Posts
Good morning, The headers are a hit, they will stay. Now for a bit of housekeeping: I'll publish tomorrow and then I'll be on hiatus until Monday, November 29. That issue will have anything significant from Thursday and Friday, but will concentrate on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. For those who are travelling, be safe. For everyone, have a wonderful holiday.
Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips
D.C. Government/D.C. Council media clips: Tuesday, November 23, 2010.
Missed yesterday? http://bit.ly/97dpRe
Twitter: DCGovClips
Transition / Budget
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Link to Mayor-Elect Gray's Speech on the State of the District's Finances
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District budget gap might mean a tax increase - Washington Post
Gray eyeing cuts of $230m to D.C. budget - Examiner
Vincent Gray to freeze funding for some capital projects in D.C. - Washington Business Journal
D.C. calls budget 911 and weighs police, EMS cuts - Washington Times
Gray Talks About ‘Your Money’ And D.C.’s Budget - The Front Burner (WAMU)
Gray Lays Out Bleak Financial Future in Speech - DCist.com
Read: Gray’s State of the Budget - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
D.C. Council
D.C. Council to appoint 3 to UMC board - Washington Business Journal
UMC appointments pulled back - Washington Business Journal
Thomas defends nonprofit, pledges to turn over documents by deadline - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
David Catania seeks education panel chairmanship - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Time for D.C. hotshots to give thanks - Examiner
D.C. Government
D.C. Lottery faces unprecedented delays - Washington Times
Advocates, city at odds over historic downtown building's future - Examiner
Police
D.C. police official accused over security exam - Washington Post
Revealed: The Test Cops Allegedly Cheated On - City Desk (Washington City Paper blog)
Report: D.C., Baltimore among most dangerous cities - WTOP
Other
Philanthropist gives $5 million to Capital Area Food Bank - Washington Post
Wage Theft Complaints on the Rise in D.C. - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Generating Twitter/blog buzz (link only)
Expansion of Bike Lanes in City Brings Backlash
Published: November 22, 2010
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Transition / Budget
District budget gap might mean a tax increase
By Tim Craig and Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112206601.html
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112206601.html
Monday, November 22, 2010; 8:27 PM
D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) said Monday he might propose higher property, income or sales taxes to close a budget shortfall expected to exceed $500 million in the next two years.
Gray's comments, made during a television address designed to communicate the magnitude of the city's financial challenges, were his most direct so far about what sacrifices he may ask from residents after he takes office Jan. 2.
"It's your money we're dealing with - you deserve honest talk about what's going on with it," Gray said.
Gray noted that three-fourths of the city's $5.3 billion operating budget are "fixed costs" such as salaries, federally mandated programs, Metro payments and interest on debt. And with 80 percent of District revenue coming from property, sales or income tax revenue, Gray said it is not possible "to raise significant revenue" unless he targets "one or more major tax categories."
"Let me be clear: All options will be on the table if we're going to fix this gap in our operating budget," Gray said. "But let me be equally clear about this: I know that many District families and businesses are hurting from the recession, as much as or even more than the District government. So I will not ask District residents to pay one single dollar in tax increases without first assuring them that we have scrubbed the budget and found every last dollar in savings."
Gray and the council will begin tackling the first part of the shortfall next month, when they begin work on a plan by outgoing Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to eliminate a $185 million gap in the current year's budget gap.
The release of the much-anticipated gap-closing plan was delayed Monday evening after a back-and-forth between the Fenty administration and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi wanted to make sure some of Fenty's cost-savings reductions were adding up. He sent the plan back with questions, and Fenty's budget team was working on the answers Monday night, according to spokesmen in both offices. Gray said the council hoped to vote on Fenty's plan before Christmas.
Once he is sworn in as mayor in January, Gray has said his first budget will have to find ways to cover an additional $345 million gap in fiscal 2012, according to Eric Goulet, the council budget director.
Gray said the city was near its self-imposed debt ceiling - 12 percent of the budget - for spending on capital projects.
To begin addressing the problem, Gray said he was freezing all capital projects that were not yet underway while "a blue-ribbon panel of experts" reviewed which were necessary.
"It's time we distinguish between the projects we need versus the projects that we want," Gray said.
But Gray probably will be under considerable pressure in the coming weeks to spare some social service programs from deep budget cuts.
Minutes after Gray spoke, advocates for foster children gathered outside the John A. Wilson Building to demonstrate against recent budget cuts. Dr. Anniglo Boone - director of the Consortium for Child Welfare, which advocates in support of at-risk children - said there already had been more than $30 million in cuts to foster-care programs in the past year.
"Our hope is we can get some cuts repealed, because these are cuts that go directly for kids in foster care," Boone said. "Social workers will clearly be overloaded and caseloads will spike."
Gray eyeing cuts of $230m to D.C. budget
By: Freeman Klopott 11/23/10 9:05 PM
Examiner
Examiner
D.C. Council Chairman and Mayor-elect Vincent Gray has said he wants to look at spending cuts before considering tax hikes.-Andrew Harnik/Examiner
Mayor-elect Vince Gray wants to save $50 million on top of closing a $187.8 million budget shortfall as the D.C. Council is about to begin a scramble to comb through Mayor Adrian Fenty's budget proposal.
For Gray to achieve his savings goal, the council will have to either slash more than $230 million from the budget, raise taxes or do a mix of both.
But as of Monday evening, the council had not yet received Fenty's proposal. It will now be delivered more than two weeks after Gray had hoped it would be. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi received a final copy of Fenty's budget late last week, but the CFO was still reviewing it Monday night to make sure all the lines added up before passing it to the council. Council members can't begin to review the budget until it's in their hands.
The council will vote on the budget Dec. 7 after holding a public hearing Nov. 30, Council Chairman Gray said.
