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.

You may have read about the problems with school construction this summer in the Washington Post yesterday morning, but rest assured that D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray already knew what was up.

That’s because yesterday Gray sent a letter to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty raising questions about “about the nature of the work, how decisions are made concerning individual scopes of work and changes to those scopes, how funds are allocated among schools, how expenditures are monitored, and the quality of the resulting work.”

In the letter, Gray describes visits to construction sites made by council staff that found “tremendous variability in what work is done at each school.”

At one school the health suite was torn out because a memorandum preventing the demolition never got to the job site. At another school, doors were replaced even though the staff objected because they had been replaced in the last three years and were fine. The contractors apparently had them on their work list, and they insisted on doing what was on the list. At Ballou, the contractor painted the teachers lounge a few months after it had been refurbished, and yet the contractor on August 11 was under direction not to replace ceiling tile, leaving pipes and wiring exposed in a main hallway due to lack of funding. One school is lacking dry erase boards for newly installed classes and labs, while at another school ones which had been installed in the last year were replaced over staff objections.

Gray closes by highlighting the need for a Master Facilities Plan for DCPS: “As you know, the Council, at the request of your administration, has granted several extensions to the deadline for submitting the MFP. The new deadline is September 10th, and to date, we are aware of no effort to provide the promised opportunities for community participation.”

Full letter after the jump.

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The shuffle on the city org chart caused by the resignation of Department of Employment Services chief Summer Spencer earlier this week has now shaken out a little more completely. On Tuesday, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced his current chief of staff, Tene Dolphin, will replace Spencer at DOES; communications chief Carrie S. Brooks takes over for Dolphin as chief of staff.

In a late press release, the mayor’s office announced that Mafara Hobson, who had been press chief for schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, will replace Brooks as director of communications.

Taking Hobson’s spot at 825 North Capitol will be Dena Iverson, who has been press secretary in the mayor’s office. Says Iverson, “I’m really excited that the mayor has allowed me to take on this important role of speaking for the most important agency in the District government,” Iverson says. (”Most important,” eh? Aggrieved employees of other departments, please vent in the comments.)

Iverson became press secretary in January, taking over as the primary media contact for the Fenty administration, allowing Brooks to focus on strategic and policymaking concerns. Whether someone will fill the “press secretary” role is “to be determined,” says Iverson.

All the shuffling takes place after Labor Day. Full release after jump.

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On Wednesday, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson issued a press release, criticizing Mayor Adrian M. Fenty for deciding not to relocate police facilities to an old warehouse the District rents on Virginia Avenue SE, thus wasting loads of cash: “The District has now paid over $6.5 million for the vacant structure, and continues to hand over taxpayer dollars with no clear end in sight,” the release read. “’It was evident at the time that the administration was acting without an alternative plan in place,’ stated Mendelson. ‘After a year, there is still no plan. The government is simply wasting money.’”

The next day, the Examiner went with the story, quoting mayoral development spokesperson Sean Madigan saying that the city was going to seek proposals for the property “by the end of this week.”

Now, Friday at 5:14 p.m., comes this nugget from the Office of Property Management:

DISTRICT SEEKS OFFERS FOR 225 VIRGINIA AVE SE

(Washington DC) - The District Office of Property Management (OPM) today released a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) seeking offers for the sublease, with option to purchase, for 225 Virginia Avenue, SE, just south of the Southeast Expressway within walking distance of the new Nationals Park. The lease was negotiated by the previous administration to house various relocated functions of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), including the First District Headquarters and evidence warehouse.

“This is a very attractive opportunity,” said Robin-Eve Jasper, Acting Director of the Office of Property Management. “The property sits at the head of Canal Block Park in the heart of the exciting new Capitol Riverfront neighborhood, close to Capitol Hill.” The site, about 97,000 sq. ft., is also within walking distance to two Metro stations with great visibility from I-395, Director Jasper added.

Says OPM spokesperson Bill Rice, “We’re not trying to hide this. We want to get as much distribution as possible.”

