Finally DC Boosts Recycling Laws

D.C. to require cardboard, plastic recycling

By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
February 26, 2010

All property owners in the District -- commercial and residential -- will be required to separate cardboard and plastic containers from their regular trash under overhauled recycling regulations being proposed by the Fenty administration.

The revised rules also quadruple in some cases the fines for commercial property owners who repeatedly fail to properly recycle. Penalties for homeowners, generally $25, are not slated to change.

The amended regulations are an attempt to broaden the District's recycling collections and to discourage repeat commercial violations by holding down penalties for the first and second offenses, but hitting violators hard for subsequent wrongs.

The Department of Public Works in 2008 expanded the types of products it could recycle to include wide-mouth plastic containers, plastic toys, plastic lawn furniture and milk and juice cartons. But the agency only requires that newspaper, office paper, yard waste, metal and glass containers are separated from the regular garbage.

Plastic containers and cardboard can be tossed with the regular trash, for now, though some D.C. residents say they recycle those commodities today.

"I already do," said Tenleytown resident Beverly Sklover. "I would do it anyway. I think it's fabulous."

The District's fiscal 2009 residential recycling rate -- recyclables collected versus total trash thrown away -- was about 24 percent, according to DPW. But homeowners are responsible for only 30 percent of the District's trash.

The revised regulations target businesses, the most prolific trash producers, for more rigorous enforcement.

Amended fines for owners of commercial and apartment buildings would run from $200 for a first offense to $600 for a second within 60 days and $1,500 for a third within 60 days. Current penalties range from $25 to $1,000 per violation, depending on the size and type of building.

The District is right to save its harshest penalties for those who prove unresponsive to the rules, said W. Shaun Pharr, senior vice president of government affairs with the D.C. Apartment and Office Building Association. The size of the building, he said, "is completely unrelated to whether you've been making an effort to comply with the law."

The proposed rules are expected to be made available for public comment on March 5.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/D_C_-to-require-cardboard_-plastic-recycling-85429237.html

DC Property Tax Assessments

While paying taxes is a good thing - taxes can be a pain!

D.C. assessments drop, but some taxes will rise

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 27, 2010; B03

District residents will continue to see a drop in their property assessments, but about 22,000 homeowners can expect their yearly tax bills to go up an average $345 because of a new law, tax officials said Friday.

Those property owners have benefited from tax-relief programs, including a homestead deduction and a senior citizen tax break. In some cases, the combination of programs resulted in homeowners paying little or no taxes, said Richie McKeithen, director of real property tax administration in the Office of Tax and Revenue.

The D.C. Council approved legislation last year that requires homeowners to pay on at least 40 percent of a property's assessed value. That will lead to the $345 average increase, McKeithen said.

His office released assessments for tax year 2011 and began mailing tax bills Friday. Property owners will have until April 1 to appeal the assessments.

Overall property assessments, both residential and commercial, declined by 6 percent. Commercial property dropped 10.6 percent, and residential property slumped by 3.7 percent.

Four neighborhoods, all east of the Anacostia River, had double-digit declines in residential assessments. Hillcrest, the Ward 7 neighborhood of council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) and council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), led the decline at 15.3 percent, followed by Ward 8's Congress Heights (13.2 percent), Ward 7's Deanwood (12.6 percent) and Ward 7's Randle Heights (10.8 percent).

"They got slammed with a lot of foreclosures," McKeithen said. "It's hard to compete . . . when so many houses in foreclosure are on the market."

Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7) noted that the tax office defines the neighborhoods by their core and surrounding communities, so the decline in Hillcrest includes Penn Branch and other areas. "Unemployment is going up. People are losing their jobs. There are really a lot of social factors we need to look at," she said, adding that more education is needed to inform residents that foreclosure is not their only option.

Alexander said the new assessments could provide relief for residents whose tax bills will be lower, but they hurt residents trying to sell.

The new law that sets a 40 percent threshold is a "revenue raiser" but also tries to bring parity to the current tax system, said Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. Because of the tax breaks, "owners have seen their tax bills go up not at all or at a modest rate," Lazere said. The tax bill "will come as a shock, but it is still relatively low and significantly lower than their neighbors'."

The waning property values differed from the 2010 declines that spread in double digits to wards 1, 4 and 5. Residents of those wards saw their property values slide but at a slower pace, according to the data.

Three neighborhoods, Glover Park and Berkley in Ward 3 and Central in Ward 2, showed small increases. "These are west of the [Rock Creek] park . . . not far from Georgetown. Clearly, the market, the desire to be in these neighborhoods, was strong. As the market rectifies itself, you'll see it in those areas first," McKeithen said.

Commercially, increases and decreases were scattered throughout the city from Anacostia in Ward 8 to Brookland in Ward 5 to Palisades in Ward 2, although the declines were more dramatic than the gains.

"The good news is that we aren't seeing the large decreases of other cities around the country that are at 25 percent," McKeithen said. "Washington, D.C., is still a desirable place because of the influence of the government."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022605706_pf.html

DC Transportation Director - No Snow PLan

I take the following as a subtle admission that there was no plan........... ahhhh small government!! (or maybe it is small thinking government)....


District needs a major snow plan, transportation chief says

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 27, 2010; B01

The District has a plan for a snowfall of 18 inches or more: Major roads should be cleared to bare pavement within 36 hours and residential streets within 60 hours.

The problem is there's no plan for much, much more, such as the amount dumped on the region during the back-to-back storms earlier this month, said Gabe Klein, director of the District Department of Transportation.

"What we need is a different plan," he said. "A contingency plan. A major storm plan."

Klein acknowledged the weak spot at a D.C. Council committee hearing Friday on the city's recent snow removal efforts. Residents who testified complained of inconsistent street plowing, untouched alleys and sidewalks, and random trash collection.

The snowstorms proved a test for all the region's leaders. But Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) appeared to face much of the criticism, having set high expectations with his longtime focus on constituent services and the city's praised handling of a 20-inch snowstorm in December.

The Fenty administration initially stumbled during this month's first storm with an announcement that schools would remain open, a decision that was quickly reversed. It continues to be criticized for the menacing, Blob-like mounds of snow that remain on street corners, in alleys and between parked cars. A few residents brought photographs as proof.

