This morning, program supervisors seized knives from kids as they walked through metal detectors at RFK. One official with the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization wrote in an e-mail: "This and other behavior is evidence that maybe the city should re-think its decision to eliminate pre-program ORIENTATION for these youth."

Last year's orientation didn't end so well.

Also at the RFK site, there were reports of SYEP kids stealing property: "I-phones have come up missing," reports one e-mail.

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Media Seats Up For Grabs At Wone Trial," "Jim Graham On Developer Donations: 'Ain't No Corruption In Me'," "ABC Board Lifts Georgetown Liquor Limit," "Argument Over Marijuana Quality Led To Triple Shooting"

Good Morning. It was a slow news day. So why not continue linking to Fenty bike theft stories? D.C. Wire's Nikita Stewart reports that the theft had been omitted from D.C. Police crime stats: "The June 3 theft of two bicycles from an open garage at Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's Crestwood home is not listed on the Metropolitan Police Department's crime statistics Web site. The Web site, crimemap.dc.gov, allows anyone to see what crimes have been committed in their neighborhoods by typing in an address. The mayor's address comes up empty when looking at the past 30 days when the theft occurred. Fenty and Attorney General Peter Nickles said they did not know why it was not listed. Fenty said he reported the crime right away. Mafara Hobson, the mayor's spokeswoman, did not respond to further inquiries. Kris Baumann, chairman of the local Fraternal Order of Police, has long argued that the police department is not accurately recording crimes. The absence of the theft at the mayor's home 'calls into the question the accuracy of the crime reports we're giving to residents,' Baumann said. 'This is yet another example of why people do not have any confidence in this administration.'" You know what's a little annoying about all this? It's all the I-don't-knows and the no comments. Let's hear from the D.C. Police Department on why the stat hadn't been logged into the website, and whether or not the officer is being investigated for the incident. Or does the Fenty administration want Baumann to have the last word? He is pretty eloquent after all.

Oh wait, WUSA9's Bruce Johnson interviewed D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier about the bike thefts. And she exonerates the cop: "DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier tells 9NEWS NOW that the officer on guard duty did his job when thieves entered the Mayor's open garage on June 3rd and stole two bikes. The police officer remained in the guard shack monitoring surveillance cameras that captured the thefts rather than leave his post and try to arrest the suspects. The Fraternal Order of Police say the Chief's rules prohibit the officer from leaving his post. The chief refused to comment on security procedures but said the thefts took place in 30 seconds, and the garage door was up only because it was broken....The officer is still assigned to the Mayor's home." So finally, maybe this controversy has been cleared up!

MCDONNELL'S HISSY FIT PUTS METRO IN TROUBLE: WaPo's Lisa Rein and Anita Kumar report that VA's governor is threatening to withhold Metro funds. Here's why: "Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's administration threatened Wednesday to unravel a $1.5 billion federal funding plan for Metro unless the state gets two members on the agency's board of directors. The governor's transportation chief said McDonnell (R) wants more accountability for an investment that would cover more than half of Virginia's contribution to Metro. The state and local jurisdictions both provide funding. The federal government is providing the money for capital needs during the next 10 years but requires the District, Maryland and Virginia to match it. 'We are now the largest contributor from this side of the Potomac, and we don't have a seat at the table,' said Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton, explaining his push to take two of the four Northern Virginia seats away from the jurisdictions that appoint them. The state is 'extremely concerned about management, operation and safety' in the wake of last year's fatal Red Line crash. If Virginia reneges on the pledge to match the $150 million from the federal government, the repercussions would be immediate, Metro officials said: An $886 million contract for 428 rail cars that the federal program will fund will be in jeopardy." KEY QUOTE: Metro board member Jim Graham: 'This is very serious mischief. It's a serious breakdown of regional cooperation, which has been the essential element of Metro."

AFTER THE JUMP—Sen. Jim Webb whines about traffic on the National Mall, farmers responsible for Chesapeake cleanup issues, Fenty finally nabs an endorsement, and much, much more!

