Kwame Brown’s Trouble
Dear Correspondents:
And you thought the twin SUV’s were a public relations disaster for
Council Chairman Kwame Brown. Now he has to deal with his 2008 campaign
finance reports, and they were a mess. The Office of Campaign Finance
audits a number of campaign finance reports that are chosen at random,
without any complaint having been made against them, and Kwame had the
honor of being chosen during that election cycle. The audit took a
couple years longer than audits normally take because OCF had trouble
getting information to explain the inconsistencies and omissions it
found.
Kwame won the first round of publicity on the release of the OCF
report by working the refs. He issued a press release and called
reporters and told them what the report said even before the report had
been released and before reporters had had a chance to read it. What he
said was that the OCF had been able to account for all the contributions
and expenditures of his campaign committee, so that there wasn’t any
missing money or any problem. Any difficulties were just minor and
technical. The Office of Campaign Finance, Kwame said, echoing Sinclair
Skinner’s audacious misrepresentation of the Trout Report a few months
ago, had exonerated him completely.
The next day, however, reporters had had a chance to catch up, to
read the OCF audit report for themselves and to judge what conclusions
it had really come to. The second-day stories got the story mostly
straight. The questions that remain now are what the OCF would find if
it were to do a similarly detailed audit of Kwame’s 2010 campaign
finance reports — which would be a good idea — and what impact the
revelation of campaign finance failures will have on Kwame’s
reputation in the long term.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Late Tuesday afternoon, the DC Office of Campaign Finance (OCF)
issued its “Final Audit Report on the Committee to Re-Elect Kwame R.
Brown,” http://ocf.dc.gov/pdf_files/FAA/RAAD-04-04-2011_79.pdf.
The audit finds that the Brown Committee failed to report 210
contributions, totaling $102,763; failed to report 53 expenditures,
totaling $169,431.49; had a secret second bank account that it failed to
report to OCF; wrote $31,590.79 in checks paid to “cash”; paid
$379,654.63 to Banner Consulting which, in turn, transferred $239,663.42
to Partners in Learning, a firm owned by Kwame’s brother Che Brown;
and misstated its receipts, disbursements, and cash on hand. As a
result, OCF’s Audit Division has referred its findings to OCF’s
General Counsel “for whatever action deemed appropriate.”
Because Brown and his reelection committee violated numerous
provisions of the District’s campaign finance laws, it is highly
likely that the OCF will impose a substantial fine, as well as refer the
case to the US Attorney’s Office. Under current District law, the fine
for each reporting violation is based on the amount of time the
violation has remained uncorrected, and all of Brown’s violations have
reached the maximum time — and thus the maximum fine — under the
law. The OCF could, therefore, impose a fine of $2,000 for each
violation, although it is not obligated to do so. All instances in which
the committee failed to report a contribution (210) or an expenditure
(53) are “individual violations of DC Official Code.” Thus, on the
single issue of the Committee’s failure to report all contributions
and expenditures property, the fine could amount to $526,000.
The amount of the fine assessed by the OCF’s general counsel could
be affected by whether he deems the omissions to be accidental or
deliberate, by whether Councilmember (now Council Chair) Brown was
cooperative or uncooperative with the OCF’s investigation, and by
whether the campaign finance reports filed by the committee were
deceptive with the intent to mislead and conceal (by, for example, not
reporting any payments to Partners in Learning, but instead funneling
payments to Partners in Learning through Banner Consulting). If Brown
wants to appeal the report of the General Counsel, his appeal would be
to the DC Board of Elections and Ethics, which would hold a public
hearing and would have the option of either raising or lowering any
penalty. Brown would then have the option of appealing the BOEE’s
decision to the DC Court of Appeals.
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DC Inspector General Should Be Popularly
Elected
Richard Layman, rlaymandc@yahoo.com
In the most recent election, there was a ballot referendum calling
for making the DC Attorney General position popularly elected. I
supported this referendum, although I had suggested having the position
come up for election in the so called off cycle, when the ballot doesn’t
have the mayor on the ballot, and that’s not how the referendum was
worded. The referendum passed, and therefore, effective with the 2014
election, the Attorney General will be popularly elected.
