Arrested Development
Dear Readers with Clean Records:
I hope you appreciate the information in this introduction to themail,
because I got arrested gathering it. More about that below. At yesterday’s
press conference announcing Michelle Rhee as acting Chancellor of DC
public schools (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/070612.htm),
several members of the press complained vociferously because Mayor Fenty,
officials in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, and
representatives of the mayor’s press office had lied to them, denying
that any choice had been made, in order to ensure that the Washington
Post would have an exclusive story about the appointment. Rhee was a
surprise choice; she was not one of the usual suspects who are career
big-city school superintendents. She has little experience teaching (she
taught for only three years), but she makes up for that by not having
any experience as an administrator. Although she has the titles of chief
executive officer and president of the nonprofit organization The New
Teacher Project, she ran the organization at long distance -- its
headquarters are in New York City, and Rhee lives just outside Denver.
And her name was not run by any member of the city council or by any of
the members of the review panel that Fenty’s takeover law set up and
that was mandated to make recommendations for the Chancellor, as Marc
Borbely points out below. Instead, Rhee was recommended by Joel Klein,
Mayor Bloomberg’s superintendent of schools in New York City, and
Fenty held her name close until the announcement. Rhee’s name and
resume were not sent to the review panel members until yesterday
afternoon, after the announcement, and her resume has still not been
shared with councilmembers or made public.
That’s not all that Fenty isn’t sharing with the councilmembers.
On Monday, Fenty had a secret, private meeting with approximately one
hundred developers in the Wilson Building to discuss their future work
and involvement in DCPS renovation and construction. Every developer and
want-to-be developer in the District of Columbia was in that room to get
in on dividing the spoils. But Fenty had not told any member of the city
council that the meeting was to be held; he’s keeping them out of the
loop. I found out about the meeting and walked in, but I was put out by
Eric Lerum, the Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor for Education Victor
Reinoso, so the people’s business could be done in private without any
representative of the press or public to witness.
The two auditing contracts that Fenty announced last week with
Alvarez and Marsel and McKinsey and Company are definitely not as Fenty
stated them to be. As I wrote before, Fenty announced that the DC
Education Compact, rather than the District government, would sign the
contracts with these two firms, as well as raise the money to pay them.
It is clear that Fenty chose this route to avoid issues of
sole-sourcing, as well as to avoid having to get council approval of the
$3.2 million contracts. But, as I wrote, the DC Education Compact denied
that it would have any contractual relationship with the auditing firms.
At Tuesday’s press conference announcing Rhee, Fenty failed to clarify
the situation in response to my questions, and Victor Reinoso has still
not responded to my E-mail questions. Robert Bobb told me that the Board
of Education has not entered into these contracts with either firm, and
that he also had been told by Fenty that the DC Education Compact would
be writing the contracts. Either the DC government has entered into the
contracts itself and not disclosed them to the city council or gotten
its approval, or the firms have begun work without any contracts. Either
situation violates DC law.
Now, back to the review panel that the mayor was supposed to set up
to review and recommend Chancellor candidates. Following passage of the
legislation, Fenty failed to issue an executive order naming the members
of the panel, and more than a day after Rhee had been named
councilmembers had still not been told who the members of the panel
were. The panel members were Blondine Hughes, a teacher member (who was
a staffer at Fenty’s Ward 4 satellite office for the six years he was
on the council); Steve Aupperle, a teacher member; Terry Goings, a
parent member (who has been a close personal friend and buddy of Fenty
for many years); Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, a parent member (who is in
fact an employee of Deputy Mayor Reinoso in the Office of the Deputy
Mayor for Education); and two high school students, Shayne Wells and
Malik Stoney.
This afternoon I wanted to ask Pinckney-Hackett some questions about
the panel — which met only once last week, and then discussed only
generalities about qualities they wanted to see in a Chancellor.
