant and toddler care, an initiative he regards as the next step in creating a "birth-through-24 continuum" of public education in the District.
"I know we're in a fiscally challenged era. I didn't miss that," Gray told a spirited gathering of educators at a conference sponsored by Pre-K for All D.C., a nonprofit group focused on promoting early child care and education.
But Gray, in his first major education speech since the Nov. 2 election, said budget pressures also create opportunities to bring new clarity to priorities. A "robust expansion" of infant and toddler care - with a focus on children with special needs or those at risk of developmental delays - is critical to controlling education costs later in life, Gray said.
"Doesn't that make sense? It will reduce the number of children who wind up in special education, sometimes outside of our system, at a huge social and financial cost," Gray said. The District pays an estimated $280 million a year in tuition and transportation costs to support special education students in private schools.
The District spends about $200 million a year in federal and local funds on early childhood programs. A fraction of that, perhaps $10 million to $20 million, goes to infant and toddler care, officials said. During the campaign, Gray cited waiting lists with as many as 6,000 families seeking infant and toddler services.
Gray, who is facing a $175 million gap in the current District budget and as much as a $400 million shortfall before approval of the fiscal 2012 budget next year, did not say how much he thought the city could afford. But after his speech, he said the expansion could be funded in part by more effective use of federal dollars that are currently spread across a series of disparate programs supporting early childhood education. He said the city would also look to private and philanthropic partners for more help.
Gray sees an infant and toddler initiative as a logical extension of his work as D.C. Council chairman, when he played a key role in a $40 million expansion of pre-K slots for 3- and 4-year-olds in the District's public schools, public charter schools and community-based organizations. In September, officials reported that the District had effectively achieved "universal Pre-K" with enrollment of approximately 16,000 children.
Gray said he wanted to see the District's early childhood programs evolve and improve by following the markers set down by the federal Race to the Top grant competition. The program has awarded $75 million to the cityover the next four years in exchange for the District's commitment to improve academic standards and assessments, data systems and teacher quality and to close persistently failing schools.
Although Race to the Top is focused on K-12 education, Gray said it was a useful template. "There is absolutely no reason we shouldn't use it as a catalytic agent to focus on all public education at the front end and the back end," he said.
Gray called on the University of the District of Columbia to lead the way in establishing accelerated credentialing programs for infant and toddler professionals, similar to its efforts on behalf of early childhood teachers.
Gray said he also wanted to bring a new rigor to evaluating teacher performance in the early childhood sector by introducing evaluation systems similar to the IMPACT regimen now employed in D.C. public schools. Among those he mentioned was ECERS, or Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, used in early childhood pre-K and kindergarten.
"So we can say we are absolutely ensuring accountability in those classrooms," he said.
Campaign operative's past looms large in his future with next D.C. mayor
By Nikita Stewart and Mike DeBonis
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/20/AR2010112002951.html
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/20/AR2010112002951.html
Saturday, November 20, 2010; 7:53 PM
His ability to gather people and raise money for a nascent campaign got Reuben O. Charles II noticed - and promoted. Even his impeccably dressed frame exuded a booming confidence.
He was a top choice to be D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray's chief of staff, in position to wield considerable influence in the new administration.
A few weeks and some missteps later, Charles, 41, continues to manage Gray's transition, but he is out of the running for the top job.
Charles's breakneck rise through the ranks of the Gray mayoral campaign was so fast it rendered the staff unable to control the public scrutiny of Charles's past. A decade ago, he was an ambitious venture capitalist in St. Louis, where a major deal to help minority businesses collapsed. The fallout - a series of lawsuits and liens - has haunted Charles. Just last week, he obtained a signed affidavit to clear him of a $236,000 debt to the state of Illinois.
The rocky financial history led some to pressure Gray (D) to distance himself from a man pivotal to his defeat of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). It didn't help that in Charles's first week as head of the transition, Gray's election-night victory party was held at a nightclub owned by a man who owes the city more than $600,000 in back taxes. Gray also did not attend the funeral of the first police officer to die in the line of duty in two years. The blunders have caused some in the campaign to doubt whether Charles is ready for prime time.
"We made some mistakes, and I own up to them," said Charles, a married father of two elementary school-age boys who moved to the District three years ago.
But Charles's supporters fear Gray folded too easily to pressure from critics who say Charles lacked the experience and maturity to be chief of staff. Charles, they said, deserves credit for fundraising and for gaining the trust of education reform stakeholders worried that a Gray mayoralty would slow progress in schools.
In an interview, Gray downplayed the controversy surrounding Charles's apparent fall from grace. That Charles would be his chief of staff, Gray insisted, was a rumor that spun out of control. He credited Charles with doing "an excellent job during the campaign" but said he is unsure whether Charles would hold an administration post.
'Out of nowhere'
In an interview, Charles said he joined Gray's campaign in the spring as a volunteer because he was inspired by the council chairman's approach to government over that of Fenty. Gray, he added, "injected warmth and community sensitivity."
An IT consultant to District government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Charles jumped at the chance to help campaign manager Adam Rubinson and Suzanne Peck, assistant manager and chief information officer at WMATA, who also volunteered to help with fundraising.
"When he came, he came out of nowhere," Neil Richardson, a Gray campaign strategist, said of Charles. "We saw pretty quickly that he was good at gathering people up."
Fenty's aggressive fundraising team, led by campaign manager John Falcicchio, had locked down hundreds of $2,000 maximum donations from developers and business interests reluctant to give to Gray.
That didn't discourage Charles: At an event in May at Oya restaurant, he helped Peck squeeze $35,000 from contributors. Charles's fundraising prowess became pivotal to the campaign, leading efforts that eventually netted $2.4 million.
For some of the contributions, Charles delved into constituencies sometimes ignored by many District politicians, such as its Indian and Ethiopian residents, whom he called "a group of unusual suspects." He explained why they should care about the District and how their children's lives and their businesses are affected by local government.
"That was kind of novel," said Ron Lester, a political consultant and pollster. "He took to [fundraising] like a fish to water. Reuben was a fundraiser tour de force. He's fearless. He'll go and ask anybody for money."
Gray was solidly ahead in the polls in July, but his campaign team still worried. Fenty was about to launch a blitz of television ads against Gray, who had less than $100,000 on hand.
Gray needed tens of thousands more for radio, direct mail and TV ads.
"I'll raise the money," Charles said at a gathering of anxious staffers, according to some who attended the meeting. "How much would you need? And when would you need it by?"
By Aug. 10, about $700,000 had rolled in. "I was maniacal," he said, confessing to using an Excel spreadsheet to map out his goals.
Meet me in St. Louis
Charles grew up in Guyana with a marine biologist father and a mother who was a special-education teacher and community activist. His brother Kerwin Charles, an economist who teaches at the University of Chicago, said the siblings spent their nights talking about their studies. "The Treaty of Versailles or Einstein versus Newton," Kerwin Charles recalled.
He went to school at Barber Scotia College in North Carolina and would travel to the District to visit friends and cousins. After graduating, he went to law school at Washington University in St. Louis and found himself with an unusual opportunity.
In 1996, some of the city's biggest corporations - including McDonnell Douglas, Anheuser-Busch, and several banks and investment firms - were under pressure to invest in St. Louis's minority communities. They tapped a Chicago investment banker, Byron Winton, to run the fund, called Civic Ventures. Winton, in turn, looked to Charles to serve as his right-hand man.
"He needed a proverbial Robin," said Charles, who had a background in business and law.
Former St. Louis mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. said the city's corporate community liked Charles. "He presents well," Bosley said. "When you meet him, he has the appearance . . . diplomatic, graceful - a lot of the things people lack or don't exhibit."
The federal Small Business Administration gave Civic Ventures an $8.7 million loan in 1998, and the fund invested it in several businesses, including a chain of movie theaters, a sports-apparel company and a computer training outfit.
But virtually all of its investments soured within three years, which Charles attributes to a "ripple effect" from the dot-com bust, among other reasons. "We had some flat-out failures - that's business," he said, but he added that a goal of the fund was minority participation. "We introduced countless entrepreneurs to the market."
In 2001, a federal judge placed the fund in receivership, and two years later, the fund was closed at a near-total loss to its investors. Of about $20 million invested, $395,000 was recovered in the end; taxpayers lost about $10 million on the deal.
Civic Ventures "really just died of natural causes," said John G. Silbermann, a government lawyer who handled the fund's liquidation.
Charles pressed on as a businessman, opening an investment venture with Winton and starting a development firm, Citadel Partners. But his projects didn't thrive. According to St. Louis court records, Charles was sued 13 times in the years after Civic Ventures's failure over tax claims, business disputes and a foreclosure. He continues to negotiate settlements in some of the cases.
Move to D.C.
In 2007, he left St. Louis for Washington. "He was not going to have to start his life over but start things anew," Kerwin Charles said. "D.C. seemed like a sensible place."
Charles's entry into the District was low-key on a large project. In 2007, the District selected a team led by mega-developer Monty Hoffman to develop the $1 billion planned Southwest waterfront. ACRESH, a minority-owned firm, teamed up with Hoffman to be a development and finance partner.
Charles said he was brought on as a consultant to the firm, but the deal "tanked," he said. Soon, Charles had to find other means and fell back on IT. "I get any business quickly," he said, snapping his fingers three times.
He also invested in a more unorthodox venture: a consulting firm catering to white-collar convicts who need to put their affairs in order before entering prison. One of his business partners is an old contact from St. Louis - Charles E. Polk Jr., a once-prominent lawyer jailed for tax evasion.
Throughout his professional career, Charles has shown a felicity for moving quickly and gracefully between businesses and other worlds. In St. Louis, for instance, he landed a role as a drug tycoon in an independent film after allowing its producer to use his office for filming.
"He is a very competent, confident . . . gentleman who knows how to - let me think of my words carefully - who is proficient at modulating human behavior, which is what makes him such a great actor, said the producer, Lloyd A. Silverman. "He has the ability to charm just about anybody."
For now, Charles said, if his nascent role in city politics doesn't work out, he'll remain on the scene. "You'll be seeing me," he said.
DC Watch (blog)
Since the November 3 press conference that Vincent Gray held to announce his “transition leadership team,” http://www.dcwatch.com/election2010/101103.htm, there has been no announcement of appointments and very little information forthcoming from Gray’s transition. Indeed, Freeman Klopott’s November 16 article in the Washington Examiner, “Gray’s Quiet Transition,” http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2010/11/gray-s-quiet-transition, noted that “Gray’s transition has so far been more notable for what hasn’t happened than what has.”
Gray’s quiet transition stems, in large measure, from a bunker mentality among Gray’s small inner circle. After a hard-fought victory over an incumbent mayor, neither Gray nor his advisors were prepared for the investigation of Reuben Charles’ background by the press nor for the widespread opposition to him among Gray’s former campaign workers and the larger community. In addtion, immediately following the November 3 press conference, Gray was surprised when he was harshly criticized both for failing to name representatives of labor and civic and community leaders to his transition team and for the individuals he did name to the team. This bunker mentality has resulted in a transition that is neither open nor transparent. The transition operates behind locked doors in a fourth-floor office in the Reeves Building. Virtually every decision is made by two individuals, Lorraine Green, chair of Gray’s campaign committee and his transition chairperson, and Reuben Charles, former director of operations for Gray’s campaign and now executive director of the transition. Moreover, only a handful of Gray’s campaign workers and supporters have been offered work positions or been invited to volunteer in the transition. Despite the fact that hundreds of individuals have signed up on the Gray web site to work on the transition, there is a secretive screening and selection process that determines who will actually be “invited” to serve on a transition subcommittee.
