Early and Late Reports
Dear Reporters:
I’ll repeat this for the third issue in a row — please, please
don’t write to themail about DC statehood for a while. I’m repeating
it because, while a little bit about statehood sneaked into this issue,
I had to edit much more of it out. It would be easy to turn themail into
a one-topic discussion, but it’s not going to happen. There are too
many other things we need to pay attention to.
Raised below in this issue, for your delectation, are a number of
other current items that we can talk about: politicians want to renew
their push to deface the DC flag; politicians want to raise DC income
taxes to finance their profligacy; politicians want to make DC a
headquarters for gambling promoters who want to get around federal laws
against Internet gambling and, not coincidentally, get some of the big
money that gambling interests shower on friendly politicians who’ll
turn a blind eye to their operations; and — not mentioned in this
issue but certainly ripe for discussion — politicians are pushing to
get rid of DC’s height limitation on buildings in order to create
landslide profits for developers. Here’s the big promise: if the
height limitation is lifted, developers won’t build uninteresting,
ugly, blocky, ten-story office buildings anymore. Here’s the actual
result: if the height limitation is lifted, developers will build
uninteresting, ugly, blocky, twenty-story office buildings instead, and
make a lot more money doing so.
There are plenty of nonpolitical stories we need to share with each
other, too. You know what they are, but we’ll never know unless you
tell us.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Long Delayed Sosua Fire Truck Investigation
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
After nearly two years, the DC Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
has finally completed its investigation of the Fenty administration’s
effort to transfer a District ambulance and fire truck to the Dominican
Republic. On April 14, Inspector General Charles Willoughby released an
“executive summary concerning the results of an Office of the
Inspector General investigation into misconduct violations by a former
employee of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic
Development, an employee of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, an
employee of the Office of Contracting and Procurement, and a former
employee of the Executive Office of the Mayor.” The report was later
posted on the web site of the OIG, http://oig.dc.gov.
The executive summary that has been posted, however, is largely useless
to the general public, and is nearly unreadable, because all the names
of individuals involved in the scandal are redacted. An unredacted copy,
with the names restored, has now been posted at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ig110414.htm
The OIG’s investigation raises many questions. The most troublesome
is why the inquiry took two years to complete. The OIG’s office has a
staff of 120 employees and a budget of $15.6 million, so it is not short
of the resources needed to do a timely investigation. Yet the OIG report
reveals few new facts that weren’t already known in 2009, and the
redacting of names serves only to protect the reputations of government
employees whom the OIG accuses of violating District laws. Of the four
DC employees whom the report cites, two are still employed in senior
positions by the District government — Deputy Fire Chief Ronald Gill
and Contracting Specialist Robin Booth. Two others were senior Fenty
appointees who were allowed to resign without any penalty or even
admonishment — Director of Development in the Office of the Deputy
Mayor for Planning and Development David Jannerone and General Counsel
in the Executive Office of the Mayor Andrew “Chip” Richardson. If a
scandal of this magnitude, with an OIG report confirming wrongdoing,
does not result in any action being taken against any government
employees, or any widespread reform, what possibly could or would have
an impact on the operations of the dysfunctional Office of Contracting
and Procurement?
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At the town halls the mayor has been having, well at least two that I
know of, the citizens attending have focused on parochial issues, such
as why is this school being treated differently from that school, etc.
I have a budget idea not expressed at tonight’s meeting. Since I
moved to DC, two government holidays have been added, Emancipation Day
(which originally was not supposed to be a paid holiday) and Martin
Luther King Day. Every four years we have inauguration day. I propose
that we eliminate Columbus Day and Presidents Day as paid government
holidays (to date myself, they were not holidays when I was a child; we
had Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s birthday, both of which I
remember observing in school). I also recommend that we go back to the
practice of only releasing those government workers directly impacted by
the inauguration, as the Feds did, those in the federal security area
designated in the Home Rule Charter.
I pick these for the following reasons: each day off costs the
District four million dollars, so that is eight million a year in
non-election years. I chose these two days not for any political reason
but a pragmatic one. Most private businesses are open on these days,
including construction, alcohol, and a host of other things regulated by
the District. People do business in the city on those days but are not
regulated by the city or inspected by the city unless we are paying
folks overtime. As for inauguration years, with the move of the major
departments away from the monumental core, such as DCRA and the CFO on
the waterfront, DDOT in SE, and ABRA and Office of Real Estate Services.
