Summitry
Dear Summiteers:
Nothing that I have written has elicited more heated responses,
published below and unpublished, than my criticism of the Citizens
Summit II, and of their inflated attendance estimates. Instead of an
opening message, I've written a response to those criticisms below.
I want to continue to urge you to send in suggestions for volunteer
opportunities. there's only one new volunteering suggestion in this
issue; be sure to catch us while we're in a giving mood.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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DCPS Hiring Nightmare
Helen Hagerty, Helenmhag@aol.com
We have been trying to hire a counselor and reading teacher at Hyde
ES. Last year our counselor never came to work. She was on sick leave
for a while and then tried to get disability while receiving her salary,
which came out of our school budget. We would like to hire another
counselor, but are unable to until the old one (who never came to work)
finds another job within DCPS. Meanwhile, we are still paying her
salary. I can't imagine why another school would hire her at this point.
At the end of the school year, we lost a fourth grade student in a
horrible car accident and we had no support or counseling for our small
school. It would be most appropriate for our students to have a
counselor to talk about the September 11 attacks, as well.
We also need to hire a reading resource teacher. We found one we'd
like to hire, however DCPS personnel told us we need to hire one from
the excess pool that's floating around DCPS. We want to hire an
excellent teacher, not one that other schools won't hire. All calls to
personnel have gone unanswered. DCPS still needs to make it easier to
get rid of incompetent teachers. Once again, it's the students who
suffer. We can't even pay for a librarian out of our school budget, yet
we are forced to pay the salary of someone who hasn't worked in a year!
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Remember those scorecards for various D.C. agencies? Check out the
one for Peter LaPorte, Director of the D.C. Emergency Management Agency,
at http://dcema.dc.gov/scorecard/index.shtm.
His first two goals are : (1) Complete a multi-hazard identification and
risk assessment prioritizing potential hazards that adversely threaten
or impact the District of Columbia (date due July 2000) and (2) Update
and revise 21 Comprehensive Emergency Operations Plans (date due
September 2000). According to the web site, neither of these goals has
yet been met. Failure to meet the goal was also true for the one
pertaining to preparation for the January 2001 presidential
inauguration. Well, at least that agency has one small part of its web
site correct and up-to-date.
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What Do Emergency Sirens/Alarms Mean?
Ron Eberhardt, rge1022@aol.com
In the aftermath of September 11, I suppose everyone, including me,
has more interest in what my age group used to call “air raid
sirens.’ When the devastating and highly unusual tornado swept through
DC a couple of weeks ago, sirens began to go off near where I live in
SW, and likely in other places too. However, I did not know of the
tornado and frankly assumed something even worse. I phoned DC police to
ask what it meant and what I should do. They didn't even know about the
tornado (the poor cops in squad cars on duty). Again on September 9, a
never-before-heard set of sirens went off in the middle of the night at
Ft. McNair that my building adjoins. What did it mean? DC officials and
emergency management people ought to educate DC citizens as to these
alarms, what they mean, and what to do. For example, are there different
types of sounds (high-low, steady, etc.) for different emergencies? What
happens when the alarms sound and local television is reporting nothing
and DC cops know nothing? Surely in these times we do not need
additional anxiety in our lives. Simple explanations and education will
go a long way, Mr. Mayor.
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The Current Crisis
Carolyn Curtis, Cabcurtis@aol.com
Now that we are at heightened alerts for more terrorist attacks, once
again I would like to emphasize the fact the public health system in the
District of Columbia is nonexistent. The closure of inpatient services
at DC General Hospital has clearly reduced the ability for the city to
respond to terrorist attacks such as those at the Pentagon and World
Trade Center. DC General Hospital's trauma unit was six minutes from the
Capitol and would have been the first resource for such a traumatic
event. Its decontamination unit is no longer in existence, and it was
one of only two such units in civilian hospitals in Washington
(Washington Hospital Center does not have such a unit). Now, with the
possibility of bacteria and chemical warfare (Anthrax concerns in
Florida), there is no public health system in place to handle any of
these concerns in Washington without negotiation for additional monies
by participating agencies in the DC Health Alliance. Just food for
thought.
