Dear Adults:
Last Wednesday, WUSA-TV broadcast a mayoral candidate debate among
the four candidates whom they deemed stood the best chance if winning
the Democratic primary: Mayor Vincent Gray and Councilmembers Muriel
Bowser, Jack Evans, and Tommy Wells. It was a disgraceful debacle. The
candidates acted like a bunch of squabbling second graders. They
interrupted each other, spoke over each others, and didn’t listen to
each other. They all behaved badly, which may be why WUSA hasn’t posted
the video of the debate on its web site. Jack Evans acted the Sulaimon
Brown role, which means he spent the hour defending Gray and attacking
Gray’s opponents, rather than trying to make a case for his own
candidacy. Tommy Wells won the post-debate viewer poll. He won largely
because he stayed silent for much of the hour, and only in the last
fifteen minutes lowered his behavior to the level of the other
candidates. He also won partially because the Wells campaign spent the
two days before the debate telling its supporters to vote in the WUSA
poll. Gray and Bowser fought each other like equals, and gave each other
no respect, which was a loss for Gray. Each refused to let the other one
complete a sentence without jumping in to contradict. In this debate, as
was true throughout the campaign, neither Gray nor Bowser showed an
ability, a talent, or a desire to behave well in a public forum, to work
together, govern well, or to graduate from the second grade.
#####
Last week, the DC city council held a hearing to express its outrage
that Kahlil Malik Tatum, named as a suspect in the disappearance and
possible murder of Relisha Rudd, could have been hired as a janitor at
the homeless shelter at DC General Hospital, even though he had a past
criminal record that included arrests and prosecutions for breaking and
entering and larceny.
Last month, Councilmember and mayoral candidate Muriel Bowser held a
council roundtable and introduced a council resolution to express her
outrage that WMATA was doing background checks on potential employees
that were “overly restrictive,” and that prevented it from hiring people
with “relatively minor” felony convictions that were not job related.
Metro general manager Richard Searles reassured Bowser that WMATA would
hire felons. A felon could be hired for a position that didn’t require
contact with the general public, if in the past ten years he or she had
no more than one felony conviction for possession of a controlled or
illegal substance; one felony conviction for receiving stolen goods; one
felony conviction for assault; one felony conviction for robbery, theft,
or larceny; one felony conviction for driving under the influence; one
felony conviction for criminal mischief; one felony conviction for
reckless driving; or one felony conviction for destruction of property.
In a position that requires access to the general public, a candidate
could be considered with any of the following felonies on his/her record
in the past ten years: one felony conviction for robbery, theft,
larceny; one felony conviction for driving under the influence; one
felony conviction for criminal mischief; one felony conviction for
reckless driving; or one felony conviction for destruction of property.
That policy went a long way, but perhaps not far enough, to satisfying
Bowser’s objection to restrictive background checks. It certainly
wouldn’t rule out WMATA’s hiring Kahlil Malik Tatum,
http://www.tinyurl.com/lvc4j7u.
If you’re the Homeless Services Program, or WMATA, or a private
employer operating in the District of Columbia, you’re damned if you do
and damned if you don’t. Nothing you do will satisfy the politicians in
this city, especially in an election year when the politicians are ready
to pander to a perceived voting block of “returning citizens.”
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
Going to the Polls on April 1
Dorothy Brizill,
dorothy@dcwatch.com
April 1 is election day for the District’s 2014 party primary. It is
the next and final stage in the primary voting process, which began on
May 17 and thirteen early voting centers scattered throughout the city.
On April 1, the 143 voting precincts will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00
p.m. (Anyone in line by 8:00 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.) The
April 1 primary election for the Democratic, Republican, Statehood
Green, and Libertarian parties will present candidates for delegate to
the US House of Representatives; mayor of the District of Columbia;
chairman of the council; at-large member of the council; ward members of
the council for Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6; US “Shadow Senator”; and US
“Shadow Representative.” In addition, Democratic voters will elect
offices to Democratic State Committee positions or national
committeeman, national committeewoman; alternate national committeeman,
alternate national committeewoman; at-large members of the state
committee; and ward members of the state committee.
Basic information regarding the primary is posted on the web site of
the DC Board of Elections,
http://www.dcboee.us. On the web site, voters can also check their
registration status and the location of their voting precinct. Telephone
inquiries can be made at 202-727-2525. The voter guide published by the
DC BOE is posted online at
http://bit.ly/1giCmrQ.