A veil of secrecy permeates the transition. Despite repeated press requests, the transition will not provide a list of the individuals serving on the various transition subcommittees, and no meetings of the transition committee or subcommittees are open to the public or the press, despite the fact that the transition operates in a government building and uses government employees, supplies, and facilities. This is a bad omen for Gray’s governing style as mayor. If he believes that decisionmaking and discussion in the transition committee is best carried out in secret, will be also believe that decisionmaking and discussion in the mayor’s office should be closed to the public? All transition volunteers must complete and sign two documents — a four-page “code of ethical conduct for volunteers” and a “volunteer disclosure form” (http://www.dcwatch.com/election2010/101118.htm). According to the Gray transition, all volunteers for the transition team must sign the forms before being allowed to participate in the transition, in order to “prevent conflicts of interest” and “define the scope of the volunteer’s authority.” Buried with the legal jargon of the two documents is their true purpose: “the code of ethical conduct outlines the scope of the volunteers’ tasks and authority and makes clear that volunteers are not authorized to comment on the transition or the Mayor-Elect’s policies unless specifically granted such authorization by Doxie McCoy, Spokeswoman to the Mayor-Elect.” In the past week, the Gray transition invoked this confidentiality provision to admonish and even threaten individuals from discussing any aspect of the transition, including transition subcommittee meetings, with anyone outside of the confines of the transition.
Planners Versus Residents
Gary Imhoff
DC Watch
Dear Residents:
I wrote for months before the primary election that Vincent Gray and Adrian Fenty actually shared the same position on many of the issues that their supporters thought divided them. Gray, as he has said all along, is likely to continue with few alterations the questionable “school reform” that Gray’s supporters largely opposed and Gray’s opponents largely supported. He is likely, therefore, to alienate many of his supporters by continuing Michelle Rhee’s program of preferring inexperienced over experienced teachers, of breaking the teachers’ union, of relentless yet ineffective testing and evaluation of teachers and students — and he is unlikely to get any credit from Fenty’s supporters for continuing these policies introduced by Rhee.
Another battle for the mind and soul of Vincent Gray that has not been decided is over his position on the kind of urban planning that has been taking place under Adrian Fenty. The faddish preference among urban planners today, under the guise of “Smart Growth” is for congestion and crowing in urban centers — planning for apartment buildings rather than single-family houses, for small houses rather than large ones, eliminating yards and other “unnecessary” green spaces in city centers, eliminating height limitations to encourage high rises and skyscrapers, discouraging car ownership and making driving difficult for residents and commuters. Urban planners are being trained to impose these choices on residents, rather than to defer to the preferences of residents, because residents are too dumb to know what is best for them and their cities, and experts know best what those residents should want. (This kind of sneering contempt for the wishes and desires or residents who resist the march toward Manhattanization is well represented by blogger Matthew Yglesias, for example athttp://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/11/the-district-of-short-buildings/ and http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/11/the-unrepresented/)
Over the past century, vigilant protection by neighborhood activists has preserved many of the best things about the District of Columbia. In the early decades of the twentieth century, neighborhood associations and residential groups introduced and kept the height limitation that made DC a livable city of pleasant residential neighborhoods, rather than an overbuilt concrete jungle. (Yes, the height limitation was passed by Congress, but the impetus for it came from the city’s residents.) In the middle of the twentieth century, neighborhood activists fought the urban planners whose faddish expertise then called for crisscrossing the city with freeways that would cut up and divide neighborhoods. Now neighborhood activists are again fighting the urban planning experts — in this case Fenty’s director of the Office of Planning, Harriet Tregoning, and his director of the Department of Transportation, Gabe Klein — who want to impose their vision of a densely populated urban center served by public transportation, with only minimal provision for driving and parking, on the city’s residents. In the primary, Gray benefited from residents’ dislike of the planning decisions made by Fenty, Tregoning, and Klein, but he never pledged to reverse or even significantly alter any of those decisions. For example, when he was asked in a primary debate about extortionate rates for parking at city meters, he basked in the enthusiastic audience applause at the question, but he never said he would do anything about it; on the contrary, he said that something had to be done to discourage residents from owning and driving cars.
The debate is well laid out by the Committee of 100, representing neighborhood activists; David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington, representing anti-car bicyclists and top-down urban planning; and the Ward Three Democrats, again representing city residents, in their letters to Gray about Tregoning and Klein, athttp://www.dcwatch.com/election2010/101115.htm. Gray’s decision will soon become clear — will he support the neighborhood and civic organizations that largely supported him, or will he support continuing Fenty’s planning policies?
Council
A needed conversation on welfare in D.C.
By Marion Barry, Washington
Washington Post
November 20, 2010; 2:25 PM ET
Recently, D.C. Council member Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and I introduced legislation that would — consistent with federal regulations — limit Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) benefits to five years.
My legislation, while imperfect and incomplete, is intended to start a serious dialogue on how to break the cycle of generational poverty, government dependency and economic disparity in the city.
At present, the District is one of only a few jurisdictions in the country that spend local government funds to allow TANF aid to go on indefinitely. Unfortunately, this unsound provision in our local law has been coupled with a system that has failed our residents for years. The result has been to enslave residents in joblessness and dependency on the government rather than lifting them up and giving them an opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency through job training and employment.
That’s one reason the District now has 17,505 families receiving TANF benefits, with over 40 percent receiving benefits for more than five years. We must do better.
As a council member representing a highly underserved and overlooked population in Ward 8, I am very well aware that families that receive these benefits for more than five years frequently face the most severe barriers to employment and independence. Many of them cope with the added burdens of domestic violence, substance abuse and mental and physical disability.
It is wrong to suggest, as some have, that I would be so callous as to advocate the immediate removal of thousands of TANF recipients; to do so only spreads fear among recipients instead of advancing a solution. But I am firmly committed to a five-year limitation, with exemptions for those who face severe barriers to employment — as long as it is part of a full-scale program redesign.
For real transformation to take place, the mayor and the D.C. Council must rapidly change our system to include participation from every city agency, as well as the private sector, and employ their collective expertise and resources to help beneficiaries change their lives.
To begin, we can act immediately to improve the delivery of job training services to 10,600 families deemed “ready to work.” Our six existing job training vendors receive a bonus for work placement and retention, but they provide services to only 6,900 families. Consequently, thousands of families face one- to two-year waiting periods for training.
Rather than terminating these contracts because they have not met the recipients’ needs, the Department of Human Services has allowed the contracts to continue. Why would the Fenty administration make sanctions for noncompliance by individuals receiving benefits a priority instead of increasing the capacity of job training and education programs administered by these contractors? It is only now, years after the problems became apparent, that DHS has a plan to prepare new requirements and solicit new vendors.
The irony of all of this is that the great majority of TANF recipients want better opportunities. Unfortunately, in our city, we have elected officials, members of the media, advocates and residents who seem to prefer to keep TANF recipients enslaved, without jobs and without hope.
We don’t have to accept that. We can get the entire community involved to identify ways to make our TANF program more effective and better at serving aid recipients. The people who need the most help are not receiving it. They are the most vulnerable in our society, and we are failing them.
I am confident that Mayor-elect Vincent Gray thoroughly understands this problem and the massive overhaul that is needed. With his experience and knowledge of social services, I am optimistic that he will be the type of leader who will diligently work to implement the policies to break the cycle for this generation of recipients.
The writer, a Democrat, represents Ward 8 on the D.C. Council.
Marion Barry to Post Edit Board: Drop Dead!
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Yesterday the Washington Pos teditorial board opined that Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's proposal to limit cash welfare payments to five years was a "conversation worth continuing." It's not every day that the Post writes semi-nice things about Barry or one of his proposals—so it's a bit of a head-scratcher that the day before the editorial ran, Barry fired off a pretty nasty letter to editorial writer Jo-Ann Armao, which he copied to fellow councilmembers and Post big wigs Don Graham, Katharine Weymouth, Raju Narisetti and Fred Hiatt. (Barry did not copy LL on the e-mail, in case you were wondering.)
"I must say that your known dislike and disdain for me personally and politically should not absolve you of your responsibility to be professional," said Barry's e-mail near the top. "Professionally you have a responsibility to come to a conclusion on issues after looking at facts, and then forming an opinion on behalf of the Washington Post. Therefore, I expect you to stop your past approach and be fair."
From there, Barry goes on to try and make some tortured point that his welfare-limiting proposal wasn't borne of "frustration," but because he believes "the present system has failed; it keeps people enslaved in joblessness, poverty, and a dependency on the government, generation after generation, rather than lifting them up and giving them an opportunity for self sufficiency, through job training and/or employment."
How those conditions aren't frustrating is anybody's guess. But Barry felt the need to go on the attack: "You should be ashamed of yourself for thinking I introduced this bill out of frustration. I don't introduce bills out of frustration; I do it because there's a need to change and a need to make life better for the residents of the District of Columbia, and you know that."
And. You. Know. That. Jo. Ann.
LL is not sure what Barry's goal was in sending that e-mail, but maybe it's worth noting (though probably not) that Armao did not use the word "frustrated" in the editorial.
Want to be confused some more?
Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells says that Barry said he wouldn't vote for his own proposal. And in his letter to Armao and Co., Barry reminds her that "legislation very rarely ends up the same way that it starts."
But, Barry then also sounds like he would vote for his own proposal:
"However, I'm firmly committed to a five-year limitation."
Okay, fine. But in the very next sentence, Barry says: "The enemies of the people who suggest that I would be so callous as to advocate the removal of some 8,000 recipients from the [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] rolls, individuals who have been there form [sic] more than eight years, ought to stop spreading fear among the TANF recipients."
What!? Make up your mind, MB.
Barry concludes by saying that if everyone commits themselves to launching "massive job training and career development programs," then the city can create job opportunities for 15,000 District residents looking for work. Good luck with that.
LL tried reaching out to Armao for comment, and will update if she has a response.
Update: Armao's response: "Thanks for asking but no comment other than what I write is always informed by my reporting."
D.C. council members ask judge to block payment to Banneker Ventures
By Nikita Stewart
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
November 19, 2010; 4:35 PM ET
Three D.C. council members are asking Superior Court Associate Judge Alfred S. Irving Jr. to reject a settlement agreement struck between Attorney General Peter J. Nickles and Banneker Ventures, a firm whose contract to manage recreation construction is at the center of a special council probe.
A joint motion for a consent judgment was filed Wednesday, opening the door for Banneker to be paid about $600,000. But council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) and Harry Thomas Jr. (D-WArd 5) sent the judge a letter Friday, explaining the investigation and pending legislation that would prevent such agreements from being made during an investigation and after disapproval.
The council voted unanimously last year to terminate Banneker's contract. The legislation that would prevent payments from being made has its final consideration Nov. 23.
The council members said in the letter than Nickles "is using the consent judgment to circumvent these legislative acts."