Pinckney-Hackett’s position is Director of the Office of Community and
Parent Involvement. I called the mayor’s call center to get her
telephone number, and was told that she (as well as Reinoso) had private
telephone numbers that were not given to the public. So I decided to go
to Reinoso’s office to get her number. Reinoso’s office is not
listed on the building directory of the Wilson Building; it doesn’t
have a nameplate on its door; and the DC government’s web site doesn’t
have any listing for the Deputy Mayor for Education’s office. But, if
you ever want to go there, the room is 303, next to the Office of the
General Counsel. I stepped into the reception area and asked the
receptionist for Pinckney-Hackett’s telephone number. She was about to
give it to me when a woman entered the room behind me and said, “You
have to get out of this office. You can’t be here.” I turned around
and faced her. Though I had never seen her before, she obviously knew
me, and said, “We can’t talk to you. You have to go to the Press
Office for any information.” I said that I was simply there to get
Pinckney-Hackett’s telephone number, and she said, “I don’t care.
You can’t be here. Get out. We can’t talk to you.” I asked her
what her name was and what her position was. She said, “No. I can’t
tell you anything. Go to the Press Office.” I saw that she was wearing
a name tag on a chain around her neck, so I bent down to try to read it.
She pulled it back, putting her hand over it, and said, “I’ll have
you arrested for assault if you don’t get out of here.” So I turned
around and asked the receptionist if she knew who the woman was and
whether she worked in the office. The receptionist said yes. I asked the
receptionist for her name; she looked at the other woman and said, “I
can’t tell you.”
I left and, following instructions, went to the mayor’s press
office and asked for the information I wanted. Then I went to the Wilson
Building press room for reporters and made some calls. After a while,
there was a knock on the door, and I was confronted with three DC
Protective Services officers who said they were there to arrest me. They
refused to tell me why or what the charge was, but eventually said that
I was charged with assaulting someone. The woman from Reinoso’s office
appeared in the hall to watch me be arrested, so I knew that she had
made good on her threat, even though I had not touched her at all. I was
taken out of the Wilson Building in handcuffs and transported to the
First District Police Headquarters and booked. In fact, I was held in a
cell from 5:00 p.m. until a little after 10:00 p.m., while I was booked
three times, fingerprinted and photographed three times, as the officer
wrote and rewrote the arrest report, changing the charge each time. The
arresting officer tried to raise the charge to felony assault so that I
would have to stay in jail overnight and make an appearance in court
tomorrow, but MPD officials who reviewed his reports wouldn’t let him.
Finally, I was charged with simple assault.
My parents didn’t raise me to have an arrest record, but I always
thought that if I ever were arrested it would be for some grand cause
— protesting for freedom and human rights, perhaps. I never thought it
would be for asking for a telephone number, in retaliation for reporting the
deals being done behind closed doors.
Dorothy Brizill
dorothy@dcwatch.com
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Fenty Violated Review Panel Requirement
Marc Borbely, borbely@FixOurSchools.net
Fenty broke the law in picking a Chancellor without allowing a review
panel of stakeholders to participate in the selection process. As David
Nakamura writes in the Post: “Fenty . . . did not give her name
to a panel of parents, teachers, and students as the takeover
legislation required” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/AR2007061200609_pf.html).
Once again, King Fenty imposes his will. Who needs democracy? What,
follow a law that requires him to consider the opinions of regular
people? Yeah, right.
According to the law (http://dccouncil.us/lims,
View Status, A17-0038, Section 105), Fenty was required to give a review
panel of parents, teachers, and students information about all the
candidates for Chancellor, hear the panel’s opinions and
recommendations, and then consider those recommendations in making his
nomination.
Fenty says he considered roughly thirty potential candidates. A group
of six people Fenty apparently called together did meet once but talked
only about general qualities to look for in a chancellor. They learned
about Michelle Rhee from the news, like the rest of us.
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The unthinkable and ignored awaits District citizens as more of our
local government comes under the control of novice public
administrators. Code R.E.D., the abbreviation of recipe for economic
disaster, looms as mayor Fenty fills his administration with “act like
you know” appointees that have genuinely little or no expertise in the
major jobs they are filling. Starting with education, the most critical
area of economic development in DC, Mr. Fenty has appointed plagiarist
Victor Reinoso and corporatist Michelle Rhee to bring our education
system into the twenty-first century. The main problem here is that Mr.
