Or are they just so spineless, so feckless that they continue to fear a man who is and always has been a punk."

Its the latter.

Does Fenty have something he is holding over some Council members and so they are afraid to stand up to him ?

Or are they just so spineless, so feckless that they continue to fear a man who is and always has been a punk.

@Ward 5: You don't need to leave the city. Fenty and his crew do.

It is a damned disgrace that Fenty operates with impunity to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. It is odd he hasn't been investigate by the feds as he and the majority of his administration should be. Here's how I see it:

disappearing Pershing Park evidence,

the current "police chief" invents the hogtying process and happily demonstrates it to people (that is still a WTF to me,

contracts to his frat brothers,

funneling contracts through one agency for another,

frat brothers giving away fire truck and ambulance to a RESORT TOWN,

refusing to follow through with the Tax Office Scandal when the city could have recovered a lot of money in the process,

traveling almost as much as Michelle Rhee but to do triathalons and take trips to foreign countries,

pulling a Mark Sanford and disappearing for a while -- it was the same in principal,

purchasing red velvet cupcakes and drinks among other things with a city grant, then putting the money back when you get caught,

friends driving city vehicles illegally,

building a four million dollar glorified bike rack (WTF),

putting his children in whatever school he wants without respect to the rules,

allegedly smacking his wife around,

responding to people when they ask him why he does things with the spoiled brat response: "because I'm the mayor." Duh, we all know and want to change that,

stealing from old people in the first place and not being held accountable,

not working well with others, a thing most people learned to do in kindergarten. He is not a good example of DCPS when he was a kid,

just being mean, spiteful, petty and vindictive,

You get the point. Adrian Malik Fenty needs to go somewhere and sit down because he's just doing too much!

So, yeah, someone at DCHA is responsible, but it's presumably not Dena the spokesperson or the interim ED (who didn't take the job until after the contracts were signed). I'd start with the Board -- whose job it was to vet the contracts. And also I'd look hard at DMPED which, presumably, is acting with the blessing of the City Administrator. DMPED is the agency that transferred funds to an agency that it thought would not be subjected to Council oversight.

DPR is a harder call -- given the inexperience of its last two heads, I can imagine relatively innocent scenarios by which they transfered capital project to DMPED (whose contracting procedures were subject to the same Council review as their own).

But if we don't see Clark Ray, Michael Kelly, the recently-appointed DCHA Board of Commissioners, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development called to testify before the Council, they aren't seriously pursuing this investigation.

Re Chuck Ruff's 1996 opinion -- it was just that -- an opinion. (No doubt, a more intelligent and more ethical opinion than any Peter Nickles would produce). I thought I'd read that DCHA had been asking OAG since May for legal advice and had been blown off. Perhaps they did consult their own counsel who likely would have said it's iffy, but there's a new regime in town -- at which point a logical response, especially if they were being pushed to do this by the Mayor, would be to go to OAG. When OAG failed to produce an opinion, DCHA should have resisted, but here we're back to who is DCHA? The timing of the deal makes me wonder whether Kelly resisted and, once he was out, some flunky signed, and the Board was happy to rubber-stamp.

If there's a masterplan here, though, it's not DCHA's -- it's the Mayor's/the City Administrator's/DMPED's/OAG's -- they've been calling the shots. But the Council may well be too chickenshit to stand up to DMPED because Santos had all the developers (aka contributors) lined up in support of her confirmation and because Gray told Kwame he's lose the Chairmanship of Ec Dev if he didn't make things happen.

As someone pointed out in another thread, these are the same parks projects various CMs have been touting as their own accomplishments, so I don't see cease and desist orders in their future. But, hey, I could be wrong. The Council moves in mysterious and generally effed-up ways.

& welcome to the Communist Paradise, comrade; welcome.

Best case scenario, cease and desist work on these projects pending a review of their legality. Pay for services rendered and, if necessary, resubmit these agreements for public bid to protect the integrity of the city's procurement statutes. I don't think the people will demonize the council for protecting the laws of the city. The demon wears a sweat suit.

But then someone says what if the Council does tube these contracts? They're pretty angry right now and who knows WTF they might do -- they have a track-record of taking revenge in ways that are counter-productive. At which point we get sued for breach of contract. Because the city followed your opinion. Ever think of that? Oops, no. Never mind.

We all see what they are doing but I prefer Bishop Jackson's style of democracy, arm yourself with little to no facts and argue baseless, pointless dribble untilt he cows come home son.

If you can't read what they are doing. They are attempting to hoodwink the public into thinking that this is a new issue and, thus, the 82 million dollars in contracts illegally granted should be allowed to continue unfettered.

That the Housing Authority is stating that they were "seeking a ruling as to whether DCHA’s independent procurement authority applies to local-funded projects" does not hold water, a "legal sufficiency" review by their general counsel would have answered that question based on the 1996 conclusion.

Dena should keep her mouth shut before she gets DCHA into a whole heep of legal trouble. She puts her foot into it every time she opens it.

The Fenty Administration is attempting to provide them with cover, but there is none.