Their complaints were backed by council members who questioned Klein and William O. Howland Jr., director of the Department of Public Works, about why some streets were plowed and others weren't.

"This is about these pockets that weren't dealt with," council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said. "In some cases, it was bizarre."

Klein said the record snow was too much for the city's equipment. The city has a supply of plows that were too large to squeeze through streets crammed by snow and ill-parked vehicles, he said. "There were, unfortunately, instances of plows hitting cars," Klein said.

City officials, led by Klein and Howland, realized that the District needed smaller heavy equipment. The city owns fewer than 10 small heavy-duty plows, Klein said, and contracted 56 more to help with snow removal.

In the future, the city might want to prohibit cars from parking on both sides of a residential street, Klein said, adding that it would have to weigh limiting parking against snow removal. When the city currently declares a snow emergency, vehicles are prohibited from parking on main roads, forcing them onto residential streets.

As for the alleys, Klein warned that plowing those back streets alone would have tripled the cost of removal.

Kathy Henderson, a former Ward 5 advisory neighborhood commissioner, praised the city's overall performance but said there should have been a plan for staffing during the storm. Henderson said she hated to wake up a driver asleep in his plow to tell him to get to a certain missed block "after your catnap."

She said residents who have been certified or trained to operate such equipment, including her, should be identified for emergencies. "I'd be willing to plow some streets," she said.

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, said sidewalks that were to be maintained by property owners must be addressed. He pointed to Freedom Plaza, the open-air park across from the John A. Wilson Building and overseen by the National Park Service. The sidewalks and park were not cleared until well after the last storm. "Totally ignored," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022605835_pf.html

From DC Department Transportation's Gabe Klein

Transportation chief says bikes, buses are way to go in D.C.

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 25, 2010; B01

It was, according to AAA, the worst commute since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Traffic in and out of Washington backed up for hours Feb. 12 on snow-blocked roads that had lost a lane or more. The frustration continued well into last week.

It was a grueling test for the District's young new transportation chief. Furious drivers complained that the city wasn't doing its job. But it wasn't the first time that Gabe Klein had annoyed motorists who thought he should do his job differently.

Rather than promoting driving, as he did previously as an executive for Zipcar, the car-sharing pioneer, Klein has been working to get vehicles off the road.

"Transportation has always been a field held captive by experts and engineers," said Harriet Tregoning, the city's planning director. For 50 years, the goals have been to enhance the road network to allow the largest number of cars. "Now, people have choices, and Gabe is saying, 'How do I get them to buy the things I'm selling?' "

Klein is selling an urban lifestyle that depends less than ever on cars and more on trains, buses, bicycles and walking. He is following the credo of like-minded transportation planners in Portland, Seattle and New York that public transit can revive ailing cities.

Klein is expanding the city's red, dollar-a-ride Circulator bus system beyond tourist destinations and into more neighborhoods. He's promoting car sharing and, with Tregoning's office, said he hopes to build on a bike-sharing pilot program with 1,000 new bicycles and 100 stations.

The changes have rankled drivers.

"There's an overly antagonistic attitude toward motorists right now," said Lon Anderson, public relations director for AAA. Among his beefs with Klein are higher parking meter rates, extending meter enforcement to Saturdays and evenings and a new lane along a portion of 15th Street NW devoted to bicyclists.

Forbes Maner, a lawyer whose street in the Spring Valley neighborhood was not plowed for 10 days after the Feb. 5 blizzard, agrees. He and his neighbors plowed it themselves, leaving some to park where they could -- in the wrong direction on Quebec Street. Last Friday, they were ticketed by a parking enforcement officer.

"People were willing to give the city some slack," Maner said. "But to come out and see that? It was a middle finger in our faces."

A year ago, Klein, the risky choice of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to lead the Department of Transportation, a high-profile city agency, had never held a government job, let alone managed a workforce of 1,000.

At 39, he is 15 years younger than some of his top deputies. But that might make the high-metabolism transportation czar a good fit in a city trying to attract people like him.

He assembled a new team devoted to "policy, planning and sustainability," a nod to transit projects he hopes will reduce pollution and cars. The most ambitious is a throwback to the days when streetcars were the city's primary mode of transportation: a 37-mile light rail line powered by overhead wires that would connect H Street, Benning Road NE and Anacostia. Full service is years away, but Klein is trying to fast-track a project he said will act as a catalyst for economic growth.

"There's a lot of things that go into making a city an attractive place to live," Klein said. "You have schools, public safety and high-quality transportation. People are realizing that what we had in our old cities is actually more sustainable than what we have now."

Klein drives his own Smart Car two or three times a week, calling the silver two-seater a "lazy asset." He prefers to walk the eight blocks to the office from his condo in Columbia Heights or ride one of his five bikes, which include a Vespa scooter. He's geek and hippie rolled into one, bag over his shoulder, BlackBerry glued to his ear, wearing rumpled shirts and less-than-perfectly tailored corduroy suits.

The laid-back sartorial style and get-things-done metabolism come from a childhood on a yoga commune in Charlottesville and an entrepreneur father who owned a bike store and sold a form of electric tape he had found in Japan.

After receiving undergraduate and business degrees from Virginia Tech, Klein served as D.C. regional vice president for Zipcar from 2002 to 2006, then co-founded a boutique company that specializes in healthy on-the-go meals sold from green carts around Washington.

Under Klein, the Transportation Department's bureaucracy communicates through Facebook, e-mail and Twitter, updating constituents on snow-clearing operations and new projects.

A new, more transparent Web site was launched Wednesday, with budgets and schedules for every road, bridge and transit project, including those that veer off schedule, along with explanations why. There's a YouTube primer on how to pay the new, high-tech parking meters on U Street, featuring Klein himself.

There was Klein during the snowstorm that had begun the morning of Feb. 5, guarding a downed traffic light on Capitol Hill at 2 a.m. until police arrived. As snow pelted the city again five days later, he took a photo of a huge tree that had crushed a parked van in Columbia Heights after narrowly missing a man shoveling. The image went up on the Transportation Department's Facebook page to warn people of the dangerous conditions.

"Gabe's a consumerist," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), chairman of the Public Works and Transportation Committee. "In terms of responding to residents, he's remarkably talented."

