Union Busting
Dear Busters:
Do the Washington Post editorial writers read the editorials
in the Washington Post? On Friday, the Post editorialized
about two employees of the DC Public School system who improperly billed
the system for more than thirteen thousand dollars in meals and drinks (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111502191.html).
That’s right, more than $13,000. The Post was outraged that the
system didn’t catch those massive improper bills quickly, and didn’t
move to penalize those two employees more quickly. And it used its
ginned up and exaggerated outrage to claim that the $13,000 in phony
bills justifies School Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s demand that the city
council strip school system employees of all their protections against
being arbitrarily and capriciously fired. Mayor Fenty campaigned to
strip the school system itself of its independence, and the Post
enthusiastically agreed; the politicians in the mayor’s office and on
the city council, it thundered, were more capable of overseeing and
managing the schools than an independent school board was.
The next day, the Post editorialized about a little scandal in
the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111601817.html).
Two employees had been accused of running a scheme that embezzled over
thirty million dollars over a period of almost ten years. Did the Post
editorialists express the same degree of outrage and make the same
demands for drastic immediate action over this little $30 million
embezzlement as they did over the massive $13 thousand one at DCPS? No,
on the contrary, they ask for caution and lobby to preserve the system
as it is: “Meanwhile, if the council seizes on this scandal as an
excuse to seek to limit the CFO’s independence, the blow to confidence
in the District’s finances will be far greater. The CFO, who can be
removed only at the mayor’s behest with a two-thirds vote of the
council, is largely protected from the vagaries of city politics. He
should remain so.” The Chief Financial Officer should be protected
from the vagaries of city politics, but its schools, teachers, and
students shouldn’t be.
The vagaries of city politics are already impinging on the schools in
yet another way. On November 16, Mayor Fenty issued a press release,
“Fenty Administration Examines Options for Schools in Federal
Restructuring Status" (http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/071116.htm),
and the Post covered the story on November 15 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402818.html)
and today (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/17/AR2007111701410.html).
Rhee is trying to give the impression that she is considering all the
options for restructuring thirty-one city schools that have failed to
meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress goals for five consecutive years,
because she doesn’t want to give the public or school employees
adequate time to organize against her preferred option -- privatizing
all or almost all of the thirty-one schools. In fact, however,
representatives of the four private school operating companies that she
favors have begun visiting the schools, and the process of giving them
control is well underway, though not finalized. The implications of this
turnover are massive for school system employees. Privatization of the
schools will be a backdoor way for Fenty and Rhee to break the teachers
union. By District law, contractors are forbidden from supervising and
giving work orders to District government employees, and the Washington
Teachers Union has a contract only with the District government, not
with these private school management companies. Unless several laws are
changed, the teachers who work in any schools that are turned over to
private companies will no longer be government employees, protected by
their employee rights and benefits, and the union will lose hundreds and
potentially thousands of members.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
Still Paying for the Washington Nationals
Pat Taylor, ptaylor.dc@verizon.net
Every month when I write my check to Comcast for expanded basic cable
service, I involuntarily pay Comcast an extra two dollars for the
Washington Nationals sports network. Twenty-four dollars a year. Every
year into the future. For a channel I never watch. Adding $38.4 million
to Comcast’s annual revenues. This expense is thanks to the District
of Columbia council and former Mayor Anthony Williams, who pressured
Comcast into adding this network to be paid for by cable subscribers.
First our elected leaders built a very expensive new baseball stadium at
taxpayer expense. Then they brought us the increased cost of cable TV
subscriptions. Now it looks like the next expense for DC residents will
be funding parking facilities for Nationals fans. For the benefit of the
privately owned baseball team. I hope Washington, DC’s, expensive saga
in getting a big league baseball team will be a cautionary tale for
taxpayers in other cities wishing for one, too.
