Short Memories
Dear Memorialists:
Does anyone share my sense that the Washington Post has gone a
step too far in its anti-Gray campaign by printing Sinclair Skinner’s
op-ed column today calling for Mayor Gray to resign in its Outlook
section (http://tinyurl.com/6huw3wk)?
Or is anyone convinced by Skinner’s argument — that is, anyone aside
from all the Skinner sock-puppets in the comments thread to that column?
Does anyone who compares Gray unfavorably to Mayor Williams, and who
praises Williams for running such a clean administration, remember that
Williams fired his first Chief of Staff (Reba Pittman Evans, now Reba
Pittman Walker) within the first few months of his administration in the
aftermath of the “niggardly” controversy because she recommended
that he fire David Howard for using the word, leading to Williams’
becoming a national joke? Remember that he lost his second Chief of
Staff (Abdusalam Omar) because an Inspector General’s investigation
revealed that he illegally raised $1.5 million, supposedly for a sham
nonprofit entity to help at-risk children, that was diverted to the use
of the mayor’s office? Remember that he lost his third Chief of Staff
(Kelvin Robinson) because an Office of the Special Counsel investigation
revealed that he violated the Hatch Act forcing government employees
under his control to work in Williams’ campaign and to give money to
Williams’ campaign? Does anyone praising Fenty’s honesty and
competence remember all his bad appointments of his unqualified buddies,
cronies, and sports teammates to his administration and to Boards and
Commissions, or remember his reckless overspending of the budget on
construction projects?
Is there any explanation for the outsized reaction to Gray’s early
missteps other than the bitter and unrelenting opposition of Fenty’s
supporters in the press and public?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Chief of Staff, Part 2
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
In the last issue of themail, I wrote about the connection between
the business community and the sudden departure of Gerri Mason Hall as
the mayor’s Chief of Staff. As I wrote, Gray abruptly ended his
morning press conference at the Wilson Building last Wednesday to meet
with business leaders representing the Greater Washington Board of
Trade, the Federal City Council, and the DC Chamber of Commerce at the
downtown offices of the DC Chamber. After the group meeting, Barbara
Lang, President of the Chamber, had a private meeting with Gray to
deliver an urgent message from the business community regarding their
deep concerns about the snafus and scandals plaguing the Gray
administration. Gray left the Chamber and returned to the Wilson
Building at about 2:00 p.m. By 3:00 p.m., rumors floated through the
Wilson Building that Hall’s resignation was eminent, and by 5:00 p.m.
Gray returned to the press room at the Wilson Building to announce that
he had asked for Hall’s resignation.
For a week before that meeting, the business community had been
discussing how to press Gray on the need to replace his senior staff in
the Executive Office of the Mayor. Indeed, in addition to targeting
particular individuals the business leaders wanted dismissed, they also
hatched a plan to recruit their replacements. Many business leaders,
especially Lang at the Chamber and Terence Golden at the Federal City
Council, felt free to proceed because of the role the business community
had already played in recruiting senior appointees for the new Gray
administration. For example, during Gray’s transition, the Federal
City Council had engaged an executive search firm to identify
individuals to assume senior positions in the Gray administration and
had paid a private detective agency, Capital Inquiry, to do a background
check on senior appointees. Now, in addition to being eager to recruit a
new chief of staff to replace Gerri Hall, the business community also
indicated a willingness to raise funds in order to supplement an
individual’s salary to fill that world. For example, Robert Bobb,
Mayor Williams’ former City Administrator, is Barbara Lang’s
candidate to be Gray’s chief of staff. However, Bobb’s current
salary in Detroit is $425,000, and the salary cap for the chief of staff
position is $179,000. The Federal City Council has discussed plans to
fund the $246,000 difference in annual salary if Bobb were appointed,
despite the serious legal and ethical issues that would arise if it did.
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DCPS Featured in the Upcoming Survivor TV
Series
Nathan A. Saunders, nsaunders@wtulocal6.com
Have you heard about the next planned Survivor show? Three
businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in elementary school
classrooms for one school year. Each business person will be provided
with a copy of the DCPS school district’s curriculum, school
improvement plan, and a class of 25-29 students. Each class will have a
minimum of six learning-disabled children, three with ADHD, one gifted
child, and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled
with severe behavior problems. Three will be absent on any given day.
Each business person must complete lesson plans at least three days
in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives, and modify,
organize, or create their materials accordingly. They will be required
to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document
attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards,
compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate
with parents, supervise playgrounds, lunchrooms, bus arrivals and
departures, and arrange parent conferences. They must also stand in
their doorway between class changes to monitor the hallways. In
addition, they will complete fire drills, tornado drills, and [Code Red]
drills for shooting attacks each month.
They must attend workshops, faculty meetings, and curriculum
development meetings — after a day’s teaching or during their lunch
times, of course. They must also tutor students who are behind and
strive to get their two non-English speaking children proficient enough
to take the language proficiency tests. If they are sick or having a bad
day they must not let it show. Each day they must incorporate reading,
writing, math, science, and social studies into the program. They must
maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment
to motivate students at all times. If all students do not wish to
cooperate, work, or learn, the teacher will be held responsible.