"The next few weeks are a critical time for all of us," Gray said Monday morning while delivering a state of the budget address. "We are about the embark on a very important - and condensed - process to balance the current year's budget before the end of the year. That leaves us with very little time to deal with some significant challenges."
Gray has said he wants to look at spending cuts before considering tax hikes.
The current year's budget requires the city to spend $186.2 million from the fund balance, the District's savings account. The fund is already low and the city won't be able to dip into it to close the gap between revenue and spending in the next fiscal year, when the city is expected to face another $345 million shortfall.
Gray said Monday that he had originally hoped to slash all $186.2 million of fund balance spending from this year's operating budget, in order to save it for next year.
"However, given the time we have remaining, this is no longer a realistic goal," he said.
Instead, Gray wants to cut the fund balance spending down to about $136 million, keeping $50 million available for next year. The mayor's budget is expected to only cut spending to reach the $187.8 million, so it would be up to council members to find the additional $50 million.
Vincent Gray to freeze funding for some capital projects in D.C.
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/2010/11/gray-addresses-dcs-budget-mess.html#ixzz166Tc6ff3
Date: Monday, November 22, 2010, 6:27am EST - Last Modified: Monday, November 22, 2010, 9:38am EST
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, the District’s mayor-elect, announced Monday he will freeze all capital projects “not yet under way” while warning of horrendous fiscal times ahead — a $188 million revenue gap this year that grows to $345 million in 2012.
It's a $533 million problem that D.C. leaders must fix before the end of the year.
Addressing the city’s budget problems from the Wilson Building in prepared remarks, Gray laid out the dire circumstances but offered few answers, though those will have to come in the next three weeks. The D.C. Council will host a public hearing on Mayor Adrian Fenty’s revised 2011 budget plan Nov. 30 and then vote on the plan Dec. 7.
The council received Fenty’s budget amendment plan Monday.
“Many of these decisions are going to be painful,” Gray said. “Let me be clear, all of us will have to take the hit and share in the sacrifice.”
Gray said he will not raise taxes until the budget is “scrubbed” for potential savings. But all options are on the table, he said, as there’s little wiggle room left to address gaping shortfalls this year and next.
The District is paying for a down economy and its “unsustainable,” profligate spending, the chairman said: Expenditures exceeded revenue for four consecutive years while District leaders raided the general fund to make ends meet. It is time, he said, to focus on the “core service functions of this government.”
The city’s $5.3 billion operating budget is comprised of $1.5 billion in fixed costs, such as utilities and rent, 25 percent in the salaries for public school teachers, police officers and firefighters, 25 percent for charter schools and Medicaid and 25 percent for everything else.
As for the capital budget, Gray said the District will have to reduce its capital plan by $120 million a year to prevent an overrun of the debt cap. D.C. cannot, by law, spend more than 12 percent of its general fund revenues a year on debt service.
All capital projects “not currently under way” will be frozen, the chairman said, and a new “blue ribbon panel” will be installed to review the city’s massive capital plan.
D.C. calls budget 911 and weighs police, EMS cuts
All agencies are on the table
By Deborah Simmons and Matthew Cella
The Washington Times
1:02 p.m., Monday, November 22, 2010
The District is in such dire financial straits — one city lawmaker characterized it as a "crisis" — that officials are considering cuts to such sancrosant agencies as public safety and schools to ward off a growing fiscal 2011 deficit and a looming $345 million budget gap in 2012.
Social service programs and other discretionary spending face some trimming, but funding cuts in schools and public safety are inescapable, at-large D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown said.
"We have to look at programs that traditionally are not on the table," Mr. Brown told The Washington Times. "Police, fire and schools. These are agencies that haven't traditionally been on the table."
By law, the city must establish and sustain a balanced budget and Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray has promised a hard line against new taxes, which means the District will have to come up with major spending cuts quickly.
"This is a crisis situation," said Council member Jim Graham of Ward 1, a minder of the city's safety net and usually an opponent of cutting social services. "We have to consider everything."
Their comments followed Mr. Gray's announcement Monday that the budget deficit had grown from $175 million in September to $188 million.
In his road map detailing the budget woes, Mr. Gray twice targeted special-education funding: One bulleted item cited $31.7 million in cost overruns, and the other listed $10.1 million in unbudgeted raises and rent-cost overruns.
In the area of public safety, lawmakers cited overtime costs as a long-standing budget breaker, and said that lax internal-spending controls at various agencies put pressure on the city's finances. The Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, for example, overspent its overtime budget by nearly $9 million in fiscal 2008, $7.2 million in 2009 and $4 million this year.
But spokesmen for the city's fire and police unions immediately criticized cuts in public-safety spending and suggested other places to find savings.
"I still do not understand how they are going to explain to the public that they're going to have to be less safe," said Kristopher Baumann, head of the union that represents Metropolitan Police officers. He said budget cuts that lead to fewer officers will mean less community policing and more crime.
"We're going to have different expectations and a different vision about the way we police," he said.
Mr. Baumann said excessive social service spending should be trimmed and fiscal accountability should be increased before anyone considers cutting public safety spending.
"That's not good government. They keep saying we're down to the bone but we're not even through the meat yet," he said.
Ray Sneed, president of the D.C. Firefighters Association, said he understands that "everyone is going to have to be held accountable" but that he thinks union officials should be consulted on the cuts.
"Hopefully, they go back and evaluate the budget and they won't need to have to cut police or fire," he said. "But if cuts need to be made, let us have the opportunity to sit at the table and be a part of the decision-making process."
Mr. Sneed said some areas of the fire department, especially a recent growth in top-tier management positions, could be scaled back to reduce spending.
"I think you will see there are areas you can trim without an adverse effect on service delivery to the citizens," he said.