Fenty has chosen trainees to manage a major city school bureaucracy with
a vast maze of deeply embedded systemic problems. Any experienced public
administrator or leader knows that effective and major improvements are
not the expertise of individuals engaged in on-the-job training — ask
any fast food restaurant manager.
Expect our schools to be in greater disarray and decline behind the
photo-ops and slick marketing designed to mask problems, and hype bogus
achievements. Gimmicks won’t make our schools any less ineffective,
separate and unequal. Charter schools, low-cost private educational
options, and schools beyond the District will become stronger magnets
for parents who don’t want to wait for the chaos to settle. The effect
of trainees Reinoso and Rhee taking control of DC schools becomes
obvious as more and more parents find better alternatives in the short
time frame we have to effectively educate our kids. Count my wife and me
among the parents who will rely on measurable results, not pretentious
rhetoric.
Assess and compare the realities with the fact that the District of
Columbia government is about to experience major fiscal fractures. The
money being shuffled around for DC school improvements are the usual DC
budget shell games, now with a Fenty flavor. Mayor Fenty won’t be able
to sell off schools and other public assets fast enough to balance the
budget after having hyped and promised a better public school system. He
should have been honest by admitting he meant to promise a smaller
school system. Nevertheless, our city is about to have the nation’s
largest yard sale. The exponential damage to the District’s
socioeconomic and fiscal core, encompassing education and finance, will
begin to show after late 2008. Data about resident relocation, revenue
generation, and crime statistics will tell the true tale of our city.
Silent alarms from Wall Street ratings will catch the attention of some
DC officials of integrity, and local news media that care to thoroughly
investigate. Manipulating data, spinning the news, silencing insiders,
and ignoring critics will have no bottom line affect on the ugly truth
about the actual State of the District. Follow the money, listen to the
questions that don’t get real answers, and pay very close attention to
the men and women behind the curtain.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
A Salute to Motown in Honor of Black Music Month, June 14
Hazel B. Thomas, thomashazelb@aol.com
A black music month celebration featuring Joe Herndon, member of the
legendary Motown group The Temptations, and a salute to the Supremes, at
Turkey Thicket Recreation Center, 1100 Michigan Avenue NE, 4:00 p.m.,
Thursday, June 14.
Come out and join the fun as we take a look back at the rich musical
legacy of Motown. Learn the classic dance steps of the Motown legends,
listen to the great songs that have uplifted generations, and hear about
the talented stars that made the Motown sound a national treasure. For
more information contact Brian Summers, [telephone number removed by
request].
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Public Service Commission Hearing Canceled, June 14
Kami Corbett, kcorbett@opc-dc.gov
The public hearing regarding Pepco’s Proposed Rate Increase that
was scheduled for Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 6 p.m. has been canceled.
When it is rescheduled by the Public Service Commission we will contact
you immediately. For more information, please contact Dorothy Wideman at
the Public Service Commission at 626-5150. If you would like to submit a
written statement, it can be submitted to the Public Service Commission
of the District of Columbia, 1333 H Street, NW, Suite 200, West Tower.
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Joint Kickoff for DCPS Field Renovation Projects, June 15
Tony Robinson, trobinson@dcsec.com
Athletic field renovation is a vital part of the DC Public Schools (DCPS)
Master Facilities Plan. The fields selected by DCPS to be renovated
include McKinley Technology High School, Dunbar Senior High, Roosevelt
Senior High, Ballou Senior High, Wilson Senior High. and Coolidge Senior
High. Pre-construction activity has already begun. This kickoff event
will include coaches and representatives from all schools receiving new
fields and launches a new era in athletic facility development for the
District’s student athletes.
The kickoff ceremony for DCPS field renovation projects will be held
on Friday, June 15, at 10:00 a.m., at Dunbar Senior High School, 1301
New Jersey Avenue, NW (enter on N Street, field entrance).
