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Good morning, DCGC hopes everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Remember, today's issue contains significant stories from Thursday and Friday and full Saturday, Sunday and Monday stories.
Note: The Capital Business site does not have today's stories posted yet. V.Dion Hayes has a story on the area's jobless rate and there is a nice snippet about what the election means for commercial leasing and sales. Here's a link to the e-reader: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/capitalbusiness/reader.html.
Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips
D.C. Government/D.C. Council media clips: Monday, November 29, 2010.
Twitter: DCGovClips
Transition
Critics question District Mayor-elect Vincent Gray's slow transition - Washington Post
D.C. Government
For D.C. voting rights, window appears closed - Washington Post
Violent crime of DYRS wards knows no bounds - The Washington Times
Biking getting bigger in D.C. - Washington Post
D.C. might be much better off without pointless party politics - Washington Post
Transportation officials plan for the worst - Washington Post
A distraction of the road to a better welfare system - Washington Post
Budget
Secret UMC budget calls for no subsidy - Washington Business Journal
D.C. Council
Mask-wearing protestors in D.C. can now be arrested - Examiner
Does Harry Thomas Jr. Have Something to Hide? - WRC – NBC4
Read: New Team Thomas Subpoena - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
The council's gander - Examiner
Economy / DCPS / Police / Metro / Other
Washington area housing costs eat up burdensome share of resident budgets - Washington Post
D.C. jobless claims still up - Washington Business Journal
Rhee still a factor in teacher elections - Washington Post
D.C. Teachers' Union Election Results Expected On Tuesday - WAMU
D.C. student tells police she was raped during school hours - Washington Post
Metro ridership, revenue falling below projections - Examiner
Embrace Metro governance reforms - Washington Post
Metro commuters could lose unused transit funds - Washington Post
Foreclosed apts. in SE trade for $1.5M - Washington Business Journal
Transition
Critics question District Mayor-elect Vincent Gray's slow transition
By Tim Craig and Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112500079.html
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112500079.html
Thursday, November 25, 2010; 6:46 PM
Less than six weeks before Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray assumes control of the District, he has yet to name a single agency head or indicate which members of the Fenty administration he plans to retain.
Gray's slow-to-start transition is reigniting fears about his career-long cautious decision-making style and raising concerns that he won't be fully prepared to take over from incumbent Adrian M. Fenty (D) on Jan. 2. Numerous officials inside and outside the District government say that they are having difficulty obtaining information from a transition team bogged down by meetings and confusion about who is in charge.
Gray (D) is heading into an intense period of work in his current job as council chairman, as talks on balancing a $188 million budget shortfall ratchet up in early December, and observers say he must step up the pace if he expects a smooth transition.
"We need a fully staffed government at the beginning of an administration," said Council member David A. Catania (I-At large), who remained neutral in the primary face-off between Gray and Fenty. "Times are too serious to have uncertainty at the top of the ranks. . . . What has been shared with the public so far suggests the transition is off to a somewhat slow start."
Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), said he plans to talk to Gray "to find out what is going on."
"The transition should have started a couple days after the primary, because it was a foregone conclusion he was going to be mayor," said Barry, a strong Gray backer and former mayor. "I get the impression that hasn't happened quite that way, and I am little concerned."
Barry said he fears that Gray may be getting so "much different advice from different people" that it's slowing the process of making appointments.
Although Catania and Barry said they are confident that Gray will rise to the challenge before the inauguration, the slow-moving transition offers a window into the differences between the incoming mayor and the man he easily defeated in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary.
Gray said that his decision-making is measured but that it won't slow his ability to govern come January. "I think we're moving at our own pace," he said. "We're in this for four years. We want to make sure we get it right."
When to act
During their primary contest, Fenty portrayed Gray as someone who was too bureaucratic to govern a changing city, but Gray responded that although he likes to hear all sides before making a decision, he knows when it's time to act.
Fenty, who made getting things done "as fast as humanly possible" the mantra of his administration, relished his reputation as a fast-moving, hard-charging leader, even when he was criticized for reaching decisions too quickly and without consulting those affected by his moves.
At this point in 2006, Fenty had named a chief of staff, attorney general, city administrator, police chief and deputy mayor for education, as well as reappointed Natwar Gandhi as chief financial officer.
Bill Lightfoot, who headed Fenty's transition team, said the early appointments were instrumental in allowing Fenty to push through school reform as soon as he entered office and to react to the kind of early crises that often test an administration.
Fenty "could start to develop his plans before he got sworn in, because he had a team in place he could consult with," Lightfoot said. "There was no delay in the planning process, but that was Adrian's style. He was aggressive."
Some Gray supporters note that former mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who is helping Gray with the transition, waited until late December to start naming cabinet secretaries. And they scoff at comparisons with Fenty, noting that Gray has often overcome skepticism about his deliberate leadership style.
"That was the Fenty way," said Doxie McCoy, Gray's spokeswoman. "We're in the Gray way."
Reputation for caution
Throughout his political career, the 68-year-old Gray has battled skeptics who have questioned his reputation for caution.
This year, some supporters grumbled that Gray took too long to decide whether to challenge Fenty. Even after he announced his candidacy in late March, Gray took several weeks to put together a campaign team, which left supporters uneasy but proved to be no barrier to his election.
Leonard Steinhorn, a communications professor at American University, said the different approaches used by Fenty and Gray crystallize the choice voters made in the election.
"It's different types of characters, different types of public personas and different types of communicating," Steinhorn said. "I don't think because Fenty did it one way that Gray has to follow that way."
Former D.C. Council member Sterling Tucker (D) said that Gray "is very careful" and "very methodical," so he's probably focused on "getting the process in place" before he conducts a national search for top-shelf talent.
"I am hoping he just won't hire political hacks," Tucker said. "The one thing Fenty did well was go out and look for good people, and I am sure Gray is looking to do the same thing."
But Attorney General Peter Nickles, who has been close to Fenty and his family for many years, said Gray's hesitancy has left him "deeply concerned" over the direction of the District under Gray's leadership. Nickles, who sparred frequently with Gray and the council over the past four years, is stepping down next month.
Nickles said he had hoped to work closely with his successor, briefing the next attorney general on pending lawsuits, court orders and investigations. But Nickles said that the only contact he's had with Gray's team is a request from the transition staff for a meeting in the first week of December.
"There are issues with police, issues with fire, serious, outstanding issues that I need to tell them about," said Nickles, who served as Fenty's chief adviser. "If you wait to come in at Christmas, you will absolutely fall flat on your back."
Nickles said that agency heads are complaining to him about a lack of response from Gray's transition team.
Several agency leaders said that they had expected to get signals from Gray by Thanksgiving about who should plan on staying on past the inauguration and who should start packing up.
"To my knowledge, no one's heard anything," one agency director said.
James C. Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, said the business community wants to know whether Gray will keep some Fenty officials. "We expect to learn very soon who will comprise the senior team for Mayor-elect Gray," he said. "With the holidays upon us, we expect meetings will take place and decisions will be made."
Building a team
The day after the Nov. 2 election, Gray announced the creation of a 16-member transition team broken into eight committees.
Last week, Gray said that 1,200 residents, city employees, business owners and community activists had volunteered to help with the transition. But although the large corps of volunteers helps Gray fulfill a campaign pledge to be more inclusive than Fenty, advisers say that the large number of people consulting on the transition has made it difficult to manage.
The transition is being headed by Chairwoman Lorraine Green and Reuben O. Charles II, chief of operations.
Green, a longtime friend of the mayor-elect, is the transition's go-to person, but she is busy with full-time duties as an executive at Amtrak. And Charles has been struggling to quell ethical questions related to past business deals.
Gray staffers and informal advisers describe the transition, which is housed in the District's Reeves Center office building on U Street NW, as a collection of three camps: longtime supporters, campaign workers and newcomers - each vying for the mayor-elect's attention.
The Washington Post reported last week that Green and others have begun reviewing public records of potential candidates for top jobs. But Gray stressed that he had not been briefed on the candidates.
Gray's most substantive transition-related announcement so far was his plan to hold a "Jobs Summit" on Dec. 13. The event, which fulfills a campaign promise, is designed to bring business and community leaders together with residents to discuss strategies for reducing unemployment.
"What other mayor-elect held a major event like that?" Gray asked.
Gray noted that he is the first council chairman to be elected mayor, forcing him to split his time between his current office and the transition. But advisers want him to leave the council post and start acting mayoral.
Alice Rivlin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-chairwoman of the transition's budget committee, said the transition is "moving normally. When there's an election, everyone has to catch their breath. You can't focus on the transition until you win. As a candidate, you'd be criticized if you did, for taking it for granted."
D.C. Government
For D.C. voting rights, window appears closed
By Ben Pershing
Washington Post
Washington Post
Sunday, November 28, 2010; C01
Advocates for giving the District full voting rights in the House brimmed with confidence four years ago as the Democratic takeover of Congress seemed to move their long-standing goal closer to reality.
Two years later, when President Obama was elected, that confidence turned to near-certainty. "I really can't think of a scenario by which we could fail," Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said in November 2008.
Yet fail they did. House leaders decided this year to pull a voting rights bill from the floor rather than have it coupled with a measure to weaken the District's gun laws.
Now, with Republicans set to take over the House in January, the window to move a voting rights bill appears to have closed, and glum supporters are wondering what - if anything - to do next.
"I think the best shot we had at voting rights was probably last year," said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who will serve as minority whip in the next Congress.
"The Republican Party . . . has fought this tooth and nail," Hoyer said. "I don't think that there's much shot that they'll do it this time."
Former representative Tom Davis (Va.), who was the lead Republican supporter of voting rights until he retired in 2008, put the chance of passage in the next Congress at "zero."
"If the Democratic Congress can't do it, you're not going to get a Republican Congress to do it," Davis said, complaining that Democrats missed their best chance this year.
Norton, who has lobbied for a House vote for two decades, said that "we should have been able to get this bill through" in this Congress. But she declined to be as pessimistic about the future as Hoyer and Davis. She said she hesitated to make any predictions about the new majority's intentions.
