Taking Responsibility
Dear Responsible Citizens:
Dorothy, below, writes about yesterday’s press conference at which
Mayor Fenty, under pointed direct questioning, took some kind of
responsibility for the mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility of this
year’s Summer Youth Employment Program. Most of the press credit him
for taking full responsibility, and he did use the words “full
responsibility,” but I say only “some kind of responsibility,”
because it’s not really clear what he thinks he’s responsible for.
Was his decision to give a job to everyone who applied to the program
responsible for the busted budget? Of course not, he maintains. Was his
decision to pay students who had failed courses during the regular
school year to attend summer school ill-advised? Certainly not. The
problems of the Summer Youth Employment Program, as overblown as they
have been in the press, according to the mayor, were largely the fault
of computer programs unable to meet the demands on them and of managers
who didn’t alert him early enough to the difficulties they were
having.
Unfortunately, the report done by the mayor’s own CapStat director
(http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/does080812.htm)
doesn’t quite support the mayor’s position. Understated and muted as
the report is, the extent of the failures come through. The mayor’s
stance on this program’s failings is characteristic of him. As I said
in themail on June 25, his typical response echoes the cry of Captain
Midnight’s villain Ivan Shark, “My only weakness is the helpless
fools who serve me.”
In the end, the mayor’s solution is not to promise that he will
exercise greater fiscal responsibility and restraint, not to say that he
has learned to practice caution rather than recklessness, but to blame
those helpless fools, and to scapegoat the director of the Department of
Employment Services, Summer Spencer, who has “resigned” and been
replaced by the mayor’s demoted Chief of Staff, Tene Dolphin (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/does080812b.htm).
In this case, as has been the case in previous administration failures,
the mayor is faithful to the old naval tradition that, when there is a
disaster at sea, the captain designates a subordinate to go down with
his ship.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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On Tuesday, Mayor Fenty held a press conference at which he released
the “Findings of an Internal Investigation Regarding the District’s
2008 Summer Youth Program,” http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/does080812.htm.
The report, prepared by the CapStat office within the Office of the City
Administrator, details gross mismanagement and fiscal irregularities
within the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). At the press
conference, Fenty announced the resignation of Summer Spencer, Director
of the Department of Employment Services, which oversaw and managed the
SYEP, but acknowledged that responsibility for the problems associated
with the program “went all the way to the top of the District
government” — namely, to the offices of the mayor and the city
administrator.
In an editorial, “Mayor Fenty’s Math” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/12/mayor-fentys-math),
the Washington Times wrote that, “Fiscal matters were never
District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty’s strong suit during his years
on the DC council, and it is now clear that they just may be his chief
weakness amid revelations that the summer jobs program ran $31 million
over budget. The popular program was estimated to cost $21 million. How
did this happen? . . . Mr. Fenty instructed his managers to place anyone
who sought a job with a job — even if applicants missed the deadline.
Mr. Fenty wanted to be the new and improved Marion Barry (who started
the jobs program decades ago) with a bigger, bolder summer jobs program
to teach thousands of teens the value of work and proper work etiquette,
but he did not bother with the costs or how his wishes to place every
youth would affect the city’s budget. Subsequently, some youths who
failed to show up for work got paid, and when the money ran out, many
who had actually worked received no pay.”
The city council has asked the Inspector General and the DC Auditor
to conduct a joint investigation of the SYEP, and on September 18 at
10:00 a.m., Councilmember Carol Schwartz’s committee on Workforce
Development and Government Operations will hold a public oversight
hearing.
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A Couple Thoughts on the Fenty Administration
Eric Woods, Ewbushdoctor@gmail.com
The gun ownership rights and registration fiasco concocted by the
Fenty administration under the guise of keeping the District “safe”
reminds me that the District residents have not had a real chance to
express their collective mind. What the city really ought to do is to
hold a referendum on the basic right to gun ownership — post Supreme
Court ruling — and then structure the gun ownership and registration
process in accordance with the results. In sixteen years of being a DC
resident, I can remember only one referendum, while I see states like
California exercise that privilege almost annually.
It is not surprising that the number of DC youth in the summer jobs
programs increased 25-50 percent over last year. I know of several
youths who are getting paid to attend summer school under the program.
These same students underperformed dramatically all school year and were
required to attend summer school in order to advance to the next grade
level. If the Fenty administration is compensating DCPS kids for poor
performance, then it should have been very simple to project the
swelling of the ranks for the summer jobs program!