A. Scott Bolden, attorney for Banneker owner Omar Karim, said the council is "overreaching" its authority in writing to the judge.
"It's highly improper and highly irregular," Bolden said.
Nickles said the council needed to file a motion, not a letter. He said he told the council that Banneker had sued the city, which has to respond in some way.
"At some point, the city has a responsibility to a company that has done work for it," he said.
Thomas said, "The judge shouldn't have all the facts to come to an intelligent decision?"
Thomas and Nickles are currently at odds. Nickles obtained a court ruling that Thomas turn over documents about his nonprofit "Team Thomas." Nickles is waiting for those documents, which Thomas said he will deliver within the judge's three-week deadline.
Dear Judge, Help Us!
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
LL first reported back in August that Mayor Adrian Fenty's fraternity brother,Omar Karim, was suing the city after the council blocked a $550,000 settlement that Attorney General Peter Nickles had agreed to between the city and Karim's Banneker Ventures.
Way back then, Nickles said the council was going to have to get its own lawyer because he wasn't about to waltz into court and argue against a settlement he'd already negotiated and thinks is best for the city.
It looks like the council didn't heed Nickles' advice. Instead, CouncilmembersPhil Mendelson, Harry Thomas Jr., and Mary Cheh sent a letter today to the poor Superior Court judge who is hearing this case, asking him not to approve a request that was filed Wednesday that he sign off on the settlement.
Mendelson tells LL that Nickles is trying to use legal maneuvering to make an "end run" around the council's wishes. Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, here's their letter:
Nickles Compares Self to Train, Says He’s Still Waiting For Team Thomas Docs
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Attorney General Peter Nickles told LL yesterday afternoon that his office still hasn’t gotten any documents from Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.related to “Team Thomas,” the non-profit that Thomas’ critics have called a city-funded slush fund.
“Not a single piece of paper as of this moment,” Nickles said, adding that he’s instructed his staff to send Thomas a reminder that he owes Nickles some paperwork by next Tuesday. On Nov. 2—election day, and Thomas’ birthday—a D.C. Superior Court judge ruled that Thomas had three weeks to answer Nickles’ subpoena for Team Thomas’ financial records.
Nickles indicated, again, that his request isn’t that burdensome and Thomas should have handed over the documents by now. “As I said, if you’re running a legitimate operation the documents are right here,” he said, referring to top drawer of his desk.
Thomas’ lawyer, Fred Cooke Jr., said his client “absolutely” plans to comply with the subpoena and the documents will be turned over either on or before Tuesday.
As for the timing of when the documents are handed over, says Cooke: “Peter is not the arbiter of all things on the planet.”
Nickles, by the way, seemed to be showing no signs of slowing down during the last month and a half he has left as A.G. He hinted to LL that he’s considering suing Wall Street rating agencies for not doing their jobs in the whole subprime mortgage mess and screwing over District investments.
“I don’t intend to ease up on the throttle,” Nickles said. He then compared himself to the runaway train that’s the protagonist in the new Denzel Washington movie. “I’ve always been that way.”
Potential Republican candidates for at-large D.C. Council seat
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/potential-republican-candidates-for-at-large-dc-council-seat-109299714.html#ixzz1607qFBdP
Examiner Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/potential-republican-candidates-for-at-large-dc-council-seat-109299714.html#ixzz1607qFBdP
11/19/10 5:40 PM EST
The District Republican party is considering running a one of three candidates for the at-large council seat that will be left vacant by Kwame Brown when he ascends to D.C. Council chairman in January.
They’ll likely choose one of the following three to run in the special election expected to take place in May, D.C. GOP executive director Paul Craney told The Washington Examiner.
Pat Mara: Ward 1 elected him to the board of education this month.
Dave Hedgepeth: Did the best of any Republican ward council candidate in the 2010 general election, picking up about 34 percent of the vote in Ward 3.
Tim Day: Picked up a mere 5.8 percent of the vote against Harry Thomas, Jr., in Ward 5.
Budget
H Street storeowners seek tax relief
By Danielle Douglas
Capital Business (Washington Post)
Capital Business (Washington Post)
Monday, November 22, 2010; 13
Commercial property owners along the H Street corridor in Northeast Washington are asking for retroactive tax relief and a moratorium on property tax sales amid ongoing streetscape and streetcar construction, which they say have devastated business.
Almost a dozen H Street proprietors testified last week at a council hearing on the streetcar line about the financial hardships endured over the past four years, with sidewalks closed, storefronts obstructed and parking options limited.
"My business has gone down 70 percent since this all started," lamented George Butler, who has owned and operated the men's clothing store George's Place for 53 years in the 1000 block. Across the street from Butler, Rob Mason, whose family has owned Mason's barbershop since 1961, has seen sales fall off 50 percent in the wake of the construction.
Much of the construction results from the city's effort to add new landscaping, traffic lanes and wider sidewalks on H Street from Third to 14th streets. Tracks are also being laid for six trolleys that will run from Union Station to Benning Road and Oklahoma Avenue.
Work is scheduled to wrap up late next year. In the meantime, merchants, most of whom own their buildings, say sales continue to decline, while property taxes have climbed.
Anwar Saleem, executive director of H Street Main Street and a neighborhood property owner, estimates his taxes have increased 200 percent during the four years of construction, as values have risen in the face of development. He applied for a six-month tax deferment, under legislation introduced by Councilman Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who represents the corridor. However, both of his assets, with a total of $20,000 in unpaid taxes, were among the 27 delinquent H Street properties put up for tax sale in September.
"If actions are not taken to retroactively cancel the sales of the last two to three years before court foreclosures take effect, the city will have effectively assisted in the gentrification of this corridor," Saleem said.
To aide these beleaguered businesses, Councilman Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced a bill to establish a streetscape survival fund to support businesses with demonstrated losses resulting from streetscape projects. Relief may come in the form of a grant, loan or tax assistance. About $7 million has been set aside for the fund for fiscal 2011. The bill is now before the Finance and Revenue Committee, but will be reintroduced on Tuesday, according to Graham.
D.C. failed to monitor school spending of federal funds
A government probe revealed that the District's school system failed to consistently monitor and create records of its spending of federal money.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education, or OSSE, told the U.S. Government Accountability Office that it had policies to monitor its grant recipients, but couldn't produce documentation of any, except in one case, and even the documented policies were not always followed.
Congress gave $85 million to the state education office to expand public charter schools between 2004 and 2009.
When the government looked through OSSE's 2008 and 2009 grant files, it found the papers "often lacked evidence that staff collected this information or performed other monitoring activities," the report by Congress' investigative arm says. "Most of the files did not include all the narrative and financial reports required by OSSE in many of their grant agreements." Few records showed any staff effort to obtain the necessary documents.
The federal government gave D.C. Public Schools $105 million over five years to improve public schools, but its spending records before 2009 were scarce: "DCPS could not locate information that may have been created on specific activities funded with federal payments during this time," the report says. Half of expenditures were set aside for a "literacy improvement program" -- but DCPS could not provide information on the program's objectives, activities or results.
The probe found that the public school system's policies for monitoring contractors does not specify how to do the monitoring, and thus was inconsistent at best. The government's review of 14 of the largest contracts awarded DCPS in 2008 and 2009 "found that several lacked any evidence of a performance evaluation by a program officer, or any subsequent review." The contracting office could not even locate three of the 17 files the government requested.
In response to a draft of the report, former Chancellor Michelle Rhee wrote in an October letter that the data before 2009 reflected a previous administration. "The current administration at DCPS has no knowledge of these plans and repeatedly reported this to the GAO," Rhee said.
Interim State Superintendent Beth Colleye wrote that OSSE "agrees that consistent written policies and procedures for monitoring all federal payment sub-grantees are necessary, and will further advance its mission."
Cornelia Ashby, director of education work force and income security for the GAO, said she was not shocked by the report's findings.
"They have long-standing problems," she said.
GAO report: Where did D.C. school dollars go?
Says officials need better monitoring of contract files, funds
Washington Times
2:29 a.m., Saturday, November 20, 2010
As Republicans prepare to take the leadership reins of the House, D.C. school officials on Friday welcomed recommendations in a new federal report that faults the Fenty and Rhee administrations for failing to track and monitor how federal education dollars were spent.
During the investigation, D.C. school officials tried to find detailed information on programs that target literacy, early childhood education and professional development, but came up short, according to the Nov. 16 report.
Citing past and current deficiencies, the Government Accountability Office report said the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) "continues to be designated as a 'high risk' grantee" and that D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) continues to have "systemic problems in its internal controls" of federal funds.
Some of the rules and policies are in place, but not always followed.
"DCPS has policies on responsibilities for monitoring contractor performance; however, these policies do not cover how to do the monitoring and they were not consistently followed," the report said.
The mismanagement meant that contracting officials could not find "three of the 17 files we requested for review," according to the report, and "four of the 14 contract files we reviewed -- totaling $2.7 million -- were missing performance evaluations, and evaluations of [three] additional contractors were not completed within the required time frames."
"Performance evaluations are an important tool to help the contracting and program offices determine whether to extend a contract, and these evaluations must be submitted before a contract extension can be awarded," according to the GAO report.
While the GAO reviewed management practices during the tenure of former Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who took over the system in 2007 and resigned last month, it did single her out by name, nor did the incoming Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in his statement.
"The D.C. Public School system continues business as usual and is plagued by a lack of accountability," said Rep. Darrell Issa of California, a strong school-choice proponent whose committee oversees D.C. affairs. "With teachers unions having succeeded in cutting off Opportunity Scholarships, it's deeply troubling that poor D.C. school children have no alternatives for getting an education."
But D.C. school officials said Friday that the federal money was spent on behalf of effective school reforms.
"Over the past three years, DCPS has used our federal payment funds to support critical, innovative programs that have helped reform public education in the District," a spokesman who did not want to be named said in an e-mail to The Washington Times. "Federal payment dollars have directly funded innovative compensation structures including performance pay; supported our rigorous teacher evaluation system; and funded a new staffing model that enabled DCPS to bring art, music and PE teachers to every school.
The GAO report made several recommendations, including requesting that the mayor "direct OSSE and DCPS to establish and implement written policies and procedures for monitoring use of federal payments for school improvement." It also said DCPS should "maintain contract files and other expenditure documentation."
D.C. school officials said they welcome the recommendations.
"Although the study pre-dates Chancellor Rhee's administration, we welcome the recommendations made by the GAO with respect to the policies and procedures in place at DCPS for contract monitoring," the schools spokesman said. "In fact, DCPS has already made a number of improvements in this area. We are also pleased to see that the GAO report makes clear that DCPSappropriately accounted for each federal dollar appropriated and spent."
D.C.'s calculator miscalculates
Examiner
11/22/10 9:05 PM
When D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi reported to the D.C. Council in June that there were sufficient funds in the public schools 2010 and 2011 budgets to cover the cost of the newly negotiated teachers contract, he may have miscalculated. The DCPS fiscal 2011 budget for that category now appears to be at least $8 million short, according to knowledgeable city hall sources.
When the city's chief calculator can't calculate accurately, we're in deep trouble.