"We're trying not to indicate what they're going to do before we have the opportunity to introduce the new mayor to their people," she said.
Republicans won't sort out their committee assignments until December, so it's unclear which lawmakers will have jurisdiction over the District. For now, Norton said she is most interested in arranging a meeting with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the incoming speaker, and D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D).
Boehner has opposed D.C. voting rights in the House, and the math on the GOP side of the aisle does not bode well for the cause.
The last time a voting rights bill came to the House floor, in April 2007, 22 Republicans voted for it. Half of those lawmakers are now out of office, leaving just 11 Republicans in the House who are on record as voting for the idea.
One of the 11 past supporters is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but he later turned against the bill. He expressed a fear that the District would use it as a steppingstone to getting two senators and, eventually, statehood.
Issa won't say what his committee plans to do in the next Congress, but his spokesman, Frederick Hill, said Issa "wants to still try to work and find a way for the people of D.C. to have voting representation in the House of Representatives."
It's unclear where Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), the current top Republican on the subcommittee on the federal workforce, the Postal Service and the District, will end up, but he said he expected to be "heavily involved" in D.C. matters regardless of how the subcommittee shuffle plays out.
As he has before, Chaffetz said that he thinks granting full voting rights to the District would be unconstitutional and that he would rather have the District retain its current status than adopt Norton's proposals.
"There are other options," Chaffetz said, suggesting - as other congressional Republicans have - that the District undergo "retrocession" to Maryland. He acknowledged that he did not know exactly how such a process would work or whether Maryland would want to take over the District.
That idea is a non-starter to most voting rights advocates on both sides of the D.C.-Maryland border.
"I think the residents of the District of Columbia have no desire to be subsumed into the state of Maryland," Hoyer said. "They are very proud of the fact they are District of Columbia citizens."
Norton said she and other advocates would look closely at the incoming GOP freshmen, particularly to see whether any from swing districts might be convinced that it would be good politics back home to support D.C. voting rights.
Norton is also waiting for something that could make or break her cause: the results of the 2010 Census.
The last voting rights bill, Davis's brainchild, was predicated on giving one House seat to the District and one to Republican-leaning Utah, which had just missed out on gaining another seat in the 2000 Census. Now Utah is all-but-assured of winning another seat anyway, meaning the state no longer has a reason to partner with the District.
"What we're doing is considering any other options," Norton said. "Is there any other near-miss [House] seat?"
In theory, the 2010 Census could leave another state frustrated and eager to add a congressional seat by other means. But the state would have to be controlled by Republicans - to ensure that the new seat would be a Republican seat - and amenable to cutting the kind of deal that most Utah leaders were.
And even if such a package deal were available a second time, voting rights could well be derailed again by the debate over the District's gun laws.
"The other thing that's unpredictable at this point is whether [Republicans] will move a gun bill separate and apart from" the voting rights bill, said Ilir Zherka, the executive director of D.C. Vote.
Davis predicted that House Republican leaders would move a stand-alone measure to weaken the city's gun laws. But with Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House, such a measure would likely stall.
Zherka said there are a handful of voting rights supporters left in the upper ranks of the GOP, including Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), who just stepped down from the party leadership to consider a run for governor or president, and Rep. Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee.
"We're going to look for as many unusual allies as possible," Zherka said.
Although it's the House that just flipped to Republican control, the Senate might present the larger obstacle to voting rights going forward. Davis said the District had little chance to win unless and until Democrats secure a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
For now, Davis said, "the chance is gone, I would guess, for 10 years."
Violent crime of DYRS wards knows no bounds
Killings spill over into D.C. suburbs
By Jeffrey Anderson and Matthew Cella
The Washington Times
10:49 p.m., Sunday, November 28, 2010
A university student was attacked as he bicycled home after working the evening shift at a waterfront restaurant. A school principal was fatally shot in his bedroom in a Maryland suburb. An American University professor was killed in her Maryland home, the unsolved slaying complicated by the arrest less than a day later of a teenager behind the wheel of her stolen car.
These brutal attacks, robberies gone awry, have at least one other thing in common: Juveniles committed to the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) have been charged or identified as suspects.
The crimes, among the highest-profile killings in the region this year, were not included in an analysis by The Washington Times that found that one in five of all homicides in the District from Sept. 1, 2009, through Aug. 31 involved a youth in custody of DYRS either as a suspect or a victim.
The reason? They occurred either beyond the District's borders or since the conclusion of the analysis.
Since The Times concluded its analysis on Aug. 31, at least 10 people age 22 or younger who were arrested for homicides in the city were either actively committed to the District's custody or their commitment had recently expired. Four more were victims of homicides.
Despite acknowledgment by the interim director of DYRS, the city's police chief and the mayor-elect that the deadly trend of DYRS youth-involved killings must be addressed, officials are hard-pressed to assure the public that they know how to put a stop to it - or where the trend will lead.
- Deandrew Hamlin, an 18-year-old with a juvenile record that includes car theft and destruction of property, was arrested in the District last month for driving a Jeep stolen from Sue Ann Marcum, the American University professor found dead in her Bethesda home a day earlier.
Ms. Marcum, 52, was beaten and asphyxiated in what police are investigating as a homicide in the course of a burglary.
Mr. Hamlin waived an extradition hearing in the District last week and is expected to face charges related to the car theft in Montgomery County. Police have said the keys to the car were stolen from inside Ms. Marcum's home, and they have identified Mr. Hamlin as a suspect in her killing, but he has not been charged with the homicide.
- Three of four young men arrested in connection with the April killing in Montgomery County of D.C. middle-school Principal Brian Betts were wards of the city.
Mr. Betts was found fatally shot in an upstairs bedroom of his Silver Spring, Md., home on April 15 after making contact with one of the youths on a sex-chat line.
Alante Saunders was sentenced to 40 years in prison last week after pleading guilty to the murder, though he maintained that he and his accomplices did not go to Mr. Betts' home intending to kill him.
Mr. Betts' television, an iPod and a computer were taken from his house. His credit cards were taken and used, prosecutors said, and his sport utility vehicle was stolen and located days later about 14 miles away in the District.
"Drugs was the powerful force in this situation, and I am very sorry," Saunders told the court.
The three DYRS wards who were charged in Montgomery County in connection with the killing were 18 years old at the time and each had been arrested at least eight times previously.
Saunders was first charged in 2003, when he was 11, with first-degree and second-degree child sex offenses. Court papers show his record also includes an arrest at 12 years old for armed robbery, purse snatching and multiple arrests for assault and theft.
Deontra Gray had been charged starting in 2007 with, among other things, carrying a dangerous weapon, theft from auto, gun possession, burglary and unlawful entry.
Sharif Lancaster faced charges including stolen auto, gun possession, burglary and cocaine distribution. He had also fled custody. His mother, Artura Williams, was charged with using Mr. Betts' stolen credit card at a grocery store the day after the killing.
Lancaster pleaded guilty last week to charges of using a handgun during the robbery of Mr. Bettsand faces 35 years in prison at sentencing in February.
- Eric D. Foreman, a ward of the city known to police as a gang member, told witnesses he "wanted to go pull a move" before he attacked 31-year-old Neil Godleski on Aug. 22.
Mr. Godleski, a Catholic University student, was bicycling shortly after midnight through Sherman Circle in Northwest on his way home after an evening shift at the restaurant where he worked as a waiter.
Witnesses said Foreman, 16 years old at the time, fired four or five times at Mr. Godleski. After falling from his bicycle, Mr. Godleski tried to get up. Foreman shot him at least twice more at close range, according to court records.
The robbery and brutal killing netted $60.
Foreman was arrested on Sept. 23. His next court hearing is in February.
A regional problem
The slayings of Ms. Marcum, Mr. Betts and Mr. Godleski, widely publicized for their brutality and their shocking nature, show that DYRS youth violence is a regional problem with the potential to affect people's lives in a disturbingly random fashion.
John Walker, the immediate past president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 383, which represents DYRS employees, said the trend toward random and sometimes deadly attacks shows that juvenile crime knows no boundaries.
"There's no need to go knock over 'old Luther Jackson' who lives next door in the 'hood," Mr. Walkersaid in a recent interview. "These kids have moved on to greener pastures. Next, they will start to target tourists. I've been saying it for years."
The extent to which DYRS wards are involved in homicides and serious crimes beyond the District's borders is unknown. The shortcoming came up in a review of DYRS performed by city Attorney General Peter J. Nickles and released in July.
"There may be other DYRS youth charged in [surrounding counties], but we have not been able to obtain a list of youth charged with murder in those counties to cross-reference against a list of youth committed to DYRS, as we have done for youth arrested in the District," Mr. Nickles wrote.
In addition to committing crimes outside the District's borders, The Times confirmed that at least two DYRS wards were killed in Prince George's County in the period from Sept. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31.
David Javon Hinson, 20, of Northeast Washington, was fatally shot on Aug. 11 as he was driving at about 6 p.m. in Capitol Heights, Md. He traveled a few dozen feet before his automobile crashed into a tree. Police found him dead behind the wheel.
His juvenile history included assault, stolen auto and gun possession.
Eugene Jeffrey Dixon, 17, of Southeast Washington, was fatally shot on May 26 in the middle of the day outside an Oxon Hill, Md., pawnshop. A 21-year-old was also wounded in the shooting. Detectives said the shooting stemmed from a personal dispute.
An agency overhaul
D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray told The Times that when he takes office in January, he plans to overhaul the juvenile-justice agency, which has had three leaders this year alone. But Mr. Grayoffered little insight into what an overhaul would look like.
"DYRS must be held accountable for youth under its supervision," he said in an e-mail. Mr. Grayacknowledged overcrowding at the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, the $46 million secure facility opened last year to house and rehabilitate the District's high-risk juvenile offenders, and he called for greater supervision of and support for a growing population of offenders placed in the community.
"While there have been reforms, there also have been far too many instances of youth involved in tragedies as perpetrators or victims of violence," he said. "This overhaul must go hand-in-hand with addressing the root causes of crime perpetrated by children and teenagers on the front end, so they won't get caught up in a vicious cycle of violence."
