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October 28, 2007

Sainthood

Dear Saints:

On October 22, at Ballou High School, Mayor Fenty announced a new strategy for increased school security (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/071022.htm). Well, it wasn’t exactly a new strategy. It was more like a restatement of the school security plan that Mayor Williams announced on February 18, 2004, in response to a student’s shooting at Ballou (http://www.dcwatch.com/policy/040218.htm) — a strategy that was never implemented.

I don’t often publish praise of DCWatch. Compliments are accepted gratefully, but publishing them strikes me as being too close to bragging. I’ll make an exception, however, for a novel and unique compliment that Sam Smith gave us in the October 25 issue of his DC City Desk newsletter (http://prorev.com/freedc.htm), leading into a quote from the last issue of themail: “The media is second only to certain late Argentinean dictatorships in disappearing things it doesn’t care about, albeit more discreetly. Thus, in the coverage of the Southeast Hospital story, you’ll find barely a mention of its powerful roots in the disastrous closing of DC General Hospital by the Williams administration with the support of the city council. A rare exception is the sainted DCWatch.”

“Sainted.” Much appreciated, but I’m sure that the Devil’s Advocate (the Catholic church official who investigates and exposes the flaws of a candidate for sainthood) would be able to derail the process in its early stages, long before DCWatch achieved sainthood.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Sounding the Alarm
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

On September 21, Mayor Fenty signed a new Mayor’s Order 2007-207, detailing the District government’s “E-mail retention policy” (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/octo070921.htm). In an October 3 memorandum to agency directors and agency general counsels, Peter Nickles, Council to the Mayor, explains that “under the proposed policy, OCTO (Office of Chief Technology Officer) will store all E-mail on DC government E-mail servers for six months, then delete it automatically and permanently” (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/octo071003.htm). The new order to very similar to an earlier Mayor’s Order 2007-157, which Fenty signed on July 5 (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/octo070705.htm). However, the September order clarifies that the major’s E-mail retention, actually deletion, policy will become effective on January 5, 2008.

It is widely known that Mayor Fenty and his top administrators do not keep a paper records of their communications in the form of letters, memoranda, or policy papers. Instead, they use electronic communication devices; Fenty himself carries at least three Blackberries — one for “mayoral duties,” another for personal use, and still another for direct communications with the police department.

Since May, I have repeatedly tried to impress upon Councilmember Carol Schwartz, Chair of the Council’s Committee on Workforce Development and Government Operations, the importance of this issue. To date, she has refused to schedule even a public hearing on the issue. Prior to January, when Fenty’s new policy will be implemented, citizens and members of the press must urge Council Chairman Gray to have the council draft and adopt legislation that prevents the mayor from implementing his policy of deleting the E-mail record and requires the District to develop a comprehensive record retention and management policy that is similar in some respects to the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

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Back Scratching
Jonetta Rose Barras, rosebook1@aol.com

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s termination of Department of Health Director (DOH) Gregg A. Pane comes as no surprise to those who have been paying close attention to the city’s healthcare delivery system and executive-legislative politics over the past several months. No one disliked Pane. He seemed a benign functionary. He certainly was far more competent than James Buford, the department’s previous director. But Pane still was unable to manage the massive healthcare bureaucracy. I repeatedly requested the citywide healthcare plan the department was required to prepare. There were always promises that it would be released. I haven’t seen a copy yet. Two mayors and the DC Council picked apart Pane’s department as he sat in the director’s seat.

Things were in disarray at the DOH even before Fenty arrived in the mayoral suite. Sources say that former City Administrator Robert Bobb believed Pane not up for the job. But then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams was his protector. When Fenty was shuffling through the cast of Williams administration officials he wanted to keep, Pane was someone I urged, in a Washington Examiner newspaper column, that the mayor give the boot. Pane had another protector: Councilmember David Catania. Fenty went with that recommendation; he needed the at-large legislator to effect his schools takeover. Catania had his own agenda. The duo’s ambitions were compatible.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control sent a letter this summer making it clear that federal grant money — as much as $30 million — was in jeopardy. “Historically, the DOH’s inability to effectively use CDC funding has resulted in large un-obligated balances from year-to-year, equating to ineffective delivery of healthcare services,” Dr. Stephanie B.C. Bailey wrote in her letter to Fenty. CDC officials are expected to meet this week with Fenty administration officials. While Pane may be gone, don’t expect the executive-legislative back scratching to end. Read the full story in The Barras Report at jrbarras.com