Klein acknowledged that higher parking meter rates, now $2 an hour, are designed in part to send drivers a message to change their behavior. "If everybody drives a car all the time, it's not going to be very pleasant," he said.

But he noted that the department, with the help of federal stimulus money, has three-quarters of a billion dollars in road and bridge projects underway, including a rebuilt New York Avenue and a new bridge over 11th Street.

Klein defends his agency's snow-clearing effort, shared with the Department of Public Works. "I think we did a spectacular job, give the forecasts we had to deal with," he said. He acknowledged that the Feb. 12 commute "was bad everywhere. "

"But after three feet of snow, the commute is not going to be normal," he said.

There have been some missteps. The department announced last fall that a budget shortfall would force the closure of the H Street shuttle, a popular express bus downtown, only to restore the service days after a public outcry.

A Circulator route on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown also met its demise and a quick resurrection with a mayoral news conference.

Klein said he's also learning to negotiate thorny neighborhood politics with a baptism by fire over speed bumps in Chevy Chase. He set a block-by-block standard for installing traffic-slowing devices.

The controversy had a silver lining. It led Klein to set aside up to $3 million for comprehensive studies of 24 neighborhoods to determine whether they need traffic calming, starting with Chevy Chase. He says it's part of the effort to encourage families to move back to the District. If they're worried that their children aren't safe from speeding cars, they will stay away, he said.

RheeFenty Evans Ellington School Drama - Round & Round We Go

Scroll to the bottom for the Post article that got the ball rolling - chronological from bottom to top most recent -

Ellington arts school staying put for now, Rhee says

By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 22, 2010; B01

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, moving Thursday to quell a storm of protest, said that the District has no immediate plans to move the Duke Ellington School of the Arts out of Georgetown but that it hopes to eventually build a new facility to replace the school's century-old home.

"Ellington will stay in Georgetown for the foreseeable future," said Rhee, who is scheduled to meet with members of the school's governing board Friday.

Rhee has been inundated with calls and e-mails from the school community since The Washington Post reported Sunday that the District had studied the cost of moving Ellington to the former Logan Elementary School building on G Street NE, near Union Station.

News of the possible relocation of Ellington, which draws its 85 percent African American enrollment from across the city for renowned music, dance, visual arts and theater programs, touched nerves still raw from the recent debate over Hardy Middle School, just two blocks to the north. Rhee triggered criticism last month when she announced the future replacement of Hardy Principal Patrick Pope, who oversees an art and music program that also draws a primarily African American student body. Looking to market the school more effectively to neighborhood families, Rhee announced that the principal of Georgetown's Hyde-Addison Elementary will run both schools next year. Many Hardy parents accused Rhee of trying to squeeze black students out of the newly remodeled Hardy, which she denied.

Ellington school leaders said word of the relocation study took them by surprise. Michaele C. Christian, president of the school's governing board, told Rhee in a letter Wednesday that she was "appalled" by the possible move, which had been considered without consulting the school community. She called the Logan site "woefully inadequate" and said the move "would eviscerate one of the most outstanding educational institutions in the District."

"Once again," Christian wrote, "we find ourselves distracted from the task at hand, creating the highest quality education that we can provide to our students, by politics and innuendo."

Rory Pullens, the head of Ellington, told parents in an e-mail Wednesday that any attempt to relocate the school will be fought. "We, as an institution, will not idly stand by while such plans are taking place and not have our voices heard!"

After speaking with Rhee on Thursday, however, Christian's tone moderated. "My understanding is there have been preliminary discussions about Ellington's needs, which are significant. And they were exploring various options for addressing those facilities' needs. I look forward to an opportunity sit down with the chancellor to address any residual concerns to put this all to rest."

Rhee declined to comment on The Post's report, based on a source knowledgeable with the internal discussions, that school construction czar Allen Y. Lew had been asked to develop a scenario for moving Ellington to Logan. She also declined to respond to D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who said in the same article that he supported the idea of moving Ellington to a more central location and opening a traditional neighborhood high school at the Georgetown site.

Rhee said the long-term solution for Ellington remains a new building, something the District can't afford right now. Anacostia, Wilson, Woodson and Eastern high schools are all undergoing complete reconstructions or major renovations over the next two years.

School officials say the cost of a new building, complete with a theater, dance and recording studios and numerous other arts-related needs, would be between $75 million and $85 million.

"I'm very clear that what the school needs is a great state-of-the-art facility," Rhee said. "If and when it becomes possible to do that funding-wise, we will fully engage with the Ellington community to make sure that where it's done and how it's done pleases the vast majority."

Addressing the controversy in an interview Thursday, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) was somewhat more open-ended than Rhee in his comments. He said it was "too early" to say whether -- or how long -- Ellington would stay in Georgetown. Asked if he could guarantee parents that the school, which is scheduled to be renovated in 2012, would remain in Georgetown beyond that year, Fenty said: "No, in fact, the opposite. We're exploring all options for all of our schools."

But Rhee said there was no daylight between herself and the mayor on the issue. "We're always looking for the best options for all of our facilities."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104778.html



From The Washington Post web site - D.C. Schools Insider blog by Bill Turque, dated January 21, 2010:

Fenty: Ellington not going anywhere, yet

I caught up with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty this morning and asked him to address the uproar over discussions about the possible relocation of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.The takeaway seemed to be that nothing is imminent, but that the condition of Ellington's 1898-vintage building raises questions about the school's long-term future in Georgetown.

Here is the entire conversation, which took place after a mid-morning groundbreaking for a new playground at the Arboretum Recreation Center in Northeast:

BT: The Duke Ellington community is pretty upset by what they've read recently.Can you shed any light at all on what the District's intentions are long term?

AF: I can't. I can't really shed any light, any more light, than what you've written in your articles, which I've been briefed on.

BT: Do you anticipate Ellington moving any time in the foreseeable future?

AF: I would just say it's too early to know what the entire future of all of our high school projects are. Our general commitment is that all of our high schools are going to get complete renovations and modernizations and Duke Ellington is long overdue.

BT: Duke Ellington is scheduled for renovations in 2012. But can you guarantee that Ellington will remain in Georgetown [after renovations]?

AF: No, in fact, the opposite We're exploring all options for all of our schools.