Mr. Gray has not announced whether he plans to retain interim DYRS Director Robert Hildum, a former prosecutor who handled juvenile cases in the city's office of the attorney general before he was appointed in July by outgoing Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
Mr. Hildum, who has expressed interest in keeping the job, met for the first time last week with Mr. Gray's transition team. He told The Times he planned to deliver an unvarnished report to the team on what he has seen in roughly five months on the job.
Meanwhile, he has embarked on his own set of reforms.
Mr. Hildum said that upon his arrival, he began a review of the case files of each of the 900 youths committed to DYRS to ensure that those in city custody were being properly supervised and receiving help appropriate to their needs.
He has since suggested electronic monitoring of youths assigned to group homes as a possible solution to a persistent problem with juveniles fleeing from custody. He also said the agency has to act faster when a youth is not where he should be. He proposed that a youth be declared a missing person after one hour and that a custody order be issued after three hours.
"The sooner we get a youth back under supervision and connected to meaningful services, the less likely they are to be harmed or to harm someone else," he told the council during a September hearing on DYRS performance.
He told The Times that he is intrigued by a program in Hawaii that involves weekend detentions for youths released into the community who break the rules. But instead of making them sit and stew in a locked room, Mr. Hildum favors aggressive programming and constructive activity during those weekends.
"I can do it as many times as I want," he said. "It sends a message: If you don't do what you are supposed to, we're going to ruin your weekend plans. But you still have to go to school or work during the week. It also says to them: We're watching you, and we care about you."
He points to studies in Hawaii that show seven of 38 juveniles went to jail the first weekend, but the numbers dramatically declined thereafter. The program is now rehabilitating about 2,000 youths, he said. "The idea is to give them less time behind bars, but to be firm and immediate with some sanctions," he said.
Mr. Walker criticized the District's reliance on states' innovations, such as the Missouri Model favored by Mr. Hildum's predecessor.
"We are the nation's capital," Mr. Walker said. "We should be striving to be the leaders, the innovators.
Mr. Hildum also hinted at some restructuring of the agency and its $91 million annual budget.
"It's remarkable to me that you have 600 employees and 900 kids, and I don't have eyes on the kids," he told The Times. "I simply don't know what it means yet, but I think from a simple, common-sense viewpoint, there's something going on there, and I need to get to the bottom of it."
Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, whose future in the Gray administration is equally uncertain, has her own ideas about reform.
The chief, who has complained that DYRS officials prior to Mr. Hildum deprived her of important information about juvenile criminal records and community-placement decisions, supports the current interim director.
She said that under Mr. Hildum the agency has done a better job of balancing its mandate to rehabilitate youths with the need to preserve public safety and that if the pace of reform continues, she expects to see dramatic improvements within the next two years.
"My view on juvenile justice is, I think you have to look at the most serious, violent offenders and those violent offenders have to be separated out and not just be put in community placement," she said.
Chief Lanier said community-placement status should be revoked immediately for juveniles who are caught with guns, test positive for PCP or are rearrested for a violent offense.
"I think, from the community's sense, there's a very positive movement toward separating those offenders out," she said.
Mr. Hildum said at the D.C. Council hearing in September that his staff was examining ways to create additional secure bed space and that there are no plans to request funds to build a new facility.
He and council member Tommy Wells, chairman of the committee that has oversight of DYRS, briefly talked about renovating a building at Oak Hill, the city's infamous juvenile jail that was closed last year. Mr. Hildum said they looked at one building that would take about $2 million to rehabilitate.
Asked by Mr. Wells whether $2 million would be a bargain, Mr. Hildum acknowledged that the legal permissions that would be required, but said it might be worth the cost.
Then he added: "Politically and symbolically, I think that's a very dangerous thing to do."
Mr. Hildum pledged to deliver the types of therapeutic services that are needed to make community-placement work, saying, for example, he was shocked at the lack of relationship between DYRS and the Department of Mental Health.
"These kids are growing up in abject poverty, they are victims of crime, they have seen death and they have been abused. The trauma is unimaginable. We can't ignore that," he said. "Reform can't happen until we fulfill the promise of services."
Biking getting bigger in D.C.
By Tim Craig
Washington Post
Washington Post
Saturday, November 27, 2010; B01
It wasn't easy for Kate Jordan, a 30-year choreographer who lives in Logan Circle, to give up her beloved Volkswagen Beetle.
But after moving to the District from Philadelphia two years ago, Jordan said she quickly discovered that it was far easier to get around the city on her bicycle, a choice, she said, that gets easier by the day.
"I am finding which roads have the bike lanes and choosing my paths like I would with a car," Jordan said. "On a couple streets, it's now like the morning rush-hour commute on the bike lanes."
District officials are reporting a surge in the use of bicycles to commute or for recreation, helping Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) realize a key goal as he prepares to leave office in January.
With the city adding bicycle lanes and storage facilities in recent years, officials say more residents are discovering that getting around the city on two wheels is becoming safer and easier and is even adding a bit of coolness to a city that has long battled its stuffy reputation.
"A lot of what we're doing is back-to-the-future type stuff," said Gabe Klein, the city's transportation director. "People are demanding more and more, and we are just trying to give it to them."
According to census data, the number of Washington residents who commute to work by bicycle has nearly doubled, to 2.2 percent, in the past 10 years. Official hourly "bike counts" conducted by the D.C. Transportation Department suggest much of that growth has occurred since 2007. An average of 72 bicycles now pass 18 designated counting stations during an average "peak hour."
But residents and city officials say the statistics do not tell the full story of how quickly District residents are taking up bicycling for fun or their primary mode of transportation.
Jordan said that mini-bicycle backups are becoming the norm during the morning rush on routes such as 14th Street NW.
Many outdoor bike racks downtown are at capacity during the day, a scenario that replays itself at night at racks near some popular bars in Northwest.
And officials say they are stunned by the immediate popularity of Capital Bikeshare, a network of 1,100 communal red bicycles scattered around the District and Arlington County for residents and tourists.
"There are a number of things coming together very quickly to cause bicycling to go up in the District," said Michael Farrell, a planner at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. "And I think much larger increases are very possible and even likely in the District."
Part of the trend, Farrell said, can be traced to shifting demographics and a nationwide trend of more urban residents shying away from cars. But Farrell and community leaders say much of the credit goes to Fenty and his predecessor, former mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), for devoting resources to make bicycling safer and more convenient for residents.
With Williams and Fenty both avid cyclists - the former mayor recreationally and the current one competitively - the District has undertaken one of the most ambitious efforts in the country to promote the use of bicycles.
In 2005, Williams oversaw the completion of the Bicycle's Master Plan, which called for bike lanes, bicycle parking spaces and "more bicycle-friendly policies."
Fenty, a triathlete who can pedal 40 kilometers, about 25 miles, in little more than a hour, aggressively moved to implement the plan, believing it was a key linchpin in his effort to make the District a "world-class city."
Similar to his drive to build turf athletic fields for students and $500,000 dog parks, Fenty tested transportation officials' ability to build top-flight bicycle amenities.
"We would give him ideas, and he would say, 'Can this be the best, and when can you get it done?' " Klein said.
Bicycling advocates are lobbying Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) to reappoint Klein as transportation director.
In the past decade, the District has constructed about 50 miles of bicycle lanes, including the recent completion of segregated lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue connecting the White House to the Capitol.
The bike lanes persuaded Liz Casey and Mary Kirby, both 23, to test their luck Saturday at biking from U Street to the Mall, the first time either had ridden in the city.
"I've lived here four years, and I think the city is petrifying to bike in, so I am pretty scared," said Casey, who moved to the District from Pittsburgh. "But we heard 15th Street had a bike lane, so we are going to use that."
A year ago, the city also opened a $4 million bicycle-storage facility for commuters at Union Station. And about 1,500 bike racks have been added to streets since 2002.
The city is also finalizing rules requiring developers to include bike-storage facilities in all newly constructed housing and office buildings.
But the District is making its biggest splash with its bike-sharing program, the largest of its kind in the nation. Capital Bikeshare, which launched in late September, can trace its origins to a pilot program started in 2008. Operated by Clear Channel and called Smart Bike, that program consisted of about 100 bikes.
Klein said Fenty immediately "fell in love" with the program and started pushing last year to expand it.
"The mayor would have nothing less than the biggest and best in the United States," Klein said.
Under pressure to deliver, local transportation officials quickly discovered that neighboring Arlington was already in talks to launch a bike-sharing program.
After putting up $6 million, largely funded through a federal grant, the District was able to latch onto Arlington's contract and create a universal system modeled after one in Montreal, Klein said.
For an annual membership of $75, or $5 for a daily membership, members can unlock a bicycle at any of the 100 stations in the District and 14 in Arlington. When finished, a rider can drop off the bicycle at any station.
The first half-hour of every trip is free. (Usage charges averaging $1.50 per half-hour apply after that.)
Jim Sebastian, director of the Transportation Department's Bicycle and Pedestrian program, said the system has 4,700 annual members, a number growing by "30 to 40 a day."
Officials had estimated 6,800 members by the end of August, prompting them to begin plans to expand the program in the coming months.
"It's absolutely plausible to have 10,000 bikes in 10 years," Klein said.
Emily Hanawalt, 33, said she uses Capital Bikeshare to commute to work downtown from Bloomingdale and around town on the weekends.
"I love it. It makes the city smaller because everything is in reach," Hanawalt said. "Normally, getting from Columbia Heights to Dupont is a pain cause you have to change trains, but now I just hop on a bike, and you're in Dupont in seven minutes."
Dennis Cohodar, 37, owns his own bicycle, but said a one-day membership in Capital Bikeshare convinced him to become an annual member.
"I live in a townhouse and don't have to carry this up and down the steps, and I don't have to chain it up," Cohodar said. "This makes so much sense. Why didn't they think of this five, six, seven years ago?"
Andy D. Clarke, president of the Washington-based League of American Bicyclists, said the District still has a long way to go to catch up to Boulder, Colo., San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and other West Coast cities that promote bicycling.