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More on Temporary No Parking Signs
Ron Eberhardt, rge1022@aol.com
Amen to the complaint/question as to the reckless use of emergency no
parking signs in DC. Contractors being paid by DC taxpayers are the
worst abusers. The DC Parking Enforcement Division, charged with
responsibility to monitor such abuses, is the least interested. After
all, if contractors and others abuse the emergency no parking sign
placement, it results in more tickets, written by parking enforcement,
for residents who defy the signs when obviously no work is taking place
over several days' time.
The result: taxpaying residents get hit three times — a reduction
in already scarce parking availability in the city, paying contractors
(whose workers are usually from everywhere but here) money to abuse us,
and finally we get to pay fines for disobeying ill-placed, if not
illegal, signs to the same government that refuses to regulate and
enforce those who abuse the system. Only in DC!
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I read with interest John Whiteside's post (Temporary No Parking
Signs, Logan Circle), because the exact same thing just happened here on
17th and U Streets. Signs were posted prohibiting parking from 7 a.m. -
5 p.m. for an entire week, and then nothing happened until Wednesday
afternoon. Compounding the problem, the signs had no contact information
about who to call in reference to the work. Turns out that V Street was
being repaved from the 16th to the 17th, which doesn't explain why the
city blocked parking for several more days than was necessary, nor why
the “no parking” signs extended for several blocks around that area.
Actually, the real question it raises is why V Street was repaved when
it was in perfectly good shape compared to others like Reno Road. Could
it have something to do with the police station on that block?
Happy ending: I complained to Jim Graham's office, and received much
sympathetic assistance from a staff member.
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John Whiteside asked about no parking signs on his street. The
construction firm gets those no parking signs from the precinct and
requests the time. They then do the posting. The problem is that DC
government, including the MPD, is cozy with the folks who request these
signs and closures. If you want to know why, look at Tony's 1998
campaign donor list.
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Response to Fire Department Petty Theft
O.C. Fletcher, OCFLETCHER@aol.com
As a retired member of the DCFD, I too was embarrassed to read in the
Washington Post that a few members of the Department apparently
disgraced themselves and the Department by stealing equipment from the
Arlington Fire Department. However, what I didn't read in the Post
was that off-duty members collected nearly $300,000 and donated same to
the families of fallen firefighters in New York; only to be reprimanded
by the D.C. Fire Chief for violating D.C.'s panhandling laws. The full
story appears at http://www.dcfd.com.
Click on Bulletin Board and DCFD NEWS. This is the unofficial site of
the District of Columbia Fire Department.
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Mea Culpa
Mark Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
Leonard Sullivan of the National Association to Restore Pride in the
Nation’s Capital and Thomas Hall of the Washington Business Journal
engaged me about the 94 percent District funds versus 6 percent federal
payment graph in my “Rider Report.” These numbers are based on
District funds of $7.14 billion (including capital) and a “federal
payment” of $398.1 million, which were recently approved and reported
by the House Appropriations Committee (see: http://www.house.gov/appropriations/news/2002/02dcfloor.htm).
This federal payment includes money added by Congress to DC’s budget
in the Appropriations process for courts and prisons, tuition support,
and other items Congressional members add in for one reason or another
(there are currently 20 items). But this federal payment does not
include other categorical grants or funds that DC receives for specific
federal programs (transportation, welfare, schools, etc.), just like
other states and Territories receive, and which Congress classifies as
“District funds” in the federal appropriations process. These
state-like funds returning to DC from its citizen’s federal taxes
represent about 25 percent of DC’s operating budget. My intent in
reporting the House Appropriations Committee numbers was to show what
proportion of DC’s budget might be considered compensation to DC for
services and exemptions (i.e., federal payment). The Mayor’s office
estimates that DC loses approximately $1.7 billion yearly in
uncompensated costs by the federal government. Compensation for services
rendered or taxes should not come with strings attached about how the
money must be spent. In any case, I want to apologize, because the way I
reported the information implied that 6 percent was all the money
derived from the federal government in DC's budget, and, as Len Sullivan
pointed out, that is not accurate. Should funds received by DC from its
federal taxes be considered a payment for local services, lack of
commuter tax, etc.? I don’t think so, but that federal money is a very
important part of DC's local budget.