On June 21, in a statement to the council, Gandhi wrote "funds are sufficient in FY 2010 through 2013 ... to implement the collective bargaining agreement." He projected cost for salaries and benefits from 2010 through 2013 at $1.4 billion. Specifically, in fiscal 2011, which began Oct. 1, he said there was $350.7 million available, including $311 million for salaries and benefits, $12.7 from other adjustments and $27 million in federal payments.
This revelation of a shortfall comes days after I wrote about other fiscal bobbles at the DCPS perpetrated by its chief finance officer, George Dines, and his staff of 52 employees -- all of whom work for Gandhi.
Dines informed the schools chancellor on Sept. 29 she had a surplus of $4 million for the end of fiscal 2010. He soon reversed himself, announcing a deficit of more than $11 million and advising to borrow from the 2011 budget.
Gandhi and his team are expected to submit a request this week to the council to move around more than $180 million in the schools 2011 budget. Those funds will cover anticipated overspending in special education of $75 million, which had been the only area where DCPS was thought to have a problem.
Dines and Gandhi also will use the reprogrammed funds to cover $15 million in overspending at DCPS during fiscal 2010, which ended Sept. 30. To cover that borrowing, reductions will be made in other areas of the schools budget. Adding to the madness, Dines has not claimed as much as $20 million in federal funds, sources said.
Some government insiders worry DCPS' fiscal woes, prompted by the CFO's incompetence, could hamper interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson's ability to advance education reforms. "She can't run the show if she doesn't know how much money she has from one day to the next," said a city hall source.
Henderson couldn't be reached for comment. But Frederick Lewis, a DCPS spokesman, said she's "deferring questions relative to the budget and fiscal certification of the WTU contract to the CFO."
Gandhi also could not be reached.
No doubt Gandhi will dismiss the problem, noting the city has a budget of more than $10 billion; the $8 million miscalculation in teachers' pay is a small error. That kind of response underscores his self-portrait of "just a bean counter" -- except he isn't counting beans. Those are taxpayers' dollars and shouldn't be wasted or mismanaged.
Economy
Investors wonder if Jemals can keep properties
By Jonathan O'Connell
Capital Business (Washington Post)
Capital Business (Washington Post)
Monday, November 22, 2010; 4
Many people may know of Douglas Jemal's rise from record shop owner to cowboy boot-wearing real estate entrepreneur to one of the leading drivers of downtown Washington's resurgence.
Much less is known about the inner workings of Douglas Development, a private company that is owned and kept famously close by the Jemal family. But with real estate investors hovering in search of discounts, its 8 million-square-foot portfolio has generated intense speculation. Specifically: Are the Jemals, Douglas and his sons, Norman and Matthew, interested in selling some property?
The Jemals are known for elegant reuse of historic properties, such as the downtown Woodward & Lothrop building, which now houses Forever 21, H&M, Zara and the Madame Tussauds wax museum. "I think they've been at the forefront of historic preservation in Washington," said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the D.C. Preservation League.
The Jemals are also known for waiting as long as necessary to attract retailers that can do more than pay the rent, but transform a block. In offering Douglas Jemal its "Downtown Citizen" award Nov. 9, Richard Bradley, executive director of the Downtown Business Improvement District, praised him for avoiding banks and drugstores to attract retailers that make downtown a destination. "This often meant holding on to vacant properties for as long as it took to attract the right retail mix," he said.
That patience became painfully expensive during the downturn, when the cost of owning so much property began to mount. With credit markets frozen, the company developed almost no property in a two-year span. Speculation that the Jemals may be short on cash grew in August when stories in the Washington Business Journal and the Richmond Times-Dispatch detailed millions in unpaid taxes. Investors targeted a loan on 1155 F St. NW, a Douglas office building, in the hope of taking over the property. John Sikaitis, director of research for Jones Lang LaSalle, said interested buyers were "expecting at least in the long term that they will get partial interest in a very attractive asset."
Norman Jemal, 42, acknowledged it was a hard stretch but said he sees the market "thawing in a very quick way right now." In the last six months the company inked a lease with clothes seller Anthropologie and turned 1155 F into a hub for government relations with Intel, Home Depot and others as tenants. The building is now 90 percent leased and Douglas refinanced its loan two weeks ago. On taxes, Jemal said: "We are in a very manageable position and we have arrangements to pay everything off."
He is also seeking new revenue by pursuing a form of development in which the company has little experience, multifamily housing. Jemal said he plans a 30-unit, high-end apartment building at the intersection of 14th Street and Florida Avenue NW. And although the company is still loath to sell anything, it is nearing a joint-venture agreement withhome-building giant Kettler on 450 K St. NE, 22,000 square feet Douglas owns in NoMa. Kettler plans more than 200 apartment units.
Jemal said there is a "good chance" Douglas will enter into a continuing partnership with Kettler, matching Douglas's portfolio with Kettler's housing expertise. "We are in the enviable position of owning real estate that allows us to choose the partners that we would like to have," he said.
Sizing up deals is a skill he honed working in his father's electronics store as a kid.
"It was a great experience in dealing with people," he said. "After a while you got it figured out who was negotiating because they had to and who was negotiating for sport."
Wal-Mart eyes existing sites
By Jonathan O'Connell
Capital Business Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/21/AR2010112104176.html
Capital Business Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/21/AR2010112104176.html
Monday, November 22, 2010; A15
The four sites that Wal-Mart identified when it announced its plans to enter the District for the first time last week are a former car dealership, a parking lot leased by a congressman's wife, a onetime public housing complex in the midst of redevelopment and a strip of auto repair shops.
To make its stores fit on each of the varying properties, the company has agreed to consider an array of layouts, designs and parking arrangements, a reflection of the chain's new willingness to adapt its model to enter urban markets.
None of the planned stores better exhibits Wal-Mart's new approach than 801 New Jersey Ave. NW, where the company plans a store of between 75,000 and 80,000 square feet on the ground floor of a five-story mixed-use building featuring 315 apartments, underground parking and space for smaller retailers to locate next door. The property, currently a parking lot, is owned by the city and leased to a joint venture between developer JBG and the Bennett Group, a firm owned LuAnn L. Bennett, wife of Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.).
Grant Ehat, principal of JBG Rosenfeld Retail, said he had been courting Wal-Mart for nearly 10 years but had failed to identify a site that fit the bill for a company known for stand-alone big-box stores and large surface parking lots.
"Really what happened is Wal-Mart had a change in its focus," he said, relaxing its store requirements to enter the markets it coveted and planning for 40 to 50 percent of its offerings to be groceries. "We are unaware of any other stores like this," Ehat said.
On Georgia Avenue NW, developer Foulger-Pratt plans to tear down the former Curtis Chevrolet dealership in a partnership with the family that used to sell cars there. They plan a 102,000-square-foot Wal-Mart with one level of underground parking, replacing previous plans to build 399 housing units - a proposal that collapsed after the recession began.
"We saw a new, progressive Wal-Mart with an innovative urban format," said Dick Knapp, senior vice president of Foulger-Pratt.
Where there are now auto repair shops on New York Avenue NE, developers Rick Walker and Miroslav Vlcko, who built the shopping center on Rhode Island Avenue NE that brought Washington its first Home Depot, are planning a 120,000-square-foot Wal-Mart that would sit atop another anchor as part of a major new retail center containing more than 350,000 square feet of shops and a two-story parking garage. Walker would not name the other anchor, but he plans a similar development in Baltimore, pairing a Wal-Mart with a Lowe's home-improvement store.
Locations in neighborhoods in need of fresh groceries and jobs made the sites stand out during the selection process, according to Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo. He said the company will seek further opportunities to expand in the city and tailor its stores to fit the space and character of the areas it is looking to serve.
"We'll continue to evaluate additional opportunities across the District and will be flexible in our approach so that the final size, look and format of our stores is a reflection of the neighborhood where it's located," he said.
Should it overcome opposition from labor leaders and build the four stores by the end of 2012, as it plans, Wal-Mart would enter the market more aggressively than Target, which opened one store, in Columbia Heights, in 2008 but has not expanded.
Restivo says Wal-Mart will be asking for no public subsidies on any of its four sites, although at least two of the planned stores require approval from the city. Wal-Mart has not yet signed a lease for any D.C. store.
On the north side of East Capitol Street, near the border with Prince George's County, Wal-Mart plans a store of about 100,000 square feet on the site of a former public housing complex. Adrianne Todman, interim executive director of the D.C. Housing Authority, which owns the property, is hoping the company will agree to certain hiring provisions during lease negotiations, similar to the way it did in making a pact on wages with the Chicago City Council for stores there.
"We're all watching the Chicago model in terms of how that turned out, and we are going to work with all of our stakeholders to make sure we get the best deal possible in terms of the city," Todman said.
Did Walmart Call You?
City Desk (Washington City Paper)
Shepherd Park's listserv has actually had a healthy debate on Walmart potentially moving into the old dealership lot at Missouri and Georgia. But one resident sticks out—she claims that she may have gotten polled by Walmart. It's pretty interesting, and not unusual considering the company has already set up its own propaganda website. The resident writes:
"I recently responded to a telephone survey that no doubt was commissioned by Walmart. Without identifying a particular retailer the questioner asked if I would favor new retail that would offer 2000 jobs in DC and provide low prices on pharmaceuticals, food, clothing and the like. I was told that the stores would not be big-box but scaled to residential areas. Then I was asked to rate several retailers including Kmart Walmart and Target. I was suspicious and felt it was one of those "push surveys" that aren't really about polling but building a favorable impression of the business that commissioned the survey. Did others in our neighborhood get a call, too?"
Debate after the jump!
Here's a sampling of opinion from the listserv:
"Without commenting on the merits – or lack thereof – of the Walmart project itself, I think it is worth pointing out that much of the traffic congestion on 14th near the Target development stems from poor traffic engineering that resulted in one lane of thru traffic in both directions for much of that stretch. If a Walmart, or any other major project, were to be approved for the Curtis site, the city would have to come up with a much better traffic design than was implemented on 14th St. in Columbia Heights.
Ralph"
Ralph"
"ANC's or community leaders are not the only people in ward 4...EVERYONE should be included before we hear about Walmart's next move via news reports! Walmart doesn't announce that they are coming without aready receiving approval to do so!
Cherita Whiting"
"Huge box store- not interested
More traffic on Georgia Ave, especially at the already congested GA Ave/ Military Rd intersection- not interested More traffic racing through our back streets trying to get to said store- not interested Money definetely leaving not only the neighborhood but the city- not interested Additional stress put on the new crop of small businesses that are trying to revitalize Georgia Ave- not interested
While I like Costco and Walmart (in open, suburban settings), I'm not sure we need them in our neighborhood. If Walmart moves in, it may improve that one or two blocks adjacent to the new store but it will KILL all the other small businesses that line Georgia Ave from Silver Spring to Howard University. I've seen one Walmart kill all the business in a small town and all around for miles. We don't want to see that here. Part of Ward 4's (and DC's) flavor is the variety of small business available on GA Ave. Besides, we already have one super-size box store at 14th and Park Rd (the Target retail complex). We don't want the traffic issues that sort of business brings to an area.
Samuel"
"Wal-Mart destroyed my hometown's main street (small town in Oklahoma, population 13,000). What was once a thriving business community now looks like Dresden after WWII. Wal-Mart is rapacious... If the employees ever have the courage successfully to organize and unionize, Wal-Mart will just close the store; that happened in Quebec. Besides, if I want cheap, Made-in-China crap, I can always go to a Dollar Store.