BT: What's wrong with it where it is?

AF:There's nothing wrong with the location. The building is completely run down and needs an overhaul. I think we're at stages now like we are with a lot of our high schools, looking at what is the best way to get a fantastic building for the Ellington students as quickly as humanly possible.

BT: Do foresee them at Logan temporarily?

AF: Again, I can't even commit to that. It's that early. We've got about four high schools, maybe more, that have broken broken ground. It's only those high schools we can discuss. The other ones, I have to defer to my facilities and programmatic experts who are kind of working everything out. Once they have something more concrete they'll present it to me, and if it makes sense then we'll present it to the greater community.

BT: Would you like to, like Councilman Evans has expressed, see a traditional, comprehensive high school in Ward Two around that location?

AF: One of things we want to do as we start to turn over the population, we've just gotten to the point where the population of the school system is growing, is to find ways to create more schools, that's elementary schools, middle schools and high schools.

BT: So you can see something like what the councilman is talking about?

AF: I can see in the future of the school system, and we've talked about this for the last three years, you know we had to make the consolidations early on. We just had too many schools close to each other, the resources were bring spread too thin. So going forward what we really hope is that as the population of the school system continues to grow, we'll do things like we've done at Oyster-Adams and other places where we have double campuses, open new elementary schools, new middle schools and yes even open new high schools. We're not at that point yet but it's the right goal for the city and I support it.

Follow D.C. Schools Insider every day at http://washingtonpost.com/dcschoolsinsider.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/01/_btthe_duke_ellington_communit.html

From The Washington Post web site - D.C. Schools Insider blog by Bill Turque, dated January 20, 2010:

Ellington principal: "We will not stand idly by"

Duke Ellington head of school Rory L. Pullens hasn't returned my e-mails or phone messages to discuss the possible relocation of the Georgetown arts school, described Sunday in The Post. But he and members of the school's governing board, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project (DESAP), which met Tuesday, have plenty to say to the Fenty Administration, the D.C. Council and Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.

Here's what Pullens sent home to parents Wednesday:

"I am sure that many of you are well aware of the newspaper article that ran in last Sunday's Washington Post about the possible relocation of Duke Ellington. We, as an institution, will not idly stand by while such plans are taking place and not have our voices be heard! I met with our governing DESAP Board on Jan. 19, and among the many strategies we are employing, is the attached letter to Mayor Fenty, Chancellor Rhee, City Council, and others. This presents our official response and expectations of resolution. I will keep you posted on future developments in this most critical matter. Thank you for all your support today, and that support which may be needed in the future."

And here's the letter, signed by DESAP board president Michaele Christian:

"Dear Ms. Rhee:

I write on behalf of the Board of Directors of Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project, as well as the entire school community, to tell you that we were appalled by recent reports of a well developed proposal to move Ellington to a new location from its home at 3500 R Street, NW. Such a move, particularly to a facility as woefully inadequate as the suggested new site of Logan School, would eviscerate one of the most outstanding educational institutions in the District. It is shocking to us that the board of the school was not deeply engaged in even preliminary discussions, much less a fully developed plan, of such consequence to the future of the school, its students, and the entire Ellington community. Once again, we find ourselves distracted from the task at hand, creating the highest quality education that we can provide to our students, by politics and innuendo. We urge you and other District officials to recognize that Ellington's contribution to the education of a generation of talented students, as well as its tremendous success, in the face of continuing obstacles, in managing a dual curriculum of college preparatory academics and pre-professional arts instruction for its current student population of nearly 500, and to work with us, not against us, to create a world-class program.

Those who believe that Ellington can simply be moved to any other building do not understand the needs of a comprehensive arts high school. In addition to a college preparatory academic program, Ellington offers a wide variety of performing and visual arts programs that have special space needs. Since its inception, Ellington has worked within the current building structure to reach a point where, although it is certainly not perfect, does provide many of the facilities Ellington requires. Indeed, in the last five years, Ellington - together with its partners the Kennedy Center, The George Washington University, and many individual and corporate donors - has donated approximately $700,000 in funds and in-kind contributions to create such venues as a recording studio, a television studio, a professionally equipped theater, and a gallery to accommodate visual art works and the only high school museum studies program in the country. DCPS has also invested in Ellington, as a performing arts high school, by spending substantial sums to renovate high quality dance studios and other performance venues. Such facilities cannot be found in any other high school in the city.

If Ellington were to relocate, it should only be to a building that truly addresses the requirements of a school with Ellington's unique mission. These requirements would include:

-A safe location in which the school can safely operate a program that starts early and regularly involves student practice and rehearsals into the late night hours and weekends;
-A fully equipped performing arts theatre (not simply a school auditorium) with space for both rehearsal and technical design and production of major theatrical events, along with a black box theatre space and music recital hall;
-Several high quality dance studios;
-Several visual arts studios for both 2D and 3D art, graphic design and animation capabilities;
-A variety of large and small settings for vocal and instrumental music classes and practice rooms, insulated to keep sound from traveling;
-A full service audio recording studio and television production studio;
-A gallery for the exhibition of fine arts.

An example of such a facility is the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a performing arts high school in New York City recently built at a cost of approximately $78 million.

In addition, basic non-instructional operations costs including those for security, maintenance, cleaning and transportation to our partner institutions (George Washington University and the Kennedy Center) would increase with any move. As you know, our budget has not kept pace with our costs, to the point that we had to furlough teachers and staff this year. We are very concerned about the potential threat to our core curriculum that such additional costs would pose.

If the District cannot afford to build a new facility, then Ellington should remain in its present location and the District should proceed with the major renovation scheduled for 2012 to make this building an even better performing arts high school.

In stark contrast to a facility that would serve Ellington's needs is the Logan School, an elementary school built in 1935 whose sole qualification is its vacancy. Logan has none of the requirements listed above for a performing arts high school. While Logan could likely be renovated for purposes suitable to a school with only an academic program, no amount of renovation can change its location and structural deficiencies that make it unsuitable for a school with an arts and academic mission. In short, Logan is simply unacceptable. Ellington has a long history in its current location. It has successfully attracted students from all of the city's wards and, indeed, has had record applications in the past two years, including large numbers of students from outside D.C. public schools, and even the city.