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The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) invites
all District residents to participate in a new citywide literacy
campaign to combat the growing problem of illiteracy and to encourage
residents to engage in reading as a daily practice. The OSSE is
encouraging District residents to document a “Day in the Life of
Reading” by photographing their families, friends, and communities
reading. These photographs — including parents reading to their
children, children reading alone, literacy volunteers teaching people to
read, senior citizens reading, bedtime reading, and more — will be
used in the literacy campaign as part of a photo essay to illustrate
reading as a daily habit. Please E-mail your digital photographs to osse.communications@dc.gov,
and visit http://www.osse.dc.gov
for photo submission requirements. The pictures may also be considered
for use as part of a slide show presentation at the campaign launch and
inclusion in other campaign materials.
Research shows that reading books is the best predictor of several
measures of reading achievement for children. According to the recently
released DC Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS) test scores,
District students made significant improvement in reading at both the
elementary and secondary levels for the 2007-2008 school year. In
reading, the number of elementary students performing at the proficient
level or higher went up 7.3 percent from last year, and secondary
students reaching or exceeding proficiency also increased by 7.3
percent. However, 36 percent (170,000) of District residents are
considered functionally illiterate, compared to 21 percent nationally.
People who are functionally illiterate have some ability to read and
write but not enough to function fully in everyday life. Functionally
illiterate individuals may have difficulty with crucial tasks such as
filling out job applications, reading maps, understanding bus schedules,
and reading newspaper articles. The OSSE is hopeful that this new
literacy campaign will work to increase literacy across the District.
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DC Taxpayers Don’t Need Another Political
Appointee
Paul Craney, press@dcgop.com
The DC Republican Committee made the following statement in response
to DC Mayor Adrian Fenty’s announcement to place his Chief of Staff as
the Interim Director, Department of Employment Services to fix budget of
the Summer Youth Employment Program, bloated by the 260 percent.
“Fenty’s appointment of his Chief of Staff, who highlights on her
resume that she served as director of special projects for the
Democratic National Committee in 2004, is an utter joke. What DC
taxpayers don’t need is another political appointment; we need a
business approach for how to run our city government,” stated DC
Republican Committee Chairman Robert J. Kabel.
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Big Surprise
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdot.com
After a fruitless five hours in the jury room at Superior Court,
without being impaneled, I was set free and went two blocks over to the
Motor Vehicle Bureau on C Street to register my new travel trailer.
Surprise, surprise. They don’t do registrations or license renewals at
the main office anymore. You need to go to one of the satellite offices
in the fringes of DC to get registrations or licenses. The main office
only does adjudication now. If there was any announcement about this I
surely missed it.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Fun Family Films Under the Stars, August 15-17
John A. Stokes, john.astokes@dc.gov
The District’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will hold
“Fun Family Films Under The Stars,” its 2008 Family Movie Night
Season, this summer. “Fun Family Films Under The Stars,” which
continues until late-September, will afford residents of all ages and
families of all sizes the opportunity to enjoy viewing the free,
family-oriented films in DPR’s outdoor settings. As in previous years,
viewers are invited to bring their own snacks, chairs, and blankets.
This year, District residents will have a greater selection of viewing
locations. Movies will be shown from 8:45 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Community members who arrive early enough for each screening will
have the opportunity to place a vote between two movies that may be
shown that evening. The movie that receives the most votes will be
shown.
Friday, August 15, Brentwood Recreation Center, 2311 14th Street, NE
Friday, August 15, Sherwood Recreation Center, 1000 G Street, NE
Saturday, August 16, Carver/ Langston Terrace, 21st and Maryland Avenue,
NE
Sunday, August 17, Brentwood Recreation Center, 2311 14th Street, NE
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Free Tools to Protect and Maintain Your
Windows Vista and XP PCs
Barbara Conn, bconn@cpcug.org
Audience: All computer users, beginning to advanced. Beginners are
encouraged to bring their questions, and advanced users are invited to
offer their experience and expertise during Q&A.
Capital PC User Group President Dennis Courtney, who runs the
four-hundred-computer data center for the Inter-American Development
Bank, will reveal the “secrets” of when and how to use the free
solutions available for maintaining Vista PCs, including virus checkers,
spyware blockers, spam filters, disk duplicators, popup blockers,
registry cleaners, and disk optimizers. A laptop with the Windows Vista
operating system will be used for the presentation. Most, if not all, of
the tools selected for discussion and demonstration work with the
Windows XP operating system as well.) The presentation includes a
discussion of differences between Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Following the main presentation, at 3:00 p.m., there will be a Tech
Brief “Extra” for advanced users on “How To Diagnose a Rogue
Driver.”
Gather your colleagues, friends, and spouses, and your questions, and
bring them to this Saturday, August 16, 1:00 p.m., event of the Capital
PC User Group (CPCUG) Entrepreneurs and Consultants Special Interest
Group (E&C SIG). These monthly gatherings 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), just over a block south of the Cleveland Park
Metrorail Station on the Red Line. For more information about the event,
the speaker, and CPCUG, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization,
visit http://entrepreneur.cpcug.org/808meet.html.
To RSVP, send an E-mail to bconn@cpcug.org.
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