MAYORAL RACE PUNISHES CHILDREN: Or maybe not. But WaPo's Bill Turque thinks it may behind the delay of a children's center: "Back in March, it looked like the pieces were in place for construction of a $12 million early-childhood education center in the Parkside neighborhood of Ward 7, financed by a philanthropy run by the daughter of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. The Buffett Early Childhood Fund announced on March 23 that it hoped to break ground this summer on land adjacent to Neval Thomas Elementary School. All that remained was agreement on a land lease from the District, which Mayor Adrian M. Fenty was expected to send to the D.C. Council for approval within two weeks. But in the nearly three months since, that lease has yet to make its way from the mayor's office to Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. The Gray camp privately attributes the slow walk to primary politics, with Fenty loathe to facilitate anything that will make his opponent look good. Pre-K and early childhood issues are a political sweetspot for Gray, who has championed several initiatives on that front. And Ward 7 is his home turf. Buffett Fund president Daniel J. Pedersen said politics are not in the picture, and that the project has been slowed up because the parcels of land next to Neval Thomas are owned by multiple government entities."

ONE MORE REASON WHY WE HEART MARY CHEH: WBJ's Michael Neibauer reports that Councilmember Mary Cheh opened up about campaign donations: "Ward 3 D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh on Wednesday took the unusual step, at the start of a hearing on a number of proposed developments, of revealing that her campaign received money from members of the development teams. She didn't have to do it. It's not like the council has any role in choosing the development partners — that's purely an executive function. And it's not like she's facing a tough primary challenge as she bids for a second term — she's running unopposed. 'I have undertaken a personal responsibility, not required, but still I just decided that I'm going to do this for whatever it's worth,' said Cheh, chair of the government operations committee. The council has been asked to approve the disposal of several city-owned parcels — Hine Junior High School, three buildings on the West End, the Hurt Home at 3050 R St. NW, the M.M. Washington Career High School and 4800 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave. NE — so that the properties can be redeveloped. Cheh said she asked her staff to scrub her campaign filings for any contributions from the developers associated with those projects. Anthony Lanier, president of EastBanc, the West End developer, gave Cheh $300 in 2009 while Lanier's wife gave $500 and Joe Sternlieb, another EastBanc executive, gave $200. The Jarvis Co. LLC, working on a separate project, gave Cheh $250."

SUMMER=HUNGER: D.C. Programs face a lot of hungry kids this summer.

SUMMER JOBS PROGRAM: The D.C. Council is seeking tighter oversight over the summer youth program.

ROSECROFT TO CLOSE: The Maryland race track is set to close on July 1, the Examiner reports: "Maryland's Rosecroft Raceway will close July 1, laying off more than 200 employees and leaving just one harness racing track left in the state, officials announced Wednesday. 'We're losing over $100,000 a month,' former owner Mark Vogel told The Washington Examiner. 'Rosecroft has no means to generate income and stay in business.' The 60-year-old Fort Washington track filed for bankruptcy last year because it could no longer afford to simulcast races across the U.S. The racetrack was paying $500,000 a year to the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association for the simulcasts. Vogel said he tried to negotiate a cheaper fee, but the association would not compromise. 'It's a mess that I thought I could straighten out and obviously I didn't do that,' said Vogel, who had planned to buy back the racetrack from Cloverleaf Enterprises. Layoffs will become effective Saturday and the track doesn't have enough money to pay employees any severance, Cloverleaf President Kelley Rogers said. 'We'll proceed to liquidation and after that, the track will probably be bulldozed — or else it will just sit there and be an eyesore,' Rogers said."

FENTY WINS SOMETHING: Like the endorsement of a construction union. WaPo reports: "Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, trailing chief opponent Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray in endorsements, picked up a major nod Wednesday from Laborers Local 657. The union, which represents about 3,000 construction workers, announced that it is endorsing Fenty whose push for new recreation centers, schools and other facilities have kept bulldozers busy around the city. Anthony Frederick Sr., an officer with the union, said about half of its members live in the District. 'We have a partnership with him to put D.C. residents to work. Mayor Fenty is the only candidate in the race who is supporting jobs for the residents,' Frederick said."