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Impact of the Control Board and DC Taxes
Michael Bindner, Mbindnerdc@aol.com
The Control Board was a front for the reforms enacted in the National
Capital Revitalization Act of 1997. Mayor Barry pushed most of these
when he returned to office in March 1995 before the House District
Subcommittee. The price of these reforms was the imposition of the
Control Board, which Mr. Faircloth of North Carolina and Mrs. Norton of
the District took to the next level in the act by stripping the Mayor of
direct authority over agencies as part of the same 1997 Act. Doing so
had only one purpose, to prevent Marion from running for a fifth term.
Some of the management reforms created by the process were enacted,
though the entire process was trashed when Tony took office — as he
fired all of Camille Barnett's people and threw away the management
studies.
As to the tax structure, it is not that different than any
metropolitan city — although the proportion of federal funds is higher
than most cities because they are received under block grants given to
states for state functions. Additionally, some funds are received for
“state functions” which would be normally funded with local tax
dollars because of the prohibition on taxing the income of nonresidents
(which is done by every other state and major city). We are actually
getting less money than District voters were promised when they ratified
the Charter in 1974 — and we have never voted on getting less money,
which means that Congress pretty much unilaterally did something to the
District that I can't say directly on a family-friendly newsletter.
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Summit Survives Skeptics
Holly Lincoln, h.lincoln@aicr.org
My table at the Summit was full (11 people — someone pulled up
another chair) and included one government employee and one non-DC
resident (the facilitator). The remaining nine people were racially
diverse (one Native American, one Latino, six African Americans and
three whites), generationally diverse (two youth under 18, one under 35,
and three seniors), somewhat diverse in gender (four women, seven men),
and all more optimistic about the city and less prone to improbable
conspiracy theories than Gary Imhoff.
I could not make an accurate guess about how many government
employees attended, but neither could he — none of the dozens of
people attending that I knew personally experienced the dubious 50
percent or more government employees per table laughably estimated in
the last issue of themail. The Summit definitely had its flaws, but most
hopeful to me were two men from Chicago I spoke with who came to learn
about the mechanics of the DC Summit — they are designing a similar
event for their city.
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Is the Kettle Spinning Out of Control?
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
My views on the nation's capital are hardly middle of the road
(should I say middle of the neighborhood?). Hence, I generally resist
arguing with our fearless editorial leader and his spouse, who seem
obliged to produce something negative, if not egregious, twice a week.
But this last editorial on Spinning the Mayoral Summit, plus the
dwindling number of themail participants with anything to say at all,
encourage me to vent my exasperation on ten counts:
1) Why on earth is it a sin for our democratically elected officials
to put a positive spin on their efforts, when our most outspoken
non-elected activists devote all their energies to poor-mouthing
whatever those officials try to do? 2) What difference does it make how
many people came to the Summit, as long as it represented a meaningful
polling sample (ask Mark)? 3) How do you differentiate between how many
people signed up and how many came? 4) Couldn't a smaller turnout mean
less dissatisfied residents (the Imhoffs not withstanding), as well as
heightened concerns over weather, security, and inconvenience? 5) How do
you know how many attendees came and went during the proceedings (as I
did)? No one was obliged to stay all day.
6) Why misrepresent the table count by a full third? There were 300
10-chair tables, not 200: I sat (albeit alone) at #283. 7) Why fret
about nonresidents attending: can only DC residents make America's
capital city function better? 8) Why whine about DC employees attending:
shouldn't they have a say in “Making Government Work” (Strategic
Priority #4)? It has more "action items" than any two other
priorities combined, with good reason! 9) Shouldn't some of those
employees be obliged to hear what residents think about their marginal
performance? And finally, 10), why isn't more interaction between
municipal employees and those they are hired to serve beneficial rather
than scandalous? I think this kettle is way overboard calling this pot
black.
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The major reason to criticize the Neighborhood Action Initiative and
Citizen Summit II is that they aren't honest efforts to elicit citizen
opinions, but public relations efforts through which the administration
pretends to consult the city's residents. At each table at the Citizen
Summit there was one copy of a "strategic plan" more than an
inch thick, prepared by the administration, which had not been released
earlier. There was no time for all the people at a table to read, or
even to scan through, this lengthy plan, yet the administration will
claim that the attendees ratified the plan through their votes. There
was time at the Summit for several high school entertainers and for an
hour-long government-sponsored religious ceremony, but there was no time
for citizens to address the Mayor or the assembly. Instead, citizens had
to respond to multiple choice questions, with the questions and the
choices crafted to lead to predetermined results. That's my real problem
with the Summit.