But Clarke said the District and New York have moved into the "top tier" for short-term gains in launching cycling-related initiatives. Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York has installed 250 miles of bicycle lanes. On Tuesday, the city issued a request for proposal for private companies to provide a bike-share system similar to the District's.
"It's something [Fenty] can look back on with some pride," Clarke said.
Although he wins high marks from cyclists, Fenty's efforts to promote cycling might have played a role in his loss to Gray in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary.
In less-affluent parts of the city, bicycle lanes became a symbol for the perception - which Klein said is unfair - that Fenty favored predominately white neighborhoods in Upper Northwest.
Others have complained that the Fenty administration didn't involve community leaders before deciding where the bicycle lanes or bicycle-sharing stations would be located, highlighting concerns that the mayor was arrogant and detached.
"In some places where [the bike-sharing stations] ended up, the first anyone found out about it was when they were put there," said George R. Clark, chairman of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, which advocates for historical preservation.
But Chad Vale, 23, said programs like Capital Bikeshare are a reason he moved to Petworth from Connecticut Avenue.
"I now can get around anywhere without a car," Vale said after he dropped off a bike at the Dupont Circle docking station. "This is what makes D.C. great."
D.C. might be much better off without pointless party politics
By Mike DeBonis
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503792.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503792.html
Friday, November 26, 2010; B02
The necessity of choosing an interim D.C. Council member to replace Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who becomes the body's chairman after the new year, has some questioning the intermittent relevance of the D.C. Democratic State Committee.
A legitimate question. But why not go further and question the relevance of having any parties in the District?
There are all sorts of precedents. In big cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago - yes, Chicago - some or all city offices are elected on a nonpartisan basis. No D's, no R's. Just raw politics.
The problem in the District is that parties add no value to our politics.
It's not just that pretty much every officeholder is a Democrat. It's that party labels tell you nothing about officeholders in this city - not when one well-known Democrat is calling for "welfare reform" and most Republican candidates support gay marriage rights. There is nothing resembling party discipline on the 13-member council. Ad hoc coalitions appear and disappear on a bill-by-bill basis.
And then you have the problem highlighted by this year's mayoral race: There is a class of city voters effectively prevented from voting on races in which they have an interest. In this town, plenty of city voters register as something other than Democrats for various reasons - say, those holding Republican political jobs for which it would be professionally hazardous to register as a Democrat. They don't get to vote in the election that matters, a.k.a. the Democratic primaries.
Chatter before and after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's Democratic primary defeat concerned opening the primaries to independent voters. Holding nonpartisan elections would address the primary problem and solve a few others, too.
In Chicago, the mayor and other citywide officials have been elected on a nonpartisan basis since 1999, a fact that comes as some surprise to folks who assume that the deep-blue Windy City would treasure its Democratic identity. Rather, every candidate who can manage to gather enough signatures is on an initial ballot; the top two vote-getters subsequently duke it out in a runoff.
All voters have access to the decisive races. That hasn't much affected Democratic hegemony in Chicago: Witness the current mayoral race, in which a former Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff is vying against a current Democratic congressman, a former close aide of the current Democratic mayor and a former Democratic U.S. senator.
There's still a Democratic party organization in Chicago. Unlike here, however, it isn't handed the unusual task of naming a council member to represent city residents for a few months, perhaps giving that person a leg up in a special election to be held in the spring. Rather, it makes slates, endorses candidates and otherwise works to make the notion of a local Democratic Party relevant to the voters.
D.C.'s Democrats are under fire of late, but other party organizations don't add much, either. The primary mission of the small but well-organized D.C. Republican Committee recently has been simply to embarrass the Democrats whenever possible. The Statehood Green Party has withered into near-oblivion. It doesn't help that both parties' relevance is relegated to the biennial ritual of tedium we call a general election.
This year's general election actually saw one bit of drama - and a decent argument in favor of nonpartisan elections. In the race for the Ward 1 seat on the nonpartisan State Board of Education, Patrick Mara defeated incumbent Dotti Love Wade.
Mara beat Wade the old-fashioned way - he outworked her, knocking on doors and explaining to voters why he was the best man for the job - while Wade relied heavily on the support of the ward's Democratic Council member, Jim Graham. What Mara didn't mention, and never had to mention, is that he's a Republican, albeit the near-extinct socially moderate type.
He ran on essentially the same platform he ran on when he sought a D.C. Council seat in 2008: support for private school vouchers, charter school expansion and former schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's school reforms. Ward 1 voters liked what he had to say.
But if Mara had run with an "R" next to his name? "It would have been more difficult," he said.
Mara said his victory is "proof" that nonpartisan elections are what the city needs. "Sometimes people focus too much on political affiliation not knowing where a candidate stands," he said. "If there were more emphasis placed on what a candidate believes, how hard they work, how ethical they are ... the city would be a lot better off."
But moving to nonpartisan races is almost never mentioned among the city's local political class - most of those currently wielding power got it via partisan races.
Certainly non-Democratic candidates such as Mara, who too often are dismissed simply because of their non-Democratness, would benefit from wholly nonpartisan elections. But the people who would really benefit are voters.
Unfortunately, there's not much the voters can do about it. To amend the District charter, the D.C. Council would first have to pass the change, which would then be ratified by voters and then sent to Congress for approval. The council isn't moving on this issue anytime soon.
But consider what happened in Chicago: The city got big-footed.
In 1997, a rare Republican-controlled state government passed the nonpartisan measure. In the District, there's another big foot hovering over city hall - just 14 blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Transportation officials plan for the worst
By Robert Thomson
Washington Post
Washington Post
Sunday, November 28, 2010; C02
Last winter's colossal snowfalls temporarily overwhelmed transportation departments in the D.C. region and created thousands of cases of cabin fever among would-be commuters. The road generals have made some adjustments based on lessons learned. But forecasts for this winter suggest they won't be asked to re-fight the last war. Here are some highlights of the plans from the major agencies.
VIRGINIA
The Virginia Department of Transportation is responsible for clearing subdivisions as well as main roads. Last winter, the department faced these two frequently asked questions: Where's our plow? What's your definition of "passable"?
The forecast: Illustrating some of the difficulties in preparing to clear 17,679 lane miles in Northern Virginia, VDOT maintenance administrator Branco Vlacich displayed the National Weather Service forecast he received for the upcoming season: "equal chances for above-, near-, or below-normal temperatures and precipitation." But Vlacich said further review with forecasters suggested that we should prepare for fewer big snows and more ice.
Trucks to subdivisions: Salt and sand trucks will be sent to subdivisions whenever the forecast calls for at least two inches of snow. Previously, trucks were deployed to subdivisions once two inches had fallen.
More trucks: VDOT has lined up 600 more contract trucks for this winter.
Updated subdivision maps: The department has updated its 650 maps for the subdivisions. Supervisors and plow drivers use these maps to complete the neighborhood assignments. The maps also show individual trouble spots.
"Passable": VDOT considers a neighborhood street passable when a path is drivable, with caution, for an average passenger vehicle. The street still may be snow-packed, uneven and rutted.
MARYLAND
"We get the message that we have to manage expectations for reality," said Valerie Burnette Edgar, director of communications for the Maryland State Highway Administration, which maintains about 17,000 miles of lanes on numbered routes statewide.
That's good. Last winter's reality was that no mid-Atlantic transportation agency had the equipment and personnel to handle a rapid series of major storms. Yet jurisdictions sometimes set overly optimistic goals for getting life back to normal.
Forecast: If we do get the wintry mixes that are more typical for the Washington region than serial blizzards, that will represent a different set of challenges: Less plowing, more treating.
Pre-treating: The goal for this winter is to pre-treat all interstates and U.S. Route 50 before a storm. Last winter's pilot project in which a salt brine/sugar beet molasses mixture was spread on some roads will expand to include the immediate D.C. area. The all-natural mix is environmentally friendlier, and stickier, than other solutions.
Pre-treatments are not done if a storm is likely to begin as rain. Even the sticky solutions wash away in rain before they can be effective.
Emergency management: Last snow season, stuck vehicles - particularly trucks - compounded already-severe problems with clearing main roads. The goal this winter is to coordinate rapid responses to crashes and strandings that could make bad traffic jams much worse. The anti-congestion program could include temporary detours before traffic delays become extreme.
THE DISTRICT
The District Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works treat and plow about 2,295 lane miles, bridges, overpasses and ramps. The District doesn't plow alleys. While the city has a more concentrated mix of main roads and side streets to deal with, it shared in the criticisms focused on other jurisdictions about slow and erratic clearing.
Forecast: A new mayor, Vincent C. Gray, will become the face of this winter's snow-fighting efforts, but the city already is trying to apply lessons learned last winter. They include finding ways to mount a more aggressive, more flexible response to storms, no matter what form they take. Like VDOT, the District wants plow drivers to be familiar with its streets. Early this month, the departments dispatched more than 250 pieces of equipment in a simulated snow emergency to reacquaint crews with the routes.
Equipment and management: The departments say they have new contingency plans for handling big accumulations and will emphasize ward-based management and field reporting to sharpen the response. They have a new contract to rent up to 50 additional snowplows. Last winter, all the jurisdictions confronted a shortage of equipment for clearing massive accumulations. Once the snow starts, it's difficult to import more equipment in time to help.
The District also has expanded the variety of equipment it can employ to cope with different situations, including the anti-icing treatment of neighborhood streets.
METRO
Besides trying to keep the trains and buses running as long as possible, Metro clears the areas around station entrances but not around bus stops. Metrorail drew public criticism during the heaviest snows when it shut aboveground service and restricted underground operations.
Forecast: Metro's basic winter plan remains the same. Metrorail will operate a close-to-normal schedule in up to six inches of snow. When the snow gets to eight inches and starts to cover the third rail, the transit authority may suspend aboveground service. Metrobus will first reduce service depending on local route conditions, then if overall conditions deteriorate it will limit service to snow emergency routes. In a severe storm, it will halt all service. MetroAccess managers will curtail trips as road conditions deteriorate.