MCCARTNEY: WaPo columnist thinks farmers are standing in the way of a clean Chesapeake: "The potent national farm lobby is poised to block a pair of bills that would set a firm deadline of 2025 for cutting the flow of pollutants by enough to restore the bay's health, according to both supporters and opponents of the measures. Two Maryland Democrats, Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Elijah Cummings, are the leading sponsors of the similar bills. They would give federal and state governments genuine authority for the first time over all kinds of polluters — including farmers — in the six-state Chesapeake watershed. That would be a major advance, not just for our region but also the rest of the country. For nearly four decades, the farming industry has succeeded in preventing the federal government from extending mandatory measures to stop it from polluting the nation's water. Many other major polluters, such as sewage treatment plants and factories, succumbed to such regulation long ago. To their credit, the nation's farmers have cut back on pollution to a significant degree through voluntary steps encouraged by government subsidies. It hasn't been enough, though. Farm runoff is the largest single source of pollution in the Chesapeake."

SEN. WEBB: Wrote Mayor Fenty to complain about the traffic problems on the National Mall. WaPo's Mike DeBonis writes: "It, of course, rankles District residents (such as myself) when federal lawmakers suggest that the city can't handle its own business. That said, Webb's letter was very polite, addresses a real problem, and concerns an area of undeniable federal interest. Still: The city government has done quite a bit under Fenty to improve the transportation options on the Mall — and it's the federal government, NPS in particular, that might be the bigger obstruction to improvements. Take the city's $1 Circulator buses. They've been a great hit across the city, and they would go a long way to draw tourists and others out of their cars and motorcoaches, easing traffic. But Tourmobile, a private concern, holds an exclusive contract with NPS to run bus service on Mall thoroughfares — a service for which it charges as much as $27 a head. The Circulator service is left to operate on Constitution and Independence — still convenient to Mall tourists, but much less visible."

NEW YORK-FLORIDA AVENUES: The two critical streets are sucking right now.

BP OUTRAGE: Goes local, apparently.

SUICIDE: At Dunn Loring Metro stop.

D.C. BAR: Elects a new president.

NAV SCREEN: Is your GPS having problems figuring out D.C. 's construction zones?

ROBERT WONE: An account of Day 16 in the conspiracy trial.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE: No public events.

D.C. COUNCIL'S SCHEDULE:

2 p.m.
Committee on Goverment Operations and the Environment (Meeting)
The Committee on Government Operations and the Environment meetings will be held at 2:00PM on Third Thursday of each month.
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 120

Well, gangs and violence, anyway.

A City Desk reader captured this sight with a cell phone cam yesterday morning, around 10:30 a.m., on the 1500 block of Marion Street NW:

The reader explains: 'Took some photos yesterday of 6 kids from the Mayor's Conservation Corps rolling [a] joint and smoking pot....I did call the police but they didn't show up before the kids finished up. You can see a lighter and smoke in the photos. You can tell what he's smoking from how he's holding it. :-) I could smell it...(don't ask me how I know what it smells like).'

(Because the alleged tokers are likely minors, City Desk has blurred their faces.)

Plenty of folks at this point (hat tips: Scott's Take, DCist) have pointed out that the Mayor's Conservation Corps—part of the city summer jobs program—have spent their first days on the job handing out paper doorhangers.

Many of them have ended up on the street and sidewalks, and then there's the obvious irony of promoting a green initiative by distributing tons of thick paperstock around town.

LL called up the D.C. Department of the Environment, which runs the Green Summer Jobs Program, and asked spokesperson Alan Heymann about the doorhangers and the ironical elements at play.

The point of the doorhangers, Heymann says, is "to announce to the community that the conservation corps is going to be out doing this type of work" and to solicit project suggestions from residents.

But why use dead trees to do so?

"Not every resident of the District of Columbia is on a listserve or a blog," he explains.

In any case, they're printed on 100 percent recycled paper with vegetable inks, 100,000 of them have been printed, and they're being distributed everywhere the corps operates—which is pretty much everywhere but Ward 3. (Not as much work there, Heymann notes, but if you have a suggestion for a project there, call 535-2325.)

Soon the kids will move on to more substantial work—some have already started tree box inspections. "This is kind of by way of introduction," Heymann says. "It's a long summer."

And in any case, Heymann says, kids shouldn't be tossing the hangers on the ground. "When we get a report [of littering], we send the kids back out to fix it," he says. "We certainly don't want any litter on the ground."

The 7-6 vote came on an emergency measure introduced by Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry that would cut this year's Summer Youth Employment Program from the nine weeks planned by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. (Emergency legislation requires nine votes to pass.)

In remarks introducing the measure, Barry called last year's disaster an "embarrassment for the nation"—this, of course, from a man who knows from national embarrassment.