Doug in Takoma,
a former union steward, who does NOT like Wal-Mart"
"I have read many points of view on this matter the past few days. I have read misinterpretation; fear mongering, hopefulness, accusations, and calls for genuine thoughtful discourse. What I haven't read is what people want to see at the Curtis site (or any other site for that matter). I see a sad trend repeating itself. We are a community of NO. We react negatively to any type of development. The previous plans for the Curtis site, mixed-use retail as I recall, was similarly criticized. If critics in the community spent as much time offering alternative visions of what they want on the Avenue, as they do rejecting plans summarily, I'd feel more comfortable with their points of view.
Maybe the neighborhood communities need get together to create their own Georgia Avenue "Master Plan" and present it to the Office of Planning. Being reactionary doesn't seem to be working.
Andre on 9th St."
"Shepherd Park Neighbors,
In my humble opinion, I don't think a Wal-Mart in the area would be a bad
idea if we can get some reassurances from the concerns expressed on this issue. If we can strongly request that Wal-Mart becomes a good corporate neighbor I think it can be a win for everyone concerned.
idea if we can get some reassurances from the concerns expressed on this issue. If we can strongly request that Wal-Mart becomes a good corporate neighbor I think it can be a win for everyone concerned.
I am tired of constantly taking my money out of the city to the suburbs to get the day to day items needed for my household. I would rather spend that money inside the city an increase our own tax base and to have it used for our city services and programs.
I know that Wal-Mart can be a magnet of controversy, but I also believe with proper oversight and a strong commitment from our leaders and Wal-Mart that it can be a vision of stability within the community.
Steward"
City Urged Not to Offload Franklin School
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
At this point, after having received one viable bid in response to its RFP for redeveloping the landmarked Franklin School at 13th and K Street NW as a luxury hotel, the City Council could still vote to get it off the books. But it would be difficult to claim any degree of community support for doing so.
At last night's hearing on the disposition of the school–a process by which the city would determine that the building had "no public use"–officials from the Department of Real Estate Services and Office of the the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development laid out the school's long background. The 150-year-old building degenerated physically during its life as a homeless shelter until the Fenty administration closed it in 2008, and it will now be very expensive to renovate (estimates range from $20 million to $35 million).
Howard Marks, a resident of 1150 K Street NW, testified that his condo board supported the disposition of the school to a private developer. Everybody else, however, insisted that any number of pressing public needs justified keeping it in the city's portfolio, whether that be for a new homeless shelter, senior housing, or non-profits and charter schools. The Committee of 100 and Society of Oldest Inhabitants put in their two cents, arguing that the building's historic character would probably be best served by retaining it as a public asset. Neighborhood activist Cary Silverman in particular expressed frustration over the number of potential users who had come and gone in recent years while the city stood by the boutique hotel, which "appears to be a foregone conclusion." The Coalition for Franklin School wants to see a new RFP issued with a priority for educational uses, which would allow Vince Gray's favorite law school to apply, even though it might not fit.
It's a tricky thing: DRES project manager Jared Kahn stated in no uncertain terms that there was zero money in the city's budget to devote to the school's rehabilitation. Council behavior suggests that when they really want to find money for something, they can. But the school has the misfortune to fall under the jurisdiction of Councilmember Jack Evans, who has pushed for cuts in social services and seems sanguine about the prospect of a hotel. Now, activists just have to hope that Gray will be a stronger advocate.
Rush of applicants at D.C.'s new IHOP illustrates distress of a stalled economy
By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902706.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902706.html
Sunday, November 21, 2010; 7:30 PM
In hundreds of applications for jobs at the District's new IHOP, candidate after candidate reels off impressive work histories: One woman was a clerk at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, another assisted clients at a tax prep firm, and another spent the summer canvassing for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's reelection campaign. "I speak Spanish well," wrote one woman, noting that she was also a choreographer at a dance school.
Last week's opening of an IHOP in fast-gentrifying Columbia Heights - home to Target, Best Buy and a gastropub featuring $7 pints of British draft beer - offers a glimpse into a stalled economy that has produced a vast pool of experienced job seekers, some of whom are desperate for work, yet quite conscious of having to aim lower than they might in better times.
Many of the IHOP's new employees, who spent last week memorizing the differences between, say, the Viva La French Toast Combo and the Stuffed French Toast Combo, said they were rejects from other major chain stores. Many had been seeking work for six months to more than a year. In the "reasons left" section of their IHOP applications, they boiled their career moves down to telegraphic phrases: "company layoff," "terrible mgnt," "maternity leave."
But even a buyer's market - in which employers have the luxury of sorting through hundreds of hopefuls - poses challenges. In a city with 10 percent unemployment, where more than a quarter of students don't graduate from high school, finding people who know what's expected of them in a workplace can still be difficult.
In the hectic days before the grand opening, IHOP trainers struggled to teach the rookies the menu and computer system - and how to hold their tempers. Veteran employees and managers treated the newbies like high-schoolers, chastising them for peeking at their cellphones, chatting with friends during instruction and running late to class.
One morning, when it emerged that hardly anyone had studied the menu the night before, the restaurant's director of operations, Stephen Bennett, boomed, "This is really disappointing! Disappointing! Disappointing!"
"They got a bit of a tongue-lashing," said Tyoka Jackson, a retired NFL defensive lineman for four teams who now owns the IHOP franchise with his father, a retired D.C. public library supervisor, and brother, a D.C. police officer. "I was worried. How were they going to respond to the pressure?"
The restaurant's 120 employees were chosen from more than 500 applicants, he said.
"The labor market is flush with people," said Jackson, whose family built the city's first IHOP in Southeast Washington - the first sit-down franchise restaurant in Ward 8. The nonprofit Anacostia Economic Development Corp. is a minority stakeholder in the new outlet. "It's a sad story on one side, but it's been a benefit to us. We were looking for people with hearts, people who smiled. You can't teach that. I can teach how you to properly take an order. This isn't Microsoft or Intel."
The IHOP applications read like a diary of the recession, as young people still searching for their first job compete with those who have been excessed from one position after another. Applicants earnestly, if clumsily, tout their abilities ("I am very savy with cash register. Have a great sence of honor . . ."), word processing skills ("type 25 wpm, Microsoft word . . ."), availability ("A.S.A.P."), and legal transgressions ("Open for discussion").
The IHOP's owners shared the applications with The Post on condition that applicants' names be withheld.
A comparison of two piles of applications - one containing 140 winners evaluated by Jackson family members, the other with 78 entries under a blue "Rejects" note - shows that the owners prized personality over education or work background. (More than 200 other applicants were weeded out earlier in the process by local job-training centers.)
About 14 percent of IHOP's hires have college diplomas, trade certificates or vocational degrees, compared with about 21 percent of those in the rejected pool. Among the hires, 85 percent had work experience, versus 92 percent of those who were passed over. Hires were slightly more likely to have high school diplomas or GEDs - 86 percent compared with about 80 percent among those rejected.
And a smaller portion of the winners - just one in 10 - had committed crimes, compared with 15 percent of those turned down. Some accepted applicants wrote that they "will explain in interview" about their brushes with the law, but others detailed arrests for drug use, gun possession and solicitation. The rejects tended to list more serious offenses. One person wrote with unfortunate honesty: "I was a metro bus driver. I had a pedestrian accident . . . that caused fatality."
Those who were hired often arrived with a sense that although they needed the paycheck, they were meant to do better things.
On the first day of IHOP's training, scores of hires, mostly women in their 20s and early 30s, slid into burnt-orange dining booths and got ready for menu-memorizing boot camp. Surrounded by paintings of syrup bottles and pancakes, the class of future hostesses and servers was fidgety and chatty.
Kathy Stencel, a training team coordinator, told the class that it's their personalities that will put tips in your pockets, not the pancakes: "We're no different from anybody else out there on the street, especially now, the way the economy is. People don't eat out the way they used to. Now they make choices. Do we serve anything different from other places? Are our eggs any different from the guy down the street's eggs? Not at all. Are our burgers that much different from across the street at Five Guys?"
The class muttered back: "No."
Rules were announced: Hair must be up and netted. One earring, up to nickel size, per ear. No shirts with variations of the phrase "Eat Me." And most important: No cellphones. Leave them in the car or purse. Trainees squinted in disbelief.
Soon, they were poring over their textbook: an 11-page menu listing more than 100 items. Uniqua Kittrell, who has drifted from Ruby Tuesday's to Starbucks to a local steakhouse, and Kiana Murphy, 24, a laid-off nursing assistant, tried to grasp the concept of a "Denver mix," a green-pepper-and-onion concoction that goes with hash browns or eggs. But they seemed distracted by their own ambitions.
"I don't know what they're going to do with me when I go back to school," said Kittrell, who has two small children. "I am not working overtime."
"Yeah, it's too hard with a child," said Murphy, who has a 5-year-old. "I'm going to have my own business."
Murphy plans to begin training for her real estate license soon. "They're giving career seminars in December," she said. "If I am selling two or three houses a year, I'll be good."
Murphy fixated on her menu. A life of pancakes and $3.32 an hour plus tips was hitting her. "This is starting to depress me," she said. "Green peppers and onions. This is what you have to learn."
"You'll do it every day - it'll come naturally," said Sandra Redding, 30, another server trainee, who has an associate's degree in marketing and worked most recently assisting tax preparers at Jackson & Hewitt.
Murphy asked what people wanted to do before they died.
"I want to travel to Costa Rica," she said in answer to her own question. "I watched my father die, and he didn't see anything. It's not no sin to want more out of life."
The trainers, struggling to teach the menu and how to pronounce the word "crepe," made everyone switch seats so students would sit next to strangers and be quiet.
"There is no excuse for mistakes," yelled Chad Dunlap, the assistant manager. "You all need to listen. You're not going to make it. You'll be sent home. We're not going to deal with drama."
On opening day for the Columbia Heights IHOP - the chain's 1,500th - Mayor Fenty showed up. Even though it wasn't her day to work, Murphy came, too. She wanted to know what to expect later in the week.
"I'm grateful to be here," she said. "When I get frustrated, it's this sense I want something bigger. I want vacations. And vacation homes and a house connected to the ocean. I keep thinking, will I ever reach that?"
Developers are proceeding with plans to demolish a historic church
By John O'Connell
Capital Business (Washington Post)
Capital Business (Washington Post)
Monday, November 22, 2010; 4
Builders planning to tear down a concrete church after a years-long feud over the historic value of D.C. buildings are moving forward in earnest after a major local developer bought into the property as a partner.
For more than two years, debate raged over the fate of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist after ICG Properties bought it in 2006 and -- with the congregation's support -- planned to tear it down and build a new office building with worship space for the church.
Located two blocks north of the White House at 16th and I streets NW, the church was designed by the firm of architect I.M. Pei in 1971 and is one of a limited number of Washington examples of Brutalist architecture.
After the purchase, ICG weathered furious debate between preservationists, who argued that the building had historic value and should not be demolished, and advocates for property rights and religious freedom, who said the building was out of date and that opposing the church constituted a violation of religious freedom.
