Posts Tagged ‘Vincent Gray’
Graham Withdraws From Taxi Oversight
Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham has relinquished his oversight of the District’s taxicab industry.
The move comes more than a month after his chief of staff, Ted Loza, was collared in a bribery sting where taxi-related interests are alleged to have paid Loza to influence cab legislation. Graham has had the D.C. Taxicab Commission under the purview of his public works and transportation committee since 2007, giving him great control over legislation affecting the taxi business, as well as the power to investigate the industry.
The timing, to say the least is odd. Both Graham and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray came under fire from LL and others for not making this move sooner. And, earlier this month, the pressure had eased on Graham after federal prosecutors decided not to interview a pair of key staffers before a grand jury
Our Morning Roundup: A Metrobus Strikes Again
Prince of Petworth posts on the effort/petition to save the Black Rooster. One reader’s response: “i LOVE the black rooster. if the peace corps really closes it down…i just…i might just not go to happy hour anymore, ever, anywhere. and that would make me terribly sad. save the rooster!”
Penn Quarter Living debuts a new column called High Rise Life. The first one is on elevator etiquette. It’s not so much a column as bad comment bait of which I am sometimes guilty of. Here’s a sampling from PQL’s rookie effort on sharing an elevator: “Fob in and offer to push buttons or don’t offer and make sure others belong in the building? Remind neighbors that bicycles and their owners usually ride the freight elevator or zip it? Heel your dog or let him/her sniff around and be friendly? What is good neighborly elevator etiquette?” Fascinating.
Council Hosts CBC Reception Tonight
For the second year in a row, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray is hosting a snazzy affair at the Park at 14th to celebrate the Congressional Black Caucus’ annual legislative conference. Ultra-slick invites to this evening’s event have been handed out to councilmembers for distribution.
Gray spokesperson Doxie McCoy confirms that the arrangements are the same as last year: Park at 14th owner and prolific campaign contributor Marc Barnes is paying all the expenses, with the understanding that he’ll make them back in bar receipts.
There is one delicious political twist this time.
Why Did The D.C. Council Have To Pass An Ethics Code Now?
WaPo’s D.C. Wire posted that the D.C. Council has passed a new ethics code via emergency legislation. Tim Craig writes:
The proposal, for example, states that council members need to uphold “unusually high standards of honesty, integrity, impartiality” and that the “avoidance of misconduct and conflicts of interest on the part of council members is indispensable.” Some of those standards were already scattered through out city code, but Gray concluded the ethical policies dealing with the council were confusing and too dispersed.
In the Post account, Councilmember Marion Barry praises the ethics code as a big step forward and cites Chairman Gray for his “progressive thinking.”
So the code must be full of loopholes?
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Vince Gray Talks Mayoral Prospects
Early last Sunday—like 6 a.m. early—D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray briefly discussed a potential mayoral run in response to a question on WRC-TV’s Viewpoint program. Long story short, he’s not ruling it out:
Barry Apologizes To D.C. Council During Private Meeting
According to three sources familiar with the closed-door meeting to discuss the ramifications of Marion Barry’s July 4 arrest, the councilmember apologized to his colleagues. He even made sure to apologize to Councilmember Jim Graham, who was late to the meeting.
One councilmember says that Barry confessed his love for the District and said that he was sorry that he hurt the council. “It really, really seemed heartfelt,” the councilmember says. “His colleagues were pretty damn pissed off at him.”
“He apologized to all the members,” says another source. The source added that Barry almost cried during his mea culpa.
But Barry was clear about who he would not apologize to: the public.
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D.C. Council Riled Over TV Airing of Fire Truck Testimony
The fishy fire truck testimony delivered last Thursday by Peaceoholics co-founder Ronald Moten before the D.C. Council was plenty dramatic, but the drama apparently did not end with the pound of the gavel.
Since then, a classic council-executive scuffle has broken out over broadcasts of the proceeding on city cable, with allegations flying that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty himself has become personally involved.
Because Thursday’s proceeding was considered a “public deposition” rather than a council hearing (it was supposed to be behind closed doors until Moten demanded otherwise), the councilmembers heading up the fire truck investigation—Mary Cheh and Phil Mendelson—determined that its contents should not be disseminated. That’s in keeping with the usual council practice on depositions, which are kept under wraps, so other witnesses won’t change their testimony to make their stories consistent (Never mind that LL and other reporters already did plenty of disseminating.)
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New D.C. Lottery Bids: Woodson, Wiggins, Green Emerge as Local Partners
The new bids on the long controversial D.C. Lottery contract were due today at 2 p.m.; this is what LL has thus far been able to suss out.
Rhode Island-based GTECH, which ditched longtime partner Leonard Manning in May, has found a bevy of local partners with appeal across the local political spectrum. Long story short, their team has been meticulously constructed to ensure broad support on the D.C. Council, which derailed the last contract award.