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Smartphones, June 16
Barbara Conn, bconn@cpcug.org
The next generation of smartphones (including the iPhone) is almost
here. Join us Saturday, June 16, for advice on wading through the hype
surrounding these devices and on becoming more productive with their
use. While on the go, do you need a better way to keep in touch with
colleagues, friends, and family via texting, instant messenging, E-mail,
and the Web? Would you like an alternative to lugging around a heavy
laptop to make presentations? Smartphones are used for organizing
business and leisure activities, and even for recreation. This
presentation will describe what smartphones are, what functions they are
best suited to handle, the choices, setup, and integration and
synchronization with your PCs. In addition, attendees will learn what’s
available now in Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and PalmOs devices, what’s
arriving soon, pitfalls in selecting a device and a carrier, unlocked
devices and options, “must have” software and hardware, and how to
maximize productivity and troubleshoot. Speaker Derek Meyer is a lively
presenter who will also share many ways you can have fun with your
smartphone!
Gather your colleagues, family members, friends, and neighbors, and
bring them to this Saturday, June 16, 1:00 p.m., gathering of the
Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) Entrepreneurs and Consultants Special
Interest Group (E&C SIG). These monthly events are free and open to
all. This month’s event is at the Cleveland Park Branch Library (first
floor large meeting room) at 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW (between Macomb
and Newark Streets), just over a block south of the Cleveland Park
Metrorail Station on the Red Line. For more information about the
presentation, the speaker, and CPCUG (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational
organization), visit http://entrepreneur.cpcug.org/607meet.html.
To register, send E-mail to bconn@cpcug.org.
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DC Public Library Events, June 16, 18-19
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov
Saturday, June 16, 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m., Francis A. Gregory
Neighborhood Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE. Rape Aggression Defense (RAD)
Training. Certified instructor Officer Arthur Lawson will teach
prevention techniques during this all-day training session. For more
information, call 645-4297.
Saturday, June 16, 1:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 215. Demonstrations of new assistive
technologies and group training. For all ages who use assistive
technology for the blind and visually impaired. For more information,
call 727-2142.
Monday, June 18, 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 222. All the World’s a Stage Film
Club. We will view The Beauty Academy of Kabul (2004) This documentary
tracks a group of American women (including some Afghan emigres from the
1980s) who open a beauty school in Afghanistan. Directed by Liz Mermin.
Tuesday, June 19, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Petworth Neighborhood
Library, 4200 Kansas Avenue, NW. Are you a Harry Potter fan? The purple,
traveling Harry Potter Knight Bus will make a stop at the Petworth
Neighborhood Library, and 225 lucky kids in fourth grade and up will get
to share their love of the Harry Potter books on video. Register until
June 8 by calling 541-6296.
Tuesday, June 19, 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Juneteenth Celebration. The Black
Studies Division of the District of Columbia Public Library presents
“From Slavery to Civil Rights,” a celebration featuring Dr. Frank
Smith, Founder and Director of the African American Civil War Museum;
the All Soul Jubilee Singers; and the Metropolitan Black Arts Community
Council. For more information, please call 882-7410.
Thursday, June 19, 7:30 p.m., Palisades Neighborhood Library, 4901 V
Street, NW. Are you a philatelist? Come to a meeting of the Palisades
Stamp Club. For more information, call 282-3139.
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Intellectual Property and Licensing Book Talk, July 21
Beth Meyer, lmeyer8090@aol.com
Joy R. Butler, the author of The Permission Seeker’s Guide
Through the Legal Jungle: Clearing Copyrights, Trademarks and Other
Rights for Entertainment and Media Productions, will give a power
point presentation on "Intellectual Property and Licensing: How to
Avoid Being Sued" on Saturday, July 21, from 1 to 3:15 p.m. in the
first floor auditorium of the Cleveland Park Branch of the DC Public
Library, Connecticut and Macomb Streets, NW. The program is cosponsored
by Capital PC User Group Entrepreneurs and Consultants SIG. A book sale
and signing of the book, courtesy of the Trover Shop, will follow the
program.
Ms. Butler is an entertainment, intellectual property and business
attorney and a principal and general counsel of Sashay Communications,
LLC, a publishing company producing informational products on the
entertainment and media industries. She is also the author of the
audiobook The Musician’s Guide Through the Legal Jungle. Ms.
Butler has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a BA degree in
economics from Harvard College.
