Thirty Million Reasons
Dear Reasoners:
The amount that investigators say was embezzled from the DC Real
Property Tax Administration Adjustments Unit of the Office of Tax and
Revenue has now climbed to over thirty million dollars. I’m impressed.
I’m particularly impressed because the embezzlement scheme seems to
have been so simple and easy to carry out over many years. One detail of
the whole affair amused the press corps when it was revealed in the Washington
Post this morning (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111400723.html).
OTR employees named one of the shell companies that they created to get
fraudulent property tax refunds the “Bilkemor” Company. All that
they neglected to do was to list Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe, the Marx
Brothers’ favorite law firm, as the firm representing Bilkemor. After
everything that the conspirators did to call attention to themselves —
greedily escalating the number of refunds they claimed and the size of
those refunds, flaunting their newfound wealth at the office with their
colleagues — it gets to be more and more amazing that they got away
with bilking the taxpayers for so many years.
There was lots of sound and fury over the situation at the Wilson
Building today, as the mayor and the city council held dueling press
conferences to claim that they were on top of the situation. The
city council held an afternoon press conference, which it announced
yesterday, to announce that it was going to conduct oversight hearings
on the Office of Tax and Revenue, though Chairman Gray insisted that
council oversight over the Office had been vigorous, thorough, and
complete in the past. Gray also announced that the council would hire
outside legal counsel and a financial auditing firm to assist it to
determine exactly what happened and what the council should do, although
he was unable to explain how the council could obtain evidence and
interview witnesses over the next year or so, while the criminal
investigation will be ongoing (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/cfo071114b.htm).
Early this morning, the mayor announced he would hold a morning press
conference with Chief Financial Officer Gandhi to announce the further
steps that Gandhi was taking to investigate the embezzlement and prevent
future thefts. Gandhi announced six new appointments, including the
appointment of Ben Lorigo, the CFO’s current Director of the Office of
Integrity and Oversight, as the new Director of the Office of Tax and
Revenue. Gandhi also announced that retired Judge Stanley Sporkin would
act as his personal advisor, and would review the operations of the
Office of Tax and Revenue (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/cfo071114.htm).
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Nationals Can Easily Provide Bike Valet
Parking at New Stadium
Steven Seelig, Chevy Chase, DC, steven.seeling@watsonwyatt.com
Here’s a good place to start for the Nationals to give something
back to DC: provide numerous bicycle parking options at the Nationals
Stadium. To date, the Nationals have not committed to funding a valet
bike parking service where ticket holders can park their bikes in an
enclosed, secure location free of charge. The Transportation Operations
Plan for the stadium, created to ensure safe and efficient traffic
operations on game days, has recommended creating this service, which is
already being provided at Wrigley Field in Chicago and Safeco Field in
San Francisco, among others. Check out this link to see how it works in
San Francisco: http://www.sfbike.org/?giants.
The new stadium’s location is perfectly suited to accommodate
bicyclists: it sits at a key location in the southeast-southwest bikeway
network and just one block from the future Anacostia Riverwalk and
Trail. In addition, proposed designs for the new South Capitol Street
Bridge will improve bike and pedestrian access across river, greatly
increasing non-motorized transportation options for the residents of
Anacostia. For less than the cost of three parking spaces (or
approximately 1/677th the cost of the stadium itself), the Nationals
could provide safe and secure valet bike parking at every home game
during the season.
Whether or not the service will be provided remains to be seen. But
by providing such an amenity, the Nationals could help create a better
fan experience by reducing demand for parking, improving congestion in
local neighborhoods, easing crowding at Metro stations in the vicinity
of the stadium.
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There are two reasons that Mayor Adrian Fenty should breath a huge
sigh of relief that he was browbeaten and dragged kicking and screaming
into rescinding his mayoral order to destroy government E-mails after
six months. First, yesterday, in a court case in a strongly similar
situation, US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy ordered the White House
to preserve all its E-mails “in response to two lawsuits that seek to
determine whether the White House has destroyed E-mails in violation of
federal law” (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/12/white.house.email.ap/index.html).
Second, the scandal surrounding the embezzlement from the Office of
Tax and Revenue makes it clear why even government E-mails that on their
face may seem mundane and disposable have to be preserved. If the mayor’s
order had gone into effect and the scandal were revealed just a few
months later, years of E-mails among employees of the Real Property Tax
Administration Adjustment Office, and between those employees and their
coconspirators on the outside, would have been lost as potential
evidence.
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Cheh on Transportation: Hydrogen or Hot Air
Frank Winstead, Forest Hills, frank.winstead@gmail.com
Councilmember Mary Cheh’s November eNewsletter extols her week of
experimentation with a BMW Hydrogen 7. Less than a year ago, Der
Spiegel reviewed this vehicle: "They’re not as green as they
seem. For a start, they’re incredibly thirsty — and they will put
more strain on the environment than a heavy diesel truck." The
12-cylinder engine averages 17 miles per gallon of gasoline with a range
of 300 miles. The engine has the ability to burn hydrogen from a
conjoined tank that occupies half the trunk space. The rest of the
hydrogen-car industry uses hydrogen in lightweight, efficient
fuel-cells. In this BMW, burning a full tank of hydrogen will carry you
124 miles. Current fuel-cell only cars will take you over 430 miles on
the same amount of hydrogen with zero gasoline. Der Spiegel
continues, “BMW has created an energy-guzzling engine that only seems
to be environmentally friendly.” That old four-cylinder Outback
station wagon that Cheh usually solos in rates more than twenty mpg with
a range of 304 miles without a conjoined hydrogen tank. Cheh gets at
least three mpg more than the BMW Hydrogen 7 gasoline engine when she is
not “acting green.”