I believe that the Attorney General of the United States should also
be popularly elected. One wrinkle in DC is that the federal government
still controls the prosecution of adult crimes, so that here the DC
Attorney General focuses on a variety of public protection issues and
the prosecution of juvenile crime. Delegate Norton is advocating that
the federal government yield to DC the authority to prosecute adult
crimes. However, I feel that can come later as a hopefully successful
track record is developed by the locally elected AG.
Given the problems of independence that the Inspector General seems
to have in DC (see Harry Jaffe, “DC Inspector General Plays Lap Dog to
Corrupt Pols,” http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/03/dcs-inspector-general-plays-lap-dog-corrupt-pols),
maybe this position should be popularly elected as well. From the
article: “The IG’s ineffectiveness here begs a more serious
question: Even if Willoughby had been able to investigate the Sulaimon
Brown case, would anything have happened? The answer, from many law
enforcement officials, past and present, is in doubt. ‘If you want to
bury something,’ one former District legal official told me, ‘send
it over there. Willoughby is not a prosecutorial type, not an
investigator. When he gets in a political thicket, he’s not willing to
stick his neck out.’”
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The Mayor’s Proposed Budget, Are We Being
Taken as Fools?
David Schwartzman, DC Statehood Green Party, dschwartzman@gmail.com
It is fitting that our mayor announced his proposed budget on April
1, April Fools Day, since we are apparently being taken as fools with
this budget pretending to be a “balanced” approach to confronting
the crisis of every day living now faced by so many of our residents. So
what did we get? “The mayor’s budget . . . contains close to $190
million in cuts, most of which would fall on human services and other
low-income programs. Human services programs make up roughly 26 percent
of the locally funded budget, yet they account for 67 percent of the
cuts, or just over $130 million” (DC Fiscal Policy Institute
analysis). Cuts in homeless services, even though two shelters having
been closed in the last few years (Franklin and La Casa) and
homelessness is rising, cuts in affordable housing (especially for its
main program, the severely underfunded Housing Production Trust Fund),
and cash assistance for families with children (TANF), all cut,
continuing the reductions passed since 2008. And all cut while
depression level unemployment persists east of the river. The majority
of families now on TANF get benefits below the federal poverty level.
Yes, I suppose we should be grateful for the proposed very modest tax
increase for wealthy residents, the first such tax increase supported by
our mayors in many years. And an approach our party has long advocated.
This would generate thirty-five million dollars in additional revenue,
presumably going into the General Fund and then into more corporate
welfare (more fifty million dollar handouts like to Verizon Center?). If
only we had progressive DC taxes in the 1990s and targeted the revenue
to low income programs, the poverty rate would now be much lower.
Instead we got Tax Parity, tax cuts for the rich, and austerity budgets
increasing the income gap and child poverty rate, near the highest in
the nation. Human rights violations galore, while DC is the first city
in the nation designated as a Human Rights City! Have our elected
officials no shame?
Is there an alternative to this measly tax hike on the top 5 percent
income bracket, which would still leave our overall tax burdens
regressive for family incomes above thirty thousand dollars? Various
groups have proposed more aggressive tax hikes on the upper brackets,
capable of generating more than one hundred million dollars in
additional revenue (DC for Democracy). The DC Statehood Green Party has
proposed a comprehensive approach including progressive tax
restructuring, curbing corporate welfare including unjustified tax
abatements and subsidies, campaigning for PILOTS, payments in lieu of
taxes from the World Bank, IMF, Fannie Mae (their execs just got a fat
bonus). Our progressive plan for the DC income tax would provide tax
relief for our low income and working class residents and hike the
overall tax burden of wealthy residents by no more than two cents on the
dollar of family income. The wealthy can afford this small sacrifice to
reduce the misery index in our community and I am sure many would
willingly pay. And it would generate two hundred fifty million dollars a
year in additional revenue, which should be targeted to chronically
underfunded programs for low income residents. The others would generate
one hundred million dollars more, enough to balance the budget and
really invest in a future for the District’s children. And we propose
taking immediate steps to establish a DC Municipal Bank, investing our
taxes into green economic development, living-wage jobs, and affordable
housing. (For details go to: http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=407).
And why should we raise taxes on the rich, locally and nationally?
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor explains why at http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/5526-why-we-must-raise-taxes-on-the-rich.