In closing, as you might imagine, the entire Ellington community is now in complete upheaval over these recent events. The DESAP board would like to have an urgent meeting with you and other relevant city officials to discuss this nascent plan, and would also request that you meet with our parents and staff soon thereafter. The DESAP board will attempt to make itself available at a time of your choosing over the next few days. Please let us know which other city officials you feel should be present. In the press, Mayor Fenty and Jack Evans have been identified as participants in this planning, though of course Ellington is a citywide school and others will undoubtedly want to be involved. Meaningful engagement with Ellington on this critical issue has been lacking to date. The location of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and its facilities are far too important not to be addressed in a thorough and deliberative manner, and the involvement of those who know how to operate a performing arts high school with a full academic curriculum is essential. Please let us know how to proceed to schedule these meetings as soon as possible so that we can all get back to educating our students.

Sincerely,

Michaele C Christian, M.D.
On behalf of the DESAP Board of Directors

cc: Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Mayor Adrian Fenty
Council Chairman Vincent Gray
Councilmember Jack Evans
Councilmember Yvette Alexander
Councilmember Marion Barry
Councilmember Muriel Bowser
Councilmember Kwame R. Brown
Councilmember Michael A. Brown
Councilmember David Catania
Councilmember Mary M. Cheh
Councilmember Jim Graham
Councilmember Phil Mendelson
Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr.
Councilmember Tommy Wells

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By Bill Turque | January 20, 2010; 8:12 PM ET



From The Washington Post web site - D.C. Schools Insider blog by Bill Turque, dated January 19, 2010:

Cafritz "stunned" by Ellington scenario

Duke Ellington School of the Arts co-founder Peggy Cooper Cafritz says that if the District is contemplating a move for the Georgetown school, it is doing so without speaking to any of its partners.

"No one has spoken to me or to the chairman of the board," said Cafritz, referring to Michaele Christian, president of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project (DESAP) board, one of two that helps govern and finance the institution along with the District.

The Post reported Sunday that District officials have estimated the cost of moving Ellington into the former Logan Elementary School near Union Station, with an eye toward turning its current home into a traditional neighborhood high school for Ward 2. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) backs the idea.

District officials have so far said only that there are a number of different scenarios they are looking at for Logan. But Cafritz, a former D.C. school board president, said she was reliably informed over the weekend -- she declined to say by who -- that school construction czar Allen Y. Lew had also commissioned drawings that show what Logan would look like as a new home for Ellington, but without the input of anyone connected with the school or familiar with its needs. (I have a request in to speak with Lew)

Cafritz said she was "stunned" by the Sunday article, and the idea that the much smaller Logan could ever be a suitable location for Ellington.

"I've had tons of meetings in Logan," she said. "It's absurd. It's beyond the pale." Cafritz said that while she supports Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, she added: "This administration has a tendency to decide it is going to do something and then to just do it."

The issue will almost certainly come up at tonight's meeting of the DESAP board, she said.

By Bill Turque | January 19, 2010; 8:17 AM ET

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/01/cafritz_stunned_by_ellington_s.html





And the article that kicked it off:

Ellington arts school might be moved out of D.C.'s Ward 2

By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 17, 2010; C01

The District is studying the possibility of moving the Duke Ellington School of the Arts out of Georgetown and converting the building at 35th and R streets NW into a high school to serve Ward 2 families.

Representatives of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and school construction czar Allen Y. Lew said no decision has been made and that there are no immediate plans for a move. But Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) strongly backs the idea, and a source familiar with the discussions, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from officials in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration for discussing internal deliberations, said Lew's office has developed cost estimates for relocating Ellington to the former Logan Elementary School building on G Street NE near Union Station.

Logan housed the School Without Walls for two years before the high school returned to its newly renovated Foggy Bottom building in the fall.

Tony Robinson, a spokesman for Lew, and Jennifer Calloway, Rhee's spokeswoman, issued identical statements Friday: "The Administration has no current plans for the Logan School, but as it has recently become vacant with the return of SWW to their renovated Foggy Bottom Campus, we are beginning to research an exhaustive list of possibilities for the building."

Pressed about cost and who asked for the study, Robinson said, "That's all they would let me say." Robinson said he was referring to Fenty's office.

Ellington is unique among District public schools: It is operated as a joint partnership between the city, the Kennedy Center and George Washington University. Co-founded in 1974 by former school board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz and the late director-choreographer Mike Malone, it draws its nearly 500 students from across the city for traditional academics and an intensive program of vocal and instrumental music, dance, visual arts and theater. Many faculty members are working artists, and alumni include comedian Dave Chappelle and opera star Denyce Graves. Incoming students must audition as part of the admissions process.

Word of discussions about Ellington's future comes as Rhee has been working to retain a larger proportion of Ward 2 families in the public school system after they leave the elementary grades. In November, she replaced Patrick Pope, principal of nearby Hardy Middle School, which has an art and music program that also draws a primarily African American student body from outside Ward 2. Looking to market the school more effectively to neighborhood families, Rhee announced that Pope would be succeeded at the end of the school year by Dana Nerenberg, principal of Georgetown's Hyde-Addison Elementary, who would run both schools.

Parents at Hardy, which completed a $48 million renovation, have said that Rhee is trying to squeeze African American students out of the middle school, a claim she denies.

Evans has long supported converting Ellington -- the former Western High School -- back into a regular "comprehensive" high school and moving the arts magnet to a new home in a more central location for its citywide student body. He points out that Ward 2 is the city's only ward without a neighborhood high school.

"I would say yes, I'm interested in exploring the opportunity to create a new Ellington at a more centralized location and a new full-service high school for Ward 2," Evans said. He added that he is at "the very beginning stages" of discussing the idea with Rhee and Fenty (D) but then said: "Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee move quickly on things. Things happen fast."

Ellington Principal Rory Pullens did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.

Some Ellington parents said they had heard rumors of a possible move and found them disturbing.

"Most of the parents I talked to are not happy, not happy at all," said Glennette Clark, a Ward 5 resident whose daughter is a junior literary media major. She has scheduled a "living room meeting" next month for Rhee to speak with some Ellington parents.