In 2007 the city's Historic Preservation Review Board voted unanimously to name the church a historic landmark. But Mayor Adrian M. Fenty then appointed Planning Director Harriet Tregoning to oversee preservation issues. In 2009 Tregoning said preventing demolition would "result in the inevitable demise of the Third Church as a downtown congregation" and allowed it to proceed.
But even with the reversal in hand, ICG's equity partner on the project pulled out in December 2009. That left development plans in limbo until August, when the JBG Cos., a Chevy Chase developer and investor that completed a $575 million real estate fundraising drive in January, quietly bought into the project.
"What we were looking for was a long-term capital partner who wanted to be involved not just in the near term and entitlement [when the project is cleared for construction] but that wanted to build a building, and they fit that," said ICG principal David Stern.
Despite being a much smaller company, ICG will remain lead developer of the project until the plans are fully approved.
"We're basically backing them," said W. Matt Kelly, managing director of JBG investment management. "We're the minority investor, we're backing them, they're in the lead, and then when we have the site entitled, that equation will shift."
Stern said he expects to submit the project for zoning changes in the first half of 2011. ICG has begun its search for an architect that he said will ensure that the property will continue to showcase landmark design.
"This is a corner that deserves exemplary and monumental architecture," he said.
Ellwood Thompson’s Bails From DCUSA
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Ellwood Thompson's, the biggesttease in Columbia Heights real estate, has decided it's not going to open a location on Irving Street after all.
According to Councilmember Jim Graham, the Richmond-based organic food store recently ended its two-year flirtation with the DCUSA location–and will lose about a million dollars in breaking its agreements.
"I was the one who sent them there," said Graham, noting that they'd first asked him about the 14th Street location now occupied by Yes! Organic. "Little did I know how conservative, really timid, they would be come...they’re going to pay for this very bad decision."
Graham expressed confidence that another organic grocer could be found to occupy the space; discussions are already underway with "a whole group of them."
UPDATE, 3:00 p.m. – Ellwood Thompson's tells TBD that they haven't bailed on the CoHi spot. "I don't know why Jim Graham is saying this. We are not in default. We continue to work with the landlord to make this happen," said ownerRichard Hood.
UPDATE, Saturday 9:35 a.m. – Graham reiterates that he has spoken withDrew Greenwald, president of DCUSA owner Grid Properties, who says that Ellwood Thompson's is "in default four times to the tune of $1 million." "We don't know what Mr. Hood is talking about," Graham says.
Calls and emails to Ellwood Thompson's have not been returned.
DYRS
DYRS chief sees self as 'part of solution'
Washington Times
7:44 p.m., Sunday, November 21, 2010
It's a time-honored tradition of local government: a somewhat aloof director of a troubled city agency resigns, declaring success in bringing about needed reforms, and eventually a straight-talking replacement comes along and pledges transparency in completing the unfinished job.
And so it is that former D.C. Deputy Attorney General Robert Hildumcomes to the interim directors job at the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) with plenty left to fix but, in an election year when the incumbent who appointed him was unseated, less than a clear mandate for change.
Not surprisingly then, when Mr. Hildum agreed recently to an on-the-record interview with The Washington Times, he came across as part truth-teller and part job applicant, with equal doses of vision and humility about what his future holds.
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray declined to answer detailed questions about his specific plans for DYRS reform or Mr. Hildum's job security, but in an e-mailed statement offered: "I believe its time for an overhaul of the Districts juvenile justice and rehabilitation system so that our youth are less likely to commit crimes and more likely to receive the wrap-around services they need to make their rehabilitation successful."
A trusted deputy of controversial Attorney General Peter J. Nickles, and a former prosecutor who sees the benefits of both the carrot and the stick in reforming juveniles, Mr. Hildum quickly was tagged by the local media as a jail-happy lawman who was coming to lock up the citys youth - a label he disputes.
And while he hesitated to openly criticize former DYRS director Vincent N. Schiraldi, a nationally known advocate for compassionate juvenile justice reform, he pulled few punches in criticizing the state of the agency that Mr. Schiraldi left behind.
"I dont want to bash my predecessor," Mr. Hildum said, after a two-hour interview in which he excoriated DYRS for "lack of administrative management and oversight," and for conditions that he finds "distressing."
Mr. Hildum, the architect of the citys exit plan for the 1985 Jerry M. case that placed DYRS under a court monitor, was less direct when asked if he would hold poor managers accountable, or confront shoddy work or misconduct among rank-and-file corrections and social workers.
"Id like to," he said.
Perhaps the most delicate issue he faces is morale at the 600-employee agency. He said he recognizes that case managers feel overworked and that "they feel like they have no voice."
Last week, Mr. Hildum took the unusual step of sending out an agencywide memo acknowledging what he described as "yet another tragedy" after the death of a youth in DYRS custody: "I wanted you to know that I recognize and appreciate your continued and constant service to our youth, and I ask that you continue to work hard and tirelessly as we continue to improve our agency."
At the same time, with 600 employees and 900 kids in its custody - 200 of whom are being supervised in other states - Mr. Hildum is bothered by the notion that there still are not enough "eyes on the kids." He is concerned that managers also could feel under siege, if the perception becomes thatDYRS is "top heavy" and in need of a managerial housecleaning.
"Its a classic bureaucratic dilemma," he said. "I dont know how to rectify it yet."
Tasha Williams, who represents juvenile correctional workers, said her union is concerned about whether Mr. Hildum will address perceptions that weak managers push blame for bad outcomes on an overburdened staff. "What does he see about the leadership at DYRS?" she said. "What is his perspective on what changes are needed?"
American Federation of Government Employees 14th District National Vice President Dwight Bowman said recently DYRS has suffered from too much turnover at the top, and his primary concern is thatMr. Gray reach out to his members. "I want the man to understand what we see," he said. "These kids are building a culture that is separate from ours in terms of their accepted norms of violence."
Mr. Bowman added that to replace Mr. Hildum would result in another reorganization and a shifting of agency priorities. "A new person would want to put their own stamp on it," he said.
And D.C. Council member Tommy Wells, chairman of the committee that has oversight of DYRS, likened the agency to the D.C. Public Schools and its former chancellor, Michelle A. Rhee.
"DYRS is in a state of overhaul," he said. "Vinnie was the turnaround guy. He blew the place up and the staff was in revolt, same as with Michelle Rhee and the teachers.
"Now you need a manager to run the place."
Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier is a fan of Mr. Hildum.
"I have a fabulous relationship with Rob [Hildum]," Chief Lanier said. "Not as fabulous with Vinnie. We had different views on juvenile justice."
"When I was in the attorney generals office, if we criticized DYRS the attitude was, let him take a snap, see how easy it is," he said. "Now I'm wearing the jersey."
In the past, Mr. Hildum said he liked to be behind the scenes doing the work, but that does not mean he favors a cautious, bureaucratic approach. "I want to give case managers the freedom to exercise judgment, and to make mistakes as long as they are doing everything they can do," he said. "But if the work is sloppy, or there is a bad outcome, then there has to be a review. Id like that to be used as a means of offering guidance."
He also offered a window into what kind of person he is. Despite a stellar resume and a high-profile, if potentially temporary, Cabinet appointment, Mr. Hildum said he worries about what his next job would be, having left the AGs office to take the helm at DYRS. Certainly had Adrian M. Fenty won the election, Mr. Hildums job would be more secure.
Yet he said he is looking forward to sitting down with Mr. Gray and "talking to him and telling him what I've seen."
"I'd really like to continue being part of the solution," he said.
'Anti-prison' at root of DYRS problems
Limited bed space at local facility forces D.C. to move youths across U.S.
Washington Times
7:36 p.m., Sunday, November 21, 2010
Deputy Sheriff Shane Painter was on his way to an accident when he got a call to divert. A melee had erupted at a home for troubled boys - about 100 students and staff were "actively fighting."
The deputy radioed dispatchers at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix, saying the students were "laying everywhere and that some were still fighting with the staff members." Told to wait for backup, he hit the siren but all he got was a buzzing sound. He turned on his emergency lights. That got their attention.
When backup arrived, the officers discovered that the fight centered on a complaint of an unfair punishment for talking in the shower the night before. It began with one counselor, one kid. Then the kid picked up a brick. More counselors, more kids.
At the heart of the brawl, detailed in memos and interviews among dozens of reports obtained by The Washington Times through the Freedom of Information Act, was a core group of 10 young men. The common thread: They were from Washington, D.C. - wards of the city sent packing to Queen Creek, Ariz., some 2,400 miles from home.
The juveniles - who had been charged with felonies including drug distribution, attempted murder and attempted rape while armed - are among 200 others like them scattered across the country, in large part because the District does not have the appropriate facilities to manage them.
Across the nation, states have been experimenting with more compassionate approaches to juvenile justice, but the lack of effective options in Washington raises questions about the success of its ongoing reforms.
A decade ago, placement of the youths would have been a simple matter. They almost assuredly would have been sent to Oak Hill, the District's juvenile jail.
Virtually no one disputes that last year's closing of the jail - a cold, filthy institutional relic of the District's Youth Rehabilitation Service's troubled history made infamous for reports of abuses and escapes, rampant drug smuggling and harsh and inappropriate punishments - was a good thing.
The D.C. Council had mandated the closing as part of the Omnibus Juvenile Justice Act of 2004 - about the time city officials approved the creation of the Cabinet-level DYRS to replace the city's Youth Services Administration and implement reforms to a juvenile justice system that was a national disgrace.
Vincent N. Schiraldi was brought in to spearhead the reforms, and under his direction the city aggressively pursued a juvenile justice model to emphasize the rehabilitation of troubled youths in their communities or in more therapeutic surroundings than prison cells.
Or at least it was supposed to.
'The anti-prison'
The centerpiece of reform efforts is the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, a $46 million secure facility opened the day Oak Hill closed for good. Sitting on 30 acres in Laurel, Md., the campus described as "the anti-prison" opened in June 2009 with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty present to christen it as one of the "best rehabilitative facilities in the country."
It offers high-risk offenders an intensive nine- to 12-month program featuring counseling, education and job training in what is referred to as the "Missouri model," after successful juvenile justice reforms in that state.
But the state-of-the-art center has space for just 60 of the 900 DYRS wards. Only recently have officials begun to acknowledge that the "anti-prison" is at the root of the problems with their reforms.
"The moment we opened New Beginnings it was too small. And I'm struggling with that now," said Robert Hildum, interim director at DYRS.
John Walker, a representative of the labor union that represents DYRS employees, has worked with juveniles for more than 30 years and in the District since 1986. A persistent critic of DYRS management, Mr. Walker agrees that New Beginnings is simply inadequate.
"The limited bed space at New Beginnings is a major cause of DYRS' problems," he said. "Sixty beds are not reflective of the number of youth committed to DYRS."
The arrangement - by necessity as much as by design - leaves some 500 juveniles either in home placement or at group homes in the District. About 130 or so juveniles are in the custody of the city's adult detention system.
That leaves another 200 youths arrested for violent offenses, for sexual-related crimes or needing drug rehabilitation services to be shuffled among Residential Treatment Centers across the country, such as Canyon State in Arizona, at costs of from $250 to $300 per youth, per day. The number of committed juveniles in such facilities has nearly doubled since March 2009, when there were 110 DYRS wards at the centers.