The situation isn't as bad as the mid-1990s, when the city didn't have money to meet its payroll, and its financial and accounting records were in such a shambles that Congress and the Clinton administration created a control board to oversee D.C. affairs.
In this latest budget crisis, the city's financial and data systems have helped pinpoint spending problems.
"The systems are in better shape, not perfect, but in very good shape," said economist Alice Rivlin, a member of Mr. Gray's transition team.
Mr. Gray offered few specifics on how he proposes to close the gaps, other than calling for a freeze on new capital projects, which could save the city $420 million over the next four years.
But his council colleagues were more forthcoming about cutting agency budgets and paying higher taxes.
Most of the city's lawmakers support tax increases, and Mr. Brown said Monday that he will reintroduce his so-called millionaire's tax bill, which the council rejected last spring. At the same time, the council also voted against an income-tax-raising plan by Mr. Graham.
"We will come to a meeting of minds on where the threshold should be," Mr. Brown said.
On schools, Mr. Brown pointed out that spending has always been a contentious issue, especially since the mayor and council restructured governance in 2007, giving Mayor Adrian M. Fenty broad latitude to run schools while lawmakers gained the budget reins. Special education, which is under court supervision because of long-standing class-action lawsuits, has added to annual cost overruns.
Mr. Fenty and former schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee blamed the overspending on the council, saying it had shortchanged their budget requests.
Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson leveled the same complaint Monday.
"Special education was underbudgeted for the last few fiscal years, which is leading to reports of overspending," Ms. Henderson said. "In fact, special-education spending has remained constant for the past few years. DCPS has been working with [the office of the chief financial officer] to correct the reports and accounting which have lead to these reports.
"I am working with the mayor and CFO to make sure our budget is solid and financial systems correctly portray where we have areas of overspending," she added, "but the issue as it relates to special education is underbudgeting in my estimation."
But freshman lawmaker Mary Cheh of Ward 3 disagreed, saying the Rhee administration engaged in "smoke and mirrors" regarding all school spending.
"Since I've been here, first they tell us they do have the money, then they don't. Then they tells us those numbers were placeholders. We have to have true numbers to solve the problem."
The budget crisis leaves city leaders walking a tightrope of deadlines, as agency directors consider across-the-board cuts that could run as high as 13 percent.
The council will deliberate on and pass those stopgap considerations and send them to the outgoing mayor, who has vowed not to raise taxes. City leaders will have to take that record to Wall Street, which last year warned the city that unchecked spending could damage its bond and credit ratings.
With the local and national economies looking gray, the mayor-elect said he and other city leaders are trying to face the grim facts, including the possibility that additional spending pressures will emerge.
"Simply put … it's time we distinguish between the projects we need versus the projects that we want,"Mr. Gray said.
He also promised residents and other stakeholders that he would not ask for "one single dollar in tax increases without first reassuring them that we have scrubbed the budget and found every last dollar in savings first."
TBD.com
November 22, 2010 - 10:38 AM
UPDATE 10:38 a.m.: In a concise address this morning, D.C. Mayor-elect Vince Gray revealed that the city's projected budget gap for the current fiscal year has grown to $188 million, and to $345 million for 2012.
Gray didn't mince words about the grim fiscal situation the District of Columbia is facing. "The reality is, it could be a number of years before the District's economy recovers," he said.
Outgoing Mayor Adrian Fenty delivered his revised budget to the D.C. Council this morning, Gray said, giving the council only about two weeks before it must take its first vote on the proposed fix -- which Gray described as "very little time to deal with some very significant challenges." The Mayor-elect announced that a public hearing on the budget has been scheduled for Nov. 30.
"All options will have to be on the table," Gray said, referring, of course, to the possibility of imposing tax increases. Echoing the same message he delivered ateight town hall meetings earlier this fall, Gray pledged he would not ask residents and businesses to pay "one cent in additional taxes" before doing everything possible to make cuts and reduce spending.
A freeze on all capital projects looks to be the main mechanism Gray will seek to employ in order to make those cuts. "It's time we distinguish between the projects we need, and the projects we want," he said, announcing a proposed freeze on all projects that are not yet underway. Exceptions to the freeze will be considered on a "case by case basis," he said. He'll also appoint a Blue Ribbon Panel to review capital projects.
"We will make the tough decisions that are necessary to secure the District's financial future," Gray said.
Original post: D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent Gray is set to deliver a speech at 10 a.m. Monday on the "State of the District’s Budget and Finances," during which he'll attempt to set the tone for how the city will cover an expected $175 million shortfall.
Gray is scheduled to be joined in room 412 of the John A. Wilson Building by CFO Natwar Gandhi, economist Alice Rivlin from his transition team, and Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown. The speech will also be carried live on Channel 13.
Mayor Adrian Fenty is expected to submit a revised budget to the D.C. Council early this week. Over the weekend, WTOP's Mark Segraves reported that Fenty's budget fix will likely include across the board cuts, but no tax increases.
Check back right here after 10 a.m. for more coverage.
Gray Talks About ‘Your Money’ And D.C.’s Budget
Posted on November 22, 2010 by Dana Farrington
The Front Burner (WAMU)
Today Mayor-elect Vince Gray spoke about the District’s budget and laid out some of the fiscal challenges coming up for his administration. Text of the prepared speech is availableHERE.
The text notes that “…for four straight years, the District has spent more than it’s taken in…” and “in fiscal year 2012, for the first time in four years, we will have to balance the District’s budget using existing revenue, and without the fund balance to rely upon.”
Also mentioned is a public hearing about the Mayor’s Budget Request Act and Budget Support Act gap-closing legislation, which will be held on Nov. 30.
From the mayor-elect’s supplemental handout on the budget:
FISCAL YEAR 2011 GAP: $187.8 MILLION
· The revenue estimate for Fiscal Year 2011 was reduced by $99.8 million.