But to return to the question of how many citizens attended. There is
disagreement about how many tables there were, so let's approach the
question another way. Carol Luckensmeyer, the event's organizer,
commented on all the empty tables about an hour into Citizen Summit II,
at the height of attendance. A half hour later, about an hour and a half
into the Channel 16 tape of the event, she said that attendance was
"about two thousand," and she certainly had no incentive to
low-ball the number. Anybody with cable television can check on
attendance independently. Camera coverage on Channel 16 focused
exclusively on the front rows of full tables, except when showing the
Channel 16 commentator, seated in the back of the hall. When he
interviewed city employees, the camera angles revealed not just a dozen,
but dozens of empty tables. That is why, following the city-sponsored
religious ceremony that occupied the second hour of the Summit, the
commentator felt compelled to say that, “if people see empty tables,
they will be filled as people come in.” Of course, attendance didn't
rise during the day; it fell steadily as people left.
Finally, I should respond to the important question of what role
government employees should play in a “citizens' summit.” If you
were running a company, and wanted to determine your customers' needs
and wants and their degree of satisfaction with your services and your
employees' performance -- which would you ask, your customers or your
employees? If you surveyed your employees, would you then delude
yourself that you knew what your customers really felt? Again, I should
stress that the estimate of the percentage of government employees who
attended the summit was a knowledgeable one, given independently by
high-ranking government employees who would recognize many of their
colleagues.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
William Wong Book Talk
Patricia Pasqual, changedc@yahoo.com
The DC Center for the Book at the D.C. Public Library and the Asian
Pacific American Program of the Smithsonian Institution present a book
talk and signing by William Wong, author of Yellow Journalism:
Dispatches from Asian America, on Tuesday, October 16, 6:30 - 9:00
p.m. Reception at 6:30 p.m., talk at 7:00 p.m. Copies of the book will
be for sale after the program. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Auditorium A-5. For more information, call
727-1186.
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Rescheduled Community Open House Offers Sneak
Peak at the Future City Museum
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com
The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., will host a community
open house on Saturday, October 13, from 1- 4 p.m. Take a final look at
the Carnegie Library before construction begins and share what you would
like to see in the future City Museum. Activities for the whole family
include special tours and photographs highlighting plans for the future
museum; city memories (“show and tell” and oral history interviews,
audio and videotaped; participants are encouraged to bring favorite
objects); mapping the city (drawing and coloring with maps, highlighting
DC's vibrant neighborhoods); designing the City Museum (a post-it board
invites suggestions and nominations for prominent citizens to be
featured in the City Museum); chocolate-making by Vatore's, Washington's
renowned candy family, and simple refreshments.
Scheduled to open in spring 2003, the City Museum is dedicated to
telling the stories of Washington's past, present and future.
Highlighting its colorful neighborhoods and vivid personalities, the
museum is a project of The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. This
event is free and open to the public at the Carnegie Library Building at
Mount Vernon Square (the future site of the City Museum), 801 K Street,
NW (between 7th and 9th Streets). Public transportation is recommended.
For more information, contact Kathryn Joseph, 785-2068, ext. 100.
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Wilson High School Athletic Boosters Yard Sale
Nancy Arbuthnot, arbuthnot5@msn.com
Yard sale on Saturday, October 13, 8 a.m.-12 noon: a multifamily yard
sale will be held to benefit Wilson sports teams. At Wilson High School,
corner of Nebraska & Chesapeake. Furniture, household items, sports
equipment, books, CDs and tapes. Great deals!
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There will be a tag sale in the triangular park at 17th, New
Hampshire, and S Streets on Sunday, October 14, from 11 a.m. until 3
p.m. The sale will raise money to help provide vet visits and food to
the feral cat colony at 17th and V Streets. All donations happily
accepted (we're also accepting donations made out to the Langley Animal
Clinic, where we have a feral cat care account.) Please stop by!
