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June 13, 2007

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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Code R.E.D. in the District
Dennis Moore, dennis@DCIndependents.org

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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