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Rejuvenation
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom

An article in the October 29 issue of Sports Illustrated is about the rejuvenation of a bad part of Denver where they built the new Coors Field for the Major League baseball team, the Rockies (now in the World Series, by the way). To lure a major league team to Denver the city had to promise a new baseball stadium. That stadium was built in a very bad section of Denver known as LoDo and opened in 1995. “No city in America was transformed more by baseball than Denver. LoDo blossomed into a garden of restaurants and shops and 4300 housing units,” according to sports writer Rick Reilly. I’m not sure who paid for the stadium and I’m certain that there is ample parking at the new ball park. I’ll verify that with Rick. So, perhaps some good will come of our investment in the new ballpark for the Nationals.

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Video Interview with Rob Curley at the Washington Post
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com

Here’s a short, informative video interview with Rob Curley, the Vice President for New Products at the Washington Post (and WashingtonPost.com): http://tinyurl.com/25kzza.

Hopeful. The interviewer, JD Lasica, is one of the most respected names in citizen journalism. A few weeks ago JD Lasica added me as a friend on Facebook. That meant a lot to me.

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Fenty and the Continuing Problems
Jonathan R. Rees, jrrees2006@verizon.net

While the District of Columbia is facing a housing slump, a serious job crunch, a record number of unemployed African Americans and Hispanic Americans, a long list of failed government services, and more, Mayor Adrian Fenty has more $100,000-a-year people working under him than any mayor in DC history, DC city councilmembers are now paying themselves more than any other city council in the US, and problems that have lingered on for a decade or more are still going unaddressed.

Mayor Fenty’s school plan addresses just one of around twenty major problems facing the District, and he and the council are ignoring the other nineteen. Forbes Magazine recently lowered the District’s standing for the best place to find a job of America’s Top 100 Cities from No. 20 to No. 36, and criticized Mayor Fenty for racking up record salaries for his administration while having no real plan to lure in new and better paying jobs into the District. Ditto for the DC city council.

While Mayor Fenty and the city council enjoy record income levels, more perks, and going unscathed with their conduct that seems geared more to enrich the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor, DC is experiencing a record gap between the haves and the have-nots. A good while ago, I warned that Mayor Fenty would prove in time to be another Mayor Pratt-Kelly and probably worse, and I think the writing on the wall is already starting to show. Fenty and the council have put all their eggs in one basket, namely our schools, which are a mask for what they are really up to. What they are up to is lining the pockets of developers and their friends to give our schools a new face -- but they are not really planning to, nor can they ever, have an impact on the performance of our students, nor do they care to as long as their developer friends rack in the dollars.

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DC Consulting Firm in Entrepreneur Magazine
Arthur H. Jackson, Jr. Ahjgroup2005@yahoo.com

Washington, DC-based Global AHJ Group has been selected by Entrepreneur Magazine as the Publication’s Growing Pains Award Winner. The seven-year-old firm, which started in Ward 8, provides assistance to small, minority, women and military owned businesses seeking to become certified to bid on government contracts. As the winner of the award, the firm will receive one year of free office space courtesy of Regus Office Systems. As part of its expansion, the company is recruiting District college and senior high school students for its young entrepreneurs summer internship program. For further information, contact Claudia Wynn at 330-8915 or E-mail globalahjgroupllc@yahoo.com.

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Response to Dorothy Brizill on Policy Advisory Committee
Sally Kram, Consortium of Universities, skram@consortium.org

With no disrespect to Ms. Brizill’s long history of watching the District’s machinery, I must disagree with her most recent condemnation of the composition of the advisory committee for the council’s new policy office [themail, October 24]. While it is true that the office is laden with academics, I don’t think its make-up poses the weaknesses that Dorothy suggests. First, it has been my experience as the Director of Public and Governmental Affairs with the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area for the last ten years that academics are very independent of the administrative policies adopted by their universities. Universities are expected to encourage the marketplace of ideas. As a result, academics are insulted if instructed to take, much less promote, a policy contrary to their own beliefs but in favor of their employer.