About a half-hour ago, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty rode one of the District’s new SmartBikes without incident.

Fenty, some two weeks after a crash on his racing bicycle aggravated a prior foot injury and left him houseridden for days, checked out Bike No. 9 at the newly operational Frank D. Reeves Center rack and rode it along the U Street NW sidewalk for a good 90 seconds, maintaining perfect balance and impeccable pedaling technique.

After the ride, Fenty told reporters he’s back on the “CompuTrainer,” a sort of dyno for bikes, and that he’s been cleared to run next week. Fenty was no longer sporting the walking boot he’d been wearing before his trip to China.

Relations between the District’s executive branch and the D.C. Council aren’t getting any sweeter—especially when it comes to the D.C. Public Schools.

On Aug. 1, DCPS held a systemwide summer-school graduation ceremony at McKinley Tech High School, attended by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. No member of the D.C. Council was invited, and at least one of them isn’t happy about it.

That would be Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., in whose ward the ceremony was held. He showed up, having been given a ticket by a graduate’s family. When he arrived, he asked a Rhee staffer if, as an elected official, he could join Rhee and top aide Kaya Henderson, as well as the ceremony’s keynote speaker, on the stage. Thomas says a Rhee staffer initially told him he could not join them, then was escorted out a side door. Later, Thomas says, he got the OK to go on stage, but “at that point I said, the ceremony was well underway.”

“Instead of causing a scene,” he says, “I decided to use the power of the pen.”

That refers to a letter that Thomas posted to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and copied to Rhee and his council colleagues. In the letter, obtained by LL, Thomas didn’t stint on the outrage: “To date, this is the most egregious display of disrespect to not only me, but also the entire body of the Council,” Thomas wrote. “To use a beautiful occasion to celebrate our students’ accomplishments to expound derision is exceptionally troubling. (The full text of the letter is after the jump.)

Thomas’ critical comments come weeks after Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray delivered some of his most ascerbic commentary to date on the Fenty-Rhee approach to legislative relations.

Asked about the incident, Thomas says he was most concerned about the institutional snub: “Quite frankly, the crux of it all is that no one [on the council] got an invitation to one of the most important events of the summer,” Thomas says. “That alone was disrespectful to me.” Further adding to Thomas’ ire, he says, was that he and colleagues were not colsulted on the hire of a news DCPS athletic director. (Troy Mathieu was named the new AD last week.)

“It would have been a lot more helpful to say, ‘Here’s the guy,’ instead of reading about it in the Washington Post,” he says.

Rhee’s spokesperson, Mafara Hobson, reports in an e-mail that her boss “wasn’t aware of the behind the scenes commotion during the graduation.” Rhee, Hobson says, was given a note saying that Thomas wanted to come on stage, and “she immediately insisted that he do so,” but Thomas then walked away. Rhee e-mailed Thomas about what happened but never heard back from him.

Rhee and Thomas, Hobson says, are scheduled to meet about the incident this week. Asked if the situation has been resolved to his satisfaction, Thomas says, “It will. I’m a satisfaction-guaranteed type of guy.”

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Jeff Jeffrey of Legal Times has the scoop: Garrett L. Lee, a former legal adviser in the mayor’s office, was disbarred last week by the D.C. Court of Appeals. Lee held several jobs in District government dating back to 2006, starting as a lawyer on then-Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian M. Fenty’s committee staff and rising to interim deputy general counsel, a job he filled after general counsel Peter Nickles was named acting attorney general and deputy general counsel Chip Richardson rose to take his old spot.

The whole story is fascinating, and you should all read it, but you all can’t read it without a Legal Times subscription. LL, however, will digest the article (strictly adhering to fair-use doctrine, of course).

The disbarment itself is rooted in a divorce case that Lee handled starting in 1999, Jeffrey reports. Lee represented Xavier Jordan against wife Marina Zoob. Writes Jeffrey,

But Lee was making some major mistakes—all the while telling Jordan that all was well, according to court documents. He didn’t respond to a motion for contempt for failure to pay child support. He didn’t respond to a notice that Zoob was seeking to garnish Jordan’s investment account. The pattern continued in two other real estate disputes Lee was handling for Jordan—including missed filings and failing to respond to discovery requests.

