Vote Counting
Dear Counters:
On Thursday night, the Democratic State Committee held an election to
name an interim at-large city councilmember to fill the seat vacated by
Kwame Brown when he was elected as the city council chairman. On the
first round of voting, the members of the DSC voted by a margin of 35 to
31 for Sekou Biddle over former Councilmember Vincent Orange, with eight
votes for Ward One’s Stanley Mayes. On the second round, after Mayes
released his voters, Biddle and Orange tied 37 to 37. On the third
round, Biddle’s vote increased to 40, Orange fell to 31, and three
ballots were ruled as spoiled. To the whole process and vote, the
reaction of the average DC voter is likely to be an enthusiastic and
heartfelt, “Sekou who?”
Biddle is a Shepherd Park resident and the Ward 4 member of the State
Board of Education. (He first won a seat on the Board of Education in
another special election with a crowded field of candidates in 2007,
when the seat represented both Wards 3 and 4.) He has a background in
education, including stints working with Jumpstart for Young Children,
KIPP DC, and Teach for America. He’ll be a reliable supporter of the
Fenty-Rhee brand of school “reform,” but other than that his major
issues and positions are a blank slate, except that the loud but tiny
Greater Greater Washington sliver of the electorate has announced that
he shares their pro-bicycling, anti-driving agenda, http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/8741/biddle-is-best-of-candidates-for-atlarge-appointment/
Biddle won Thursday’s election after DSC members were frantically
lobbied (both threatened and promised) in person and by telephone by his
supporters — Lorraine Green (presumably acting on behalf of Mayor
Gray) and Councilmembers Kwame Brown, Harry Thomas, Marion Barry, and
Tommy Wells. Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s ties to Biddle date back
to high school, and Brown was also furious that Orange had repeatedly
used Brown’s messy personal finances as an issue in their race for the
Chairman’s office. Biddle’s weak performance in the DSC election,
considering the number of powerful Democrats who twisted arms on his
behalf, doesn’t give much confidence that he can build a strong
campaign in the three and a half months remaining before the April 26
special election, although the Kwame Brown and Vincent Gray machines,
along with the assistance of campaign professional Tom Lindenfeld (who
consulted for Fenty in the last mayoral race), will try their best to
build a case for him.
Mike DeBonis theorized that the movement toward Biddle in the last
days of the DSC selection process may have been pushed by memories of
1997, when in a special election to fill a vacant at-large council seat
then-Republican David Catania won against Arrington Dixon, the interim
councilmember nominated by the DSC, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/debonis/2011/01/sekou_biddle_might_be_aided_by.html
But if DSC members think Sekou Biddle is especially electable, they aren’t
as politically savvy as they think. Biddle wasn’t well known to the
members of the DSC before this election, and he still isn’t known to
members of the voting public. There’ll be several other Democrats on
the ballot, including most likely Vincent Orange himself. A Democrat who
hasn’t even announced yet, but who has money and a small corps of
energetic campaign workers, can enter the race late and sweep all the
chips off the table. Besides, the ballot in the special election won’t
have party identification labels to guide yellow-dog Democrats away from
the shunned Republican party. DeBonis suggests that Patrick Mara, who
defeated Carol Schwartz in a Republican primary race, may run. A more
likely scenario is that Schwartz herself could win the special election
if she decided to run. With her name recognition and popularity among
many Democrats, she’d do better than Mara. She would certainly give
Biddle a hard time.
#####
A much better-known member of the State Board of Education and
longtime Ward 8 activist, William Lockridge, fell ill on Friday
afternoon, and was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where
it was determined he had a stroke. Lockridge is now on life support.
Bill Turque has the story, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2011/01/state_board_member_lockridge_h.html
A candlelight vigil will be held Monday, January 10, at 7:00 p.m., in
front of George Washington University Hospital on 23rd Street, NW.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Since When Do Seventy Speak for Six Hundred
Thousand
Rose Robinson, ward411@yahoo.com
Sekou Biddle, if you were any kind of a man you would not want to be
handed an appointment that you don’t deserve. Had Mr. Brown not been
called to come on Thursday, you would not have won. The men of my time
earned whatever they receive. Most in your own ward have never heard of
you; most in your own neighborhood have not heard of you. You have done
nothing for this city that warrants your being an at-large member of the
council. Nothing. You wouldn’t win if you were running in Ward 4, so
what makes you okay with being appointed by seventy people to speak for
six hundred thousand? How many civic association meetings have you been
to, and who can share minutes where you have spoken to an issue to help
resolve it? The same goes for ANC meetings. How many? Same goes for PTA
meetings. How many, and I am speaking of citywide as well as Ward 4.
Sekou, the numbers are not there in prior contributions from you to us.
So enjoy the appointment you have received, but this city is tired of
those who want and don’t do. How is it okay with you to know that
another man had to step in for you to win? April 2011, now that’s when
a real deserving candidate will win, because the people will vote and
not have their arm twisted in a kitchenette for a vote.
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John Capozzi [themail, January 5], in response to William Haskett,
states that the estate tax affects only about 1 percent of DC taxpayers,
but doesn’t provide the source for this purported figure. As Mr.