· The $88 million in spending pressures includes:
· $31.7 million for District of Columbia Public Schools related to special education cost overruns;
· $10 million for the Disability Compensation Fund for unpaid federal life and health insurance premium costs;
· $33.2 million reduction in E-FMAP savings compared to the amount budgeted;
· $10.1 million for Special Education Transportation to cover unbudgeted salary increases and rent cost overruns; and
· $3 million to repay the first half of the funds borrowed from the Contingency Cash Reserve as a loan to United Medical Center.
FISCAL YEAR 2012 ADDITIONAL STRUCTURAL GAP: $345.1 MILLION
· $186.2 million in fund balance that is being used to balance the Fiscal Year 2011 budget that will not be available in Fiscal Year 2012. In Fiscal Year 2012, for the first time in 4 years, the District will have to balance its expenditure budget within certified revenues;
· $67.8 million in spending inflation growth, above projected revenue growth. The major areas of growth include debt service, Medicaid, District employee benefits, and District employee post-retirement benefits;
· $78.1 million of Medicaid, Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (commonly known as E-FMAP) Stimulus funds that provide higher reimbursement rates in Fiscal Year 2011 than in Fiscal Year 2012;
· $10 million for backfilling a one-time federal payment for Department of Human Services’ Housing First Program that would have to be funded through local funds in Fiscal Year 2012; and
· $3 million for the repayment to the Contingency Cash Reserve of the second 50% borrowed for United Medical Center.
Gray Lays Out Bleak Financial Future in Speech
DCist.com
The next two years aren't looking good for the District's finances. In a televised speech this morning, Mayor-elect Vince Gray described the District's fiscal challenges as "daunting" and warned that "everyone is going to have to take a hit and share in the sacrifice."
Standing next to members of the D.C. Council and his transition team, Gray stated that the budget deficit for the current fiscal year stands at $188 million and will balloon to $345 million in 2012. The budget gap has been caused by a combination of over-spending and a 16 percent decline in revenues over the last two-and-a-half years. Additionally, Gray noted that the District's fund balance has decreased by 57 percent over four years, leaving the city with little additional money to cover further spending increases or revenue shortfalls. He also proposed freezing all capital projects not yet underway and establishing a Blue Ribbon Commission to decide what projects survive and which have to be cut.
"To recap -- for four straight years, the District has spent more than its taken in, and we've had to raid the fund balance to make up for it," said a somber Gray.
Gray laid out a plan to deal with the immediate budget shortfall, stating that the Council would hold a hearing on November 30, a first vote on December 7 and a second and final vote on December 21. (Of course, before any of that happens, Mayor Adrian Fenty has to hand over his plan for closing the budget gap, which is already a week late.)
If that sounds tough, 2012 is much worse. Gray offered details on how city spending breaks down, making a clear point that it won't be easy to find more places to cut without inflicting some serious pain on residents. Of the $5.3 billion budget, he pointed out, only $3.8 billion lends itself to cuts (the remaining amount goes to fixed costs like Metro), and of that, a huge chunk goes to public safety, health and schools.
Gray made it clear that he'll be looking at cuts before any proposals for tax increases. "But let me be equally clear about this -- I know that too many District families and businesses are hurting from the recession as much as or even more than the District government. So I will not ask District residents or businesses to pay one single dollar in tax increases without first assuring them that we have scrubbed the budget and found every last dollar in savings first. And, that we can be clear about the consequences of not raising new revenue," he said. This won't make groups like the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute happy -- they pointed out that the District has been cutting spending for the past three years. But it will make Ward 2's Jack Evans quite happy.
Oh, and all of this is in the District's operating budget. The capital budget isn't looking much better. According to Gray, the city's debt has grown from $3.5 billion in 2002 to $7.1 billion in 2010, and roughly $120 million will have to be cut from annual capital improvements each year through 2014 to stay within the mandated 12 percent debt ceiling. "To fix this, the District of Columbia needs to do a better job of setting priorities and making tough choices about which capital projects it decides to finance. Simply put, as is true with any family or business facing tough times, it's time we distinguish between the projects we need versus the projects that we want," Gray said.
So that's where we are. The November 30 hearing -- only a week and change away -- is likely to be epic, with virtually everyone asking that if cuts have to be made, everything but their pet cause should be cut first. For some groups, including DCFPI and the Save Our Safety Net campaign, those requests aren't being made lightly. Recent studies have found that the District's most vulnerable have been hit hardest by the current recession, and cutting funds for social services that target them seems like it would only make a bad situation worse.
Spare a surge in public opinion that tax increases are necessary, though, it seems that such cuts in social services are likely to happen.
Below, you'll find a copy of Gray's remarks and details of the District's budget gap.
Read: Gray’s State of the Budget
Posted by Alan Suderman on Nov. 22, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Almost Mayor Vince Gray gave a speech today on the state of the District's budget. The only news is that Gray is going to order a freeze on capital projects that haven't yet started and establish a blue ribbon panel to prioritize future projects.
Not mentioned in the speech: any specifics on what Gray plans to do in terms of budget cuts and tax/fee increases. We'll have to wait a few more days for that info, it seems.
After the jump, read the whole prepared speech as it appears on Gray's transition website.
Link to Loose Lips budget text: http://bit.ly/flhTcT
D.C. Council
D.C. Council to appoint 3 to UMC board
Washington Business Journal - by Ben Fischer
Date: Monday, November 22, 2010, 7:35am EST - Last Modified: Monday, November 22, 2010, 7:42am EST
The D.C. Council will act Tuesday to finally name its appointees to the governing board of United Medical Center, the struggling hospital in Southeast D.C. seized in July by District government.
According to a memo circulated by Council Chairman and Mayor-elect Vincent Gray, he will ask for a vote on three people to fill the board vacancies.