A truly balanced approach to balancing the DC budget: combine tax
hikes for the wealthy with curbs on corporate welfare! Increase the
income security of our majority, instead of another austerity budget
balanced on the backs of DC’s working folk and unemployed!
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Defense and Offense
Larry Lesser, lblesser@aol.com
As an old DCPS parent and somewhat passive newspaper reader it seems
to me that Michelle Rhee and the Washington Post are playing both
defense and offense (like football players until the 1950’s). Defense
to say that the erasures may not have been widespread and may not have
been cheating and offense to say that it must be the teachers who were
responsible for it. It goes to show that Vincent Gray and Kaya Henderson
have inherited very difficult problems in their new offices and thus far
they haven’t shown that they’re up to solving them.
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Venom on Sale in Another Bottle
Earl Shamwell, Ward 4, sandra.cs@starpower.net
I am a regular viewer of Fox News, especially the Fox and Friends
morning show. Rhee has been on this show a number of times and the
morning hosts and hostess can seemingly never praise her enough for her
valiant efforts when she ran DCPS. And how awful was it that the
benighted citizens of the District did not appreciate her. However, the
thrust and spirit of the uncritical praise heaped upon her in my view
seems always to go towards her efforts to deal with and oppose the
teachers union. Rhee for her part beams with pleasure over the high
praise she receives from the morning crew who, in my mind, are very
antiunion wherever one exists or dares show its head.
So in my mind venom can be packaged in a pretty bottle with a sweet
covering fragrance, but be just as toxic as arsenic. Rhee personified
that type of poisonous influence when she was here. And now that
cheating on the exams has been discovered . . . well, what can one say?
Gary simply calls things as he sees them [themail, March 30 and April
3] and in typical fashion someone — usually a liberal, excuse me, a
progressive — comes up with some ad hominem remark about the
messenger but not about the matter discussed. Hence Gary is spewing “venom”
as opposed to opining and editorializing, intelligently in my mind,
about an important issue for our community — cheating and corruption
in of all places our education system, where young minds are supposed to
be molded for good purpose. I am sure the irony of this has not escaped
most folks since it seems that cheating and deceit have become hallmarks
of the political elites — the adults — of this city who don’t pay
their taxes, pay girlfriends out of public monies, help themselves to
luxury autos at public expense, use constituent funds for god knows
what, give friends and family nice sinecures, and on and on. The
cheating expose puts the notion of preparing our youngsters for model
citizenship on another level. But have no fear, help is on the way. The
taxpayers will save the day until next year, when there is another
budget shortfall. I guess I had better clam up because I suppose I am
sounding venomous.
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Information on Utility Bills
Brenda Pennington, ccceo@opc-dc.gov
The Public Service Commission for the District of Columbia wants to
hear from residential ratepayers regarding their concerns about
understanding their utility bills. The Commission has made a number of
proposals regarding new, revised, and additional information to all DC
consumers’ utility bills from PEPCO and Washington Gas. Please go to http://www.opc-dc.gov/images/stories/FC_231078_PSC_Notice.pdf
to view all of DC PSC’s proposed bill changes. All comments regarding
the proposed bill changes should be sent to the Public Service
Commission for the District of Columbia, Office of the Secretary, 1333 H
Street, NW, Second Floor, Washington, DC 20001. Initial comments of the
DC PSC’s proposed revisions to monthly utility bills are due by April
25.
