A Year Later, Parks Projects Are Sent to Allen Lew
The D.C. Council has come to a solution—or at least a way forward—for the parks contracting impasse.
It's a solution that will sound awfully familiar in the John A. Wilson Building's corridors: Send all the work to Allen Lew!
Certainly the solution preserves the council's prerogatives: It brushes back Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, cuts out his cronies (mainly Omar Karim's Banneker Ventures), and keeps the council in the loop. (Unlike under the previous process, Lew's Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization has sent his million-dollar contracts for council review.) And it keeps hotly anticipated neighborhood projects moving forward, taking political heat off of ward councilmembers who don't want to look like they're obstructionists.
But handing the projects to Lew also makes councilmembers look like collective idiots. Ward 5's Harry Thomas Jr., in particular.
That's because before the Fenty administration–before sending the work to the D.C. Housing Authority and touching off this political frenzy–wanted to hand these parks contracts to Lew's Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization in the first place. That happened last fall; Fenty held a press conference to announce the move, then Thomas led a effort on the council to reject it, citing concerns that Lew already had too much on his plate.
Thomas said, according to the Examiner, that Lew needed to "stay in his lane and do what he’s supposed to do." And he also said: "I'm going to be very vigilant about ensuring the parks and recreation budget maintains autonomy without the mayor going around the process."
His original plan thwarted, Fenty sent the parks work, more than $80 million worth, through his deputy mayor's office to the D.C. Housing Authority—in the process avoiding council review of contracts that sent millions to Banneker and other Fenty-connected firms.
The irony was not lost on at least one councilmember on the dais this evening.
"It seems to me it's a complete 180 in some respects," says Ward 4 Councilmember and Fenty ally Muriel Bowser. "Do we know how that office will support this work with the important school work that they have?"
Gray stepped in to answer Bowser's loaded question, saying "it was really my idea" to send the projects now to Lew, citing "an emergent situation" and a "vigorous debate" with Thomas over whether to proceed this way.
Thomas, however, got his two cents in, and then some. In a combative exchange with Bowser, he said he only agreed to the Lew solution to appease his council colleagues. "Hopes have been built, hopes have been dashed, and hopes, right before Christmas, have been stomped on," Thomas said on the dais. "I think that this is a temporary solution that I have had to sit on my hands to do for the greater good of the community."
In the end, the legislation passed by a voice vote. It requires the city parks and recreation department to enter into an agreement with Lew's shop within 30 days to complete the 10 projects in question. Council inquiries into the propriety of the contracting process will continue in the meantime.
There is some good news for Banneker: The council, as part of the legislation, moved to ratify its project management contracts to complete the Walker-Jones Education Campus and Deanwood Recreation Center.
7:32 pm
Bowser is such a schnauzer. The 'mut' type.
7:45 pm
Thanks to Bowser's questioning she got it on the record and out in the open the status of the Deanwood project. Alexander's additional questioning provided more clarity. I'm proud of the two freshmen!
8:26 pm
Thomas is a buffoon. Ever notice that when a witness or councilmember is pushing back against one of his idiotic statements, he usually has no logical or coherent response? He simply tries to bluff and bluster his way through, looking foolish all the while. If Thomas didn't have his chief eunuch to serve as his right hand man, he'd be screwed.
9:47 pm
"I think that this is a temporary solution that I have had to sit on my hands to do for the greater good of the community."
Such a naked tool- terming the proper construction of parks and recs- by any measure a long term asset- a "temporary" thing, and one to only be agreed to for the "greater good" of the community.
12:24 pm
bowser only asked the prepared questions that fenty and his crew told her to...she has no idea about anything.
12:30 pm
But here's what I don't get: Why not just give the work *back* to DPR and fix the overly-lengthy procurement process that created, at least in some part, the DMPED/Banneker switcheroo?
1:11 pm
Harry Thomas is a moron. Listening to him is painful at times. The funny thing is that his incoherrent jabber is so confusing at times that it's really hard to argue with him. He thinks he's this charming sophisticated politician, when he is in reality, an ass.
Bowser doesn't have any original thoughts herself and blatantly is being used by Fenty.
These fools need to be removed.
6:21 pm
"...terming the proper construction of parks and recs- by any measure a long term asset- a "temporary" thing..."
No doubt the mayor and his pal Evans will figure out a work-around on this. It will be interesting to see if Lew's cost overruns are as big on this as they were on the school upgrades. And if Keith Lomax gets some more "landscape" business from him.
7:23 pm
I totally agree that Muriel Bowser needs to be replaced. She is Fenty's lap dog or, as Proball DC so aptly put it, his schnauzer. She knows she'd better agree with Big Daddy!
@Anonymous, so true that all of the mayor's pals, Jack Evans included, will figure a way to get what they want. Allen Lew is no more reputable than the rest of them.
10:06 pm
oh hell, who cares? we're going broke, just not yet.....