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September 2, 2007

Commitment

Dear Committed:

In the August 26 issue of themail, Lee Hendricks asked whether General Counsel Peter Nickles would be moving into the District of Columbia, as District law requires him to do and as he promised to do when Mayor Fenty appointed him. Yolanda Woodlee has answered that question definitively today: Nickles won’t consider living in this city, and has no intention of doing so (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/01/AR2007090101237.html). In my answer to Hendricks, I suggested that Nickles would probably ask the city council for an exemption from the law that requires excepted and executive service employees of the city government to live within DC. Woodlee reports that Nickels would probably have a hard time convincing the council that there is a compelling reason to give him a waiver from the law.

Therefore, he has, typically, come up with a quirky, eccentric misinterpretation of the law that serves his self-interest. The general law requiring high-level appointees in the District government to live in the District is DC Code §1-609.06. Nickles and Mayor Fenty are contending that this residency requirement doesn’t apply to attorneys — because, of course, there is such a shortage of lawyers in the District that attorney positions are hard to fill — and they are arguing that when the city council tightened residency requirements in 2002 it left a loophole for lawyers through which Nickles can slip.

Nickles hasn’t restricted himself to acting as Fenty’s General Counsel. Instead, he has an almost unlimited portfolio. He been involved in most of the major policy and litigation issues that have confronted this administration. He is the primary negotiator of DCPS Superintendent Janey’s buyout, the major drafter of the administrations’ policy to erase its E-mail history, and the leading representative of the District government in its defense of the mistreatment of retarded and disabled patients under the care of group homes. He is the only eminence grise in this administration; his power and influence far exceed that of City Administrator Dan Tangherlini. His importance makes it even more vital that he obey the law himself and live in the city over which he has such power and control. Harold Foster argues, below, that Mayor Fenty’s failure to enroll his own children in the school system that he controls casts doubt on his confidence in and commitment to his school reform efforts. Nickles’ refusal to live in the city that he helps govern casts the same shadow over him.

Larry Seftor and Bill Coe, below, take one more round in their criticism of themail. I won’t reply again, in order to emphasize that this dead horse need not be beaten any further. Please, kind respondents, get us started on some new subjects. What's happening in your neighborhoods?

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Not Good Enough for Him
Harold Foster, Petworth, incanato@earthlink.net

I confess to being surprised that here, and throughout the city generally, more skeptics about the mayoral takeover of DC Public Schools have not (well, not yet) noted that, according to the Post, Mayor Fenty has both of his children in private school. Whatever happened to the Hammurabic principle that the engineer who built the bridge had to stand under it while the emperor rode his chariot back and forth across it? How about the public school sauce being good for both the mayor’s gander as well as us mere mortal geese?

You know, I distinctly recall that Clifford Alexander immediately lost credibility during a mayoral race in this town, when it got out that his children were not only in private school, but private schools outside the city. Then, again in 1998, then-councilmember and mayoral hopeful Kevin Chavous was taken to task — rightly — for having removed his son from a public school, claiming that his celebrity status as a councilmember was “creating issues” between his son and that school’s principal. I mean, when I had issues with my teachers in the DC public schools, my semi-sainted mother dropped by for a chat with them and, about 90 percent of the time, the issues left the school when my mother did. So my mother apparently has greater people skills than a councilmember presuming to run for mayor.

Seems to me something similar is going on now and I am struck by how little controversy and how few eyebrows it has raised. We have a mayor who wants control over a municipal service that he doesn’t trust to adequately serve his own two children. Huh? The contradiction is even more glaring now for Fenty than for either Alexander or Chavous. That’s because, both councilmember and now Mayor Fenty publicly (and rightly, though hypocritically) opposed the private school voucher program here. Sounds kind of dog-in-the-manger, since his own children are in one of those very private schools that the voucher program has benefited. I mean, hello. At least both Chancellor Rhee and Deputy Mayor for Education Reinoso enrolled their children in the public school system they are claiming they will radically transform and improve. What about The Boss? And I raise these questions as someone who has voted for Fenty. Three times.

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A Legend in My Own Mind
Bill Coe, bceedeec@aol.com

This responds to Mr. Imhoff’s opening piece of themail on August 30, which refers to my assertion that he is guilty of an ugly desire to see Schools Chancellor Rhee fail. Okay, my stated opinion on this was immoderate; it was perhaps a touch malicious; but it is not (as he puts it) fantasy. It arises from what Mr. Imhoff says, not from what he claims to feel. Mr. Imhoff defends himself by declaring he always writes in the hope that Fenty and Rhee will succeed with our schools. I’ve gone back and read through numerous editions of themail without finding much to support this statement. Indeed, I find much to refute it.

He continues, for example, to mischaracterize Ms. Rhee’s remarks on following rules. He quotes her directly on this. Addressing her staff, Rhee said they should focus exclusively on students’ needs, and if they need to break or circumvent a rule, so be it. “I refuse to be hamstrung by rules and regulations that are not serving our students.” In other words, don’t pass up an opportunity to help students by rigidly and mindlessly adhering to written rules or procedure. There’s nothing revolutionary about this; she’s empowering her employees to rise above being mere bureaucrats and use professional judgment in accomplishing their mission. Imhoff corrupts this principle and turns it into a possible apology for crimes committed in the office of charter schools. The perpetrator, Ms. Belton, makes no bones about her motives; she never claimed to be acting for the benefit of students; she openly admits to taking advantage of a poorly controlled organization (created and overseen by the board Mr. Imhoff misses so much) in order to enrich herself. This behavior is hardly what Chancellor Rhee has in mind in telling her employees to do what they must to help our students. On the contrary, she is gently suggesting to them that failing to do what they must will no longer be excused by a slavish and narrow reading of any rule book. I say bravo to that!