"Our feelings are that this is more an economically driven" move, Clark said. "Times being what they are, parents in that community want their kids to be able to go to a school that they don't have to pay for."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011602748.html

More Columbia Heights Busineses That Can't Shovel Snow (Money, yes)

Across the street from Red Rocks isn't much better - some hip food establishment is going in but the crew can't even shovel out proper parking spaces. These pictures are more than a week after snow has stopped falling - not enough time to shovel?

Businesses That Can't Clear Their Sidewalk - Red Rocks

Red Rocks in Columbia Heights promotes itself as part of the new hip world - but that doesn't include a proper clearing of the sidewalk around the business a week after the snow stopped. It would seem to me that within one week of the snow stopping they could afford to make the sidewalks totally clear of snow and perhaps even clean up the crosswalk entrances that many of their customers use. All photos taken on Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Waiting For Trash Pick Up - Many Didn't Get The Memo - Feb 17, 2010 photos

Many did not get the Fentyland memo about no trash collection from the alley this week, let alone no recycling pick up at all - citywide, all trash is to be left in the front of the house, "on the curb". As the curb is commonly buried, somewhere visible near the street is more accurate. The folks above are very neat and orderly even if they didn't get the memo, a trait not universally shared:

Fentyman Gets Real With The Budget - Free The Prisoners!

Fenty offers cuts, strategies to bridge $200M gap

By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
February 19, 2010

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Fenty-offers-cuts_-strategies-to-bridge-_200M-gap-84743772.html#ixzz0fyt09RpW

Mayor Adrian Fenty's strategy to close a $200 million-plus shortfall this fiscal year includes releasing inmates from jail early, removing students attending costly private schools outside the District at taxpayers' expense and resuming some Medicaid billing.

In a Feb. 10 letter to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, Fenty proposed closing to the gap in three parts: a $99 million reduction in agency spending, an $85 million to $100 million redirection of dedicated fund revenues — like the tree or fishing license fund — to the general fund, and an order to department chiefs to "reduce spending pressures significantly." Spending pressures are costs, like overtime, incurred by departments above their approved spending plans.

The Fenty plan would "reduce the number of students in non-public placements" to save $11.4 million. The Department of Corrections would "reduce the number of inmates in the [D.C. Jail] by implementing Good Credits" to save $2.2 million. The Child and Family Services Agency would resume Medicaid billing, generating $2.6 million.

In another case, though the District has agreed to pay $12 million this year to settle with hog-tied World Bank demonstrators, Fenty explains: "Typically, a portion of settlement is not claimed, reducing payment cost."

"This just seems like gimmicks to me," said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson. "This isn't dealing with the problem. Nobody's home. Nobody's taking responsibility for adhering to the budget."

The administration is scheduled to brief the council Friday, but expectations for the hearing were lopped this week when council members learned only City Administrator Neil Albert would appear on behalf of the executive. Gray had requested the appearance of a dozen agency chiefs.

Putting Albert in the room alone symbolizes Fenty's lack of respect for the council, Gray told The Examiner on Thursday. There is no way, he said, "that the city administrator is going to be able to sit there and talk about the details that an agency director would."

Fenty spokeswoman Mafara Hobson declined comment, except to confirm that Albert "is the only one."

The District faces a projected $200 million to $230 million shortfall this year and a $550 million-plus deficit the next. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi's February revenue forecast, expected next week, is likely to offer a still darker outlook.

Gray said he lacks confidence in the executive's grasp of the financial crisis.

"I think there's questions whether they've effectively analyzed the nature of these problems," the chairman said.

mneibauer@washingtonexaminer.com

Congresspeople To Eat School Lunch

USDA to offer members of Congress a taste of school lunches

By Jane Black
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 11, 2009; A07

Chicken fajita strips, sliced ham and canned green beans: That's what's for lunch one day next week for some lawmakers and congressional staffers, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The menu offers the same products, known as commodity foods, that the agency provides every day to public schools across the nation.

The goal of next week's tasting is to show lawmakers the improvements the department has made in the nutritional quality -- and taste -- of the $1.2 billion in school commodity foods and to win support to fund further improvements. With one-third of American children overweight or obese, the USDA has been working to cut salt and fat and provide more fruits and vegetables.

"These guys are moving in the right direction," said Tony Geraci, food service director for Baltimore City public schools and a pioneer for healthful foods in schools. "Is it fixed? Hell, no. But at least now we're having conversations about this. Before, it was straight-up stonewalling."

The tasting is also an attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of the commodity foods program, which provides 15 to 20 percent of the food served in U.S. school cafeterias. Officially called USDA Foods, the program has long been perceived as a conflict of interest in the department's mission: to support American farmers and ranchers while overseeing nutrition programs for low-income families and schoolchildren.

Is the program a way to distribute meats, cheeses and other commodities that couldn't find a buyer on the open market? Or is the department really making choices based on public health?

Improving the quality of food provided free to schools is important at a time when school budgets are being squeezed. President Obama has proposed an additional $1 billion for child nutrition programs, including school lunch, in his 2010 budget.

But in the face of a projected federal deficit of $1.3 trillion , even the strongest supporters of school-lunch reform say that Congress is unlikely to approve a substantial funding increase when it takes up the issue next year.

To prepare for the Capitol Hill debut next week, the USDA offered samples to Secretary Tom Vilsack, who tried more than a dozen products, including canned green beans, apple slices and hamburger patties.

On paper, anyway, the green beans looked good. They are formulated to meet USDA specifications and have 64 percent less sodium than commercially available canned beans. For the 2010 school year, the agency has mandated that canned vegetables have no more than 140 milligrams of sodium per serving, 71 percent fewer than in the Food and Drug Administration's "healthy" standard.

The hamburger patties, developed for a pilot program last year to help fight childhood obesity, were 95 percent lean. The most similar commercial beef patty available is 92 percent lean.

The USDA offers more than 180 fresh and processed foods to schools, up from 54 in 1981. The products are provided to schools free, based on the number of students eligible for government assistance. Schools buy the rest of their ingredients from commercial suppliers.

School food directors say the quality of available commodities is excellent -- if schools choose wisely. The USDA offers high-quality dried fruits, nuts, brown rice, legumes and unprocessed meat, among other things.