The kicker is that when a appeals judge finally ruled against Jordan, a copy of the opinion that Lee provided to his client had a key line removed: that Lee had never filed a brief stating Jordan’s case.

Jordan filed a malpractice claim against Lee in September 2005; Lee stalled responding to the claim, and Jordan filed for summary judgment in 2007, Lee did not reply and judgment was entered against him for $1 million. Lee appealed, but it was dismissed in December.

Here’s the thing: Lee’s career in government service started after the malpractice suit was filed against him. According to Jeffrey’s article, Fenty knew and didn’t care:

“I asked Lee how he got the job as special counsel,” [Jordan lawyer Janet DeCosta] told Legal Times last week. “He said he got it through Mr. Fenty. He knew him personally. I asked Lee if he had told his employer, Mr. Fenty, about the lawsuit, and he said he had,” DeCosta added.

What’s Lee up to now?

Lee said last week that since his resignation, he’s been working at Color Me Mine, a paint-your-own-pottery studio in Adams Morgan that Lee said is owned by his sister.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will be Beijing-bound next month, LL has learned.

Fenty will not be attending the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in an official capacity, mind you, but as a personal trip with his family, says his spokesperson, Carrie Brooks.

Fenty himself couldn’t be reached for details, as he was vacationing last week, but Brooks says her boss will be there for a week toward the beginning of the games, which kick off Aug. 8. As for which events he’ll be attending, Brooks says Fenty’s sporting tastes run toward the triathlon events he knows so well: “[H]e definitely wants to check out the swimming and track and field events,” she writes in an e-mail.

This won’t be Fenty’s first international jaunt. Last summer, he traveled with family to Jamaica, where his wife, Michelle Cross Fenty, has roots. He still, however, has a ways to go if he wants to match Tony Williams‘ travel sked.

The WaPo’s Lena Sun and David Nakamura are reporting that city transportation director Emeka Moneme is resigning to take Metro’s chief administrative officer post. The scoop is attributed to “sources”; here’s the juicy part:

The Fenty administration was said to be angered by Metro’s grab of Moneme; the news comes with Fenty out of town on vacation this week. But Moneme was said by some government sources to be irked by Fenty’s hands-on managing style…

Fenty spokesperson Dena Iverson confirms the news and says press releases will be forthcoming from the city and Metro around 2 p.m. As far as any Fenty frustration, she says, “There are no hard feelings.”

UPDATE, 1:50 P.M.: Let the replacement speculation begin! According to folks LL has consulted, the likely and safest choice for at least an interim replacement would be Kathleen Penney, the agency’s chief engineer, who has subbed for Moneme at public appearances he couldn’t make. Or will City Administrator Dan Tangherlini pluck someone with director experience at one of the city’s smaller agencies to do one of the highest-profile jobs in city government (and one Tangherlini once held himself). Clark Ray, perhaps?

UPDATE, 2:45 P.M.:The CW was wrong: Frank Seales Jr., DDOT’s general counsel and a generally unknown quantity, has been named interim director.

Dr. Sharlynn E. Bobo, head of the embattled Child and Family Services Agency, has resigned tonight, according to a mayoral press release. She’s being replaced by Dr. Roque Gerald, head of CFSA’s Office of Clinical Practice and a former deputy director of the agency.

About the only surprising thing about this move is that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty didn’t call a press conference to announce it. Then again, that’s not so surprising either, considering the uncomfortable questions that have surrounded the agency’s performance in the wake of the Banita Jacks tragedy, the June 25 death of 6-month-old Isiah Garcia, and this week’s death of a 5-month-old boy. There have been numerous reports this week of massive backlogs among CFSA caseworkers, and Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells grilled Bobo at a hearing Monday, hours after the death of the 5-month old.

