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July 11, 2007

Thieves

Dear Victims:

Among the many outrages of the city council legislative session that was held yesterday, probably the most outrageous was the sneak-thief emergency bill that gave away our West End library, fire station, and police facility. Twelve thieves, disguised as councilmembers (all of the councilmembers except Mendelson, who voted against it), staged a sneak raid to steal public property from the citizens of the city in order to benefit one of their most favored land developers. They gave that developer a no-bid sweetheart deal, which Wendy Blair and Deborah Akel write about below. It is another blatant demonstration of the fact that councilmembers believe they only have to serve and cater to their campaign contributors, and that they don’t have to answer to their constituents or to the citizens of this city. Dave Maloof also has a letter that describes yesterday’s process accurately in today’s Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/a-822687~Letters__July_11__2007.html.

Meanwhile, the council continues to give Mayor Fenty anything that he wants with regards to his school takeover, even though the administration has now admitted that all the promises on which Fenty sold the takeover — rapid improvement in student education and rapid repairs and upgrades in the school buildings — are now inoperative. As I predicted, the administration is already spinning a phony story that the problems are much bigger than it knew, so improvements will take much longer than it thought; and its apologists in the press are promoting that lame excuse. Over the next year, the administration will have a press conference and photo opportunity every time a classroom gets painted or a window air conditioner gets installed, and Fenty’s publicists in the press are going to celebrate every bit of routine maintenance as a tremendous advance that no previous school administrators could ever have accomplished. That may well buy Fenty some time, until most citizens have forgotten that he ever made any promises of rapid, dramatic improvement.

One of the most blatant examples of the council’s failure to hold the Fenty administration responsible is its treatment of Deputy Mayor Victor Reinoso. At his confirmation hearing, Reinoso was defiant, telling the councilmembers he didn’t have to give them any information about his plagiarism of Fenty’s initial school plan. In another hearing this Monday on “The Transition Strategy of the Deputy Mayor for Education,” Reinoso was just incompetent. Councilmembers asked him time and again for basic information about the school system — nothing controversial, just basic numbers — and Reinoso answered time and again that he didn’t know, he didn’t have any idea, he’d have to get back to them later. Unless his aide sitting behind him handed him a paper with the answer printed on it, he couldn’t or wouldn’t answer anything. And still, a majority of councilmembers were prepared on Tuesday to vote to confirm Reinoso to his position, and they would have confirmed him if Council Chairman Vincent Gray had not pulled the nomination from Tuesday’s legislative agenda. Fenty’s uncritical cheerleaders in the press squealed, demanding that the council rubber-stamp all of Fenty’s decisions, and not ask for competence, accountability, or even honesty from Fenty’s nominees. But their protests were unnecessary. Reinoso will remain in his position. Unless the council affirmatively votes to disapprove of his nomination within ninety days of its having been made, he will be considered confirmed. There’s a majority on the council that doesn’t favor competence, accountability, and honesty, and that majority will not vote to disapprove him.

When I first started the HTML edition of themail@dcwatch.com, some E-mail systems couldn’t handle HTML messages, so I continued sending a plain-text version. My impression is that every E-mail provider now has HTML capability, so I don’t think there’s any technical reason to continue sending a plain-text version. I’m planning to switch everyone to the HTML version within a week, beginning with the next issue. If you’re getting the plain-text version, the only things that are different in HTML are color headlines and dividing lines, and larger text for headlines. There are no pictures or background patterns, so the size of the message isn’t much larger. If you know that your E-mail system is limited to plain text messages, or if you have trouble with the HTML version when you begin receiving it, please let me know.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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A Shameful Land Grab
Deborah Akel, West End, dakel@earthlink.net

The winner of DC council’s “most shameful abuse of power” category was an “emergency” resolution to sell two key parcels of public property in the West End to Anthony Lanier’s Eastbanc development company. One is the West End library; the other is a police station. This so-called “emergency” measure, which claims that the parcels are “no longer required for public purposes,” passed in council Tuesday night after heavy lobbying by the mayor and Jack Evans, and smooth-talking by their buddy Lanier.

Since when does demolishing a perfectly good community library qualify as an emergency? DC is already short four libraries, and now Council had approved the demolition of another. If getting a new library is an emergency, why don’t they send Lanier to rebuild Tenley, or Shaw, or Benning, or Anacostia? Not to mention that the West End Library received a renovation grant of $150,000 just a few years ago. It is wasteful and irresponsible — at the very least — to consider tearing it down.

The council is abusing emergency resolutions in order to bypass public comment and get pet projects passed with no muss or fuss. I sat through fourteen so-called emergency resolutions Tuesday night. Not one of them qualified as an emergency, and there was not a single dissenting vote for any of them. Most members weren’t even paying attention during the discussions. The only emergency in the shameful sale of the West End Library is on those of us who want to save it.