From the Fenty axis, you have Darryl Wiggins. A local businessman, he’s been a longtime political ally of Fenty’s dating back to the his first council campaign. He also was a key member of Hizzoner’s transition operation in 2006. He owns Document Managers, a business that’s done a lot of business with District government and has experience in managing large tech enterprises, which is what running the lottery involves. (For further Fenty ties, his political guru, Tom Lindenfeld, has been hired by GTECH as a consultant.)
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LL’s 2009 Capital Pride Reviewing Stand
The next local election day might be some 15 months off, but Saturday’s Capital Pride parade still had a political charge—mostly due to the recent heat on gay marriage, but also thanks to a mayoral campaign kicking into full gear and possible council challenger in the mix.
LL was there with camera. Behold!
D.C. Lottery Update: CAGE Is Out; Who’s With GTECH?
Two weeks from today, bids are due on the D.C. Lottery contract.
But who will step up?
The big question is: Which local business types will each of the three major global lottery equipment providers tap for a partnership? Tapping locals earns each company points in the procurement process and also helps grease the political skids.
Last month, LL ran down the possibility that Caribbean CAGE, an outfit backed by BET founder Bob Johnson and old D.C. politico Bob Washington, might pursue the potentially lucrative contract with big fish GTECH or Scientific Games.
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Compromise Set on DCPS Budget Squabble
Since he moved last month to hold $27 million from the D.C. Public Schools budget over an enrollment dispute, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray has been pleading for an answer to a simple question: Where are the schoolchildren that DCPS is projecting will enroll this fall—more than 3,000 more than if longstanding trends hold—going to come from?
Now Gray’s crowing, because he says DCPS Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has admitted he has a point in a letter sent to him yesterday.
In the letter, Rhee cites the work of independent researchers in coming up with the projections, but writes, “I understand your hesitance to accept the projected increase in enrollment….Based upon the assumptions we outlined…we believe we have sound evidence and data to suggest that DCPS’s enrollment of October 2009 will increase slightly….However, as I shared with you Friday, I cannot guarantee that this will occur.”
Gray sees vindication therein: “Basically, what I think it says is [that] I think we’ll be proven right on the number,” Gray said this morning at the council breakfast meeting. “It says in a lot of words that they don’t know where 3,073 people are coming from.”
As for a modus vivendi, a compromise has been fashioned: The council will vote today to restore DCPS funding on the October 2008 enrollment figure—meaning DCPS is free to spend about $24 million of the $27 million that council had threatened to place in escrow. The remaining $3 million will be set aside pending an audit of the fall enrollment.
For next year, however, Rhee and Gray have agreed to work together to “develop a uniform method by which enrollment projections will be completed by both DCPS and the charter schools.” That would aim to end the inequity in the mechanics of charter funding versus DCPS funding: Charters have to refund money accepted due to overprojections, but DCPS doesn’t.
DCPS: Central Office Budget Cut ‘to the Bare Minimum’
Last week, on his way out of the door for a long weekend, LL threw up a post about how D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, faced with threats from the D.C. Council to cut $27 million from her fiscal 2010 budget over an enrollment dispute, had sent letters to her principals telling them that their budgets are set to be cut.
Therein, LL asked a couple of questions: Why cut teachers first? Aren’t there central-office savings to be reaped?
This week, some answers came to those questions, from DCPS spokesperson Jennifer Calloway. “DCPS has cut the central office budget to the bare minimum,” she writes in a statement, “reducing spending over the past 2 years while significantly increasing funding going directly to schools.”
“Central office,” by the way, is shorthand for all school-system functionaries who aren’t directly serving students in schools—not just those who work at DCPS headquarters at 825 North Capitol Street. And if the central office has indeed been cut to the bone, Rhee will have accomplished quite something.
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D.C. Politicos Hitting the Wynn Las Vegas Tonight
The mayor and at least a half-dozen councilmembers in in Las Vegas today for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual retail real estate convention. So where the party at?
In the Wynn Las Vegas’ Alsace Room:
Law firm Arent Fox (new employer of Tony Williams, as it happens) is hosting the signature event for local politicos at this year’s Vegas confab.
Question is, how many “other District of Columbia officials” will show at an event headlined by Adrian Fenty? With council resentment inflamed by tickets, travel, and what have you—and the chance for a repeat of last year’s Vegas conflict, when Fenty’s people scheduled meetings separate from councilmembers—things could get, um, interesting. LL had heard late last week that Yvette Alexander had been the only councilmember to RSVP. For LL’s sake, he hopes everyone shows up: Nothing like clashing personalities, booze, and a small room far away from home to create LL-caliber drama.
He’ll be taking party reports.