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Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Mitch Wander, mitch@mytroops.com
Robert Kabel’s comment, “DC Republican Committee on Tax and
Revenue Case” [themail, November 11] implied that only Republicans
dislike waste, fraud, and abuse.
On the federal level, even the Wall Street Journal, which has
the reputation of being fiscally conservative, no longer subscribes to
the myth that only the Republican Party can safeguard taxpayer funds.
From the October 30 issue, “Since Democrats took control of Congress
this year, they’ve reversed the huge growth under Republican rule of
earmarks — narrow, special-interest items that are added to the budget
with little public scrutiny, sidestepping the usual competitive-bidding
process. In the House, the value of earmarks in all pending budget bills
is an estimated $5.6 billion, down by half from last year, according to
Taxpayers for Common Sense.”
DC taxpayers welcome suggestions and improvements from Democrats,
Republicans, and Independents.
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This is to advise that the November 2007 on-line edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the lead stories, community news items and crime reports,
editorials (including prior months’ archived), restaurant reviews
(prior months’ also archived), and the text from the ever-popular
"Scenes from the Past" feature (the accompanying images can be
seen in the archived PDF version). The complete issue (along with prior
issues back to January 2002) also is available in PDF file format
directly from our home page at no charge simply by clicking the link in
the Current & Back Issues Archive. Here you will be able to view the
entire issue as it appears in print, including all photos and
advertisements. The next issue will publish on December 14 (the second
Friday of the month, as always). The complete PDF version will be posted
by the preceding night or early that Friday morning at the latest,
following which the text of the lead stories, community news, and
selected features will be uploaded shortly thereafter.
To read this month’s lead stories, simply click the link on the
home page to the following headlines: 1) “Gentrification Accompanies
Historic Preservation in Adams Morgan — New Projects Featuring
Excellent Design Applauded But Tenants’ Rights at Risk”; 2) “DC
Real Estate Sales Said to be Bleak Yet Insiders Contradict Popular
View”; 3) “Logan Circle House Tour to Reveal Vintage Houses and
Contemporary Lofts.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
“From the Right to Vote, the Power to
Lead,” November 15
Katie Coon, kcoon@democraticwoman.org
On Thursday, November 15, at a gala dinner, the Woman’s National
Democratic Club (WNDC) celebrates its eighty-fifth anniversary by
honoring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
with the Eleanor Award. This award is given on occasion to those who
best exemplify the pioneering spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt. We are very
honored to have Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduce Nancy Pelosi. The
three previous recipients of this award are Sen. Hillary Clinton and
Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “If you put a woman in hot water, she
is a lot like a tea bag: the hotter the water, the stronger she gets,”
and strength is one of the many virtues we admire in the 2007 recipient
of this award. To add a sense of Mrs. Roosevelt’s presence, a formal
reception gown worn by her in the 1930s is on display in the WNDC’s
front reception area. For more information about attending, contact
Patricia Fitzgerald or Katie Coon at the Woman’s National Democratic
Club, 232-7363, or pfitzgerald@democraticwoman.org.
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Windows Networking and Wi-Fi Security,
November 17
Barbara Conn, bconn@cpcug.org
Luis Garcia, IT pro with the US government, will give attendees
information they can use immediately to set up secure small and home
office networks. Topics to be covered include requirements,
installation, setup, sharing, encryption, and testing for networking
Windows computers and securing wireless Wi-FI networks. And, best of
all, this won’t be just a PowerPoint presentation: attendees will see,
in person, the process of network installation and setup.
Gather your colleagues, neighbors, relatives, and friends, and your
questions, and bring them to this Saturday, November 17, 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), 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/1107meet.html.
To RSVP, send E-mail to bconn@cpcug.org.
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The Washington Revels, a Local Tradition for
25 Years, December 8-9, 14-16
Connie Ridgway, Kaniru four at yahoo dot com
I am so happy to be able to perform once again in the Christmas
Revels. This year we are celebrating the Washington Revels’
twenty-fifth year with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare.
Many of the songs in the show were written by Henry VIII. We dress in
period costume and perform dances and rituals of the day. The show is
over two weekends in December, December 8-9 and 14-16, at GWU’s Lisner
Auditorium, 21st and H Streets, NW.
Each year Revels explores how the Winter Solstice has been celebrated
in a different time or place. This year, journey with us to the colorful
Renaissance world of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth the First. Enjoy
the comic turns of master clown Mark Jaster as Will Kemp - the royal
Master of the Revels - and the grace of Katrina van Duyn as Good Queen
Bess, with Oran Sandel as Lord Chamberlain, along with the antics of a
group of ‘rustic actors’ and mummers. Delight in the music, dance,
stories, and games of Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, the Washington
Revels Brass, the Foggy Bottom Morris Men, and the Revels company of
adults, teens, and children. Come sing and dance with us! Revel in
glorious music, stirring spectacle, cheerful carols, merriment, wit and
humor.
The celebration of the longest night of the year, the Winter
Solstice, is at the heart of Revels. Despite “Christmas” in the
title, this is not a religious pageant, but rather a unique seasonal
celebration that is inclusive and meaningful to the community at large,
regardless of background. Discover for yourself why the Washington
Post calls The Christmas Revels "one of those rare events that
delight people of all ages."
Tickets are now on sale online of by telephone. Go to http://www.washingtonrevels.tix.com
or order by telephone at 723-7528 or at any hour at 1-800-595-4849. For
Washington Revels general information, go to http://www.revelsdc.org
or call 723-7528.
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