As well, most schools are away from the inauguration. So the traffic
reasons for having the day off don’t hold. Why should the Income
Maintenance Office on Taylor Street NW (note that is in the third
alphabet up) be closed because of something forty blocks south?
That would take most DC government workers back to nine paid holidays
a year, in addition to the 52, 156, or 260 hours a year of paid
vacation, bereavement leave, and 78 hours of paid sick leave a year. I
have spent half of my adult working life in government and I love paid
days off, but I also like people to be employed and people helped and
eight million a year will keep a few people employed and many people
served. My other idea would be to cut the pay of all government
employees — mayor, chancellor, councilmembers, MSS, and all others who
make more that the Washington Area medium income (I hope that is the
right phrase) by 5 or 10 percent across the board. If I had a job and it
were still with the government, I would take these sacrifices (broad
hint to anyone hiring). Just my two cents.
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Online Gambling
Patrick Thibodeau, dcblogs@gmail.com
One DC policy that Gary mentions that is extreme is DC’s approval
of online gambling. This legislation, authored by Councilmember Michael
Brown and approved in December, has received little scrutiny or
discussion despite its potential to radically alter the character of DC
neighborhoods. It allows creation of gambling parlors in DC and
sanctions, as well, the ability of people to gamble from their homes. DC
is the first in the nation to approve such a measure. It scares me to
think what will happen once DC Lottery advertises the availability of
“government approved” online gaming from your home PC. Nothing good
will come from this. Equally distressing is the idea that existing bars
and restaurants and new facilities, yet imagined, may create
mini-casinos throughout DC.
This legislation is a desperate act by a reckless council trying to
scrape together some money to cover its budget deficit. There has been
little public discussion about this legislation and there has not been a
full vetting of its real costs. There are many outstanding questions. We
don’t know, for instance, how many people in DC will be adversely
affected by a DC Lottery advertising campaign that encourages people to
gamble online. We also don’t know what ability neighborhoods will have
to reject introduction of gambling facilities.
This is an extraordinarily thoughtless and shameful piece of
legislation that would only be considered progressive in Pottersville.
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17,128 of Jack’s Nearest and Dearest
Len Sullivan lsnarpac@verizon.net
Jack Evans’s April 14 “Newsletter” presents his apostolic vows
to keep the DC government from slightly raising income taxes on the
richest in 2012 to support the city’s needs, the vast majority of
which go to service its abnormal number of disadvantaged. A quick trip
to the IRS “Statement of Income” (SOI) tables shows just how
unbalanced the city’s wealth remains. In 2008, 349,500 DC residents
submitted 302,500 income tax returns, but only 124,400 (41 percent)
actually owed the Feds money for the year. 57,800 of those paying made
less than $75,000, 49,400 made between $75,000 and $200,000, and 17,128
made over $200,000. Those 16 percent of DC taxpayers who might be
classified as “middle income” paid $509,000,000 in taxes, while
those 5.7 percent who are undeniably “wealthy” paid $995,000,000.
The bottom 78 percent of the pile kicked in $229,000,000.
Not surprisingly, that top 5.7 percent made 41 percent of DC’s
total “Adjusted Gross Income” (AGI), and 45 percent of its “Taxable
Income” (TI), largely based on corralling 91 percent of all residents’
capital gains. The average tax return AGI is perhaps more troubling.
Those 75 percent with annual incomes less than $75,000, actually
averaged only $28,000, those 19 percent in the middle averaged $115,000,
and Jack’s friends averaged $534,000 (in Maryland, only 4.2 percent
were in the top bracket, and their AGI only averaged $434,000).
The precept that those 6 percent atop DC’s pile can’t — or
shouldn’t — do a little more to help those averaging only
one-twentieth as much income is not just ludicrous, but depraved. I
agree with President Obama that such greed is not the America I believe
in. This seems particularly true in our nation’s capital where the
majority of those on top most likely earn their money by co-opting the
Congress for like-minded special interests: another America I don’t
believe in.