According to the BOE, 14,125 voters were cast at the early vote
centers between March 17 and March 29, down from approximately 22,000
early votes cast in 2010. Voters were free to vote at any of the early
vote centers, regardless of their residence, but the breakdown of votes
by center was: One Judiciary Square (Ward 2) 2855, Chevy Chase Community
Center (Ward 3) 2299, Turkey Thicket Recreation Center (Ward 5) 1975,
Columbia Heights Community Center (Ward 1) 1194, Sherwood Recreation
Center (Ward 6) 972, Takoma Community Center (Ward 4) 898, Benning
Library (Ward 7) 798, Emery Recreation Center (Ward 4) 759, King
Greenleaf Recreation Center (Ward 6) 625, Kennedy Recreation Center
(Ward 6) 538, Stoddert Recreation Center (Ward 3) 460, Hillcrest
Recreation Center (Ward 7) 457, and Bald Eagle Recreation Center (Ward
8) 294.
###############
DCPS Inflates Costs of Teacher and Principal
Positions
Erich Martel, ehmartel at starpower dot net
For school year 2014-15, DCPS is charging local schools $5,177 more
for each teacher, social worker, librarian, and reading specialist than
it actually costs: $94,626 versus $89,451 in actual, reasonable costs.
For school budgeting purposes and to prevent discrimination against
staff with higher salaries, all positions have the same cost, which is,
at least in theory, the average of all staff in the same pay plan and
pay grade. For all salaried positions, the two biggest costs are salary
and benefits (mainly employer health and pension contributions). For
teachers, it is reasonable to add in the cost of substitutes. The
average of the teacher salaries shown in the DCPS response to Council
Education Committee Oversight question 12 was $78,261. The average cost
of benefits adds 12.66 percent, or $9,908, and substitutes add another
$1282. Added together, they total $89,451. When multiplied by over four
thousand teachers, $5,175 per teacher comes to over $20.7 million, or
another 230 teachers.
What is that extra money being used for? DCPS is quite open. The FY14
and FY15 budget guides both cite advice from Education Resource
Strategies (ERS), a think tank whose staff mostly consists of former
Bain and Company corporate advisors. The budget guides attribute those
funds to costs for bonus payments, buyouts (and other costs associated
with excessing), fingerprinting/background checks, and any other “costs
associated with teachers.” These are not costs that can be attributed to
the local school. They are, instead, central costs resulting from
implementation of seven years of failed policies management policies
that have created high teacher turnover and caused more than 7,400 black
students to leave DCPS since 2007.
Charging the local school for failed management policies is
equivalent to stealing money from the victim of embezzlement in order to
continue to fund that white collar crime. It’s time for the public to
demand an end to mismanagement in the name of reform.
###############
Mayor Gray: Explain Your CTE Plans for
Spingarn and Phelps
Erich Martel, ehmartel at starpower dot net
Mayor Gray, in your speech to the parents and teachers who
participated in the mayor’s DCPS budget hearing on March 20, you stated
that Spingarn HS will become the home of six or seven Career and
Technical Education Academies. Unfortunately, you left before public
testimony began.
Your statement raises questions. Right behind Spingarn is Phelps ACE
HS. Phelps, which was modernized and reopened in 2008, has the capacity
for over six hundred students, yet is projected for only 354 students in
SY15, a decrease of 57 from the SY2014 projection. DC OSSE’s October
2013 enrollment audit shows only 319 students in Phelps’ four grades.
That’s only nineteen more students than the three hundred that were
enrolled in 2010-11 in grades 9-11, when I taught at Phelps. Grade 12
was added in 2011-12.
Why are you projecting six or seven CTE academies in Spingarn, when
the chancellor is unable to achieve an enrollment increase in Phelps,
which is right next door? Are you planning to transfer Phelps or
Spingarn to charter operators? Are you planning to hold the chancellor
accountable for failing to require the principal of Phelps to bring that
school to its full CTE potential? I have reported these issues to you
previously, when I was the Washington Teachers Union building
representative at Phelps. What have you done to resolve this problem in
a manner that does not blame teachers or students? Please provide the
public with your actual plans for Spingarn and Phelps.