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CLASSIFIEDS — VOLUNTEERS
Community Council for the Homeless
Diane Aten, dianeaten@cchfp.org
Volunteers are needed to help the homeless. Opportunities include
receptionist, shelter volunteers, meal delivery, the Help the Homeless
Walkathon on Saturday November 17th, and more. Receptionist coverage is
currently our greatest need. Commitment time and hours are flexible.
Contact David Camporeale, Community Council for the Homeless at
Friendship Place's Volunteer Coordinator at 314-1419, ext. 23. Another
way you can help is through participation in events. One upcoming event
is the SOS (Sing Out for Shelter) a cappella concert on November 30th at
8:00 p.m., featuring The Augmented Eight, The Princeton University
Nassoons, Philomela (American University), and other singing groups. If
you would like to buy/and or sell tickets, please call Diane Aten at
364-1419, ext 19.
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CLASSIFIEDS — CAUSES
Act Now to Prevent Forced Removal of Public
Housing Residents
Madeleine Fletcher, unitedpublichousingresidents@hotmail.com
The decision to fund a HOPE VI project at Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg
Dwellings (located adjacent to the Navy Yard in southeastern Washington,
DC) is expected any day now. This is a federal grant that the DC Housing
Authority applied for to remove over 1,400 public housing residents,
demolish 707 homes, and rebuild a “mixed income” community, with a
loss of 45 percent of the subsidized homes. We are requesting HUD and
DCHA to commit to an improved plan that will allow all current residents
who are eligible for public housing and want to remain on site during
and after the renovations to do so. Please read, sign, and send our
letter at the web link below: http://www.zzapp.org/cisdc/news/capper.htm.
Also read a related article in The Common Denominator at http://thecommondenominator.com/100801_news3.html.
Thank you for your support!
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We're starting an EarthSave Chapter in the DC Metropolitan area. You
can learn more about us at: http://dc.earthsave.org and at the
international parent organization, http://www.earthsave.org. We are
looking for a large conference room or house to host our first
organizational meeting on October 21 (early evening). Howard Lyman has
offered to come and speak, as well as help us with our starting up (Mr.
Lyman's the President of EarthSave, and you may remember him from his
lawsuit defense with Oprah Winfrey in Texas over “beef”). Anyone
having some ideas on where we could meet, please contact me.
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Don’t Forget About the National Park Service
Jason Broehm, Adams Morgan, jason_broehm@hotmail.com
Mayor Williams is mulling over a consultant's report prepared for the
Division of Transportation and is expected to announce his decision on
the future of Klingle Valley soon. One of the key elements of the
report, a letter to the city from the National Park Service, has
received little attention. In the letter, Adrienne Coleman,
Superintendent of Rock Creek Park, reaffirmed the Park Service's
long-standing opposition to rebuilding a paved road through this wooded
stream valley that leads into Rock Creek Park. She stated that it is not
possible to rebuild Klingle Road without causing further environmental
harm to Klingle Valley, because storm water management facilities
required for the road would be inadequate to prevent continuing
degradation to the soil and vegetation along Klingle Creek. Speaking
recently on WAMU, Superintendent Coleman said that the National Park
Service would refuse to provide a permit for the use of park land
alongside the road because construction activities would almost
certainly harm a number of mature trees. You can listen to the broadcast
at http://www.wamu.org/news/daily/010907.html.
The National Parks Conservation Association, the nation's only
nonprofit organization solely dedicated to protecting and restoring
America's national parks, recently joined the National Park Service in
opposing a paved road and called on the mayor to support an unpaved
recreational trail in Klingle Valley. The organization joins other
national environmental groups, including Sierra Club, Friends of the
Earth, and American Lands Alliance, and the local citizens group, the
Save Klingle Valley Campaign, in opposing a paved road in Klingle
Valley.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
Gas Light Repair
Maryann Terrana, mterrana@aol.com
Can anyone recommend a reputable company or person to repair a gas
lamp in the front yard? Please reply to mterrana@aol.com.
###############
I have used Winston's Chimney Service in the past. In the Dupont
Circle area they regularly get the nod from homeowners in the know. I'd
recommend them without reservation. I know nothing of chimney business
but wouldn't be surprised if it takes a while to get on their schedule
at this time of year. Winston's Chimney Service, 4212R Howard Avenue,
Kensington, MD, 301-571-8546.
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