Last month, the USDA announced that as part of the bonus commodity program, which is part of the commodity foods program and allows the agency to buy surplus food to help support prices for farmers, it would make available $33 million worth of apples, tart cherries and dried plums to schools and other programs. Some of the cherries will be processed into cherry-apple juice, with no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners, for schools.

At least one challenge remains: persuading schools to embrace the more healthful options. Many schools lack kitchens and are at most capable of reheating prepared items. And many school food service directors do not have nutrition or culinary training.

They also know that they can sell more trays of greasy pizza and french fries to students than fruits and vegetables, a tactic that helps keep tight budgets in line. As food service director Geraci said: "If you have 20,000 lunch ladies that just want to open up a box of chicken nuggets, they're going to keep making them."

To encourage more healthful choices, the USDA is awaiting help from Congress when it takes up the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act next year. As part of the legislation, lawmakers are considering a measure that would allow the department to set strict standards for all food sold in schools, including vending machine fare. They are also considering how much new money to allocate to the $12 billion annual program.

Vilsack said he hopes Congress will make more money available.

"The nutritional value of these foods is going to be a little bit more expensive," said Vilsack, who said that he expects costs will rise as more students are granted access to free or reduced-price meals. "We've been making progress on the food safety side and on the nutrition side. But to take the next steps, it's going to require more resources."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/10/AR2009121001956.html

Fenty and Graham Snow Buddies?

From the Columbia Heights list serve, a reasonable question:

This morning in the Post, Mr. Graham praises Fenty's snow removal effort. A couple of days ago Fenty was on tv with with one council member by his side - Mr. Graham.
I know many people in Ward 1 who think the snow removal by the city has been less than stellar - so what does Graham get for praising Fenty and standing by his side when others won't? Does Fenty have something on Graham? I mean Fenty's ratings are going down according to the Post, so what is to be gained by being the go to person for support?

"Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said Fenty adopted a hands-on approach, which enabled him to personally oversee snow-removal efforts. "The mayor was 100 percent engaged," Graham said Thursday. "He worked tirelessly. What you had is the mayor himself in charge of the operation." "

Private School Seeks Public Space

An editorial from the Northwest Current, December 9, 2009, followed by a response a week later:


A dream of fields

Neighbors have rejected the Maret School’s proposal to construct an athletic field at Ward 4’s Upshur Park in exchange for exclusive access to the space from 3:30 to 6 p.m. during the school year.

While we thought Maret’s plan was worthy of consideration, we respect the residents’ decision and appreciate the considerate way all parties handled the discussion.

Access to parkland is a sticky subject in Northwest D.C., where many private entities find playing fields scarce and residents carefully guard their public spaces. Any plan that would appear to take over a public park is certain to face resistance, especially when a well funded private school is behind it.

Even though Maret requested access for only two-and-a-half hours a day, the idea of restrictions on a public field can be unappealing to many.

Residents were also understandably concerned that the changes to the park would make it less useful to the community. And some noted that the work could impact the D.C. Parks and Recreation Department’s plans to rebuild a playground and install a dog park there.

Maret officials said they are always looking for fields and would still be interested if community members change their minds. Perhaps once the city-funded work — expected to begin in the spring — is done, the parties can revisit the idea.

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/NW%20Dec.%209%203.pdf

(page 12)


From the Northwest Current, December 16, 2009:

Maret field proposal was not fully vetted

VIEWPOINT
CHARLES G. MYERS

Your Dec. 9 editorial “A dream of fields” started with a misconception. Neighbors did not reject the Maret School’s proposal to construct a first-class athletic field at Ward 4’s Upshur Park in exchange for exclusive access to the space from 3:30 to 6 p.m. weekdays during the school year. In fact, Ward 4 Council member Muriel Bowser rejected the proposal without consulting the neighborhood at large.

I have lived four blocks from the park for 35 years and raised two children without the benefit of adequate park or athletic field space in our neighborhood. I am currently a member of the board of the Friends of 16th Street Heights Parks and was present when representatives from Maret presented their proposal to our group in August. This was several months after their initial presentation to us in a meeting at the Department of Parks and Recreation headquarters.

After much discussion, we concluded that the existence of too many opinions — ranging from enthusiastic support to pointed skepticism — prevented the group from taking a formal position on the proposal. Instead, we recommended that community meetings be held to obtain a broader sense of our neighbors’ thoughts on the proposal’s value.

This was conveyed to Council member Bowser in a meeting in early September that included Ximna Hartsock, then interim director of the parks department. The proposal had been sketchily presented at an Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4C meeting a month earlier, but it was the last topic at 9:30 p.m., after all but a few of the attendees had left, and it had not even been on the published agenda.

Maret’s proposal to the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation was to spend as much as an estimated $4 million to construct an artificial turf field, substantially larger than the current field, without encroaching on the 2010 plans to rebuild the pool and park space already there. The school said the area would be large enough for overlapping full-size baseball, football and soccer fields. Maret expected exclusive use of the field for two-and-a-half hours weekdays during the school year and roughly five hours on three or four Saturdays in the fall. It also planned to use the field some of the two weeks before Labor Day, although that time was never specifically defined. The Department of Parks and Recreation would then have been able to manage the remaining time for both open community use and permits for use by youth and adult sports groups.

The project promised to solve a number of problems the community has faced for many years. The current softball field and tiny soccer play space are mud holes in wet weather and too small for use by any sport other than baseball for 10-year-olds. Youth sports organizations in our neighborhood suffer from a shortage of quality athletic fields, and we have no artificial turf field in Ward 4. The Columbia Heights community has few parks large enough for pickup soccer games.

The arrangement would have provided Maret exclusive access for approximately 12 percent of daylight hours during the year and would have been in place for 10 years. After this, Maret would have relinquished all rights unless an extension was negotiated. The community would have gotten a first-class field maintained by private funds while benefiting thousands of children and adults within our community — at no cost to the taxpayer.

After the meeting in September, Council member Bowser told the Department of Parks and Recreation that she did not want to pursue this opportunity. I asked her why in a conversation several weeks later. She said the community did not want it. I pointed out that the community members had never been given a chance to voice their opinions in a public meeting with the proposal fully visible.

It is unfortunate that our neighborhood was not given an opportunity to review the proposal and to decide its value for ourselves.

