The D.C. Council has just gaveled to order a hearing on parks contracts transferred by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in such a way as to evade council oversight.

The issue goes beyond the $82 million in parks spending already identified. According to figures obtained by LL, the Fenty administration has authorized $120.7 million in spending to be sent out to the D.C. Housing Authority. Those funds came from projects budgeted by both the parks department and the deputy mayor for planning and economic development. About $72 million of that has already been sent to DCHA.

The projects built through this method included not only the parks projects already identified, but rebuilds of Walker-Jones Education Center and the Deanwood Recreation Center totaling over $74 million. Both of those projects were managed by a team that included Banneker Ventures, the firm owned by developer Omar Karim, who has close ties to the mayor. And the scope of parks work has expanded to include as many as 26 projects.

LL will be following the hearing from the John A. Wilson Building, and will be Tweeting away!

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—”Liveblog: D.C. Council Grills Michelle Rhee on Teacher Layoffs“; “District Homeless Shelters Are Already At Capacity“; “Pershing Park Case: OAG Reverts Back To Stonewalling”

Morning all. Yesterday’s D.C. Council inquisition on the D.C. Public School layoffs wasn’t quite the 18-hour marathon that the last hearing was, but let the liveblogging LL say: eight hours was plenty. By the end of the day, a familiar story had emerged: The D.C. Council wanted things to happen one way (cut money from summer school), and the executive branch did things another way (cut money from local school budgets) with the imprimatur of Attorney General Peter Nickles and without transparency or explanation. Perhaps more shocking is that DCPS CFO Noah Wepman would have allowed a fiscal 2010 budget to be approved with a known deficit of $12 million or more without telling his boss, Natwar Gandhi. And, as Bill Turque notes on WaPo A1, ‘even some of Rhee’s most steadfast supporters on the council rebuked her for the bitter state of relations between the school system and elected officials.’ See also WaTimes, Examiner, WTOP, WAMU-FM, NC8, WRC-TV, WTTG-TV, We Love DC.

NB: Don’t expect a repeat of the drama at today’s hearing on the parks contracts sent to the D.C. Housing Authority. Neil Albert, LL is told, will not be attending. [UPDATE, 10:30 A.M.: Another council source says Albert has confirmed he will be there.]

AFTER THE JUMP—Machen moves closer to securing federal prosecutor nod; WBJ reports on city procurement problems, rise in contract appeals; city preps for census; suburbanites plunder D.C. for flu vaccine; and did Holder tell Chavous to lay off the prez?

Read More “DCPS Budget Gets Nickled: Loose Lips Daily” »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—”Jack Evans Saves the Black Rooster“; “D.C. Police Release General Orders In Response To FOIA Fight“; “Peter Nickles Sends Flowers to Mary Cheh”

IN LL WEEKLY—The New Cronies: ‘God,’ some frat buddies, and $86 million in city spending.

Greetings all. LL is currently livetweeting/liveblogging the D.C. Council’s inquisition of Michelle Rhee and CFO Natwar Gandhi and their deputies on the Oct. 2 DCPS layoffs. NC8 has set up the hearing as a ‘day of reckoning’ for the chancellor. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty won’t be there. He explained on WRC-TV this morning that he won’t appear before the council, just as the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Richard M. Daley, and Barack Obama are not in the habit of making appearances before their respective legislative branches. A good, if self-aggrandizing answer. Also good (and self-aggrandizing) is his explanation for why he’s at war with the council over parks contracts sent through the D.C. Housing Authority: ‘If you run a $10 billion organization, there are going to be things you just don’t agree about at the end of the day.’

AFTER THE JUMP—City settles with Wilmot and IDI; suit by DPR child care workers is tossed from federal court; cops want murder tipster to call back; H Street Martini Lounge shuttered after fight; archdiocese threatens nuclear option on gay marriage bill; and is Mendo running for council chair?

Read More “‘Day of Reckoning’ Comes on DCPS Layoffs: Loose Lips Daily” »

Vincent C. Gray and the remainder of the D.C. Council have just gaveled to order a hearing on the “causes, implementation, and impact” of the D.C. Public School layoffs earlier this month.

LL will be following along on Channel 13 and live blogging the proceedings. (Actually, LL will be livetweeting and pasting those over here at City Desk.)

[Last update 7:05 p.m.]