The business people will only have access to the public golf course
on the weekends, but with their new salaries, they will not be able to
afford it. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out
to lunch, and lunch will be limited to thirty minutes or less, which is
not counted as part of their work day. A business person teacher will be
permitted to use a student restroom, as long as another survival
candidate can supervise his or her class.
If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary
materials before or after school. However, they cannot surpass their
monthly limit of copies. The business people must continually advance
their education and training at their expense, and on their own time.
The winner of this Season of Survivor will be allowed to return to his
or her job.
Pass this to your friends who think teaching is easy, and to the ones
that know it is hard.
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My question is, “Why is the salary of the Chief of Staff for the
mayor of DC higher than that of the Chief of Staff for the president of
the United States ($200,000 versus $172,000)?”
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When I first started reading the letter [introduction to themail,
March 16] in which you hang the failures of the Gilded Age upon U.S.
Grant, explaining that personal loyalty and friendship stayed his hand
in taking decisive action against corruption, I thought you were going
to be making an indictment of the Gray Administration. After all, the
corruption within the Grant Administration of 1869-1877 had its
foundation in the Spoils system. Gray has been slow to respond to
questions and concerns about how he has filled his political
appointments, more often taking a line of defense rather than moving
swiftly to resolve them.
Week after week, we have seen headlines in our papers about how the
Gray administration has been handing out jobs to relatives and political
hacks. It seems rather tortured that you would pin this analogy on Mayor
Fenty when you have a much more glaring and direct analogy to the mayor
who is in office today. After all, we’re not talking about contracts
that went to a few cronies, we’re talking about jobs and favors
designed to reward those who helped him get into office and to cement
his grip on the Wilson Building.
The politics in our city can’t seem to escape the paradigm of the
Spoils System. Attempts to reform and clean house are met with
resistance from the entrenched powers that be. If we ever want that to
end, we need to elect politicians who stand on principle rather than
politicians who get elected because they shake every hand or are
methodical in “building consensus.”
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DC lost a good leader yesterday. [Gerri Hall, Wednesday]
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Poetry Out Loud, March 21
Ebony Blanks, ebony.blanks@dc.gov
Come to the Studio Theater to cheer on DC students as they compete in
the Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest finals, presented by the
National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. One student
will be chosen to represent DC on the national stage. Hosted by Black
Cobain. Monday, March 21, 6:00 p.m., at The Studio Theater, 1501 14th
Street, NW. For more information, contact Ebony Blanks, ebony.blanks@dc.gov
or 724-5613.
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National Building Museum Events, March 26
Stacy Adamson, sadamson@nbm.org
March 26, 10:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m., National Cherry Blossom Festival
Family Day. Free drop-in program for all ages. Celebrate the opening of
Washington’s cherry blossom season with a family festival that
explores Japanese arts and design, Washington, DC, in the spring, and
the official opening ceremony of the 2011 National Cherry Blossom
Festival.
March 26, 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m., National Cherry Blossom Opening
Ceremony. Free drop-in program for all ages. Celebrate the opening of
Washington’s cherry blossom season with a family festival that
explores Japanese arts and design, Washington, DC, in the spring, and
the official opening ceremony of the 2011 National Cherry Blossom
Festival. Both events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW,
Judiciary Square Metro station.
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Big Cherry Block Party, April 2
Kelly Aziz, kkaziz@gmail.com
The second annual Big Cherry Block Party will take place at Downtown
Silver Spring in Silver Spring, MD, on the scenic shopper promenade,
Ellsworth Drive, on Saturday, April 2, from 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. The
event is a part of a centuries-old tradition that brings the best in
Japanese art, dance, fashion, flowers, music, and entertainment to the
community. Last year’s event was attended by more than nine thousand
visitors, with more attendees expected this year. The Big Cherry Block
Party will open up unique shopping finds from various vendors at 10:00
a.m., and entertainment will begin at noon. It offers a day full of free
interactive activities and cultural displays including cultural
performances, karaoke, entertainment, martial arts and more.
The 2011 Big Cherry Block Party joins the National Cherry Blossom
Festival celebration continuing with a series of calendar of events and
activities all day. Japan’s Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki will be
introduced by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett. Other National
Cherry Blossom dignitaries such as Executive Director Diana Mayhew will
be present. Renowned Japanese movie producer and choreographer Shizumi
Manale and the Shizumi Manale Kodomo Dance Troupe will open the event
with a traditional Japanese dance and taiko drumming.
Downtown Silver Spring is located across Georgia Avenue from
Discovery Communications’ headquarters and just two blocks from the
red line Silver Spring Metro/MARC station. Silver Spring is only ten
minutes away from downtown Washington, DC. For more information about
Capitol Marketplace Events, please visit http://www.capitolmarketplaceevents.com.
For more information about festivals, concerts and family events at
Downtown Silver Spring, please visit http://www.downtownsilverspring.com
or friend ‘Downtown Silver Spring’ on Facebook for updates.
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