The potential appointees are: Chris Gardiner, president of GKA PC, a downtown accounting and consulting firm; Clifford Barnes, a health care lawyer at Epstein, Becker and Green PC, and Barbara Hatcher, CEO of the Hatcher-DuBois-Odrick Group, a public health consulting firm.
One of the three would serve for three years, another for two years, and the third for one year. Gray's representative did not immediately return a call seeking elaboration.
Since being created by law in July, the hospital’s governing board has worked with only eight voting members — six appointed by Mayor Adrian Fenty, and one each appointed by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi and the SEIU, the hospital’s largest union.
In a notable departure from Fenty's appointment strategy, all three of Gray's proposed members work in the private sector. Fenty's six appointees all come from within D.C. government.
If the council approves the three names, all 11 voting members of the board will be in place (The board includes another three non-voting members). The board is on the verge of approving an operating budget for next year.
UMC appointments pulled back
Washington Business Journal - by Ben Fischer
Date: Monday, November 22, 2010, 9:24am EST
No sooner did we tell you about the D.C. Council's pending appointments to the United Medical Center board did we learn that Chairman and Mayor-elect Vincent Gray has pulled the matter off tomorrow's agenda.
Gray spokeswoman Doxie McCoy wouldn't say why. "They'll get back on the agenda. Just not tomorrow's," she said.
So for now, the UMC board of directors will continue to operate with only eight of 11 voting seats filled. Six of the eight voting members are appointees of Mayor Adrian Fenty.
The council has held the statutory authority to name three members of the board since July. But Gray's memo from Nov. 18 indicating his intention to seek an emergency vote on Clifford Barnes, Barbara Hatcher and Chris Gardiner was as close as the council has come to acting.
Thomas defends nonprofit, pledges to turn over documents by deadline
By Ann Marimow
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
November 22, 2010; 12:11 PM ET
D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) said Monday that he would meet the Nov. 23 court-imposed deadline for turning over documents subpoenaed by Attorney General Peter Nickles.
Thomas said his attorney plans to hand over the documents related to his nonprofit organization, Team Thomas, on Tuesday morning, and he defended the group as a "noble organization that I'm proud to have."
Thomas said the records would show donations the group received, expenses and events hosted by the nonprofit.
"That's all that's in it," Thomas said.
A D.C. Superior Court judge gave Thomas three weeks to provide the documents to Nickles, after the council member and attorney general disagreed about the timing for handing over the information.
Nickles is investigating the group, created in 2000 to provide grants to children and community-based groups in the Northeast Washington neighborhoods Thomas has represented since 2006. Team Thomas is not registered with the Internal Revenue Service and had its license revoked last year by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
David Catania seeks education panel chairmanship
By Tim Craig
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
November 22, 2010; 10:27 AM ET
D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At large) is vying to become the next chairman of the city's Education Committee, saying he wants to take his "skill set and apply it to school reform."
Catania, the second-ranking council member in seniority, said he has already begun considering how he would run the committee that has oversight over the city's 50,000-student school system.
In the coming weeks, Council Chairman Elect Kwame Brown (D) will be deciding committee chairmanships. Catania now chairs the Health Committee.
When Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) was elected council chairman in 2006, he moved education to the Committee of the Whole, which all 13 council members sit on and which Gray chairs. Gray said that education was so important that all members should have a stake in it.
But Catania argues that education should be broken out as a stand-alone committee.
"If the last four years tell us anything, education is an overwhelmingly important subject matter, and it's difficult for the chairman of the council to run the institution and chair the most significant subject matter in the city," Catania said. "It's overwhelming, and we should go back to having a separate committee."
Catania said that he did not know Brown's plans. But many council observers speculate that Brown may place another subject matter, such as economic development, in the Committee of the Whole and allow a council member to take over the Education Committee.
As a chairman, Catania is known as aggressive in oversight. At times, he's been accused of trying to micromanage the Health Department, but his supporters note he's been able to implement numerous reforms within the agency.
If Catania doesn't get to chair a newly-formed Education Committee, he said, he would want to continue to chair the Health Committee.
Brown says he hasn't decided on chairmanships yet. "I haven't talked through anything."
Time for D.C. hotshots to give thanks
By: Harry Jaffe
Examiner
11/22/10 9:05 PM
As we head into the season of thanks and celebration for all good things that have come our way, here are a few things our political and business leaders might want to contemplate as their good fortune.
· The District's aging political class -- Vernon Hawkins, Sharon Pratt, Cora Masters Barry, etc. -- are back in the game with their successful campaign to rid the city of Adrian Fenty and install a mayor of their own: Vince Gray.
· Adrian Fenty: Having lost his re-election bid, the mayor can give thanks for so many things. Where to begin? He can ride his bike and train for his next triathlon without pesky reporters like WTOP radio's Mark Segraves on his tail. He doesn't have to speak in public, a task he never seemed to relish. He can vacation in Dubai without pesky reporters following him to the airport. (But who will pay this time?) He can move his boys to private school without facing questions about his commitment to D.C. public schools. He can hang with buddy Sinclair Skinner without wondering whether Skinner will use the occasion to ask how his city contracts are faring. And on and on.
· Vince Gray: The city council chair and mayor-in-waiting has a job. If he had lost his mayoral bid, Gray would have been out on the street.
· Peter Nickles: The attorney general can give up his apartment in D.C., along with the charade that he's a District resident, and move back to Great Falls, Va.
· Slumlords: Nickles sued them for renting substandard housing, and his successor might not be as effective.
· Kwame Brown: No more campaigning and being forced to answer questions about his personal finances; as council chairman, he can try to balance the District's budget, a less invasive task.
· Dan Snyder: The Redskins owner has treated fans to a team of players past their prime -- Donovan McNabb, Joey Galloway, Albert Haynesworth and Santana Moss, for example -- but they can still win a few games and might even wind up with an even record.