"The fact that we have a few hundred of our youth in RTCs spread across the country, the fact that we have a 60-bed facility here in D.C., I think is disturbing to me that we send so many of our youth out of the District," Mr. Hildum said.
The youths treated out of state inevitably return. In need of transitional services of their own, they are added to a population of DYRS wards already in community placement, settings where a recent report by the D.C. attorney general's office said services were found lacking and oversight was inadequate.
Some say the arrangement also has left the District with an increasing juvenile crime problem. An analysis by The Times found that in the year from Sept. 1, 2009, to Aug. 31, at least 15 city wards were among the 110 people publicly identified by police or prosecutors as being arrested for or charged with homicide. Another 14 city wards were among the 130 publicly identified homicide victims.
In some cases, Mr. Hildum says, DYRS officials are not even aware that youth have returned to the District from out-of-state facilities. Not to mention that while they are at out-of-state facilities, DYRS has little control over what happens to them.
The D.C. youths who participated in the Arizona melee, for example, spent the three days after the fight in the Maricopa County Jail run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio - "America's toughest sheriff" - and were released without being formally charged. They were on their own for several more days before Canyon State officials caught them and arranged for them to be transported back to the District.
When they got to Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport, at least one of the group broke away from an escort until airport security apprehended him and DYRS officers took him back into custody.
The youths, as is common with those described as "awaiting placement," were taken to New Beginnings. And that became a problem in itself.
New Beginnings
Mr. Schiraldi, who declined to be interviewed for this series, left the District in January to run the New York City Department of Probation. His like-minded colleague and former chief of staff, Marc Schindler, was named his interim replacement, but he too has since been replaced.
One day last spring, Mr. Schindler led a tour of New Beginnings that is familiar to any politician, parent, advocate or journalist who has visited the campus. To great effect, the tour begins at the facility that New Beginnings replaced: Oak Hill Youth Center.
Mr. Schindler, a lawyer with a background in youth advocacy, trudged across an overgrown field of grass and weeds, cautioning his visitors to be on the lookout for snakes. A tall fence topped with 15- to 20-foot-high coils of razor wire surrounds a low, wide brick building and a brown barracks-style facility and a metal trailer that used to contain dorm rooms.
He was eager to talk about how bad things had gotten at Oak Hill before the D.C. Council mandated its closure. He talked of overcrowding, abuse and lack of community programming. Inside the facility, he described a world where dozens of youths would be housed in daylong lockdown situations, or in groupings that mixed kids of differing status - endangering less violent ones and enticing the more violent to take advantage of others.
"There would be a television in a cage that would be blaring, 20 jaws broken per month and staff with little training," he said. "It was an environment that can best be described as loud, chaotic and toxic."
Individual rooms resembled jail cells, with metal furniture, toilets and sinks. Down the hall were day rooms where kids could socialize. In the middle of each unit was a security glass-enclosed office for staff that had bad sight lines and blind spots, Mr. Schindler said.
"Kids peed and crapped on the floor if they did not have a toilet in their room and couldn't get out," he said. "There was nothing good going on."
A 1985 lawsuit known widely as the Jerry M. case represented a class of detained and committed children confined at the District's facilities for juveniles and contended that the city and various city officials failed to provide appropriate care, rehabilitation and treatment. The agency is still under the purview of a court monitor, but conditions at Oak Hill remained dismal for decades until its closure.
A short distance from the decrepit former juvenile jail, New Beginnings practically sparkles in the sunshine of a bright clear day. The concept was to build a facility that is smaller, more homelike and based on a group rehabilitative process, Mr. Schindler said. "It's got to be clean, safe and orderly or you can forget rehabilitation," he said.
Kids are housed 20 to a unit at New Beginnings. Each unit is comprised of two, 10-person pods for kids who sleep in carpeted dorm rooms with blackboards, desks and chairs and secure windows that let in air and light. The units feature wood beams on the ceilings and exposed ventilation. There are works of art on the painted walls, carpeting and recreational options including a pingpong table. The dorm room furniture and the chairs and sofas in the common areas are made from wood and upholstery.
While Oak Hill had a school, gymnasium and cafeteria all located in separate buildings with the unintended consequence of creating angles and hiding spots, New Beginnings features a more integrated layout that lends an open, campuslike feel to the place. The outdoor recreational areas are connected by landscaped paths that are well-lit at night. A pristine asphalt basketball court with nylon nets on the hoops looks brand new.
The gymnasium has wood floors, bleachers and Plexiglas backboards at each end of the basketball court.
"We don't want them to feel like it's a prison, even though they are locked up," Mr. Schindler said.
Awaiting placement
The kids involved in the Arizona melee landed at New Beginnings while DYRS officials decided where to put them next. Four of them promptly escaped.
Much of the trouble that reportedly has come from New Beginnings - a rash of early escapes from the facility, property damage and a riot among the detained youths - has been from the population that is awaiting placement. In most cases, those are youths who had their community placement revoked or were rearrested for violent offenses.
Last month, New Beginnings had a population that was 10 over its capacity, at 70 youths - 29 of whom were "awaiting placement."
The high number temporarily housed at New Beginnings left room for only 42 youths in the renowned rehabilitative program that the facility was designed to offer - a situation Mr. Hildum described as "distressing."
"The only place we have to put kids awaiting placement is New Beginnings," he said.
With a steady stream of high-risk youths coming into the system, but with nowhere to put them, DYRS ends up creating ad hoc spaces on campus to hold kids who dont have a place in the New Beginnings program.
"They know they are not going to be there long, and they cause problems," he said. "You cant have dozens of kids passing through there. The facility cannot fulfill the promises we are making."
Mr. Walker agrees that relying on New Beginnings as a temporary holding facility makes it less effective.
"No structure is the fundamental problem," he said. "Youth are commingled with rival youth. It is just a holding place. There's no programming for community placement. The unit is simply a revolving door. And once the youth realizes that there is a revolving door, there is no incentive to change behavior."
Mr. Hildum seemed puzzled that the District built such a small facility in the first place. He said that as far as he could tell, the capacity was based on a recommendation that took up a paragraph of an 11-page report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
"I'm perplexed that we moved forward based on this, what I consider, fairly thin report."
The report relied on crime data indicating that about 20 percent of the 260 youths estimated to be committed each year were convicted of offenses severe enough to require secure detention. But juvenile crime, especially serious crime, has spiked since 2006 when the calculations were made and by 2008 the number of commitments shot up to 340.
Asked why the facility was not built larger, Mr. Hildum said: "The concept is, 'If you build it, they will come.' So the theory is, if you build big facilities, you will fill them. The problem is, if you don't build it, they still come."
A recent report by D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles took aim at the overcrowding problem at New Beginnings. "To address this issue," the Nickles report said, "DYRS needs a 20-30 bed secure facility for aftercare violators and another 15-20 bed secure facility for those awaiting placement."
All signs point to the Arizona bunch eventually coming home to a system not equipped to handle them. After their repeated escapes and other disruptions, the kids at the center of the Canyon State melee were recaptured and ultimately shipped to secure facilities in other states - again.
They eventually returned to the District and committed new crimes:
In March, 19-year-old Jamal Hamilton was charged with armed robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon. In July, 19-year-old Kenneth Garner pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of a vehicle and later was sentenced to 30 months of youth confinement. That same month, 19-year-old Rashad Hough was charged with drug distribution while armed. Last month, he pleaded guilty to attempted distribution of cocaine and is due to be sentenced in December.
All three have had extensive enrollments in the juvenile system, at both Oak Hill and New Beginnings.
Police / DCPS / Metro / Other
D.C. police official Diane Groomes placed on leave over allegedly 'compromising' a department test
By Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906506.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906506.html
Friday, November 19, 2010; 10:43 PM
A high-ranking D.C. police official has been placed on administrative leave over allegations that she was involved in "compromising" a test given to fellow members of the department's command staff, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced Friday.
The official, Assistant Chief Diane Groomes, a 20-year member of the department, oversees the patrol services and school security bureau, which includes hundreds of front-line officers assigned to seven district stations across the city. She is one of the most publicly visible officials in the department's upper echelon.
In a brief statement issued shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, as most of the city government was shutting down for the weekend, a police spokeswoman said Lanier had placed Groomes on "administrative leave pending further investigation into an allegation that she was involved in compromising a test administered to some members of the command staff as part of their in-service training."
The spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Crump, said the chief would have no further comment on the investigation, the nature of the test or how Groomes allegedly compromised the exam. "That's all we're releasing - that statement," Crump said.
Groomes, 44, whose annual salary is about $150,000, did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment or a message left on her cellphone Friday. The department's internal affairs unit is handling the investigation, Crump said.
Groomes said last night that "I am sorry for my actions and bad judgment . . . and for the discredit I caused to the best chief, department . . . and city."
Kristopher Baumann, a top official of the labor union representing lower-ranking officers on the 4,000-member force, said the term "command staff" usually means the department's 60 to 70 captains, inspectors and commanders, as well as its five uniformed assistant chiefs and a few civilians who are the equivalent of assistant chiefs.
Baumann, chairman of the labor committee of Lodge 1 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said D.C. law requires officers of all ranks to complete 32 hours of "professional development training" annually, which the department calls "in-service training." He said officers meet the requirement in myriad ways, by attending outside seminars or in-house training programs covering a variety of topics.
Baumann said the internal training sessions often are tailored for officers of particular ranks and assignments, including training intended for top officials. He said he did not know of any recent training specifically for the command staff.
The in-service exam that Groomes has been accused of compromising has been thrown out, the department said in its statement: "To protect the integrity of the process, the test results for all members of the command staff have been invalidated and a new test will be developed."
The patrol bureau, which will be headed by another assistant chief in Groomes's absence, is by far the largest of the department's seven bureaus and the one with which citizens most often interact. Groomes has been the public face of the department at numerous community meetings throughout the city, listening to concerns about street crime, from vandalism to shootings, and other nuisances.
"She has made everyone safer by making 'community policing' a reality," said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. "From where I live in Mount Pleasant to every other part of town, she has walked the streets with residents and small-business owners and made our neighborhoods better."
Replacing Groomes will be Assistant Chief Alfred Durham, who is the department's executive officer and second in command to Lanier.
Groomes's long career includes many patrol assignments, including as a sergeant in Northeast, as a lieutenant and then an inspector in charge of the 3rd District Station, covering neighborhoods with stubborn drug and violence problems, such as Pleasant Plains and the Park Morton apartment complex.
She later became commander of the First District, in charge of similar problem areas, but also the night life of Chinatown and residential areas of Capitol Hill.
She became known for blunt talk to residents and long hours on the street to try to solve problems. Groomes often has been present at scenes of violent crimes, and for many years was a face of the department during television interviews about such incidents.
Staff writers Allison Klein and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
Hardy Middle in Georgetown suffering in transition to new leadership, some say
By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/21/AR2010112103684.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/21/AR2010112103684.html
Sunday, November 21, 2010; 8:00 PM
Parents and teachers at Hardy Middle School hoped that this fall something resembling normal would return. Last year's decision by Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to reassign Principal Patrick Pope mushroomed into a mayoral campaign issue and left their community divided by race and class tensions.