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An Alternative Strategy for DC Voting Rights and Maintaining Respect
for America’s First City’s Flag
Kathryn Pearson-West, wkpw3@aol.com
Instead of desecrating or defiling the DC flag under the banner of
statehood advocacy, it is time for a dual strategy to pursue voting
rights for the good people of the District of Columbia. There is much to
be admired in the uniqueness of District of Columbia as the nation’s
capital, which is home of the seat of power, also known as the federal
government, and many free museums. However, there is no denying that
there should be more autonomy for the District of Columbia. Home Rule is
a bit too limited, though there have been a time or two that it might
have been nice for Congress to intervene when DC leaders seemed to have
fallen bumped their heads on some decisions. Not all of the
statehood/voting rights ideas are going over well.
Some DC residents are beginning to question the idea of changing
America’s main street, Pennsylvania Avenue, to Statehood Way or
something like that. Still others find the defacing of the District flag
for today’s political agenda almost sacrilegious or at least too
gimmicky. Would you turn the United States of America flag into a
billboard for advertising a cause? DC leadership wants to write on the
DC flag to promote its leading issue. The American people hold up the US
flag and shout “USA! USA! USA!” while DC leaders want to use the DC
flag as a means of propaganda. Have the same respect for the DC flag as
for the American flag and don’t defile it even a day or hour or a
minute. The billboard flag will only reinforce the perception that the
nation’s capital with its 600,000 residents is the bastion of “über
liberalism” and its residents have little respect for their own
honorable symbols.
Instead of trashing the flag to advance statehood, a broad based
commission, institute, or group consisting of concerned citizens,
business, and union leaders, and other interested parties should be
established for the purpose of achieving two only goals in five years:
1) gaining an official nonvoting delegate in the Senate similar to the
seat Delegate Norton holds now in the House of Representatives and 2)
turning the DC Delegate position into a position that has a vote. The
organization would have a moderate mission or platform that would define
and guide the group. The group would say no to all the other political
issues that people might be tempted to attach to the movement. No ultra
liberal causes, emerging issues, or flavor of the day would be advanced
by the body. The group would stand for those two goals and not embrace
anything beyond America and apple pie, baseball, and, of course, the
Redskins formidable winning football team. The group would resist being
labeled liberal or conservative and would walk a moderate or centrist
line. The Democratic Leadership Council is a good example of a group
walking a centrist line while some may say the National Democratic
Committee and the DC Democratic State Committee are less so and lean
more toward the liberal side.
A DC group should be nonpartisan or bipartisan. However, there could
be two separate groups to allow the names of the two major political
parties. For example, in 1983 Congress created the National Endowment
for Democracy and that organization established the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the International
Republican Institute (IRI) . Both organizations pretty much do the same
thing but have the different political parties in their names and are
supposedly nonpartisan. According to its web site, the National
Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to
support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen
participation, openness, and accountability in government. Similarly,
the International Republican Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization that advances freedom and democracy worldwide by developing
political parties, civic institutions, open elections, democratic
governance, and the rule of law.
Taking a comparable bimodal approach, a Republican/Democratic
Institute for the Advancement of a Vote in Congress could be established
for the District by whomever. This would not be a group whose members
get arrested in protests no matter how valuable or noble that strategy
may be to some. The group would also be a think tank to study how to
best achieve voting rights. Instead or an all or none approach to voting
rights via statehood, there would be an incremental approach to achieve
voting rights without the ultimate goal of statehood. The group would
set up strategic alliances throughout the country. In 2011, let’s set
goals were all of the city can champion without having to depend on
having the political apparatus or leadership out front. Every DC
resident can grasp the more pragmatic goals of a nonvoting Senate
Delegate and a voting member in the House of Representatives. Just maybe
the people of DC are not as infatuated with the statehood initiative
they embraced and signed on to many years ago. Let’s test the waters
by making these two new goals happen.
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Tampering with the Award-Winning DC Flag
William N. Brown, aoi_of_dc@verizon.net
On June 22, 2002, the AOI sent the following letter to then-Council
Chair Linda Cropp. We continue to stand in opposition to any changes to
the District of Columbia flag. “At its monthly meeting yesterday, the
Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia —
the City’s oldest civic organization — voted unanimously to request
the DC city council not to adopt the proposed change to the City’s
flag. The AOI fully supports the city and its residents in the quest for
congressional voting representation and believes there is an important
opportunity here to make the city’s situation known to visitors and
tourists. Immediate Past-president Dr. Phillip Ogilvie has recommended
that the city council pass alternative legislation requiring a banner
stating, “Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny” be displayed
along with the District of Columbia flag until voting representation is
achieved.