· Stan Kasten: Having moved on as president of the Washington Nationals baseball franchise, he will not have to answer questions about why the team is so awful.
· Terry Lynch: The executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Churches has spent the last four years defending Adrian Fenty; he's much more comfortable attacking the establishment, and he can take aim on Vince Gray.
· Allen Lew: The chief of school modernization and maintenance, with its $2 billion fund, loves his job, has done well for the District and its students and is likely to write his own ticket with his pal, Vince Gray.
· Michelle Rhee: Like her patron and former boss Adrian Fenty, she is free of those pesky local reporters who didn't see the world according to her view. The national press has always been more kind.
Yes, it's time to look on the bright side, count our blessings and rest up for the political battles sure to come in the New Year.
D.C. Government
D.C. Lottery faces unprecedented delays
Washington Times
8:40 p.m., Monday, November 22, 2010
D.C. Lottery fans will have to wait until 11 a.m. Tuesday to buy lottery tickets, an unprecedented five-hour delay in service that signals, along with other factors, that the conversion from a decades-old gaming system to a new one run by Greek-based Intralot and its D.C. partner has not gone well.
The lottery contract was awarded last year after a prolonged and contentious procurement process marked by accusations of contract steering. The approval process currently is under investigation by theD.C. Office of the Inspector General.
Having emerged from the process with a multiyear contract, Intralot and its majority partner, Veterans Services Corp. (VSC) run by Maryland businessman Emmanuel S. Bailey, are poised to take over this week from a joint venture between Lottery Technology Enterprises and Rhode Island-based gaming company GTech, whose contract expired Monday at midnight.
But not right away.
Ordinarily, lottery tickets are sold until 1 a.m., depending on the retail seller's hours, and Monday night is no different. But while ticket sales have begun each day at 6 a.m. for the past 27 years, Tuesday sales will be delayed until shortly before noon, according to the D.C. Lottery website.
Payouts also will be delayed for almost three hours until the new system is up and running, according to D.C. officials.
"We are moving to a new gaming system to better serve you," the site reads. "Thanks for your patience during our transition. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Though a lottery spokesperson said such delays are "standard lottery industry protocol," Robert K. Vincent, GTech vice president of corporate affairs, said the delays are highly unusual. "Lotteries in major markets manage this conversion and never stop selling," he said. "It's supposed to happen like clockwork."
The rocky start for the new lottery operators could leave the District short on revenue, prestige and benefit to the community.
Since its inception in 1983, the D.C. Lottery and Charitable Games Commission in Anacostia has housed the computer server that communicates with some 565 lottery terminals in retail outlets throughout the city. But starting Tuesday, that server will be located in Ohio and, according to a D.C. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the new system will open with approximately 468 terminals.
D.C. lottery officials on Monday said they were "converting" all current retailers, but did not provide the specific number of terminals that will be open.
And while Intralot's proposal called for an Internet-based communication system, D.C. officials said the company has delivered a less sophisticated system based on cable and wireless service. Sources familiar with the new system say it is already experiencing difficulty in the downtown D.C. area, which is dense with cellular traffic and restrictions related to secure government agencies.
"Intralot is not very experienced in communications to begin with and its not at all surprising that they misjudged this one," Mr. Vincent said last week.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle the new D.C. Lottery operators face is flagging revenue, due to Powerball competition from Virginia and Maryland, and the advent of slots in Maryland. The result has been a $17 million loss in lottery revenue since 2007, from $257 million to $240 million. Funds to be deposited with the city have decreased by more than $3 million since 2008, from $70 million to $66.7 million.
Those losses are expected to get worse, according to lottery experts, prompting the lottery's new operators to explore options to expand gaming. A D.C. official familiar with the matter said Mr. Bailey, the majority shareholder of DC09, the joint venture with Intralot, has been working with D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown to spearhead that effort, which could require a change in the law.
Mr. Bailey became Intralot's majority partner in 2009 after the company won the contract by bidding alone, only to be told by council member Marion Barry and others their vote required the inclusion of a local partner.
In June, The Washington Times reported that Mr. Bailey's company website boasted of projects on which it did not work.
And Intralot is the subject of persistent international intrigue in the gaming business. Just last week, Gatehouse News Service in Illinois reported on an investigation by international risk consulting company Kroll and Associates, which found "numerous criminal indictments brought against" Intralotofficials in Greece for "alleged money-laundering, fraud, embezzlement, bribery, misleading investors and espionage."
The report concluded that Intralot's "questionable background of certain key executives" would leave the company "hard pressed" to pass background checks required by Illinois officials.
In addition, this summer the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended Intralot General Counsel Jay Lapine from practicing before it. Mr. Lapine, the SEC said, falsified documents and circumvented internal accounting controls while serving as the general counsel of another company.Mr. Lapine was acquitted by a federal jury on related charges in November 2009.
Advocates, city at odds over historic downtown building's future
Community groups and the District are at odds over the future of the historic Franklin School, a building where the imposing cost of renovations has stymied progress for the better part of a decade.
Community advocates are speaking out against the city's desire to turn the property on 13th and K streets Northwest into a boutique hotel, while others are calling for more openness from city officials.
Steven Glazerman, a nearby resident, said he believed city officials could have presented more options at a recent community meeting.
"I'd like to know what the best benefits of commercial use [are] and whether they outweigh what the public benefits are," he said. "Right now I'm just hearing assertions."
But whatever is to be done, most sides agree: the cost of renovate the building -- an Adolf Cluss-designed National Historic Landmark -- severely limits the options.
"There's nobody that's willing to write a check for $30 million to fix it up," said Charles Reed, the area's Advisory Neighborhood Commission chairman.