“I have a loss of confidence in the leadership of the agency,” he said, as quoted in the Examiner, “but I don’t believe there is a very deep bench at the agency and that there’s not a likely person to step up who’s been identified.” (Fenty’s vote of confidence in Bobo, in the same article: “I would not keep anyone in a cabinet position if I did not think that they were the best person to do the job.”)

Yep, LL is going to say a press release issued at 9:44 p.m. might have been the smart way to handle this one. You can read it after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Local gun enthusiasts, note these words: “reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm.”

That there, laid out in a law likely to be passed tomorrow by the D.C. Council, lays out exactly when you’ll be allowed to actually load a gun in the District of Columbia for self-defense purposes.

This policy was announced this afternoon at a Wilson Building press conference featuring Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles, police chief Cathy Lanier, council Chair Vincent C. Gray, and various councilmembers. Much of the presser was devoted to the nuts and bolts of actually registering a handgun—you’ll be able to apply for a handgun permit likely later this week, Nickles said, and the whole process should take “weeks or months.” That includes taking a written firearms safety test and getting fingerprinted, plus a ballistics sample for every registered gun. Getting your hands on a gun is a trickier process; you can buy a gun in another state then have it transferred to a dealer in the District (for a fee)—last week, WTOP’s Mark Segraves found the one guy in town who’s willing to do that for you: one Charles Sykes, Jr.

As to where you can load that gun, given a “reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm,” it’s only in your home. Not your yard. Not your car, which might be parked in front of your home, but in your home. Now, as for the use of the gun once it’s loaded, the statute will say nothing about that; use of a weapon in self-defense is governed by reams of case law, Nickles says.

The District’s proposed standard is likely to attract additional legal scrutiny from folks who feel that the policy in not in full compliance with the Heller decision, but Nickles says it was drafted to comply fully with the holding. “When you do almost anything in this city, you get a lawsuit,” he said.

Lots more info in the press release after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray is currently in the midst of slamming, hard, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his education deputies—DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Deputy Mayor Victor Reinoso, and school facilities chief Allan Allen Y. Lew—for bigfooting the legislature.

Gray, in some of his strongest anti-Fenty statements to date, called Fenty et al.’s behavior “unconscionable” from the council dais.

“This started off as a partnership, and an enthusiastic partnership, to reform District of Columbia Public Schools,” he said. “There’s been more than a few days where it’s been a nightmare.”

His remarks follow a sharply worded but largely cordial six-page July 8 letter [PDF] explaining in detail why he and colleagues chose to disapprove recent construction contracts.

“As the Councilmember from Ward 4 for six years, you can clearly appreciate the important role the Council plays in providing oversight to Executive agencies,” Gray wrote, in one of his more condescending lines.

Today, with Lew and Reinoso no-shows and with Rhee choosing to leave early (at 4:25 p.m.) rather than testify, Gray is choosing to recess rather than close the contracts hearing. He deemed the executive branch’s behavior as “either an incredibly disingenuous act or an incredibly misinformed act.”

“We are the Council of the District of Columbia, and we have a right to ask these questions,” he said.

UPDATE, 5:30 P.M.: Mayoral spokesperson Dena Iverson points out that Gray & Co. knew very well that Rhee had to leave when she did; the mayor’s office informed the council days ago that she had a prior commitment out of town. Still waiting for word on Reinoso’s alibi.

A public roundtable on D.C. Public Schools construction contracts is now underway, called by D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who has raised questions about the contracts to prepare facilities to receive students from closed schools next fall.

Is it another opportunity for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to play politics with the council? Sure looks that way.

While Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. gave his opening remarks, Gray informed Thomas that the mayor’s office informed him today that school facilities chief Allan Y. Lew would not be present, because he had come down with a case of laryngitis.

Said Thomas, “We have texts and e-mails. Maybe he can text his responses.”

Lew had come in for sharp questioning at a previous hearing late last month on a process some councilmembers saw as rushed and opaque. DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee is in attendance today and will be answering questions, though you can count on a lot of “Allan will have to get back to you on that”s, seeing as she has limited knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the contracts.