# LL takeaway 10: LL is not sure if he can do this again tomorrow for the parks contracts hearing. 7 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 9: As every CM said, the tone is awful. Kwame was right; if the political games cont’s, reform will crash and burn. 8 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 8: Council did establish that the process did evade its authority and is possibly illegal. That’s a win for Gray. 14 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 7: Council did not establish beyond a doubt that this was done to fire bad teachers outside due process. That’s a win for Rhee. 16 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 6: Rhee gave good reasons for the hiring of 900+ teachers ahead of the cuts. Her reasons for delaying the cuts were not as good. 18 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 5: Noah Wepman is not very good in hearings. Smart, sure, but Gandhi/Rhee need to keep this guy away from microphones. 21 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 4: Michelle Rhee is very, very good in council hearings. She keeps an even tone and knows when to call CMs on their BS. 22 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 3: Agency CFOs are supposed to be independent of agency execs and report direct to CFO. At DCPS, this seems not to be the case. 23 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 2: Once again, Peter Nickles made the decision that kept council out of advisory role. Add it to the list. 25 minutes ago

# LL takeaway 1: By shifting cuts from summer school to teachers, executive again ignored council directive. Add it to the list. 26 minutes ago

Read More “Liveblog: D.C. Council Grills Michelle Rhee on Teacher Layoffs” »

As DCist has already noted, the Black Rooster has been revived, Lazarus-like, from the dead.

Playing Jesus in this scenario, says owner Jody Taylor, would be Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans.

“The Black Rooster will crow again,” Taylor says. Asked what happened to prompt the reversal of fortune for what had been slated to become a General Services Administration conference room, “I don’t really know to be honest with you. Jack Evans had a lot to do with it….Once I talked to the landlord, he was extremely gracious. Everybody came to terms. It’s good all around.”

And the reprieve came just in the nick of time. Taylor had put up the bar’s assets in an online auction, and today was the last day he could have canceled it. “They had people flying in from Chicago and Atlanta that were interested,” Taylor says. “Just came down to the last minute practically.”

The final papers aren’t signed just set, but Taylor says landlord Richard Cohen gave him the go-ahead to re-open, something that could happen in two or three weeks.

“I am very grateful at this point to a lot of people,” Taylor says.

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—’Pershing Park Case: OAG Finds 2,000 Pages Of Discovery Materials‘

Morning all. LL will make today’s preamble quite brief; he notes only that he neglected to note this Tom Toles cartoon that appeared yesterday on the WaPo editorial page:

(Hat tip to Chuck Thies for today’s headline.)

AFTER THE JUMP—WaPo editorial calls for investigation of parks contracts; TV reporters dig in; closed-door council meeting gets testy; key senator refuses to allow D.C. vote on defense approps bill; principal neglects to proofread court filing; judge stalking trial begins

Read More “Fenty Gets the Royal Treatment: Loose Lips Daily” »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—’David Catania Gives Harry Jackson a History Lesson‘; ‘Nickles: Parks Contracts Are OK After All‘

Morning all! Today marks the one-year anniversary of Loose Lips Daily. LL finds it hard to believe that he’s already sacrificed 12 months’ worth of early mornings and late nights—through an election, an inauguration, scandals, and tragedies—to bring LLD readers the finest local political aggregation in town. In any case, hearty and heartfelt thanks to you, the more than 1,400 readers who have signed up for the LLD e-mail and the thousands more who have been reading at City Desk since that first, surprisingly short edition.

AFTER THE JUMP—First parks contracts are illegal, then they aren’t; same-sex marriage hearings galore (or gay-lore?); Rhee explains mass teacher hirings; crime lab gets the go-ahead; planning director walks the walk; Graham tries hand at (intentional) comedy

Read More “First Anniversary Edition: Loose Lips Daily” »

In testimony before the D.C. Council today, Bishop Harry Jackson namechecked Martin Luther King and his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in talking about his opposition to gay marriage. Jackson quoted King: “A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a people, that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, have no part in enacting or devising the law.”

That, of course, was a reference to Jackson’s quest to have a citywide vote on gay marriage. He said, “I believe the people of the District of Columbia have suffered an injustice by being ignored already, and you’re about to do that again….There is an advisory referendum that you could endorse—why don’t you do it?”

At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania, author and lead introducer of the bill, was ready to pounce.

Read More “David Catania Gives Harry Jackson a History Lesson” »

Late Friday, Attorney General Peter Nickles released an opinion stating that the D.C. Housing Authority is required to vet its contracts worth $1 million per year or more through the D.C. Council.

That was a nice, if unexpected twist to the disclosure that his boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, had sent $82M in parks construction contracts to DCHA in such a way as to elude council oversight. For once, it seemed, Nickles had put the kibosh on a pet Fenty project.

Today, in a one-page memo [PDF], Nickles says that’s actually not true.