Maintaining service: Maintaining service on the exposed Yellow Line bridge over the Potomac River will be a priority. Engineers have modified ice scrapers on rail equipment to help keep tracks clear. Metrobus has told local jurisdictions which snow emergency routes need to be plowed to serve the maximum number of communities. Metro is leasing four Bobcats and equipping six additional trucks with plows to clear bus garages. The transit authority also will buy up to 70 new snow blowers to speed removal from platforms and station entrances.
A distraction of the road to a better welfare system
By Monica C. Bell and Jennifer Mezey, Washington
Washington Post
November 24, 2010; 9:07 PM ET
Over the past two weeks, D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) has received a great deal of attention for co-sponsoring a bill that would toss more than 7,000 families off the welfare (or “TANF”) rolls because they have been on the program for more than five years. As the bill is drafted, this time limit would go into effect without provisions for training or transitional assistance and regardless of whether the head of household is disabled, a survivor of domestic violence, over 60 or simply a casualty of the District’s abominable employment and training services. The harshness of this cutoff, and the fame of the person who proposed it, has sparked the interest of national media outlets.
What reporters and editorial writers have generally overlooked, however, is that not even Barry seems to support the legislation.
In his Nov. 21 commentary in The Post, “A needed conversation on welfare in D.C.,” Barry called his bill “imperfect and incomplete,” adding, “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.” After advocates testified at a Nov. 15 hearing about the harm the legislation would exact on children, families and survivors of domestic violence, Barry chastised them for focusing on the implications of the bill. “Why would you spend all your time talking about something we’re not going to do?” he asked. Council member Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), the bill’s co-sponsor, has likewise clarified that she does not want to cut families off welfare.
Given that neither of the bill’s co-sponsors wants the bill to pass, what has this legislation, and the conversation and coverage surrounding it, achieved?
On Nov. 15, the Washington Times quoted Barry’s disparagement of an alleged neighbor in Southeast who gets “$400 or $500 worth of food stamps but won’t get up in the morning and fix breakfast” — bringing to mind the racially charged 1980s and 1990s image of the “welfare queen.”
On Nov. 17, Barry appeared on a Fox News program whose host applauded him for “seeing the light” and encouraged him to give a new message to Democratic leaders: “I am anti-welfare. I don’t like this. I want it cut off.”
On Nov. 18, The Post published an editorial suggesting that the Barry-Alexander bill would bring the District’s welfare program in line with other states’ programs. In fact, the bill would give the District one of the harshest time-limit statutes in the nation, with no hardship exemptions, no requirement that families be screened for disabilities, domestic violence or other barriers to employment, and no acknowledgment that families could be doing everything society wants of them and still be unable to find jobs in this economy.
In other words, this media coverage has reinforced prejudices and reignited ideas that make it difficult for families to escape poverty.
None of this coverage has focused on the families who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the barriers they face, measures that would actually move welfare recipients from joblessness and poverty into the workplace, and the challenge of doing so in the midst of an economic crisis that has left many people with more education and job skills out of work.
D.C. Department of Human Services Director Clarence H. Carter, aware of the serious flaws in the District’s welfare-to-work program, has initiated a massive program redesign. Over a month before Barry and Alexander introduced their bill, council members Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) proposed important legislation that would require the welfare agency to assess recipients’ work skills both at the beginning and throughout the program, and would provide better educational and job training opportunities.
The council held a public hearing on the Brown-Wells bill this month, but it didn’t attract much media attention. That is a shame, but it’s not a surprise. Throwing families and children off TANF is a more provocative idea than helping them find employment and move toward self-sufficiency.
Advocates for families living in poverty have been working with the D.C. Council and the Department of Human Services on these improvements to the program, and we are eager to continue these conversations. None of us wants families to remain tethered to a paltry $370 monthly check for generations. None of us wants the welfare program to hinder people from working and elevating themselves and their children out of poverty. But those conversations cannot be based on stereotypes about people who receive welfare, ideological disdain for the very concept of public assistance or legislation so flawed that not even its co-sponsors want it to pass.
Monica C. Bell is a public interest fellow at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. Jennifer Mezey is supervising attorney of the organization’s public benefits unit.
Budget
Secret UMC budget calls for no subsidy
Washington Business Journal - by Ben Fischer
Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 3:06pm EST
Remember this summer, when the D.C. government, led by Attorney General Peter Nickles, seized control of United Medical Center from its former owners, Specialty Hospitals of America LLC? Alarm bells rung in certain corners of District government that were convinced the public hospital business would bring about eventual financial disaster.
Four months later, a quick appraisal seems to show good news at the Southeast D.C. hospital. The hospital remains open, has inked several new partnerships with private-sector health care providers designed to prop up volumes and revenues, and has reopened a skilled nursing home facility on the Southern Avenue campus.
Also, District changes to Medicaid formulas have shifted some revenue away from other hospitals to keep the place open. As has been noted many times before, the fate of United Medical Center will play a huge role in the future of the District and Prince George's County health care providers, who would assume the patient load if it were to ever close entirely.
That's just the background. But if you want to explore the hospital's future, really dig into its finances or put it into the broader context of D.C.’s overall budget problems, then you’re out of luck. The budget proposal for 2011 isn’t public — and we now know that's how it will remain until at least next month.
Even though the newly created governing board, dominated by outgoing Mayor Adrian Fenty's appointees, has reviewed a 2011 budget proposal in two separate public board meetings, asking questions of hospital Chief Financial Officer Derrick Hollings, the proposal itself still hasn’t seen the light of day.
On Monday, hospital lawyer Edward Rich formally denied our Freedom of Information Act request filed Oct. 29, citing the law’s exemptions for intra-agency or deliberative documents. He said the board is likely to approve the budget in “early December" — then it will be public.
Here’s what we do know, based on those verbal descriptions given in public meetings of the private documents: The hospital is projecting enough operational revenue to cover anticipated expenses of about $113 million, with enough left over to pay down old debts.
That’s a crucial fact: On any given day, and unlike in the past, United Medical Center now takes in more in revenue than it spends to provide the care. A general-purpose subsidy from District funds isn’t necessary (though, those enhanced Medicaid revenues are a direct result of changes to District policy that shifted money away from other hospitals.)
"They think they can run this thing without borrowing any more money from the city, and if a lot of things fall into place, they may be right," said Councilman Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, who voiced some of the loudest concerns.
But just because cash flow is positive (a not insignificant accomplishment), that doesn't mean everything's fine. The place still has many old debts, little cash in reserve and a still-developing capital budget. It'll be a while before the ship is completely turned around. So far, the public discussion has not covered the exact financial blueprint of the debt paydown or the cash reserve situation.
Also, as Evans noted, the budget depends on several major initiatives working out as planned. For instance, the hospital's obstetrics department, previously running at nearly a $4 million loss, is projected to break even — if a new partnership with Washington Hospital Center moves 541 baby birth cases into UMC.
"To say it's on track might be too optimistic," Evans said. "To say it's not working might be too pessimistic."
Dorothy Brizill, executive director of DCWatch, a government watchdog group, said preventing public examination of a proposal before it is approved undermines the very point of a public board meeting.
“Especially when it comes to the budget,” Brazill said, "I don’t understand where they get off making the argument that it’s not subject to public disclosure, or even public discussion."
D.C. Council
Mask-wearing protestors in D.C. can now be arrested
Wearing a mask while protesting outside a residence without telling D.C. police first could now get you arrested.
The D.C. Council has unanimously passed a strongly worded bill to deal with an animal rights group that has been known to wear masks and appear unannounced outside District residents' homes shouting things like "You should die." Residents have been complaining to their council members that they felt "terrorized." Critics of the bill say it's too broad and limits First Amendment rights.
"They scared some people so much that they feel like prisoners in their own homes," said Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who sponsored the Residential Tranquility Act of 2010.
Police can be called, Cheh said, but they don't always have the legal grounds to arrest the protesters.
The animal rights group in question, Defending Animal Rights Today and Tomorrow is the local offshoot of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty. The international group was set up in 1996 to organize protests against Huntington Life Sciences, a European company that provides animals for corporate science experiments.
According to the group's Web site, they recently protested outside the Dupont Circle home of a Goldman Sachs executive, who the group claims is connected to HLS. It's unclear how, and DARTT didn't respond to requests for comment for this story. Pictures show the protesters wearing masks, and white trench coats with a bloodlike substance on them.
Now, police have the authority to arrest the protesters -- groups of three or more -- on sight if they:
· Fail to inform police before a protest;
· Protest outside a residence between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.;
· Wear masks.
The American Civil Liberties Union came out against the bill.
"It's already unlawful to wear a mask while committing a crime," said Arthur Spitzer, the legal director for the ACLU's Washington branch. "Now they've prohibited peaceful demonstrations when people are wearing masks ... and there are legitimate reasons to protest outside a house with a mask on." For example, an employee may want to protest her boss and wear a mask so she won't get fired, he said.
Cheh pointed to the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled the First Amendment allows the government to protect people from "objectionable speech" when in their homes.
"People shouldn't have to put up with this repeatedly without being able to get help from the police because a group is able to beat the system," Cheh said.
Does Harry Thomas Jr. Have Something to Hide?
D.C. Councilmember's nonprofit scrutinized
WRC – NBC4
Updated 9:00 AM EST, Wed, Nov 24, 2010
Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. may have nothing to hide, but he doesn't seem to be acting like it.
Thomas founded "Team Thomas," which he calls a "nonprofit organization for social change, citizen empowerment, community development, and youth and senior program development," in 2000, six years before his election to the D.C. Council. According to Thomas, the organization has run after-school programs, weekend youth skills training clinics and summer camps, and "distributes turkeys to needy families and hosts a toy drive and holiday breakfast with Santa."
But Team Thomas is not registered with the IRS, and its nonprofit registration with the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has been revoked. After Thomas’s Republican opponent in this year’s election raised questions about the organization, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles launched an inquiry. Thomas quite reasonably argued that Nickles was playing politics -- the probe was announced just days before the November election. (Thomas won a second term with 84 percent of the vote in a three-way race, with Day finishing third.)