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray also spoke in favor of the bill, and spoke highly of Barry's efforts to create and nurture the program, which, he pointed out repeatedly, has "historically" been six weeks. "I think we have an obligation to the young people in this city to show that we can make this program work," he said.

Ward 7's Yvette Alexander had more prosaic concerns—why take up kids' entire summers with work? "Let a child be a child," Alexander said. "Let our children enjoy their summer!"

At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown expressed skepticism at the Fenty administration's claims that they had already identified jobs for all 22,000 registered participants in the program. "This is a joke," he said. "I was born at night, but it wasn't last night....Can we be real here?" He went on to take the Fenty administration to task for planning for a $40 million-plus program, when the current budget supports only half that.

Also voting in favor were Mary Cheh, Phil Mendelson, and Michael A. Brown. Barry still didn't have enough votes.

"It is too late in the season for us to be changing the rules," said At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania, who also took a shot at Barry's pet program: "I don't want to look through rose-colored glasses here: This program has never been perfect....The time has come for us to reinvent this program."

Muriel Bowser, of Ward 4, got at the politics at play in her comments: "Truncating this program, in my view, doesn't teach the children of the District of Columbia anything. It's an attempt to teach the mayor of the District of Columbia something....It's an attempt to criticize and deal a blow to the administration. I'm not going to get involved in that."

A notable vote against the cut came from Harry Thomas Jr. of Ward 5, who broke traditional alliances and expressed concern as a parent looking for summer activities for his kids and as a ward resident concerned about a possible effect on crime. "I don't often go against my mentor, my leader, my friend," Thomas said, referring to Barry. "I'm not worried about the politics; I'm worried about the realities—where the rubber hits the road."

Fenty has committed to accommodating all comers, even though last year's program went more than $30 million over budget under a similar lack of constraints.

In recent days, the spiritual godfather of D.C. summer jobs has made it clear he doesn't share Hizzoner's expansive view of the program.

"I'm not going to participate in this craziness," says Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, who started the Summer Youth Employment Program as mayor in 1979. It's widely regarded as one of Barry's political masterstrokes, engendering almost unanimous and endless goodwill from an entire generation of Washingtonians.

Barry, however, is not sold on Fenty's plans, he tells LL.

For one thing, through his council committee, he has proposed cutting $20 million from Fenty's proposed $42.9 million budget for the 2010 program. To do that, he recommends that the program be scaled back from 10 weeks to 6 weeks, that registrations close on April 1 rather than continue through the summer, and that participation be capped at 21,000.

And, as far as this year's program goes, he wants to see a spending plan. Two weeks ago, Fenty announced he was seeking to double the $21 million he'd originally budgeted. To do that, he's asking the council to tap a "community benefit fund" associated with the Nationals Park authorization, though no spending plan has yet to be submitted.

"You're asking for trouble," Barry tells LL—intimating a tough council fight to get the supplemental spending approved.

Fenty's approach to the program, Barry says, "teaches these kids bad habits"—that anyone who applies is simply handed a job. Some of the placements are made in the private sector and federal government, but the vast majority of kids are employed by the District government.

Barry's objections come at the same time that the Brookings Institute's Greater Washington Research program has raised questions about summer jobs—a effort providing "uncertain, uneven, and sometimes really bad outcomes"—sucking up the vast majority of the local dollars spent on employment programs in the city.

No matter what happens with the funding, Barry says he vows to hold weekly oversight hearings into the operations of the program—all 10 weeks of the program, "even during the council recess."

"I'm gonna put pressure on him," Barry says of Fenty. "I'm gonna blow the whistle if it ain't right."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

According to a budget report released tonight, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray is proposing to cut the office of Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso by some 80 percent. Where the mayor had proposed a $4.04 million budget for the office, Gray is proposing outlaying only $778,000 for the office. He proposes taking the office from 21 employees down to seven.

In other big news, all the lobbying by charter schools and their advocates has paid off: Gray's looking to restore $16.7 million to the charter facilities budget (though not the full $24 million). Where did the council find much of the money to do so? From Fenty's beloved summer jobs program.