Read More “Nickles: Parks Contracts Are OK After All” »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—Fenty’s DCHA Contracts: Some Questions; Nickles: DCHA Contracts Must Go to D.C. Council

Morning all. Perhaps, on Friday evening, you saw that Attorney General Peter Nickles had determined that controversial parks contracts routed through the D.C. Housing Authority had to be approved by the D.C. Council (LL, Examiner, WaPo) and you thought, perhaps, that the brinksmanship between Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and councilmembers was finally easing. You’d have been wrong. News that Fenty, with Nickles’ blessing, had decided to keep ousted parks director Ximena Hartsock on the job pending her replacement prompted another high-profile tussle, as related in a Sunday WaPo B1 story. Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh called Fenty’s shop ‘almost…a lawless administration,’ prompting Nickles to retort that Cheh ‘has no idea what she’s talking about…She’s an angry woman.’ The AG went on to warn the council against rejecting the parks contracts, saying, ‘they’ll have to answer to the voters.’ So what now? Writes WaPo, in a slight understatement: ‘Few expect the tension to subside.’

AFTER THE JUMP—Council should have noticed the contract runaround sooner, Jonetta says; gay marriage hearing bonanza today; WaPo ed board wants Fenty to do some ’splainin’ for once; council digs in to SLED contract; Hill clock ticks on voting rights bill; Maryland man pimps foster child on D.C. streets

Read More “Council vs. Fenty—Is This War?: Loose Lips Daily” »

You have questions about the $82 million dollars in parks-and-rec spending that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is sending to the D.C. Housing Authority? LL has (some) answers!

What are these projects?

According to data furnished by the D.C. Council, they are 12 projects to renovate 12 parks or recreation facilities. One, to build a $1.3 million ballpark at Emery Rec Center, was awarded in January. The rest—concerning 7th and N park ($800,000), Bald Eagle Rec Center ($5.3M), Barry Farm Rec Center ($15M), Chevy Chase Playground ($1.3M), Fort Stanton Rec Center ($12M), Guy Mason Rec Center ($3M), Justice Park ($12M), Kenilworth Rec Center ($12M), Park View ballfield ($1.2M), Rosedale Rec Center ($16M), and a new park in LeDroit Park ($1.7M)—were awarded last month.

Read More “Fenty’s DCHA Contracts: Some Questions” »

Attorney General Peter Nickles has determined that the D.C. Housing Authority must send its million-dollar-plus contracts to the D.C. Council for approval.

Such a determination comes less than 24 hours after news broke that the Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has sent a dozen parks-and-rec construction projects worth $81.6 million to DCHA in a manner that eluded council oversight. The contracts subsequently awarded by DCHA have gone to firms with close ties to Fenty—raising a whole lot of question about the process.

The opinion released this evening came in response to a question posed today by DCHA. In it, Nickles relies on a 1996 corporation counsel opinion that addressed an almost identical question.

So what does this mean?

Read More “Nickles: DCHA Contracts Must Go to D.C. Council” »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—Fenty’s Explanation of Homeless Cuts Doesn’t Hold Water; Graham Slams Feds At Community Meeting; Claims His Remarks Were ‘Off The Record’

Morning all. In this week’s column, LL wrote about David Wilmot, Fred Cooke, and the old favored political class. Today we learn more about the new cronies. WaPo and Examiner both cover Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s attempts to send $72M in parks construction contracts through the D.C. Housing Authority, bypassing D.C. Council approval. The council, needless to say, is not happy, dispatching a letter yesterday demanding city officials show at an Oct. 30 hearing. Bill Myers reports that ‘Council Chairman Vincent Gray was furious when he found out,’ tapping his committee chairs in charge of economic development, parks, housing, and procurement to bring the hammer down. Mary Cheh tells Nikita Stewart, ‘It looks sneaky.’ So why be sneaky? Easy: Among a passel of contracts awarded last month, all are managed by Banneker Ventures, a firm with ties to Fenty frat buddies Omar Karim and Sinclair Skinner—the same guy who helped scuttle the lottery contract award last year.

AFTER THE JUMP—Pastors meet with Gray, vow to fight; Walter Reed development process kicks off; asbestos found at MPD facility, union freaks; carbon offsets go local; and Metro get closer to cooperating with Google Transit

Read More “The New Cronies: Loose Lips Daily” »

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his human services director need to get on the same page.

For the last month or so, the Fenty administration has been getting hammered on surprise cuts to homeless services. Dozens of providers cried foul after they were notified by the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness that, due to trying economic times, their budgets stood to be cut by 15 percent or more.

A week ago, Fenty made with some answers. In his weekly wee-hours appearance with WRC-TV’s Barbara Harrison, he called the perception that homeless funding was being cut “either a miscommunication or a distortment of the facts” (forward to 3:30).

Read More “Fenty’s Explanation of Homeless Cuts Doesn’t Hold Water” »

In the past few weeks, City Desk and everyone else praised Taxicab Commission Chairperson Leon Swain Jr. for his starring role as a police informant. The audio evidence is pretty clear that Swain is one talented actor. David Simon needs to put Swain in his next series.

Swain performed on hours and hours of F.B.I- produced tapes for roughly two years. But is there a case to be made that maybe Swain overacted, that he was too good in the role?

Read More “Was Leon Swain Jr. Too Good At Playing The Criminal?” »