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[Re: Bryce Suderow, “themail Has Become Schizoid,” themail, April
3] Isn’t it wonderful that Dorothy and Gary have different viewpoints,
principles, and philosophies — and that they can have a discussion
about an issue and sometimes agree to disagree and at the end of the day
hug each other in bed. The rest of us ought to read them and others too
(save the biased Post) to truly keep abreast of things.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Woman’s National Democratic Club Events,
April 7
Tonya Butler-Truesdale, gotonyago@gmail.com
Luncheon: currently Democratic National Committeewoman from Arizona
(and Vice Chair, DNC Western Regional Caucus), former three-term elected
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Democratic activist,
businesswoman, candidate for Governor (1986) and acclaimed speaker —
Carolyn Warner comes to the Woman’s National Democratic Club fresh
from the Democratic National Committee’s Winter Meeting (February
2011, Washington, DC). She’ll speak on “How Can Democrats Take Back
Our Country?” and share her valuable insights with us on the political
outlook for Democratic candidates, the party and our women’s role
during the challenging months ahead. A respected public policy leader
with vast experience in government, business, education, and
communications, Ms. Warner is founder and President of Corporate
Education Consulting, Inc. (CECI), which provides training on
leadership, workplace issues, and public/private partnerships. In
addition to her involvement in many other local, state, and national
organizations, she also serves as Treasurer of Jobs for American
Graduates, one of the nation’s most successful school-to-work
transition programs. Warner, an accomplished author, recently published
her fourth book, The Words of Extraordinary Women (2010), a
valuable and appealing resource to anyone preparing a speech or article,
or simply looking for pithy inspiration. As she notes in her intro to
the section on politics: “The one word I always associate with
politics is participation. You really can’t have one without the
other.” The book will be available for purchase and signing. Woman’s
National Democratic Club, April 7. Bar opens at 11:30 a.m., lunch 12:15
p.m., presentation and Q & A, 1-2 p.m. Members $25, nonmembers $30,
lecture only (no lunch) $10. Register at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5880/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=21872
Reception: Thursday, April 7, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Woman’s National
Democratic Club, 1526 New Hampshire Avenue, NW. Celebrating new women
ambassadors to the US and an award ceremony for renowned actresses Kara
Vedder and Majora Carter in recognition of their work on international
issues. Howard University, the Women Ambassadors Foundation, and the
Woman’s National Democratic Club invite you to an evening reception to
honor new women ambassadors and Ms. Vedder and Ms. Carter, whose
international work has won them acclaim and added recognition. For
reservations call Patricia Fitzgerald at 232-7363 or register online at http://www.democraticwoman.org.
Evening reception with hors d’oeuvres and wine. Members pay $10;
nonmembers $15.
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Spring Tournament of Games, April 9
Mack Thompson, mack3t@hotmail.com
Career Path DC will sponsor a tournament of games on Saturday, April
9, 12:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., at 14th and Girard Street Park. Checkers,
chess, spades, bid whist, dominoes, horseshoes, basketball, and much
more. Free refreshments with music entertainment.
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Voices of a Movement Open Mic, April 17
Loizos Kapsalis, One Common Unity, contact@onecommonunity.org
In partnership with Busboys and Poets, the DC Employment Justice
Center, and DC Jobs with Justice, One Common Unity proudly presents the
most socially conscious open mic night in DC: Voices of a Movement:
Unemployment and Alternative Economies. Hosted by HawaH and Maimouna
Youssef on Sunday, April 17, 8:00-10:00 p.m., at Busboys and Poets (5th
and K Streets, NW).
“Voices of a Movement” is your chance to take the stage and share
your story through music, spoken word poetry, and other artistic
mediums. And if performing is not your thing, simply come and listen.
Every month, we highlight a different issue facing our community. But
you’re welcome to bring work about any topic which concerns you to
share. For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184538171586998
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National Building Museum Events, April 18-19
Stacy Adamson, sadamson@nbm.org
For the Greener Good: Passive House, April 18, 6:30-8:00 p.m. What if
the only heat for your home came from the occupants’ body warmth?
These tightly sealed buildings are being constructed across Europe. A
panel of experts discusses the role of the passive house for American
housing. A discussion with Robert Ivy, Editor-in-Chief, Architectural
Record (moderator); Katrin Klingenberg, Executive Director, Passive
House Institute; a representative from the US Department of Energy; and
a representative from the National Association of Home Builders. $12
members; free students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required.
Walk-in registration based on availability. Register now at http://go.nbm.org/site/Calendar/624706537?view=Detail&id=110169
Spotlight on Design: Andrea Cochran, April 19, 6:30-8:00 p.m. The
founding principal of California-based Andrea Cochran Landscape
Architecture discusses her firm’s recent residential and large-scale
work, including Curran House and Allegheny Public Square in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Following the lecture, she signs copies of Andrea
Cochran: Landscapes (Princeton Architectural Press). This program is
presented during April in celebration of National Landscape Architecture
Month. $12 NBM and National Museum of Women in the Arts members; free
Students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in
registration based on availability. Register at http://go.nbm.org/site/Calendar/624706537?view=Detail&id=110563
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