Charles G. Myers is a resident of Crestwood.

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/NW%20Dec.%2016%201.pdf

page 11

Fenty Hanky Panky

Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Northwest Current
Council refuses to ratify contract

■ Parks: Legislators return
project funding to agency

By ELIZABETH WIENER
Current Staff Writer


The D.C. Council yesterday refused to ratify a controversial construction management contract to oversee a dozen stalled park and recreation projects. Council members said the $4.2 million contract with Banneker Ventures is, in the words of Ward 3 member Mary Cheh, “irregular and unlawful — on all levels unacceptable.”

The council then voted to return funding for the individual projects to the embattled Department of Parks and Recreation. Actual construction will be overseen by the Office of Public Education Facilities Management, headed by Allen Lew, who has won wide praise for actually getting numerous facilities renovated or built.

“This is not a perfect solution, but it allows projects to move forward without circumventing the laws of the District of Columbia,” said Ward 5 member Harry Thomas, who chairs the committee on parks and recreation. “We resent having the council put in the position to clean up a mess not of our own making.”

“We have projects with clearly problematic contracts, and on the other hand, communities promised these projects,” said Council Chairman Vincent Gray.

Tuesday’s unanimous vote was the latest step in a saga that began in October, when the council learned that nearly $50 million in parks department funding had been funneled through the city’s economic development office to the D.C. Housing Authority — all without council approval.

The total amount at issue is now close to $100 million. The council is supposed to review all contracts for more than $1 million. Tuesday’s vote rejected a $4.2 million program management contract awarded to Banneker Ventures, which was supposed to oversee individual park projects across the city.

Attorney General Peter Nickles asked the council last Friday to approve the contracts retroactively. Without emergency action, he said, the individual projects would run out of money and be stalled.

They include improvements to Justice Park and the Parkview Recreation Center in Ward 1; parks at 7th and N streets and 10th Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Ward 2; the Guy Mason Recreation Center and Newark Street dog park in Ward 3; Raymond Recreation Center in Ward 4; and five more facilities in the eastern part of the city.

Nickles said emergency action was needed because the council froze the transfer of funds for the projects while it investigated the contracting scandal.

“Abandoning any of the projects would likely result in additional costs due to civil actions and claims from involved parties,” the attorney general wrote. He recommended quick council action “to avoid construction delays, community frustration and costly litigation.”

But the council was not swayed. It takes nine votes to pass emergency legislation, but even normally reliable allies of Mayor Adrian Fenty and his administration would not buy in.

“We cannot move the city forward on the basis of illegal contracts,” said at-large member Michael Brown, a frequent Fenty critic.

The council will also ask Nickles to conduct a “full investigation” of possible illegalities. Cheh said the inquiry could result in the recovery of money already spent and “consequences” for city employees who approved “unlawful actions.”

An oversight hearing last Thursday revealed further irregularities like those that have already eroded the council’s confidence in the handling of capital dollars. The project management contract awarded to Banneker Ventures has caused particular concern.

For example, council members learned that Liberty Engineering and Design, a subcontractor for Banneker, has already received some payments in violation of the original contract. That document says subcontractors can’t be paid until their individual contracts are approved by the housing authority — which hasn’t happened yet.

Housing authority officials testified that Banneker submitted six invoices after its contract was finalized in July, some reflecting work done before the contract was officially signed. Four were paid, according to Deborah Toothman, the housing authority’s chief financial officer.

The total paid so far is $1.9 million, including $387,850 invoiced for Liberty Engineering, owned by Sinclair Skinner, an outspoken friend and fraternity brother of the mayor. Omar Karim, Banneker’s founder, testified that Skinner is also a friend of his, and had
worked as a volunteer for his firm two years ago.

Adrianne Todman, the housing authority’s interim executive director, said she read the Banneker Venture contract this fall, realized that subcontractors like Liberty should not be paid yet, and held up payment of the last two invoices. “Prior to my reading, there was some misinterpretation [of the contract] among my colleagues,” Todman testified.

Skinner was asked to appear at the hearing, but he declined. He will be subpoenaed for another council oversight session Dec. 21.

The council also learned that, on the eve of its latest oversight session, the housing authority board voted to approve an amended contract with Banneker, upping the total cost of projects it would oversee from $50 million to $99 million. Under questioning, officials said the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development requested the action.

Todman said parks projects added to the original contract had increased that contract’s scope, and the board needed to approve the increased dollars before the document was presented to the council. “The intent is that the contract that would finally get to the council reflect the full scope,” she testified. “The intent is to be more transparent.”

Again, council members were skeptical. “I was flabbergasted when [economic development officials] recommended they increase it from $50 to $99 million,” said Ward 8 member Marion Barry. “What made you think this was the solution?”

“You’re just giving away the people’s money,” said at-large member Kwame Brown. “Whoever signed this contract should be fired. And in the middle of this, the DCHA board approves a bigger contract?”

Council members also pointed out that some of the projects in the Banneker contract were either not approved by the council — a separate process from approving contacts — or not funded for the current year.

In response to queries from The Current, a spokesperson for the economic development office
acknowledged a “mistake” in plans to upgrade the Chevy Chase Recreation Center and playgrounds on Livingston Street, one of the projects assigned to the housing authority and then to Banneker Ventures.

Spokesperson Sean Madigan said his office had submitted a “reprogramming” request to the council last February to move funding for the project up from 2012 to 2009. “We assumed it had been approved and we proceeded with work. But the reprogramming was actually not approved,” Madigan wrote in an e-mail.

The Banneker contract also includes at least two projects — Parkview in Ward 1 and the N Street park in Ward 2 — that council members said they have not specifically authorized. “Funding was originally made available out of a general improvements line and some members believed we should have submitted for a reprogram, yet we disagree,” Madigan wrote.

Karim, Banneker’s founder, testified under subpoena at the council hearing last week. He said he started the firm five years ago “to change the world, starting in Washington, one neighborhood at a time.” The firm now has nine employees, including staff with engineering, architecture and law degrees.

Karim, also a fraternity brother of the mayor, denied any favoritism in the award of the project management contract. “Possible government missteps” do not involve his firm, he said. “I have nothing to do with any government function,” he testified.


http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/NW%20Dec.%2016%201.pdf