DENVER---This morning, members of the District's delegation to the Democratic National Convention gathered for breakfast at their hotel the Crowne Plaza---which is not the hotel which Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will be staying when he arrives after staying in D.C. for the first day of school today.

Anita Bonds, chair of the local Democratic party, took the opportunity to tell the gathered delegates, media, and others that there's no hard feelings between local Dems and the mayor. "There's no truth to that," she told the crowd, as they chowed on french toast and eggs Benedict paid for by the D.C. Hospital Association. "I thought we had a pretty good working relationship."

To that end, she invited up to the podium John Falcicchio, Fenty's top in-house political adviser, and gave him a kiss.

In other comments, Bonds asked members of the delegation to put their workaday political differences behind them during the convention. "If we could just lay down our swords while we're on national travel, and pick up the shield to elect Barack Obama," she said. "We can pick that other stuff up when we get back."

Falcicchio explains the hotel situation thusly: "We wanted to make sure there was enough hotel rooms to go around." Fenty will be staying at the Westin, which is the Obama campaign's official hotel. Rooms reserved for Fenty at the Crowne Plaza, Falcicchio says, will be released to "different folks." He offered no names.

DENVER---Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will be bedding down at the Westin Hotel here, rather than the Crowne Plaza with the rest of the D.C. delegation, mayoral spokesperson Dena Iverson tells LL.

Earlier, the Washington Post's David Nakamura had reported that Fenty had been seeking separate accommodations, citing an anonymous source saying the mayor "needs a place to escape lest he get bogged down with gladhanding."

Turns out the reportage did not deter the mayor's plan, despite former Mayor Anthony A. Williams' comments that his similar decision to snub the local delegates was "completely stupid."

The Westin is located eight blocks from the Crowne Plaza in downtown Denver, on the opposite end of the 16th Street pedestrian mall, and is much closer to the Pepsi Center, where the convention is being held. Tune in tomorrow for a compare-and-contrast on the accomodations.

DENVER---This afternoon, schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee said there's a "Plan B" in place should D.C. Public Schools teachers fail to ratify the controversial two-tier contract currently under negotiations. Rhee told the crowd that she expects to have negotiations on the reform contract concluded within two weeks and ready for a vote by the Washington Teachers' Union membership, LL has been told.

Her comments came during a panel discussion on education reform here in Denver with Michael Bennet, superintendent of Denver's public schools, and other public education reform leaders. On a separate panel, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty spoke about his takeover of DCPS with New York City schools chief Joel I. Klein, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, and others. The event was sponsored by a coalition of more than three dozen education reform and charter school organizations.

LL, unfortunately, did not arrive in town in time for Rhee and Fenty's appearances. But two members of the D.C. delegation---alternate national committeeman Jim Bubar and voting rights scholar William Washington---attended and report to LL that Rhee and Fenty received a warm response from a overflowing auditorium at the Denver Art Museum, with over 100 in attendance.

Rhee's comments mark the first time that she's publicly mentioned the possibility that a reform contract might not be approved. Perhaps, LL speculates, she was chastened by the "Welcome Back" event on Friday, where hundreds of teachers jeered the prospect of such a contract even coming to a vote.

Rhee and Fenty, Bubar says, were very much the "centerpiece" of the program.

Washington, who recently graduated from Wilson Senior High School and will be attending Catholic University in the fall, says that Rhee and Fenty focused on the steps necessary to begin fixing a troubled schools system---energy and accountability.

Asked to predict the winner in November, all the panelists predicted an Obama victory in front of the partisan crowd. (Though Rhee, in the past, has expressed her preference for the McCain education plan.)

UPDATE, 9:28 P.M.: Nakamura, who was actually there, has more.