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DC Council Gives West End Library to Eastbanc
Wendy Blair, The Literary Friends of the DC Public Library, wblair@npr.org

Last night the DC council, with no public announcement, no public hearings, no input from library patrons, gave the taxpayer-owned West End DC Public Library to the developer Anthony Lanier’s Eastbanc, Inc., for nothing. It threw in the nearby police and fire station, too. (And the fire station is in a different block.) The deal, engineered by Jack Evans and embraced by Kwame Brown as “win-win,” professes to give DC taxpayers a brand new library, paid for by the developer, and a brand new fire station too — all “free.” In return for our land. No one asked what the Library would get that it didn’t already have. The West End library was refurbished three years ago with money from Anthony Lanier’s Ritz-Carlton development deal a block away. No renovations are needed. The DCPL budget has already earmarked money for upgrades.

Jack Evans says Carol Schwartz and Kwame Brown held a “roundtable” to get “citizen input.” That roundtable turns out to be a meeting held at one day’s notice, attended by principals of the two Council committees that must by law approve such legislation — but by no friends of the Library, and as far as I can determine, no citizen stakeholders. Phil Mendelson was the only councilmember who voted “no.” Phil said he doesn’t like no-bid contracts. The Library giveaway was passed as emergency legislation on the flimsy excuse that tenants of a nearby rental would lose their right of first refusal, which will expire in September, if the deal, which includes their rentals converted into condos, was not passed fast. The connection between their private transaction and the takeover of public property is nil, unless you count the fact that the developer wanted our public land. Jack Evans further justified haste, and the "emergency" category, by saying he has been waiting eight years to make this deal — and that that is “long enough.” That’s news to residents of Ward 2, who also were not invited to any roundtable.

The friends of the West End Library are taken by surprise too. They had scheduled to hear a presentation from Eastbanc at their meeting this coming Saturday, July, 14. Any input they may have wished to have to the deal has been squelched. According to DC Library Director Ginny Cooper’s spokesperson, Nancy Davenport, Director of Library Services, the Library Board of Trustees has not taken a position on the West End Library deal. That’s odd, considering that the deal is now a fait accompli.

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DC Means Dysfunctional and Corrupt
Dennis Moore, dennis@DCIndependents.org

Okay, it is now official. All of the negative or comical abbreviations I’ve heard to describe DC over the last twenty-five years simply come down to dysfunctional and corrupt. No doubt, it deeply hurts that my adopted city is now home to a growing swarm of overpaid political parasites. They promise much, prove very little, provide minimal improvements, and are handsomely paid with our hard-earned tax dollars. This year’s crop of so-called “public servants” may set a new low of depraved indifference to integrity, provable expertise, measurable results, and good governance. Nevertheless, our elected so-called “representatives” on the DC council have yet to fathom the trends and depths of this depravity in public service. We can no longer credibly criticize our city’s many street hustlers for their own version of "trying to get paid."

The fix is in for acting DC schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and her crew of curiously qualified staff to be confirmed and get paid the six-plus figures they’re hustling out of lesser-paid taxpayers. Thanks to our newest edition of sleep-and-eat council members and assorted confirmation supporters, those of us who earn far less will be bamboozled out of more valuable taxpayer revenue. The newly appointed education executives, Rhee, Victor Reinoso, and Allan Lew, will find it easier to balance their checkbooks while District citizens lose the last layer of checks and balances in city government.

In the small, wide, high, and low circles within which I circulate, there is a growing sense that DC is genuinely on track for fiscal and socioeconomic failure. Increasingly crime, employment, education, affordable housing, and family friendly fiscal policies haven’t been the subject of happy headlines. Friends and families prefer to remain optimistic, but feel something is not right and are being forced to be realistic as they entertain crossing our Virginia or Maryland borders. The basic proven principles of urban planning, fiscal economics and long term development ignored by DC officials make it hard for them to consider staying. Families don’t stay where families can’t live. Families need to "get paid" too. So, as our infinitely wise D.C. council members ponder the complexities of confirming and overpaying minimally qualified public servants possessing unproven skills and dubious plans, let’s all hope this current trend in District dysfunction and corrupt governance is just a passing nightmare of our imaginations. In the meantime, tighten to your wallet, make a fail-safe plan, and stay in touch with friends and family across DC’s borders.

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Democracy at Work
Peter Turner, felinehostage@yahoo.com

I was pleased to see that the council is holding up Victor Reinoso’s confirmation pending a review of his performance and more information on his involvement in plagiarism. Contrary to what was claimed by themail’s editor on this list, the council is fulfilling its proper role of thoroughly screening public appointees. On a related note, it was interesting to learn more from Allen Lew, the acting director of a new school construction and repair agency, about the need for an extended repair schedule for school buildings due to the extent of the neglect they’re in. The council and others were rightly shocked about the appalling state of overall disrepair the school system is in under the school board. Finally, someone in the DC government has had the determination to overcome the historical inertia and try some much needed changes.

