Griffis Affair Gets Nasty
The battle over an obscure nomination by Mayor Adrian Fenty to the D.C. Zoning Commission has turned into a public soap opera.
Today, the council is debating the nomination of Geoffrey Griffis to the board. "Debating" would be the nice way of saying "dragging Griffis through the mud."
Opponents of Griffis' appointment just can't forgive and forget his behavior when he was chair of the Board of Zoning Adjustment. In 2004, the National Child Research Center (NCRC) had put in for a zoning change so it could expand its facility in Northwest. As the matter was being debated, opponents of the project learned that Griffis had a personal relationship with Claire Bloch, a former member of the center's board. He voted in favor of the zoning adjustment, and the NIMBYs hired a private detective to document his late-night rendezvous with Bloch.
All of this was recounted in writing recently when At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson called on Fenty to pull Griffis' nomination last month. Mendelson promised a "messy" confirmation hearing---and he's delivered. Most of the mud-slinging and salacious details have been supplied by activists who signed up to testify against Griffis. A block of Griffis supporters is lined up as well.
If that's not enough intrigue for D.C. Cable Channel 13 viewers, consider this: Bloch was a top campaign worker for Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh's 2006 campaign. Cheh hasn't forgotten. She's been acting like Griffis' defense attorney from the dais. Campaign finance records show Bloch was paid $5,890 by the campaign. After winning the Ward 3 seat, Cheh pushed to have Bloch elected president of the Ward 3 Democrats. Bloch lost in a close election.
Those who missed today's council hearing will get a chance to see a rerun of the steamy proceedings when the council votes on the Griffis nomination in a couple of weeks.
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1:59 am
This is not only the worst city council to date paraphrasing Gary Imhoff, but maybe one of the most corrupt who have allowed an industry to dictate who our leaders will be, what the agenda will be and sadly, the voters went along with it not seeing that they were cutting their own throats in the process.
If you study all the bills that City Council 17 has proposed, they do not benefit District residents economically but they definitely make way for friends of the city council members to get all the more rich. In other words, many of these bills are pay back for those political contributions.
A case in point which has now blown up in Council Member Mary Cheh’s face has been over her introducing a bill that would require all teenage girls to be inoculated with Gardasil to attack the HPV virus that is allegedly linked to cervical cancer. What Cheh did for a lousy $500 contribution from Merck was to feed all of us Merck’s propaganda. In other words, Mary Cheh put personal profit before the health of the people of DC not knowing anything about the disease, the drug and the fact that it is not as effective as Merck first had all of us believe. Gardasil wears off in less than five years and is ineffective if a woman already has the HPV virus in her system which a large number of never sexually active teenage girls have. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022100221.html?sub=AR
Again, this is not the worst city council to date but a very dangerous one that is willing to risk our health, make it harder for people to pay their mortgage/rent and bend over backwards in totally disrespect for those who voted for them foolishly.
11:45 am
So let me get this straight: Cheh is on Merck's take because she took a donation from a pharmaceutical group which also includes as members Merck's competitors?
And Catania is also on Merck's take because.....?
And having women be protected from HPV and potential cervical cancer is bad because.....?