But Thomas’s re-election did not resolve the matter. Thomas has denied making any false claims about Team Thomas, and says it has done nothing wrong. Still, he has dragged his feet, first missing Nickles’s deadline for voluntarily producing records about contributions and expenditures, then ignoring a subpoena from the attorney general. Though Thomas’s lawyers said Nickles was bullying a councilmember who had not endorsed Nickles’s patron Adrian Fenty, Nickles essentially argued that that was immaterial -- the issue was whether Team Thomas was in violation of the law.
On Nov. 2, Election Day, D.C. Superior Court Judge Bruce Beaudin ruled that Thomas had three weeks to comply with the Nickles subpoena. Thomas attorney Frederick Cooke said that day that the information could be released as soon as the end of that week. It wasn’t. Instead, Thomas waited until Tuesday, the very last day, to comply.
Much of the controversy surrounds the fact that Team Thomas was actively soliciting donations as late as 2008, despite Thomas’s earlier assertion that solicitation had ceased after he was elected in 2006. The Washington Post has reported that Rhode Island Avenue Metro LLC, a developer working on a project in Thomas’s ward, donated $2,000 in January 2008, and another Ward 5 business donated $2,600 that same month -- sending the check to a Thomas Council staff member at his city office.
At a news conference yesterday afternoon, Thomas said Team Thomas raised $216,159 between Jan. 1, 2008 and the present, but this was hardly a ray of sunlight. Thomas declined to offer details on spending or contributors, saying only that the money went to youth sports programs. Cooke said at the news conference that Nickles had not asked for an itemized list, so he wouldn’t get one. It remains unclear whether companies with D.C. government interests, or lobbyists, gave Team Thomas money after Thomas’ election.
Nickles, for his part, told Washington City Paper’s Alan SudermanTuesday afternoon that "Harry Thomas is in big trouble. ...What you have on its face is a confession, and it’s unlawful solicitation." Nickles is planning a much broader second subpoena.
As of now, it is not clear if Thomas actually did anything illegal or even unethical -- though his actions are certainly questionable. So why the delays? Thomas is considering a run for a citywide At-Large Council seat, and his team knows Nickles will be leaving office before Vincent Graybecomes mayor. Thomas is trying to run out the clock on the inquiry.
But if he hasn’t done anything wrong, and if Team Thomas is what he says it is, why not prove it once and for all?
Read: New Team Thomas Subpoena
Posted by Alan Suderman on Nov. 24, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
(Note from DC Government Clips: follow link to read full subpoena.)
True to his word, Attorney General Peter Nickles' office has issued another subpoena related to Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.'s youth sports non-profit, Team Thomas, with this one asking for a lot more details on the nonprofits finances.
LL asked Thomas' attorney Fred Cooke Jr. for a response. But Cooke said he hadn't seen it, and suggested the fact that LL had a copy of the subpoena before he did was proof that Nickles is running a negative P.R. campaign instead of a legitimate investigation. Indeed, Nickles' email blast even included a copy to LL's boss, who probably has no immediate plans to write about Team Thomas.
Anyway, Nickles says the new subpoena is to help him determine whether or not to sue Thomas for soliciting contributions without a license. The deadline for the requested request is next Wednesday at 4 p.m. Start the clock.
The council's gander
By: Jonetta Rose Barras
Washington Examiner
11/29/10 9:05 PM
"We complied with his original order. It is becoming evident that this has become abuse of his office and power, " D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas said last week, after Attorney General Peter Nickles indicated he wanted more detailed information from the Ward 5 legislator as part of an ongoing investigation into his operation of a nonprofit known as Team Thomas.
Ironically, Thomas' remarks mirrored those made by business owners whose lives have been turned inside out. Thomas, his council colleagues and their pro bono attorney, Robert Trout, have demanded an ever-expanding body of information from Banneker Ventures and others as part of the legislature's investigation into a multimillion-dollar government contract awarded to that company to renovate city recreation centers. Thomas has said the council simply has been trying to get to "the bottom" of things.
Nickles has been similarly motivated.
He started an investigation at the request of the D.C. Republican Committee and Tim Day, a Republican who opposed Thomas in the general election. They accused the councilman of using the nonprofit to amass a political "slush fund." They also charged Team Thomas with conducting business without the requisite District licenses and permits.
Thomas told me he wouldn't respond to the AG's demand for additional information by Nickles' Wednesday deadline. He said he likely would go to court.
"Mr. Nickles is continually moving the target, trying to fish for information to prove I've done something wrong," Thomas added.
That's a charge Banneker's President Omar Karim and his lawyer, A. Scott Bolden, made about Thomas' gluttonous council investigation. But Thomas doesn't see any similarities between the legislature's demands and those being made by the AG.
The gander somehow believes his situation is different.
While Thomas turned over the first round of court-ordered data about his organization, including its total receipts -- $216,159 since 2008 -- he failed to provide a list of donors or an accounting of expenditures.
Without such details, it's difficult to determine the accuracy of the Republicans' charge. Further, it's impossible to know whether any contributors had business before the council and whether their contributions influenced any of Thomas' actions. Those factors are critical to understanding whether the government's integrity and ethics have been compromised.
Equally troubling is the fact that Team Thomas apparently didn't file any tax returns or pay taxes on its earnings. The group doesn't hold a federal or local tax exemption. There also are questions about whether Thomas earned any personal salary from the organization. He has said he did not.
"We are within the three-year [filing] period," Thomas told me. "[Taxes} are not an issue, yet," he said.
Certainly, all these issues are within the scope of the AG's responsibilities. Thomas, not unlike others who have been or who are being investigated, may find the entire affair irritating, disconcerting and intrusive. But as an elected official, he has to be held accountable for his actions, especially when it appears he may have circumvented the very laws he is charged with upholding.
Economy / DCPS / Police / Metro / Other
Washington area housing costs eat up burdensome share of resident budgets
By Carol Morello and Dan Keating
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/27/AR2010112702782.html
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/27/AR2010112702782.html
Sunday, November 28, 2010; 12:47 AM
One in five renters and one in seven homeowners in the Washington area spend more than half their income on housing, according to census figures, a proportion that housing experts consider a severe burden.
A Washington Post analysis of housing and income statistics included in the recent American Community Survey for 2009 underscores how affordable housing is particularly scarce for not only lower-income residents, but for many in the middle class.
In Fairfax County, for example, more than half the renters with household incomes of $50,000 to $75,000 spent more than 30 percent of their income last year to keep a roof over their heads - exceeding the historical threshold deemed prudent to pay for shelter including utilities, real estate taxes, condo fees and other associated costs. By that standard, more than six out of 10 homeowners in that income bracket in Prince George's and Prince William counties also spent too much. In the District, more than half did.
In almost every jurisdiction in the Washington area, the share that lower- and middle-income residents dedicated to housing far exceeded the national average.
Some housing experts consider the 30 percent threshold, which has been the standard for three decades, to be unrealistic, particularly in areas such as Washington where the census reports the median house value is $388,000 and the median household income is $85,000.
So they often differentiate between what they call a moderate burden of payments over 30 percent of income, and the severe burden of exceeding 50 percent.
Washington has hundreds of thousands of residents who fall into both categories. But the region's unusually high number of high-income earners skew the statistics, bringing the median near the national norm despite the struggles of so many housing-burdened residents.
"The cost of housing in Fairfax County is outrageous," said Lia Spriggs, 49, a kitchen manager at a Springfield elementary school.
With an income of $29,000, the divorced mother of two was on the verge of being evicted from a $1,400-a-month apartment when a vacancy arose in a county-owned townhouse in Centreville. Her rent is keyed to her income, so she pays just $776 for a three-bedroom townhouse she has furnished with donations from friends. Her take-home pay still is stretched to the limit.
"I have to be incredibly smart shopping," she said, "or we wouldn't have enough to eat."
The shortage of affordable housing has grown more acute during the economic downturn, particularly for a rising number of renters paying over the threshold.
"It's the impact foreclosures have had on the rental market," said Mary Schwartz, a Census Bureau demographer who specializes in analyzing housing statistics. "They're going from being homeowners to renters, and that can put pressure on rents."
Census figures show two out of three residents in the region are homeowners, the vast majority of them with mortgages. A third are renters who pay a median rent of $1300 monthly.
Rick Nelson, head of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs in Montgomery County, said he has noticed a rise in families doubling and even tripling up in rental housing over the last two years because they can't afford their own places.
"The problem extends all the way up to those who are working families, the average Joes," he said. "In Montgomery County, our median income is $103,000. You've got families who are at 60 or 70 percent of the median, and they can't afford the rents. Sure, $60,000 [in household income] is a lot in Dubuque. But not here."
Six of the 10 highest-income counties in the nation are in suburban Washington, and the region's wealth has kept its overall housing picture from becoming worse.
The widespread affluence also has kept Washington looking flush in comparison to other urban communities, many of which have a greater share of residents stretching to pay their housing bills. The percentage of Washington-area homeowners who are severely burdened is the lowest of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the nation. Looking at renters, the region is in the middle, ranking 25th.
But housing experts are not overly worried about well-off people such as the 52,000 Washington area homeowners with six-figure incomes who face a moderate burden on houses laden with amenities.
"For them, the 30 percent ratio is not an indicator of a true housing affordability problem, but rather a lifestyle choice," Schwartz wrote about the house-poor high earners in a research paper on the phenomenon three years ago.
Despite the fall in housing prices, the median percent of income that owners spend on housing remained fairly constant between 2007 and 2009, both nationally and regionally. But it has inched up for renters.
In the Washington area, a staggering number of lower-income renters are burdened by housing costs. In virtually every county, close to 90 percent of renters earning $25,000 to $35,000 are at least moderately burdened - well above the national level of 63 percent.
Even among households with incomes ranging from $35,000 to $50,000, two-thirds of homeowners in many places, including Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince George's and Montgomery counties, are burdened by housing costs - almost double the national rate.
As their incomes rise, renters pay a much smaller share of their income on housing. Above the $75,000 income level, only 4 percent of renters nationwide are burdened - but it's twice that rate in Montgomery and Fairfax counties and in the District.