“The membership of the AOI fully supports Dr. Ogilvie and the
position he stated before the city council on June 14, 2002. This flag
is the oldest symbol for the District of Columbia, even though it was
not formally adopted as the flag until 1938. Its association with the
District can be traced back to the original plans for the city as the
“Seat of [the Federal] Government” as early as 1792. The AOI
continues to support those efforts and initiatives which serve to
promote and preserve the heritage that is our Nation’s Capital.
Seeking the reopening of major roadways, reestablishing a place of
prominence for the statue of Alexander Shepherd, supporting voting
representation and working for a City Museum are among AOI’s goals. We
are now adding to our goals the preservation of our city’s flag.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Town Hall Meetings on Community Schools and Middle School Issues,
May 11, 13, and 21
Jeff Smith, jsmith@dcvoice.org
You’re invited to the DC VOICE Town Hall Meeting Series on
community schools and middle school grades issues. These town meetings
will also serve as the community kickoff of “Move It,” a project to
move harmful negative distractions from school communities. Meetings
will be on Wednesday, May 11, 6 to 8 p.m., at Roosevelt High School,
4301 13th Street, NW; Friday, May 13, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., at Cardozo
High School, 1200 Clifton Street, NW; and Saturday, May 21, 10 a.m. to
12 noon, Woodson High School, Benning Road, SE. In addition to data
collected by DC VOICE community action researchers, we and our partners
will present information on our community and schools, and hear from
policymakers about plans for the future.
For more information about partnership opportunities, please contact
Arielle Etienne-Edmonson at aetienne@dcvoice.org
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Pre-Court Rally of Solidarity for a DC Freedom Fighter, May 12
Karen A. Szulgit, freedcnow (at) gmail (dot) com
Please join us outside of DC Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue, NW,
between 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. to show support for a community activist who
was arrested last month. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (SMD 6C01)
Keith Silver has a citation to appear in Courtroom 115 of the H. Carl
Moultrie Courthouse at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 12, to answer the
charge of “Unlawful Assembly - Blocking Passage” following his
arrest on April 18.
This rally is the sequel to last week’s media event, after which
fourteen members of the “DC 41” (http://tinyurl.com/3avyq65)
and the “DC Three” (http://dcist.com/2011/04/three_including_shadow_senator_arre.php)
appeared in court to answer charges of “Unlawful Assembly - Blocking
Passage” and “Disorderly Conduct - Blocking Passage,”
respectively. All seventeen defendants were slapped with an additional
charge of “Failure to Obey an Officer.” Nine defendants then posted
and forfeited $100, but eight DC democracy activists are due back in
court on Tuesday, June 28, for a status hearing. All misdemeanor charges
may be prosecuted by the District’s attorney general.
After Mayor Vincent Gray was arrested — along with six
councilmembers, our US shadow representative, and thirty-three brave
citizen activists — on April 11, he issued a call to action for
advisory neighborhood commissioners to also commit nonviolent acts of
civil disobedience in support of DC democracy. Advisory Neighborhood
Commissioner Keith Silver answered Mayor Gray’s call, and stood up for
democracy in DC. Now we need to stand by our man, as he heads into
court. Free DC, and free Commissioner Keith Silver!
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National Building Museum Events, May 13, 15
Stacy Adamson, sadamson@nbm.org
May 13, 6:30-8:30 p.m., CityVision Final Presentation. No charge.
Registration not required. Reception following presentation. Learn more
about DCPS students’ visions for their city. Students from Burroughs
Education Campus and Stuart-Hobson Middle School present their
innovative plans, developed in collaboration with the DC Office of
Planning, for sites in Brookland, NoMA, and Fort Totten.
May 15, 1:00-2:30 p.m., Public Art for You and Me. $10 per child of
members, $15 per child of nonmembers. Prepaid registration required.
Ages 7 and up. Enjoy a guided walk through the Museum’s neighborhood
with a special focus on public art. Take in the art and architecture of
the city, come back to the Museum to enjoy murals and mosaics in two
exhibitions, and make your very own craft to take home and enjoy.
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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