The proposed reduction in the deputy mayor's budget corresponds to a movement of various functions out of Reinoso's shop and into others. Some agency oversight functions are being transferred to the State Superintendent of Education; the Interagency Collaboration and Service Integration Commission and its $2.3 million budget is being sent to the DCPS Office of Youth Engagement; and the schools ombudsman will fall under the State Board of Education's purview.

As for charter facilities funding, under the committee plan, the method of funding will remain the same for another year, delaying the mayoral effort to move to a "cost-based" system. However, the formula will decrease from $3,100 per student to $2,800 per student.

If you think mayor-council relations were bad before, consider this a declaration of all-out war. Gray is taking direct aim at what Fenty considers the cornerstone of his mayoral legacy: public education reform. Reinoso was tasked with being Fenty's big-picture, behind-the-scenes guy responsible for steering the whole educational ship in the District, from early education to charter schools to facilities management to DCPS to UDC. But Gray never saw much strategic direction out of Reinoso's office, and it didn't help that Reinoso repeatedly clashed with Gray when he testified before him—if he testified at all.

That's borne out by the report, which reads, "[S]ince the creation of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, no statewide education strategy has been created or established, even though approximately $2 billion is invested annually in public education in the District of Columbia, not including the District’s educational facilities capital program....The Committee is concerned that there is a continuing environment of uncoordinated efforts, initiatives, and budgets between early childhood education, the traditional public schools and charter schools, and the University of the District of Columbia, as well as the strategic planning of educational facilities for all public education sectors."

The slap being delivered by raiding the Summer Youth Employment Program for $10 million is even more vicious for who is delivering it: Marion Barry, the father of the summer jobs program and current chair of the committee on housing and workforce development. It's rare for a committee chair to willingly give up a huge chunk of the budget under his oversight, but make no mistake that Barry considers it worth it to send a message to Fenty.

The plan is still subject to a vote by the full council—this is the committee of the whole, after all—but expect Vince to have the votes on this one.

UPDATE, 12:30 A.M.: After having a closer look at the COW report, LL realizes he may have buried the lede. Gray is proposing to essentially triple the proposed budget of the State Board of Education and to make it "a separate entity within the District of Columbia Government, with sufficient resources and staff to fulfill its important mission." That responds to concerns that, under the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the board did not have sufficient institutional distance from executive functions of government. But before you start thinking this is the second coming of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, read this: "No additional roles, responsibilities or authority over educational decisionmaking will be assumed by the Board as a result of this transition."

Another item of note: Gray has found $5.4 million in his proposal to fully fund the "Pre-K for All" legislation passed by the council last year. The report had strong words for the gap in the mayor's budget plan: "Disappointed is a mild description of the Council’s response to the failure of OSSE and this Administration to honor its commitment to the expansion and enhancement of pre-kindergarten (pre-k) services to District residents."

Just look at the program's Web Site: "Welcome to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's Summer Youth Employment Program for 2009," reads the banner headline.

Politicians are know for attaching their names to everything in sight, but not usually to programs which nine months ago had imploded in a cloud of overspending and fraud. Others might have scaled back expectations, but not Fenty. At a press conference at Ballou Senior High School this afternoon, he announced it's full steam ahead on summer jobs.

The details for SYEP 2009, such as they exist so far, are impressive. The registration process is online-only.Three times as many slots have been offered by private employers. All sorts of database checks are in place to prevent mass fraud. A top private contractor will be handling payroll. And 3,000 kids have already signed up.

Joseph P. Walsh, director of the Department of Employment Services, was hired to make this thing work above all else—he replaced Summer Spencer, who was forced out after last year's debacle—and Fenty pumped up the "sweat equity" Walsh has poured into the program in his three months in office.

Perhaps most impressive is the fact that private employers have increased their commitment after last year—from less than 400 positions to more than 1,000 this time—after some business types expressed sotto voce disillusionment with what happened last summer. Walsh says he's been on a speaking tour of local business groups—he namechecked the Federal City Council, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the D.C. Hospital Association, and Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington—to ease concerns. "A lot of them wanted to hear what was new this year, what we're going to do differently, to sort of restore that confidence," Walsh says.

After the presser, Fenty joined a group of Ballou students in a computer lab as they went on laptops to sign up for jobs. The computers worked fine, but the building didn't: As reporters filed into the room with Hizzoner, a tile fell from the ceiling onto a table, breaking apart.

Hope that isn't an omen.