He said the ANC likely would support the city's move to a private operator because such an entity probably could afford to preserve the building.
Still, local groups have supported a range of options over the years, including a charter or a trade school and a homeless resource center.
The school, which opened in 1869, was last used as a homeless men's shelter until it closed two years ago. Homeless advocates have been trying to win the building back ever since.
Eric Sheptock, an advocate who used to live at the shelter, said he wants to see the city turn the building into a resource center because of its central location to other services.
But after its third request for proposals in seven years, the city received one "viable" response this year from a Maryland developer for a boutique hotel.
Jose Sousa, spokesman for the deputy mayor for planning and economic development's office, said two schools submitted other proposals but one didn't have the funding and the other didn't meet the submission requirements.
"Anybody who wants to use that building has to somehow have the funds to operate it, and even before they do that, they have to come up with [millions] right off the bat to renovate it," he said.
Sousa said his office will incorporate the feedback it collected into a report that should be submitted to the D.C. Council in December.
Police
D.C. police official accused over security exam
By Allison Klein and Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112206644.html
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112206644.html
Monday, November 22, 2010; 8:30 PM
New details emerged Monday about the testing scandal that led to a top D.C. police official being placed on leave, as community and D.C. Council members rallied to her defense in an effort to preserve her job several weeks before a new mayor takes office.
Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes, one of the most public figures in the department, was placed on administrative leave Friday for "an allegation that she was involved in compromising a test" taken by top brass.
Police officials declined to offer more details, but council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) said Groomes is alleged to have given out answers to a time-consuming, open-book exam that tested top commanders on homeland security and other intelligence issues.
Many commanders had not met the Nov. 5 deadline to take the test, and Groomes allegedly tried to help several of them complete the requirement quickly by giving them the answers. She is not accused of cheating when she took the test.
"She supposedly said: 'Hey, you have to get this done, you are overdue. Here, here's the answers. Just get this in,' " said Mendelson, head of the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee.
He said some of those people allegedly reported her.
Without being specific, Groomes admitted a lapse in judgment Friday, saying, "I am sorry for my actions and bad judgment . . .and for the discredit I caused to the best chief, department . . .and city."
Neither Groomes nor Chief Cathy L. Lanier responded to a request for comment Monday.
The situation could put Lanier in a difficult position. Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the labor committee of Lodge 1 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said it is a reflection of the department's leadership.
"What everybody in the community should be asking is, are we as professional as we should be?" Baumann said. "I think this raises some serious questions about the management of this police department."
Baumann said that the big question is whether there were specific instructions against giving help, and what the goals of the test were. He said that other departmental tests are often given open-book or allow members to offer help.
Baumann also questions why Groomes is the only official placed on leave, and why, if others received help from her, they have not been sanctioned as well.
Mayor-elect Vincent Gray (D) has not said whether he plans to keep Lanier or bring in his own police chief. The testing scandal could become a blemish on the agency and on Lanier, who has led the department during a time of record declines in crime.
The department's internal affairs unit is handling the investigation. It is unclear how many other people might be involved.
Lanier and Groomes have earned wide support across the city, prompting residents to call their council members over the weekend in support of Groomes.
Mendelson said residents have called his office upset at the idea of Groomes being disciplined.
"Lanier and Groomes are the best thing that has happened to public safety in this city since I've been in office," said council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). "They have made a critical difference."
Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said his office has been flooded with calls.
"Chief Groomes is an incredible asset to [the Metropolitan Police Department], Ward 2 and the entire District," Evans said. "While she may have experienced a lapse in judgment, we cannot allow this incident to overshadow her contributions to our neighborhoods, which simply cannot be overstated."
Groomes, 44, has been with the department for 20 years. She oversees the patrol services and school security bureau, which includes the thousands of front-line officers fanned out across the city.
She is known for working long hours, religiously showing up at crime scenes, answering e-mails and reaching out to the community.
On Saturday, the morning after she was put on leave, Groomes was out of uniform but working in the community at World Missions for Christ church in Northwest Washington for its annual turkey give-away.
The allegations against her are similar to those involving Joseph Persichini Jr., who in 2009 resigned as head of the FBI Washington Field Office. He was investigated for violating rules while taking an open-book exam about how agents should pursue criminal and national security leads.
Revealed: The Test Cops Allegedly Cheated On
Posted by Rend Smith on Nov. 22, 2010 at 3:57 pm
City Desk (Washington City Paper blog)
When Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Diane Groomes landed in trouble last week, it made more of a splash than the standard internal police personnel matter does. Groomes has been popular among bloggers and neighborhood message board readers, especially in MPD districts where she worked before moving up to oversee the patrol division. The department put her on administrative leave to investigate an allegation she "was involved in compromising" the integrity of a test given to police command staff.
That test, a police source tells City Desk, is called the "intelligence-led policing exam." It takes between six and eight hours to complete. It's based on the bookLaw Enforcement Intelligence by David Carter. The test is part of the department's professional development training and is about 50 questions long. Police were required to get at least 38 of them correct. The source says word around the department is that Groomes somehow got answers to the test before it was administered, and sent them out to a few commanders via e-mail.
Now the test results will be invalidated, and the entire command staff will have to take a new exam.
Report: D.C., Baltimore among most dangerous cities
WTOP
November 22, 2010 - 7:15am
WASHINGTON -- Washington ranks as one of the most dangerous cities in the country, according to new FBI crime statistics.
The list, compiled by CQ press, lists D.C. as the fourth most unsafe city with more than half a million people, behind Baltimore in the second slot and Detroit as the most dangerous. The ranking comes from FBI statistics for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and car theft.
Many, including the FBI, say these numbers should not be used to rate cities.
"These rankings represent a gross misuse of FBI data," says Houston Mayor Annise D. Parker, chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Criminal and Social Justice Committee, according to a BusinessWire.com report.