###############
FEMS, DC’s Achilles Heel
Anne Renshaw, President, DC Federation of Citizens
Associations, milrddc@aol.com
At a recent city council public hearing, the great debate resumed
over how to repair the beleaguered Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS)
which has become our Government’s Achilles Heel. Noting the steady
decline of indispensable services provided by FEMS over the decades, the
DC Federation of Citizens Associations (Citizens Federation) once again
backed a stand-alone EMS Department (a “Third Service” with police and
fire rounding out this troika of DC emergency response agencies). As a
compromise, the Citizens Federation also proposed the consideration of a
separate and independent EMS Bureau, with its own budget and personnel
authority, under a shared roof with DC Fire.
In May 1998, the DC Health Policy Council recommended “establishing a
free standing Emergency Medical Services Department,” noting that “[the]
primary mission of Emergency Medical Services is to save lives.” Fast
forward to August 2006, when former Mayor Adrian Fenty stated, in a
Washington Times article, that he “would create a Department of
Emergency Medical Services and end the city’s fifteen-year-old troubled
effort to combine EMS operations with those of the fire department.”
However, the 2007 Rosenbaum Task Force {and subsequent EMS fix-it
committees} came and went without permanent improvements to our EMS
function. Even the council’s “Emergency Medical Services Improvement Act
of 2008,” which enhanced the role of FEMS’ Medical Director, did not end
the debate. The “Dual-Role/Cross-Training” strategy, with DC
firefighters (FFs) required to be emergency medical technicians (EMTs)
and paramedics, won out over a “Third Service” or independent EMS
Bureau. As a result, fire service professionals, in too many cases, were
compelled to “do a job” they would rather not perform.
The overwhelming majority of both FFs and EMSers are gratifyingly
capable individuals. That said, the following significant EMS management
deficiencies in delivering this vital function still require substantial
improvement or adjustment before more “missteps” occur which imperil the
public’s safety: vehicle and paramedic shortages, problematic response
times, fleet maintenance troubles, leadership and morale crises, pay
parity/equal pay predicaments, training academy drawbacks, paramedic
recruitment and retention complications and deployment tactic
challenges. Also, the absence of stated short and long-term EMS plans,
plus the long-overdue professional and objective evaluation of paramedic
engine company (PEC) concept’s efficacy, is an additional significant
shortcoming.
Mayoral contenders may say that they want to get to the bottom of the
city’s flawed emergency medical service system. But what will these
candidates actually do, if elected, perpetuate the current status quo
or, based on decades of learned lessons, bravely pursue alternative
models as recommended by several past analytical reports? DC citizens,
the ultimate consumers and financiers of EMS (through considerable
taxes), must ask the Mayoral candidates how they will end DC’s
ever-continuing EMS conundrum. Unless an EMS restructuring is viewed by
our elected leaders as a significant, critical and immediate solution,
the EMS Achilles Heel will remain a public safety risk and national
embarrassment to whatever administration comes into power.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Strategic Importance of Ethiopia in Africa
Panel Discussion, April 1
Susana Baranano,
susigbf@yahoo.com
Join us for a panel discussion on the Strategic Importance of
Ethiopia in Africa. Ethiopian tasting, coffee, wine and beer will be
served at a speaker receptions. Learn about Ethiopia and its
relationships with its surrounding countries: Egypt, Eritrea, Djibouti,
Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Kenya. We will highlight internal
political, social and economic issues, including how Ethiopians are
uniting in a social justice movement. We will also discuss US-Ethiopia
relationships, including sister city agreements between Addis Adaba and
Gondar and DC and Montgomery County.
The panelists will be Naida Michel Saad, Retired Loan Officer and
Project Manager, North Africa Development Programs; Obang Metho,
Executive Director of the Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia; Bruce
Adams, Director, Office of Community Partnerships, Montgomery County;
Ngozi Nmezi, Director, DC Mayor’s Office on African Affairs, DC; Dr.
Getachew Begashaw, Professor of Economics at W.R. Harper College,
Chicago; and Greg Toulmin, Country Program, Coordinator for Ethiopia,
The World Bank Group.
Thursday, April 1, 6:00-8:00 p.m., at the National Woman’s Democratic
Club, 1526 New Hampshire Avenue, NW. Ten dollars for members; fifteen
dollars for nonmembers. Reserve by telephone, 232-7363, ext. 3003, or
online at
http://www.democraticwoman.org or
https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5880/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=423035.
###############
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