Haskett noted, the largest portion of most homeowners’ estates are
their homes. Based on my review of property tax data supplied to me by
the DC Office of Tax and Revenue, there are approximately ten thousand
houses in the District assessed at over one million dollars. So these
folks have estates of one million dollars just from their homes.
Approximately another nine thousand homes are assessed between $800,000
and $1 million, and some percentage of these folks have bank accounts,
retirement accounts, and other assets that might push them over the $1
million limit. So let’s just say the numerator is something over ten
thousand. But what’s the denominator? Certainly not the total
population of six hundred thousand, which includes children and other
non-taxpayers. Perhaps the number of District households, a quarter of a
million? Whatever the number, it’s true that the number of one million
dollar estates is relatively small, at least as a percentage of
population. But as a percentage of taxes paid, it’s likely to be a
different story. To give an analogy in the income tax arena, the top 1
percent of income earners pay 38 percent of all federal income taxes
paid, and the top 10 percent pay about 70 percent. (See http://www.ntu.org,
http://www.taxfoundation.org)
Mr. Capozzi suggests that it’s not worth the time to think about only
1 percent of the population. But when they provide the bulk of our
revenue, they deserve consideration.
In any event, as noted above, a lot of folks are going to be subject
to the estate tax solely because of their residences. But just because
they’re “wealthy” in terms of such non-liquid assets doesn’t
mean that they’re wealthy in terms of income. Given the extraordinary
real estate appreciation over recent years, many long-term, middle class
residents now find themselves owning very valuable homes. I’m not
talking about Spring Valley. I’m talking about entire blocks of middle
and upper-middle class neighborhoods like Columbia Heights, Crestwood,
and Colonial Village lined with houses that are now assessed at eight
hundred thousand dollars, nine hundred thousand dollars, and over one
million dollars. How these folks are paying their annual real property
taxes, I have no idea. But when these homeowners die, it’s not simply
a matter of the heirs inheriting a check for a million bucks and sending
part of it to the DC coffers. Rather, the remaining family living in the
house may be forced to sell just to pay the estate tax (not to mention
costly probate fees and expenses, since the District doesn’t have a
transfer-on-death procedure for real estate or motor vehicles, as do
other states.) Also, although the estate tax is technically charged on
the estate, it’s in effect borne by the heirs. So, assuming that many
people have two or more children/heirs, the percentage of people
affected is actually a multiple of the percentage of those with taxable
estates. And each heir’s portion of the estate may be well less than
one million.
###############
William Haskett yawns again: where has Mr. Capozzi been for the past
decade? I do not know, and have never claimed to know how many people
(estate holders) there are in the District who would be subject to its
present level, which I am told is that of 2001 for eligibility. Between
now and then, there has been a small matter of housing and financial
crisis, and it is almost certain that anyone who now owns a house in the
District of Columbia (certainly in the northwest, and even probably in
the other quadrants) will approach or surpass those levels. One percent
is not even a plausible guess for those who will be found to exceed
those lower levels of a decade ago.
Groundhogs do better than Mr. Capozzi, since they at least wake up
once a year to smell the wind of change and, presumably adapt to that.
The issue has other dimensions as well, dealing with the relationship
of the self-governing city and its past. My estate lawyer has been
telling me for years that the federal level of the tax was altogether
too low, and has predicted something of its present change, which may
carry many small estates entirely out of its purview, if, indeed, it
reaches the five million dollar level of the present. There was a time
when a million dollars sounded like a lot of money. We now speak of
billions, and even of trillions. The value of houses — probably the
largest component of most people’s estates — almost certainly
increased enormously in the past three decades, and certainly in the
last ten years. All that I needed to do to be somewhat alarmed at the
prospect of its application to my own case was to consider the District’s
own assessments since 2000 and how it worked for people like myself,
since I bought my present house in 1973. Yes, I ostensibly have more
money, but no, I am not rich. I am retired and not in foreclosure, but,
no, I am not rich. If the sums expected to be collected are as small as
Mr. Capozzi believes, they are certainly not a source of salvation for
an overextended District budget.
All that I was calling for was not an envy-charged miscellany of
class warfare, but an open and informed discussion by the District
government of a small part of its obvious obligation to its actual
population, not merely the young and wellheeled newcomers, but those who
have lived in the District for some time.
###############
My Wish List for the Gray Administration
Roger Scott, roger.scott@earthlink.net
1a) An open administration that works with the ANC’s, community
leaders, residents, and subject matter experts. ONE CITY! Right?
1b) An open administration that does not require Freedom of Information
Act requests to obtain information on public records.
1c) An open administration of officials who work for the people and not
for each other.
2) A public education system that respects the teachers and focuses on
student achievement and learning skills, rather than on teaching to a
test.
3) A comprehensive program to address the needs of our elderly and
special needs residents.
4) A more realistic property tax structure that does not price people
out of DC housing.
5) A strong and sustained focus on youth training and employment.
6) A comprehensive program to educate, train, and manage youth
offenders.