But despite Rhee's assurances that the Georgetown school's special identity would remain intact - anchored in its citywide enrollment and fine arts and instrumental music program - parents and staff say Hardy has suffered in the transition to new leadership. They say the school stands as a monument to some of the most damaging missteps of Rhee's tenure.
Hardy still draws a majority black enrollment from across all of the city's wards. The number of incoming sixth-graders from surrounding elementary "feeder" schools has also increased, which was an objective Rhee had pursued.
But returning parents and teachers say the school climate has deteriorated, with a rise in tardiness, fights and disrespectful behavior toward a less experienced administrative team. A shift in the daily schedule, from "block" periods of one hour or more to conventional 43- to 46-minute classes, has diluted the quality of the arts and music offerings, some parents and staff say.
"It's gone from being an arts- and music-focused school to a generic, standard middle school," said seventh-grade math teacher Luke Sunukjian, an eight-year veteran.
They also contend that Rhee's decision to allow new Principal Dana Nerenberg to split her time between Hardy and nearby Hyde-Addison Elementary - which resulted from an attempt to promote a sense of continuity among Georgetown schools and make Hardy a more attractive option for neighborhood families - is impractical given the demands of running a 520-student middle school.
"We are watching this school fall apart," said Mia Pettus, who has a son in the seventh grade.
Hardy still wins some praise. New parents and some holdovers say they are pleased.
"I don't regret the choice I made," said Trai Williams, whose sixth-grade daughter attended Brent Elementary on Capitol Hill last year. "I haven't had any problems."
Word arouses suspicion
Rhee triggered a race- and class-tinged controversy in fall 2009 when she told a Georgetown civic group that she wanted to "turn" the school, a choice of words that would define the ensuing debate.
Rhee said it was only a way of expressing her desire to make Hardy, which had just completed a $48 million renovation, more of an option for neighborhood families, who had been historically underrepresented at the school. But the use of the word aroused deep suspicion among the school's black parent leadership, especially after it was learned that Rhee met earlier in 2009 with parents of Key Elementary, a 70 percent white feeder school in the Palisades.
Suspicions peaked in December when Rhee announced that Pope would plan a new arts magnet middle school and that he would be replaced by Nerenberg. Students joined the fray (with help from parents) marching on the John A. Wilson Building and speaking before the D.C. Council, where one likened Rhee to Dolores Umbridge, a villainous teacher at Harry Potter's Hogwarts School.
Nearly a year later, Dana Humphries, who has sixth- and eighth-grade sons, said the students clearly miss the 60-year-old Pope, a popular figure who supporters say brought to the job a sense of fun and a firm hand with both students and parents.
"But I don't see a whole lot of difference," said Humphries, who lives in Southeast Washington. "He was closer to the kids than Dana, but she's trying."
The clouded status of Pope's new assignment remains a sore point. Budget constraints and uncertainty about the magnet school's academic design have pushed the project back at least a year and probably longer. It leaves Pope in the school system's central office, planning a new school that may not come to pass in the foreseeable future. He declined to comment for this story.
Some parent leaders have not abandoned their campaign to have Pope reinstated. Many supported the campaign of Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D), who took up their cause and criticized Rhee's decision to replace Pope as unwarranted meddling with a school that was working. At a March hearing, Gray said, "a mistake has been made."
"I've encouraged people at the highest levels to rethink this," said Keenan Keller, head of the parent-teacher leadership panel at Hardy.
"I think a lot of Dana Nerenberg, but they are putting a great burden on her," Keller said, referring to her dual principalship.
Gray said Friday that he and interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson had discussed the Hardy situation, including Nerenberg's dual principalships, on a couple of occasions. But he said he had not asked her to take any specific course of action.
"I don't want to be chancellor of the schools," Gray said. "Kaya knows I'm there to be supportive, and she will make the right decisions when it comes to the students of Hardy."
Henderson said that she was looking into the issues raised by Hardy parents and staff but that Pope's return is not on the table.
"Mayor-elect Gray has not asked me to consider returning Patrick Pope to Hardy," Henderson said, adding that she expected Nerenberg to continue in both posts.
'Tricky' but manageable
On a visit to Hardy one afternoon last week, a classroom of children playing flutes filled the air with music. In the auditorium, a master class in hip-hop dance was underway.
"We're trying to build Hardy into the top-performing middle school in the city," said Nerenberg, 37, plucking trash from the floors as she walked the building. Laserlike in her intensity, she speaks in educational idioms used by Rhee, talking about "creating excellent opportunities every day for our students to learn."
Nerenberg said the block schedule was abandoned because some students were receiving fewer minutes per week of instruction than others in core subjects such as math and English. Even so, she said, more instrumental music classes have been added.
Nevertheless, the issue will be revisited by a parent-teacher task force early next year with an eye toward changes in 2011. She also acknowledged that discipline needs to be tightened but says that her reduced presence at Hardy - she spends two days a week at Hyde-Addison - is "tricky" but manageable.
"Last spring was a real challenge for our kids," she said, referring to the uproar around Pope's departure
Hardy has always been something of an outlier in the District, a majority-minority school in the middle of Georgetown. It was shaped by Pope, who created the arts and music program - requiring every sixth-grader to begin learning an instrument - and an application process that helped promote parental buy-in to the uniform policy and other elements of school culture.
Although the school did not make adequate yearly progress last year under the No Child Left Behind law, more than 70 percent of its students tested proficiently in reading and math, placing it far ahead of most of the city's public middle schools.
But over the years, Pope, a flinty no-nonsense administrator with a low tolerance for parents he considered overly intrusive, developed a reputation described by Hardy teachers as "not Georgetown friendly."
Student sentiment remains raw, although the controversy has cooled. This week, Miranda Woods, a seventh-grader, told school administrators at the chancellor's "office hours" that the school was a pale version of its former self.
"Students rebel now," Miranda told WAMU (88.5 FM). "They get into fights. A lot of people write on walls in the bathroom. They get bad grades and don't care about it. Last year, Mr. Pope wouldn't have tolerated it."
Turning point for Metro
Editorial
Washington Post
Saturday, November 20, 2010; A14
GETTING MORE money for Metro is a fool's errand as long as the governance of the rail and transit system is so dysfunctional. That harsh conclusion by a task force of local government and business leaders attributes much of Metro's decline to a governing structure that is outdated and ineffective. The group's recommendation for an overhaul of how the system is run is an urgent call to action that should prod the District's mayor and the governors of Maryland and Virginia to take a stronger role in fixing the system.
The task force organized by the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments presents a damning indictment of the 16-member multi-jurisdictional board that oversees the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). No accountability, blurred responsibilities and a lack of cohesiveness have caused regional needs to take a back seat to parochial interests. Meddling by board members helps explain the churn of general managers in the past five years. The 35-page report recommends an overhaul of how Metro is governed and calls for formation of a commission - of the state and local officials who were signatories to the compact that formed WMATA - to make the necessary improvements and hold the board accountable.
The report makes some common-sense recommendations that the board itself should immediately implement. Instead of rotating the chairmanship among jurisdictions for one-year stints, the board should pick a regionally focused chair who would serve a longer term. Other changes - such as allowing selection of a chairman from outside the board's membership to a four-year term - would require revisions to the WMATA compact, which requires buy-in from the original signatories and approval from Congress. Some changes are presented as suggestions; we wish that the group had been more forceful in arguing against elected officials serving on the board and the veto that every jurisdiction wields on decisions.
No doubt task force members were mindful of the delicate regional and political interests at play and the need to broker consensus from three jurisdictions. The idea of a stronger role for the Virginia governor already has some Northern Virginia officials worrying about a loss of clout. Clearly, the jurisdictions that write Metro's checks and whose residents have the biggest stake need to be at the table, but the task force correctly points out that appointments to the board are made with little regard to the needs of the system. More thought must be given to the expertise and background and balance of the board.
With Metro searching for a new general manager, it's more important than ever to fix the governance problems that handicapped previous leaders. D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D), Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) need to take immediate action.
Missed:
With bond sale, D.C. creeps up against debt cap
Michael Neibauer
Washington Business Journal
Published: November 18, 2010
The District will sell $520 million in bonds to partly finance 139 capital projects this fiscal year, pushing the city closer to its statutory debt cap — a limit that if breached could jeopardize projects and threaten D.C.’s bond rating.
D.C. holds about $7 billion in long-term debt and will pay $412.9 million this fiscal year alone to service that debt. Every new dollar that’s piled on draws the District toward the debt cap, reduces the dollars available for government operations and cuts into future borrowing opportunities.
With the debt cap, the city can legally spend no more than 12 ...
Note from DC Government Clips: This is a partial article from the Washington Business Journal, in order to read the complete article you must be a subscriber.
District auditor thumps developers on CBE goals
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010, 2:22pm EST
The “ineffective organization” of the District’s small business office allowed developers receiving D.C. tax dollars to duck mandatory spending on small, local, disadvantaged companies, a new audit finds.
Developers who receive D.C. money or participate in the Industrial Revenue Bond program are required to spend 35 percent of their project’s total cost on Certified Business Enterprises, or CBEs — formerly called Local, Small and Disadvantaged Enterprises.
Before 2007, the 35 percent figure was a goal stated in memorandums of understanding, many of which the District has lost or misplaced.
Some public-private developers “have worked hard to achieve their goals,” D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols found in a Nov. 5 report. “However, the remaining developers are not complying with requirements that are aimed to enhance the District’s CBE community by stimulating and expanding the local tax base, increasing the number of viable employment opportunities for District residents, and extending economic prosperity to local business owners, their employees, and the communities they serve.”
Nichols’ team was able to tally the expenses of only 75 of 275 projects subject to CBE goals. Nichols couldn’t track the other 200 because the Department of Small and Local Business Development lacked critical information such as the CBE agreements, memorandums of understanding and expenditure reports.
The department’s “inability to locate CBE agreements and MOUs, determine the status of projects, and notify the auditor of key milestones for each project highlights the lack of control that has pervaded this program for some time,” Nichols wrote.
Of the 75 projects she could monitor, only 30 are complete. Within that group, 24 met or exceeded the 35 percent CBE goal, and six fell short — some far short. They range from Gallery Place Holdings LLC, which fell shy by 4 percent, to Madame Tussauds, which spent only $287,167 on CBEs, 89 percent short of its $2.7 million goal.
The six that failed, Nichols wrote, “represent a serious failure in the District’s efforts to support the CBE community.” Her office is statutorily responsible for tracking D.C.’s handling of CBE spending and “first source” mandates for hiring city residents. In both areas, recent audits by Nichols found that the District has underperformed.
CBE agreements include penalties for falling short of expenditure requirements, but the Department of Small and Local Business Development lacks sufficient resources to regularly notify developers who are not on course to meet their goals, Director Lee Smith wrote in response to the audit.
He said his agency will start penalizing developers who fail to submit quarterly expenditure reports, as Nichols suggested, and will post a public list of noncompliant developers on its website.
From Friday:
Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/brvpPl
Loose Lips (daily column): http://bit.ly/aZ80qU
DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/93E0Mi
Kojo: http://bit.ly/aQIkBh / Listen: http://bit.ly/bgFtHX
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