This is all akin to the punishment meted out in themail to Deputy Mayor Reinoso for his supposed plagiarism — as if his work on the schools proposal was part of a creative writing assignment. Talk about malicious fantasy! Reinoso was not offering what he wrote as a scholarly work or original fiction. He was simply trying to put some useful ideas across. Period. His crime was borrowing the thoughts of other experts in the field. For this, he was subjected to endless carping and caviling in this publication. Mr. Imhoff needs to get real. He laments the corrosion of democracy, as seen in the decline of our feckless school board. He doesn’t see the plain truth -- that DC’s voters decided to transfer control of our schools from one elected institution to another. For better or worse, accountability for educational results in this city will now reside in a single office — Mayor Fenty’s — which makes the job of us citizens rather easier than it was: If we don’t like the results, we can go to the polls and get rid of the guy who produced them, instead of whittling away at a bunch of poorly performing executive directors. I believe this arrangement falls within the proper bounds of democracy. I see a chance of success in the new approach to DC’s schools. I didn’t under the old regime. I would just like to see that chance given a little respect in themail.

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Correction
Larry Seftor, Ward 3, larry underscore seftor .them757 at zoemail.net

I would like to correct the following assertions about me in the last edition of themail. 1) I am not a strong champion of Mr. Fenty. Based on the Sinclair Skinner business that I documented here prior to the election, I decided to vote for Ms. Cropp, rather than Mr. Fenty. However, I recognize that Mr. Fenty was elected by a large majority from every part of the city and I respect the way he won the job. He earned it. 2) I am not a strong champion of the school takeover plan. In fact I have not expressed an opinion on it. However, I note that what happened to the school board is not a subversion of democracy. The changing role of the board was effected by duly elected representatives. I view this as democracy at work. 3) I am not a strong champion of Ms. Rhee. I am completely neutral towards Ms. Rhee and am waiting to judge her performance following a reasonable period of time, as I have recently written. 4) Finally I have not insisted “that there be no criticism of Mayor Fenty, his school takeover, or Chancellor Rhee.” Instead I have presented a process-based approach based on evaluating Ms. Rhee’s performance on the degree to which she meets established goals, within established time frames and parameters. If she fails to meet established goals, then she will be ripe for criticism. I know it is more fun to make this personality-based, but a little objectivity might do everyone some good.

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Hey, Wow, A Brand New Overcrowded Grade Level Intersection for Only $25 Million
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

How come none of themail’s sharp-eyed activists have weighed in on DDoT’s latest gift to our nation’s capital? In less than eight weeks of bonus-winning effort, the South Capitol Street overpass above the until-now little-used West end of Potomac Avenue has been replaced by a grade level, stoplight-burdened intersection. The new baseball stadium is right smack on its northeast corner, and the Avenue will be a major part of the new high-density development all around the park. Within two years, it will surely be among DC’s ten busiest intersections, and may well join the list of most dangerous as well. It could be killing pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and/or beer-soaked fans by next summer. Let’s hope DDoT has the prescience to incorporate commemorative niches for plastic flowers and teddy bears into the basic design of the crossing.

This feat of transportation foresight is being billed by city officials for two outstanding features. The first is to make this nexus a better walker and biker "experience" by merging them with a huge traffic flow. Most of the more than seventy thousand daily commuter and commercial vehicles consider this gateway to downtown a throughway, not a destination. (It is a major 24/7 arterial for heavy trucks.) Second, echoes the mayor, this marks "the rebirth of the South Capitol Street corridor as a grand urban boulevard." Too bad this urban boulevard doesn’t reach all the way to the Capitol any more, because of seemingly permanent security barriers at C Street! Will DDoT decide next to lower the CSX and Amtrak railroad bridges to boulevard grade level to improve the trucking experience? Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in vehicle-free promenades for people, and tunnels for through traffic? Should city planners take a look at NARPAC’s suggestions at http://www.narpac.org/REXLRPRO.HTM#ncpca!Pst?

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

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

Wednesday, September 5, 6:30 p.m., Northeast Neighborhood Library, 330 7th Street, NE. Capitol Hill Mystery Book Club. Please call 698-3320 for the book title for September’s meeting.

Thursday, September 6, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW. Brown Bag Recital. Vasily Popov, cellist, and Ralitza Patcheva, pianist, and guest artist Nicolas Pellon, pianist, perform the music of Schumann.

Thursdays, September 6-September 27, 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, 2nd Floor East Lobby. Separate Realities: A Philosophical Film Series. The Philosophy Division presents a film series celebrating alternative spiritual and philosophical views. Please call 727-1270 for more information. September 6, What the #$*! Do We Know!? (2004), Rated R; September 13, The Celestine Prophecy (2006), Rated PG; September 20, Conversations with God (2006), Rated PG; September 27, The Secret.

Thursday, September 6, 2:30 p.m. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 221. Let’s Talk About Books. We will discuss The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk. Call 727-1264 for more information.

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