###############
DC’s Attorney General Is Missing in Action
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Last week, Mayor Fenty and Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi held
a press conference at the Wilson Building to answer questions and
announce reforms at the DC Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) as a result
of the unfolding tax fraud scandal. Also attending the Wednesday event
were Councilmember jack Evans, chairman of the council’s Committee on
Finance and Revenue; Ben Lorigo, appointed by Gandhi to head OTR and
replace Sherryl Hobbs Newman; and Peter Nickles, General Counsel to the
mayor. Notably absent was the District’s Attorney General, Linda
singer. At a time when the city and the Fenty administration is facing
the largest case of public corruption and the largest theft from the
District’s treasury in history, and an investigation is being led by
the US Attorneys for the District of Columbia and Maryland, Singer’s
absence was significant.
Tomorrow, the council’s Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight
hearing on the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Councilmembers will
query Singer regarding the ever-decreasing role of the OAG and the
increased prominence of General Counsel Peter Nickles in important legal
issues facing the District. In recent months, Nickles has been the
District’s legal counsel who, among other things, negotiated the sale
of Greater Southeast Community Hospital, developed Fenty’s E-mail
deletion policy, testified before the council regarding Fenty’s
taxicab fare proposal, negotiated the settlement with former school
superintendent Clifford Janey, represented the District in court in
cases involving crowding at DC Jail and the treatment of the disabled,
and responded to council concerns regarding the selection of school
chancellor Michelle Rhee.
###############
Voluntary Agreements and the ABC Board
Jack McKay, jack.mckay@verizon.net
So-called “voluntary agreements” allow small bands of residents
to impose stringent requirements on local restaurants and other liquor
licensees. These VAs are supposed to render such businesses
“appropriate” for the neighborhood, according to certain very
specific criteria, e.g., “peace, order, and quiet.” But the
Alcoholic Beverage Control Board avoids examining these VAs to confirm
that the conditions are indeed justified based on those conditions,
knowing that that would produce a wave of time-consuming disputes.
For example: live music and dancing are banned in Mount Pleasant
restaurants. The ban on dancing is especially egregious. What possible
connection is there between dancing in a restaurant and “peace, order
and quiet” outside the restaurant? The restaurateur is even instructed
to prevent his customers from moving tables to create a dance floor,
should they be so inclined. The ABC Board has never required the
proponents of this ban to defend their claim that dancing is a threat to
peace in the neighborhood. When the conditions of a VA are challenged,
perhaps by residents who think that folks dancing in restaurants are not
disturbing the neighbors, the standard reply is that the restaurateur
didn’t object to the ban when he signed the agreement.
Our local gang of mossbacks also requires, in their most recently
imposed VA, that the restaurateur not “obscure the windows of the
establishment in such a manner as to eliminate the ability of those
outside to see into the establishment from the street.” Why not? I
presume it’s so their vigilante squads can peer into restaurants to
make certain that no one is singing or dancing or playing a musical
instrument. It’s no wonder the streets of Mount Pleasant are lonely
and deserted at night, even on fine summer weekend evenings. It’s a
funless place, thanks to those who think that anyone having a good time
in a Mount Pleasant restaurant is a threat to “peace, order, and
quiet” in the neighborhood. The ABC Board, unhappily, allows itself to
become the enforcement agency for such people.
###############
Cheh and OTR Groupies
Frank Winstead, Forest Hills, frank.winstead@gmail.com
At the November 14 Woodley Park Community Association meeting,
Councilmember Mary Cheh expressed doubts about whether individual
employee performance evaluations are actually conducted in the DC
government and in particular in DCRA. She used the revelations in the DC
school administration, where some employees do not even have job
descriptions let alone evaluations, as support for her contentions.
Patrick Leibach, son of ex-Councilmember Kathleen Patterson and now a
helot in Cheh’s office, defiantly corrected Boss Cheh. He asserted
that Cheh’s office receives copies of these individual evaluations
from DCRA, which is under the purview of the committee that Cheh chairs.