7) A repeal of the parking initiatives such as having to pay to park
downtown after 7:00 p.m., having to feed parking meters on Saturdays,
and having to pay 25 cents for 7½ minutes verses the previous 25 cents
for 15 minutes.
While this list is a bit lengthy, I think that all the objectives are
achievable, if you have the right leaders, managers, and community
involvement to support the initiatives.
###############
Wish List for the Gray Administration
Barbara Patterson, thewritecharacter@yahoo.com
Thank you for asking. My wish list is: 1) pre-K through twelfth
grade, refocused and serious, not just superficial attention to public
schools; public charters excluded; bring back sensible phonetics-based
reading; enforcement of FirstSource, with application extended to
ongoing hiring and private companies (as far as legally possible without
going to the US Supreme Court; affordable housing and small business
development in blighted areas such as the Bunker Hill Road, NE, area;
roll back the time metered parking is in effect — I suggest 7:00 p.m.,
since that allows citizens to park and attend community meetings like
the one on Monday, January 3, at the WMATA/Metro office at 5th and E
Streets, NW.
###############
InTowner
Street
Crimes Report Updated
P.L. Wolff, intowner@intowner.com
The Selected Street Crimes feature available at http://www.intowner.com
is now updated through December 28, and has been added to the archived
reports back to July 3, 2009.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., January 10-13
George Williams; George.Williams2@dc.gov
This week, The DC Public Library honors the legacy of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., with a week-long series of programs built on the
theme, “See Him, Hear Him, Live His Dream.”
On Monday, January 10, the celebration begins with a 6:30 p.m.
reception at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library. Featuring
performances by jazz artist Herman Burney and vocalist Akua Allrich, the
reception debuts “Picture Equality,” an exhibit by Critical
Exposure, a photography nonprofit that teaches young people advocacy.
On Tuesday, January 11, at 4:30 p.m., Students from Lifepieces to
Masterpieces, a nonprofit, arts-based youth development and education
organization, will create three mixed-media collages in honor of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., while listening to hip-hop remixes of his
speeches at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library.
Visit the Anacostia Neighborhood Library on Thursday, January 13, to
see and discuss scenes from “The MLK Streets Project,” a documentary
created by eight DC High school students exploring the assumption that
streets named for Martin Luther King, Jr., are marred by crime. All
events are free. For a complete listing of the Library’s celebration,
visit http://dclibrary.org/mlkweek
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National Building Museum Events, January 11-12
Tara Miller, tmiller@nbm.org
January 11, Palladio Film Festival: watch one or two documentary
films on Palladio’s life and work before or after you visit the
exhibition Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey. The
festival is introduced by Carl Gable, director of the Center for
Palladian Studies in America.
12:00-1:30 p.m., “I Palladiani” (2008, 52 minutes). Take an
extraordinary journey through the beautiful Veneto region of Italy to
meet I Palladiani (The Palladians), a diverse group of professors,
farmers, and custodians fortunate enough to live and work in the villas
designed by Renaissance master Andrea Palladio. $10 museum and CPSA
members, $10 students, $12 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required.
Walk-in registration based on availability.
2:30-4:00 p.m., “The Perfect House: The Life and Work of Andrea
Palladio” (2008, 60 minutes). This compelling documentary illustrates
the life of arguably the world’s most influential architect, Andrea
Palladio, whose legacy can be seen almost everywhere, from the stately
homes of England to the White House. $10 museum and CPSA members, $10
students, $12 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in
registration based on availability.
January 12, 6:30-8:00 p.m., Spotlight on Design: Curtis Fentress.
This year, Curtis Fentress, FAIA, RIBA, received the American Institute
of Architects’ Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest recognition for
public architecture. As founding principal of Fentress Architects, he
will discuss his work, including international airport terminals in
Denver and Seoul, South Korea, and the National Museum of the Marine
Corps. Following the lecture, he will sign copies of Touchstones of
Design (Images Publishing, 2010). $12 members, $12 students, $20
nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on
availability. Both events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street,
NW, Judiciary Square Metro station. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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Smart Meter Education Workshop, January 18
Herbert H. Jones, III, info@opc-dc.gov
Pepco has begun installing “smart meters,” at the premises of
every electric customer in the District of Columbia. The Company
anticipates that all of the new meters will be installed by December
2011. To assist DC consumers in the transition from traditional analog
meters to the new “smart meters,” the Office of the People’s
Counsel will continue to partnering with government agencies and
community organizations to present “Smart Meter Education Workshops.”
At the Smart Meter Education Workshops consumer will learn what to do
to prepare for the meter exchange; how to alert PEPCO that someone in
your home has special medical needs; the steps of the meter installation
process; and about proposed changes to rates, bills, and services. The
DC Office of the People’s Counsel and Fairlawn Citizens Association
will sponsor the next workshop on January 18, 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., at
Anacostia Neighborhood Library, Ora Glover Memorial Room, 1800 Good Hope
Road, SE. To request disability accommodations or interpreter services,
please contact OPC, at 727-3071, by January 12, 2011.
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