Secondly, the national focus of the task force members is appropriate. I believe the District has been handicapped in the past by its lack of in-depth information about the issues it is addressing. As a former city council staffer, I often looked with longing on other states that had deep policy offices able to tap into the best national trend research and data while I sat at my desk making hopeful phone calls. It is precisely the broader vision that the academics bring to the task force that will add value. While community viewpoints are important, as Ms. Brizill knows, a uniform community position is often impossible to reach. Deciding who should espouse that position on this advisory task force would be a hopeless task.

Finally, as Mr. Gray pointed out, the task force is advisory. Its work will be monitored and massaged by council staffers. And, the process allows for ample community input, council legislative oversight, and eventually, executive branch comment. It is hard to believe that with that many layers, a bill that does not take local issues into account would make it into law. It is time for the District to professionalize its very talented, but under-resourced council. I applaud Mr. Gray for taking an important first step.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Washington Studies Conference, November 1-3
Bell Clement, clementdc@verizon.net

Sessions at the thirty-fourth annual Washington Studies Conference will examine 1968 in DC; the civil rights struggle and the campaign for DC political autonomy; Teenarama; architecture and city planning; Mme. Evanti; Psychedelic DC at the Ambassador; and much more. The three-day conference, held November 1-3 at The Carnegie on Mount Vernon Square, 801 K Street, NW, celebrates DC’s unique culture and history. On Thursday, November 1, the conference opens at 6 p.m. with a reception and remarks from Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy. Conference sessions run all day on Friday, November 2, and Saturday, November 3, with panel discussions on DC prison reforms and rebellions, Washington architecture, African American history, and city planning as well as screenings of DC movies, presentations by the drama troupe DreamCity, walking tours of the downtown, and DC hand-dancing lessons.

On Friday, November 2 at 6 p.m., at a special roundtable and discussion, Memory: 1968, DC leaders who were 60’s activists, including Tony Gittens, Lawrence Guyot, Bob King, and Frank Smith, Jr., will join moderator Jerry Phillips and the audience in exploring what happened in DC in 1968. The Conference is free and open to the public; all are welcome. Please visit http://www.historydc.org and click “Washington Studies Conference” for more information and to register. For more information, call 383-1837 or E-mail 07conference@historydc.org.

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Building Guidelines for Historical District, November 3
George Idelson, g.idelson@verizon.net

“Building Guidelines for Historical Districts — How Do the Rules Affect You?” is the subject of a community meeting to be held at the Cleveland Park Library on Saturday, November 3, 10:15 a.m. The principal speaker will be Tersh Boasberg, Director of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board. The meeting is sponsored by the Cleveland Park Citizens Association and the Cleveland Park Historical Society.

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Rebel Folk Benefit Concert, November 9
Parisa B. Norouzi, parisa@positiveforcedc.org

Positive Force DC presents a rebel folk benefit for Empower DC, with Casey Neill, Erik Peterson, and Kathy Cashel, on Friday, November 9. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., music begins at 8:00 p.m. $5-10 admission (sliding scale). At The Saloon, 1207 U Street, NW, upstairs (U Street/Cardozo Metro). Please bring peanut butter, whole grain cereal, or canned veggies for the We Are Family food bank to be delivered to low-income community seniors. For more info, 487-8698, wearefamilydc@aol.com, www.empowerdc.org, or www.positiveforcedc.org,

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Silver Spring Walking Tour, November 10
Lauren Campbell, lauren@smartergrowth.net

A decade ago, the area around the Silver Spring Metro station was underutilized and lacked the vibrancy it has today. Due to the securing of two key cultural and employment anchors (Discovery Channel and the AFI Silver Theater) by former County Executive Doug Duncan, Silver Spring has seen a dramatic revitalization. Now, it is an ever-evolving mix of retail, restaurants, public space, residences, and offices right at the Metro, and has a dynamic diversity unique to the neighborhood. Join the Coalition for Smarter Growth and Gary Stith, director of the Silver Spring Regional Center, to see and learn about the neighborhood’s evolution and its unique urban design.

Saturday, November 10, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Tour, 12:00 p.m.-12:45 p.m. informal lunch. Space is limited. RSVP to lauren@smartergrowth.net by Wednesday, November 7. Meet at 10:00 a.m. in the auditorium of the AFI Silver Theater.

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