One of the first bills Mary Cheh introduced this year was the
Excellence in Government Amendment Act of 2007. That is a recycled bill
that Kathleen Patterson failed to get passed during her long tenure on
the council. The Cheh version calls for spending $500,000 or more per
year to reward groups of DC government employees. Bill 17-0045 states
“To qualify for a group performance award, a division must have
exceeded the performance measures established for the division. . . .”
On page A-225 of Mayor Fenty’s Proposed 2008 budget is a
performance table for the Office of Tax and Revenue with no explanation
but with just the simple heading: “Percent of refunds issued within 14
days.” For 2005 the target was 95 percent, but the actual was 100
percent. If this Cheh/Patterson legislation had been in place at that
time, overachieving OTR employees could have qualified for performance
awards.
###############
Dead Men Walkin’
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Natwar Gandhi, Joe Gibbs
###############
Office of Tax and Revenue Refund Scandal
Tolu Tolu, Tolu2Books@aol.com
I can guarantee that this open fraud is not limited to real estate
tax refunds to businesses, nor are these crooks the only ones stealing
mega bucks in DC government.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Going Green, Carrot or Stick, November 19
Jazmine Zick, jzick@nbm.org
Monday, November 19, 6:30-8:00 p.m. For the Greener Good Lecture
Series: Part III: Going Green: Carrot or Stick? What is the tipping
point for sustainability? This panel will examine solutions for
motivating green building and life practices and will discuss what
"green" practices cities should and should not regulate. The
panelists include John C. Dernbach, professor of law, Widener University
School of Law; Brian Gault, director of sustainable development, The
Peterson Companies; Jason Hartke, manager, State and Local Advocacy, US
Green Building Council; and Mark Palmer, green building coordinator,
Department of the Environment, City and County of San Francisco. $12
members and students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. At
the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop,
Metro Red Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org. Walk-in
registration based on availability.
###############
Climate Change Slide Show at Cleveland Park
Neighborhood Library, November 29
Beth Meyer, lmeyer8090@aol.com
Eli Pollak of the Climate Project will give a slide show on
“Climate Change: The Facts and What You Can Do Now” on Thursday,
November 29, at 6:30 p.m., in the first floor auditorium of the
Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library, Connecticut and Macomb Streets, NW.
Eli Pollak is a senior high school student at Sidwell Friends School.
He was one of a thousand students trained by Al Gore and the Climate
Project to increase public awareness of global warming. Mr. Pollack will
talk about the science of climate change, evidence of climate change
throughout the world, and what we can do now to fight it. His
presentation is an adaptation of the slide show that formed the basis
for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
The Cleveland Park Neighborhood 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.
###############
The Final Night of the Hotel Washington,
December 31
Michael Karlan, dc@prosinthecity.com
On January 1, 2008, after ninety years of continuous operation, the
Hotel Washington, which is the oldest continuously operating hotel in
the District of Columbia, and is located just steps from the White
House, is closing its doors forever. On December 31, Professionals in
the City hosts the last party ever at the Hotel Washington, where
attendees will have exclusive access to the entire hotel for the final
twenty-four hours of the hotel’s existence as its last guests for an
unforgettable New Year’s Eve Blowout Extravaganza. For details about
this event or to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.prosinthecity.com/index.cfm?trackid=themailnye2007&cityid=1,
E-mail dc@prosinthecity.com or
call 686-5990.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
DC Act Seeking Public Policy Analyst
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org
As DC ACT’s health policy portfolio grows, we are ready to hire a
public policy analyst whose job will be to conduct research and advocate
for effective policies to improve child health outcomes in the District
of Columbia. The analyst’s portfolio will include issues such as
health care financing, mental health, and healthy youth development.
A full job description will be on-line at http://www.dckids.org
in The Latest by November 19.
###############
themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every
Wednesday and Sunday. To subscribe, to change E-mail addresses, use the
subscription form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm.
To unsubscribe, send an E-mail message to themail@dcwatch.com
with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Archives of past messages
are available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.
All postings should also be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com,
and should be about life, government, or politics in the District of
Columbia in one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to
be printed, and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief
paragraphs would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can
be put into each mailing.