Rochelle King, a regulatory affairs associate for a biotech firm, pays over 35 percent of her salary to rent a townhouse in Germantown owned by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County. In addition to her $1,168 rent, she shells out another $500 a month for utilities, including gas and water. She knows many others who share her plight.
"People are having to take two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. And try to keep food in the house. And pay the utilities," said King, 45, who depleted her savings in the year after she was laid off before she found a new job. "It's hard. It is really hard."
During the housing boom, many rental units in the District were converted to condominiums, said Jenny Reed, an analyst with the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. As a result, she said, the stock of low-cost rental apartments hasshrunk by more than a third over the last decade, placing the District among the top five cities that experienced the fastest rising rents.
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray said recently that creating more affordable housing is crucial to the District's growth.
Hundreds of renters on the verge of eviction make their way every year to Housing Counseling Services, one of four nonprofits that administer the city's emergency rental assistance program. Renters who can provide proof that their landlords are about to toss them out can get up to $4,250 to pay back rent. The alternative, said deputy director Theresa Hill, is more homelessness.
"There's always more demand than there is money to hand out," she said. "It seems like it's doubled in the last couple of years."
Every organization offering help with affordable housing in the region is swamped.
In Fairfax County, where two out of three renters are housing burdened, the waiting list for public housing has been closed since mid-2009. The county estimates it could use almost 80,000 more apartments and houses to meet the demand for affordable housing.
At the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, 15,000 people are on a waiting list for about 500 housing vouchers that become available in a given year. The list has been closed for almost two years. Most of the applicants have household incomes of $40,000 to $50,000, said Tedi Osias, an official with the commission.
More middle-class residents are seeking help for the first time than ever before.
"Sometimes they show up with nothing more than their cars," she said. "They've lost their jobs, and the dominoes begin to fall, then they lose their homes. The Washington area, and Maryland in particular, have fared pretty well in the recession, but there's still a great deal of need."
D.C. jobless claims still up
Washington Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh
Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 1:12pm EST
The Labor Department on Wednesday reported a larger-than-expected drop in the number of first-time jobless claims last week, but a lagging report shows the unemployment lines are longer in the District.
Nationwide, first-time jobless claims fell by 34,000 to 407,000 in the week ending Nov. 20, the lowest level since July 2008. The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits also fell to a two-year low.
Labor Department data from the week ending Nov. 13 show first-time jobless claims in D.C. rose by 0.4 percent last week and the number of District residents receiving continuing unemployment claims is up 5 percent from a year ago. D.C.’s jobless rate remains higher than the national average, at 9.7 percent.
First-time claims in Virginia fell 1.4 percent last week. First-time claims were down 0.7 percent in Maryland.
In Maryland, there are 63,800 people getting unemployment benefits, down 4.2 percent from a year ago.
The number of Virginians drawing unemployment is down 15 percent from a year ago, at 52,200.
Rhee still a factor in teacher elections
By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112404412.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112404412.html
Saturday, November 27, 2010; B01
Michelle A. Rhee is no longer chancellor of D.C. schools, but her presence still looms large over a Washington Teachers' Union election that is entering its final contentious days.
President George Parker faces a stiff reelection challenge from Nathan Saunders, the union's general vice president, who contends that Parker was too pliant in his dealings with Rhee. He cites the collective bargaining agreement Parker negotiated with Rhee, one that weakens traditional seniority and other job protections for teachers. Union members approved the contract in June.
Saunders also pledges to pursue legal, legislative and lobbying efforts to undo Rhee's signature initiative, the new IMPACT evaluation system that links some teacher appraisals to student test scores and can trigger dismissals for educators who don't meet certain classroom performance criteria.
"I know what it takes to be the leader of a labor union," said Saunders. "We've had too much strength by the chancellor and not enough strength by the union and the community."
Should Parker lose when mail ballots are counted on Tuesday, he would join Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) as the third major figure in the 2007-10 school reform movement to leave office this year.
The contest's outcome could have serious implications for Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) and interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who have pledged to continue much of Rhee's agenda. A Saunders victory could open a new period of labor confrontation, on the heels of a contract that took 21/2 years and the services of a mediator to negotiate. The potential for strife is compounded by the possibility of a new round of teacher layoffs as the city attempts to cope with its budget shortfall.
"I think there will be gridlock. Confrontation and gridlock," Parker said.
He said Saunders is selling teachers a bill of goods by promising to dismantle IMPACT, pointing out that a 1996 D.C Council act bars the union from collectively bargaining evaluation systems with the District. More significantly, the $75 million that the city is due under the federal "Race to the Top" program is at least partly contingent on IMPACT's continuation.
Parker also said the issue is larger than Rhee or IMPACT. A national movement, backed by parents, business leaders and a traditionally union-friendly Democratic Party, is demanding fundamental changes in the way teachers are evaluated and paid. Parker acknowledges that there are serious problems with IMPACT that must be addressed, especially in the use of student test scores, and that Saunders has been falsely telling teachers that Parker does not want IMPACT changed.
But getting rid of it, Parker said, is not an option. "You look at where the country is going, and we have to get in front of a document like IMPACT and make it a fair document," he said.
But a segment of union membership angry over IMPACT and other changes could force Parker, 60, a former middle school math teacher, out of the post he has held since 2005. In the first round of voting, he narrowly lost to Saunders, who fell short of a 51 percent majority needed for an outright victory. The candidate who finished in third place, Elizabeth Davis, a teacher at Phelps Architecture, Construction, and Engineering High School, said she is voting for Saunders in the runoff, but she stopped short of a full-throated endorsement.
Parker has been scrambling for support within a 4,200-member union that has largely tuned out the contest since approving the new contract, which included a 21 percent raise for teachers. Just 881 ballots were cast in the first round last month.
His campaign literature lists 32 initiatives that he said he have led to improved working conditions for teachers, including the new financial package, additional planning periods for elementary school teachers and tuition reimbursement for instructors taking graduate courses. Parker also said that when he took office in 2005, after a ruinous financial scandal that resulted in former union president Barbara Bullock going to federal prison for theft of union funds, he used his personal credit card to guarantee payment to WTU vendors.
But Parker has drawn charges that he has improperly used union resources to boost his campaign, accusations that could provide the basis for a legal challenge should he win. The American Federation of Teachers, the union's national parent organization, which has intervened to run the election after a series of internal disputes delayed it for several months, rebuked Parker last month for using the union's "robo-call" system to communicate with teachers about the election.
In one Oct. 12 message, Parker cautioned teachers "that we are in an election season so many persons may make false claims for their own political benefit." The AFT said it has referred the matter to the U.S. Labor Department.
Last week, Parker's spokeswoman, Monique Lenoir, sent out an e-mail announcing that the union will be meeting with "targeted groups," including new teachers, librarians and instructional coaches.
Parker said he is only doing his job as union president. Saunders said it represents a belated attempt by Parker to build bridges to segments of the union that he has ignored. "He's doing things to suggest that he is somebody other than who he is at the last minute," Saunders said.
The contest is the endgame in a long series of skirmishes between two union leaders who came to office as allies on a reform ticket in the wake of the Bullock scandal. Parker said Saunders has been a divisive influence, focused only on advancing his political fortunes. Saunders has sued Parker unsuccessfully in federal court for allegedly abridging his First Amendment rights after Parker ordered him not to talk to the media. Earlier this year, the union executive board, which is friendly to Parker, zeroed out Saunders's $131,000 annual union salary and refused to renew his leave of absence from teaching duties, saying he'd been negligent in his duties as vice president.
Saunders, now teaching U.S. history at H.D. Woodson High School, provided the board with a log of his daily activities, some of which included single entries on certain days. Saunders said the log is "merely a snapshot" and not a comprehensive account of his union work. In September, the AFT ordered the union to restore Saunders's pay and leave status. The executive board has offered to reinstate Saunders, but without back pay. A federal court last month dismissed Saunders's challenge to the matter.
D.C. Teachers' Union Election Results Expected On Tuesday
Kavitha Cardoza
Kavitha Cardoza
WAMU
Listen (Windows Media): http://wamu.org/audio/nw/10/11/n1101129-38947.asx
November 29, 2010
The Washington Teachers' Union election ballots will be counted Tuesday evening and the results announced shortly after. The approximately 4,000 teachers in D.C. Public Schools will soon know the results of an election that was originally meant to be held in spring but was stalled after internal disputes, accusations and court hearings.
The parent union, the American Federation of Teachers has taken over the process.
In a vote conducted in October, current Vice President Nathan Saunders won narrowly against incumbent President George Parker, but because he didn't win more than 51 percent of the vote as required by the rules, the elections will be conducted again Tuesday between the top two candidates.
This election is especially important because the new president will play a critical role in implementing the negotiated contract. The new president will take over immediately.
D.C. student tells police she was raped during school hours
By Clarence Williams and Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112605986.html
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112605986.html
Friday, November 26, 2010; 11:47 PM
A student at a District of Columbia public high school told police that she was raped there this week during school hours, authorities said.
The alleged victim said six people took part in the attack Monday at Dunbar Senior High School.
Police said six youths, all younger than 18, were arrested the next day and charged with first-degree sexual abuse.
The victim told police that the attack occurred between the school's sixth and seventh periods at or near a stairwell in the basement or on a lower level of the school, in the 1300 block of New Jersey Avenue NW.
According to a police report, the girl said her assailants grabbed her and kissed her around the face and neck.
She told police that five youths raped her. She said another grabbed her from behind and placed his hand over her mouth, preventing her from screaming.
Authorities said the incident was not reported until the student went home Monday and a parent was eventually told. The girl was taken to a hospital and a police report was made, a school system official said.
The official, Safiya J. Simmons, said an ongoing police investigation precluded further comment.
The victim told police that she believed her attackers might be affiliated with a gang, but there was no confirmation of that allegation.
The school, about two blocks north of New York Avenue NW, features a high-rise tower, with a roughly hexagonal floor plan.
Metro ridership, revenue falling below projections
Metro's revenue and ridership -- especially among bus passengers -- are falling well below projections since the transit agency raised fares last summer.
Metrobus has driven about 42 million passengers through the first four months of Metro's fiscal year, more than 3 million fewer than a year ago, according to the agency's October financial report.