"Everyone with the slightest knowledge of this issue knows the rankings are not credible, but the publication persists with them, presumably because rankings are popular and sell books. Unfortunately, they also do real harm to the reputation and economy of the cities that come out on the losing end, often through no fault of their own."
But CQ defends the list a straightforward look at crime today.
New York City is now listed as the third most safe city.
Washington ranks 22nd overall among all cities. See the complete informationhere.
Other
Philanthropist gives $5 million to Capital Area Food Bank
By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112205976.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112205976.html
Monday, November 22, 2010; 6:54 PM
One of the county's wealthiest philanthropists said Monday that he is donating $5 million to jump-start construction of a $37 million facility for the Capital Area Food Bank, allowing it to double its capacity during a time of crucial need.
William E. Conway Jr., co-founder and managing director of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, said he was moved to give after hearing news stories about the plight of the jobless and after talking with homeless men near his Pennsylvania Avenue NW office.
"I wish I had done this before now," said Conway, a McLean resident, at the food bank's existing facility in Northeast Washington. "There is no reason in the capital city of the richest country in the world for anybody to be hungry."
Conway's $5 million donation is one of the largest publicly announced gifts made by an individual in D.C. in the past decade, according to Giving USA and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, which tracks giving.
The money will pave the way for construction to begin as early as next month on the facility at 4900 Puerto Rico Ave. NE. By doubling its capacity to 120,000 square feet, the food bank will have more room for fresh produce and a kitchen where casseroles and other hot meals can be made.
Lynn J. Brantley, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, said news of the gift was met with "gratitude and amazement" at a time when the nonprofit is facing its toughest year since it was founded in 1980 andpoverty and hunger are on the rise throughout the region .
The food bank - the region's primary source for more than 700 food pantries and other nonprofits around the region - distributed a record 30 million pounds of food this year, up from 27 million last year.
"I've never seen as much demand and need as there is right now," Brantley said.
More than 641,000 Washington-area residents are now at risk or experiencing hunger, and the group's partner agencies have seen need rise by 30 percent to 100 percent during the economic downturn.
Food bank officials had hoped to complete the building by next year with the help of the District's Office of Housing and Community Development and major private donors including J.W. Marriott Jr. and the Philip L. Graham Fund, named for the former publisher of The Washington Post.
But then the recession hit, other donations - and the project - stalled.
"We were kind of at a standstill," Brantley said. "That's why Mr. Conway's help is so uplifting." She now hopes the building will be finished by 2012.
At the food bank yesterday, Ronald Gaither of Arise Outreach Ministries in Capitol Heights was picking up a pallet of food for his church's Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless. The church fed 400 last year and will feed 500 this year, but it could serve more, Gaither said.
Nationally, charitable donations fell slightly to $303 billion last year, much of it going to religious and educational institutions rather than social-service organizations, according to the philanthropy center.
Conway, 61, is worth approximately $2 billion and ranks No. 182 on Forbes 400 list of America's richest people.
Over the years, he and his wife, Joanne, have quietly given millions to support housing for the homeless and Catholic Charities through their Bedford Falls Foundation - named after the town in the film "It's a Wonderful Life."
Conway rarely talks publicly about his philanthropy but said he was doing so now in hopes his gift would move others to donate.
"I'd like everyone to be aware of the magnitude of the need," Conway said. "If I help out, maybe others will help out, too."
Wage Theft Complaints on the Rise in D.C.
Posted by Lydia DePillis on Nov. 22, 2010 at 8:10 am
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
When you add a tip to a receipt, are you sure that the server is actually getting that cut? If you’re working a government construction job, are you sure you’re getting the prevailing wage for the area? The economy hasn’t just depressed rates and payrolls—it’s also just made some employers more likely to short their employees on the wages they’re owed.
The phenomenon of “wage theft,” as labor advocates call it, affects a wide range of workers, from landscapers to line cooks to janitors. And it can take many forms, including something as straightforward as withholding tips or as difficult to figure out as misclassifying a laborer on a construction project into a lower-paying job category. Transient workers are particularly vulnerable: TheWashington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs found in a 2008 report that 51 percent of day laborers surveyed in the D.C. area were paid less than what they had been promised, and 22 percent had experienced having a paycheck bounce.
The problem has gotten worse lately. According to Laura Brown, director of legal services at the D.C. Employment Justice Center, complaints of non-payment or underpayment of wages at the organization’s weekly workers rights clinic jumped from a quarter of all complaints to one third of complaints in the third quarter of 2010. D.C. EJC serves about 1300 people each year, helping them navigate paperwork at the city’s Wage and Hour office, which can help workers recover unjustly denied wages. But the office only has a small handful of employees—down from a much more robust staff decades ago—and can’t do much to force an employer doesn’t cooperate. If a worker doesn’t have a stack of documentation, there’s little the D.C. EJC can do to help.
“To say they’re understaffed is an understatement,” Brown says, noting that there’s only one Spanish-speaking investigator. “That’s ridiculous.”
To combat the problem, labor organizers—mostly representing non-unionized workers, since the D.C. area has such low union density—want the cops to get involved. At a press conference last week in front of the Metropolitan Police Department, D.C. Jobs with Justice called upon the MPD to proactively investigate complaints of wage theft as if it were theft of any other good, and impose stiff penalties on those found to have shortchanged workers. In addition, they want the Department of Employment Services should do spot checks on pay stubs to make sure laws are being followed.
The press conference was coordinated with several dozen around the nation in a bid to raise the profile of wage theft, and comes soon after the introduction of federal legislation that would expand enforcement and create a grant program within the Department of Labor to help communities police the problem.
From yesterday:
Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/ewPiQb
Loose Lips (daily column): http://bit.ly/hobdRi
DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/i6GT3j
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