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Dog Park Regulations Petition
Kathy Silva, kathysilva@rcn.com

Fifteen hundred DC residents have already signed a petition for fair and equitable dog park regulations. Please add your name at http://www.petitiononline.com/DCDOG/petition.html to make our goal of ten thousand! (If you have signed before, please do not sign again.) DCDOG, other dog owner groups, individual dog owners, and many non-dog owners who want dog parks in DC need to be speak up now! Currently, there are no legal public dog parks anywhere in the District. Anyone who lets his or her dog off-leash in a public area (even in a safe and controlled environment) is subject to a fine. Much needed dog parks will never happen unless we show strong support. We want to demonstrate to our new mayor, DC council, and Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and its partner agencies that we, as taxpayers, are really serious about our needs.

In December 2005, our council unanimously passed and Mayor Williams signed the “Dog Park Establishment Amendment Act of 2005” (L16-0040). The council, with the mayor’s support, clearly wanted dog parks in DC. It took over thirteen months, however, for DPR to promulgate draft regulations. When finally drafted, the regulations were absurdly prohibitive. While DPR held meetings for public comment and established a task force to provide further suggestions for revisions, it made clear that all comments were solely advisory. As of right now, the one change that we believe DPR will make is the elimination of the “Rat Free Zone Certification.” Among other things, the proposed regulations still require that any Dog Exercise Areas (DEAs) occupy only 25 percent of any given park space, meaning that the use of triangle parks, or indeed any flexible use of space to satisfy community needs, is forbidden; require an excessively large set back from any road, building, playground, community garden, etc., again greatly reducing the available area for the establishment of parks; provide that dog parks will not be permitted to displace any existing use, including "passive recreation" such as a park bench; require community groups to pay a large part of the costs of establishing dog parks; require sponsor groups to create or affiliate with a 501(c)(3) group; and prohibit DPR from negotiating with other agencies that own land -- District or non-District owned, e.g. DDOT.

These regulations, even with some slight modifications, will effectively make it almost impossible to establish dog parks in most wards in the city. Your signature on the petition will be an important statement to our city officials. If you have any questions, please contact Kathy Silva at kthy_silva@yahoo.com or Marina Streznewski at marinastrez@streznewski.com. Also, please ask your neighbors and friends to join the 650 members, and subscribe to the DCDOG Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DCDOG/. Please send this E-mail and petition link to all supportive friends, business, listservs, veterinary practices, etc., who are (or whose clients) are DC residents.

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National Airport Cell Phone Waiting Area
Bob Levine, rilevine@cpcug.org

I recently used the cell phone waiting area at National Airport and found it a wonderful place to wait for guests to arrive, but in all the signage as to who can use the area and for how long there is nothing to be found to tell people to turn off their car engines. People sit in their cars idling their engines and fouling the air, and nowhere does the airport authority erect a sign telling them not to.

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Keep It Out of My Bedroom, Please
David Klavitter, klav at questforquiet dot org

A new 4:43 minute video chronicles the negative impact of unrestricted noise decibels on one neighborhood (and many bedrooms) during the Second Annual Amplified Free Speech Day held June 24 in Adams Morgan. View the video at http://www.questforquiet.org.

Two things were made clear: people are forced to hear noise inside their homes and extremely disturbed during the two-hours of absurdity, which is completely legal anywhere in DC between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.; and people without amplifiers cannot be heard. Free speech rights are guaranteed to only those with amplifiers.

A bill pending before the city council (Noise Control Protection Amendment Act of 2007 (Bill 17-177)) would protect residents’ right to quiet and privacy in their homes and ensure free speech rights for everyone.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC Public Library Events, July 14, 16
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov

Saturday, July 14, 10:00 a.m., Palisades Neighborhood Library, 4901 V Street, NW. Chesapeake Lace Group. For more information, call 282-3139.

Monday, July 16, 6:30 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 Vikings (1958), starring Janet Leigh and Kirk Douglas, in preparation for the book discussion on July 23.

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Talk for Change Toastmasters Club, July 18
Corey Jenkins Schaut, tfctoastmasters@yahoo.com

This newly formed Toastmasters Club is seeking members who would like to take advantage of a great personal development and networking opportunity. We can help you improve your communication and public speaking skills; conduct meetings; manage a department or business; lead, delegate and motivate others; and meet great and interesting people. We meet the first and third Wednesdays of the month at a convenient location on K Street, NW, right off McPherson Square.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, July 18, at 6:45 p.m., at the Teach for America offices at 1413 K Street, NW, 7th floor. For more information and to RSVP, please E-mail tfctoastmasters@yahoo.com.

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