Metro had projected that bus ridership would increase slightly this year.
Rail ridership also is off slightly. Weekday ridership in October averaged 745,000 people per day, about 3,000 fewer than October 2009.
However, thanks to record Saturday ridership during the Oct. 30 Comedy Central Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rally, ridership for the month totaled nearly 19 million trips, a 2 percent increase over the budgeted amount.
From July through October, roughly 200,000 fewer people rode the rails in 2010 compared with the same period last year. The total ridership falls about 1 percent below Metro's projections for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
In July and August the agency implemented several rounds of fare increases for bus and rail riders in an effort to fill a projected $189 million budget shortfall this year. The fare increases were expected to generate an extra $108 million for Metro, but through October, the agency is more than $11 million below its projected revenue.
Total revenue through the first four months of the fiscal year is nearly $274 million.
No officials were available to comment on the shortages.
Metro Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal told The Washington Examiner in September that the lagging economy -- not the fare increase -- was to blame. But the October financial report, authored by Kissal, admits the fare increases are a factor in decreasing ridership.
Initial findings show that rail ridership has remained flat but revenue is down because riders are adjusting their schedules to avoid the "peak-of-the-peak" fares. Meanwhile, bus ridership has taken a 5 percent hit "due to the economic recession and the fare increase," she said.
"While the economy has shown improvements for D.C. employees, the economic recession [disproportionately] affected bus passengers and will take a longer time to see positive gains in service industry jobs," Kissal wrote.
The report also notes the revenue shortfall in October is narrower than in previous months and suggests the agency is closing the gap between its actual and projected income.
In other cities, transit agency fare increases haven't always resulted in dropping ridership. But fare increases in a struggling economy almost always spell fewer riders.
New York's subway ridership rose every year between the economic growth years of 2004 and 2008, despite two fare increases. However, the agency expects a drop in passengers for 2011 after it recently approved another fare increase.
| SIDEBAR: Budget buster Metro ridership so far this fiscal year is falling short of projections. | ||||
| Oct. 2009 | Oct. 2010 | Oct. 2010 | ||
| (in thousands) | actual | actual | projected | |
| Metrorail | 75,258 | 75,437 | 75,746 | |
| Metrobus | 45,299 | 42,133 | 45,387 | |
| MetroAccess | 803 | 820 | 897 | |
| Source: Metro | ||||
Embrace Metro governance reforms
Robert McCartney
Washington Post
Sunday, November 28, 2010; C03
As the Washington region begins an important effort to fix Metro's outdated, unwieldy governing apparatus, here's a way to appreciate the scale of the challenge: The task requires eight separate governmental bodies representing 12 distinct political jurisdictions to agree to rearrange how they oversee a ninth body, the transit system itself.
What's more, many of the changes recently proposed by a high-powered area task force would affect spending, taxes and political patronage, which are all of critical interest to the various politicians and bureaucrats making the decisions.
If that's not daunting enough, consider that the biggest changes would require four entities - Maryland, Virginia, the District and Congress - to agree unanimously on identical wording to change the 44-year-old regional compact that created Metro.
The myriad competing interests have "created a kind of Gordian knot, and it takes a powerful force to cut through that," said Thomas Downs, a former top D.C. transportation official and former Metro board member who's now co-chairman of the transportation committee on Mayor-elect Vince Gray's transition team.
As a result, it would be easy to cynically assume that the process is headed for failure. How can Metro possibly transform its entire governance structure when it can't even keep the escalators oiled?
Nevertheless, riders, politicians, bureaucrats and anybody else who cares about the Washington region should pitch in and strive to ensure that most of the reforms are adopted - and promptly. It's a good sign that Gray (D), Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) have quickly set a 60-day deadline for agreeing on a detailed plan to adopt the steps.
Although the measures are not sufficient by themselves to cure Metro's ailments, they are a necessary part of the recuperation. They would put Metro in a considerably better position to overcome its three biggest current shortcomings: lack of safety, lack of reliability and lack of cash.
"The safety crisis, both real and perceived, does provide a lot of incentive for making these changes," Downs said.
I don't have space to describe - and you probably don't have appetite to read - all 12 findings and 18 recommendations issued Nov. 17 by the blue-ribbon task force sponsored by the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. But here's a summary of the principal proposals and accompanying risks:
Get the top dogs more involved. The most ambitious reform would create a new, seven-person commission to oversee the Metro board and make sure it does a better job, such as by insisting that the system build a safety culture. The commission would include, among others, the governors of Maryland and Virginia, the District mayor and the head of the federal General Services Administration.
That should be a big plus, because it would dramatically raise the pressure on those four top officials to take public responsibility, finally, for overseeing Metro and helping it obtain enough money. Until now, the two governors and mayor have been content to leave the job to lower-ranking officials. Nobody of consequence was held accountable when Metro messed up. (The GSA is a separate case because it was only this year that it got a seat on the Metro board.)
The plan creates a danger in Virginia, however. The governor's extra authority would dilute the power of local jurisdictions, including Fairfax and Arlington counties and the city of Alexandria. Democratic lawmakers who dominate those suburbs are worried that the state government would neglect Metro, especially because McDonnell is a Republican.
I agree that's a concern, but I think it's outweighed by the advantage of making the governor more accountable. Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton offered assurances that Richmond wouldn't shortchange Northern Virginia. "We have to be committed. This is, number one, part of Virginia, and number two, it's the economic engine of the state," he said in an interview.
Clarify who does what. Some of the most important reforms - and ones that could be adopted fairly easily - are designed to strengthen and better define the roles of the Metro board chairman and the system's general manager. These are aimed at ending a chronic problem in which the board has been too weak and unfocused to provide strategic guidance to the GM on safety and reliability, and too prone to meddle in day-to-day operations.
In a striking disclosure, the task force found that several past GMs felt unable to make crucial business decisions because of the board's interference. This contributed to what Board of Trade President and chief executive Jim Dinegar called "a culture of fear within Metro's senior management."
Limit the veto. The District, Maryland and Virginia each has veto power over board measures. That's been abused at times, and veto powers can make it harder to do what's best for the system as a whole.
The task force recommended limiting the veto to the budget or to decisions to expand the system, and to consider eliminating it altogether.
I support limiting its use, but I'm not sure about dropping it. The veto might be needed in some matters, such as to prevent the suburbs from ganging up on the District to eliminate city bus routes.
Regardless of how the region sorts out the details, it's vital to push through the principal reforms. They could go a long way to helping Metro win back the public's confidence.
Metro commuters could lose unused transit funds
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post
Washington Post
Friday, November 26, 2010; B03
Metro customers using SmartBenefits could face the loss of unused funds on their cards at the end of each month starting next year, depending on how their employers decide to implement a change in the benefit program.
Under an Internal Revenue Service mandate, transit and parking benefits will have to be separated in SmartBenefits accounts. The new program will require the estimated 220,000 commuters who receive both transit and parking benefits to decide how much pre-tax income they want to set aside monthly for each type, according to Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.
Employers will then decide whether any unused benefits will carry into the next month or fold into the employer's treasury, she said.
"The decision on whether the benefits roll over or are credited back to the employer are decisions to be made by each individual employer, not by Metro," she said in an e-mail.
The commuter benefit program, known at Metro as SmartBenefits, allows employers to provide workers with a tax-free or pre-tax transit benefit, currently set at up to $230 a month for transit and $230 a month for parking. Federal employees receive subsidies of the same amount. In 2006, the IRS ruled that the accounts must be kept separate beginning in 2008, but granted a two-year delay. Late last year, Metro requested and was granted a further extension, until Jan. 1, 2010, to implement technology and work with businesses and employees, who had sharply objected to the possibility of forfeiting money deducted from their paychecks.
Metro will gradually transition employers to the program through the spring, giving them four to six weeks' notice before the change, Farbstein said.
Commuters will no longer have to download benefits monthly at Farecard machines. Instead, when they tap their SmarTrip cards at the rail faregate, bus farebox, or parking location, the payment will be automatically processed from the appropriate account.
The change is further complicated because the transit benefit is set to decline to $120 Jan. 1 unless Congress acts. It was increased to equal the parking benefit as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which expires Dec. 31.
A rider who spends $135 a month on rail fare and $95 parking at Metro lots, maxing out current benefits, will soon have $120 of his rail costs covered, and all of his parking - for a net loss of $15 in benefits. Those who take long rides during rush hour, but don't park, will be harder hit.
About 170,000 federal employees and 115,000 private employees are registered for SmartBenefits.
Foreclosed apts. in SE trade for $1.5M
Washington Business Journal - by Tierney Plumb
Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 10:24am EST - Last Modified: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 11:46am EST
A bank-owned apartment building in Southeast traded for just $1.5 million, or $46,875 per unit, in a transaction handled by Marcus & Millichap.
The bank, City First Bank, tapped Marcus & Millichap's Ari Firoozabadi to dispose of the 32-unit complex at 5005-5011 Bass Place SE.
Firoozabadi worked with all parties to the transaction, including the Tenants Association and Housing Counseling Services Inc., to work out a renovation schedule to revive and secure the battered property. About a dozen of the units were occupied at closing.
More than $383,000 will be poured into the building, which will remain affordable under D.C. guidelines.
Monument Bank provided acquisition financing for the buyer, an undisclosed private development and management company that has already started the renovation job.
The original property owner — pre-foreclosure — was not disclosed.
In separate news, Marcus & Millichap is marketing a newly-renovated apartment complex in Columbia Heights.
The 23-unit building at 2523 13th St. NW, called Delshah Valery Place Apartments, got a full makeover last year with new windows, a new entrance façade, granite kitchen tops, stainless steel fixtures, new kitchen cabinets, new bathrooms, new hardwood flooring and new common areas.
The seller is New York-based Delshah Capital and Baltimore-based Ernst Valery Investments Corp.
The sale will mark Delshah's exit from the D.C. multifamily sector.
Tenants in the fully occupied property gave the green light for a voluntary rent boost, as did the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development. The property is being marketed without a price. The bid deadline is Dec. 15.
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