The Cleveland Park Branch of the D.C. Public Library is located near
the Cleveland Park Metrorail Station. All District of Columbia Public
Library activities are open to the public free of charge. For further
information, please call the Cleveland Park Library at 282-3080.
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Diary of a Tired Black Man, June 21
Corey Jennings, press@urbanfilmseries.com
Diary of a Tired Black Man, starring Jimmy Jean-Louis (Mo’Nique’s
Phat Girlz, Heroes), Paula Lema, Natasha M. Dixon, Shavsha Israel, and
Little Cierra Lockett, will make its mid-Atlantic premiere at the 2007
Urban Film and Discussion Series hosted by Landmark Theater (555 11th
Street, NW). Members of the public and press are invited to attend the
special premiere preview screening on June 21 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range
from $12 (general) to $16 (VIP) and can be purchased in advance at
UrbanFilmSeries.com or at the Landmark Theater box office. Following the
screening, there will be a discussion and question and answer period
with the film’s writer-producer, Tim Alexander. The discussion will be
moderated by Corey "CJ" Jennings, the Urban Film Series
founder.
Diary of a Tired Black Man is a simple story about the complex
relationships between black men and black women. It follows the life and
relationships of a successful black man as he tries to find a happy
place to rest his heart. He is constantly challenged by the anger he
finds in the women he dates, including his wife, from whom he divorces,
and the other women he tries to date after her. Nearly a year ago the
top-rated trailer to the film hit the Internet and was viewed by
millions of viewers, all of whom have waited with high anticipation to
see the film that would follow. Diary of a Tired Black Man will be
released in select theaters for the remainder of the year. In just three
days, word of the screening in Washington, DC has already forced a near
sellout. Demand to see the film increased dramatically when Urban Film
Series released an advisory set of instructions for men that will attend
the screening. More information on the film, including reviews and
interviews can be found at http://www.urbanfilmseries.com
or http://www.tiredblackman.com.
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National Building Museum Events, June 21-22
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org
Thursday, June 21, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Building for the 21st Century:
green projects honored for sustainable, energy-efficient designs. Each
year the AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) presents the Top
Ten Green Projects. National advisory group adjunct members Greg Mella,
AIA, and Catriona Campbell Winter will present this year’s Top Ten
Green Projects -- architecture’s best-known recognition program for
sustainable design excellence. Winners were selected based on
qualitative and quantitative measures, with categories including
sustainable design intent and innovation, land use and site ecology,
energy flows and energy future, and seven others. They will discuss why
COTE’s measures are important, how they can be applied in projects,
and what methods have worked to reduce energy use in specific regions
and places. Free. Registration not required.
Thursday, June 21, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Spotlight on Design: David
Rockwell. From theatrical set designs to airport terminals, the work of
Rockwell Group spans a broad range of scales and types. All of the New
York-based firm’s projects, however, reflect an interest in creating
spaces that do not merely accommodate but actively celebrate human
activity. In that spirit, founding principal David Rockwell will discuss
his new book Spectacle (Phaidon Press, 2006), a survey of
larger-than-life participatory events around the globe. He will be
joined by Reed Kroloff, dean of Tulane University’s School of
Architecture, to explore the studio’s work, which includes sets for
the Tony award-winning musical Hairspray and for Legally Blonde, the
interiors of JetBlue Airways’ new terminal at John F. Kennedy
International Airport, the designs of all the world’s Nobu
restaurants, and a hypothetical Shakespearean theater as seen in the
Museum’s exhibition Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for
the 21st Century. A book signing will follow the lecture. $12 Museum
members and students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required.
Walk-in registration based on availability.
Friday, June 22, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; curator-led tour 12:00-1:00
p.m. Member preview day: David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing
Architecture. Museum members and their guests are invited to attend a
private, curator-led preview of the Museum’s latest exhibition, David
Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture. Featuring preliminary
sketches and original, finished works, the exhibition explores Macaulay’s
unique brand of drawing. To RSVP for the tour or become a member, please
call Caitlin Irvin at 272-2448, ext. 3500, or E-mail cirvin@nbm.org
by June 15.
All events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW,
Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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