DC Mayor Signs Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, the bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia yesterday. The ceremony was held at All Souls Church.

Photos here.

Image (“The Wedding Couple, after Abbot Handerson Thayer and Richard E. Miller”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Speedy … but ‘Smart’?

Not only is DC Mayor Adrian Fenty still using his city-owned Lincoln Navigator luxury SUV, but his well-publicized city-owned “Smart Car” is just another perk tossed to a well-paid aide.

Mike DeBonis at Washington City Paper discovered that the Mayor’s fuel-efficient “Smart Car” got a speeding ticket (via an automatic speed camera) while Hizzoner was driving, but mayoral assistant Veronica Washington seems to drive the trendy buggy home fairly regularly. Ms. Washington’s salary: $107,635. Cost of the “Passion” Smart Car: $18,000. Seems like she could afford one of her own.

In the Fenty administration, “Green Initiatives” must refer to the color of public money and the privileges it buys, not the environment.

 

Satirical image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Wrong Turn Leads to Dirt Road

DC Mayor Adrian Fenty let pal Keith P. Lomax drive his city-owned SUV to a sports event and defended this by saying, essentially, “It’s legal if I say it is.”  While DC Attorney General Peter “Virginia Gentleman” Nickles seemed to uphold this notion, DC Auditor Deborah K. Nichols emphatically declared it illegal for anyone but DC Government employees to drive a DC Government car.

Mayor Fenty admitted error this morning, telling reporters “I made a bad decision,” and “”I’m not going to do that anymore. No more letting anyone else drive.”  But this new attitude of humility may have more to do with discouraging scrutiny of DC contract cronyism than with correcting mayoral hubris.

The Driver’s Seat

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty told his DC Metropolitan Police driver to take a hike a few years back, saying he would drive his city-owned Lincoln Navigator himself. He even bought a cute little high-efficiency Smart Car to drive when he doesn’t need the SUV.

Nikita Stewart writes in today’s Washington Post that the Mayor now lets government contractor Keith P. Lomax drive him around town in that DC-owned Lincoln, in violation of government regulations.  Mr. Lomax, a former college  basketball player, was a substitute teacher at young Adrian Fenty’s parochial high school. 

Asked if Mr. Lomax, who is not a DC officer or employee,  was legally permitted to drive a city-owned vehicle, the Mayor replied “He is if I let him.” City Auditor Deborah K. Nichols disagreed, explaining that the regulations against this protect the District Government from legal risk.

Some may be surprised by Mr. Fenty’s attitude, or puzzled that the Mayor uses an SUV to commute between home and his Smart Car commuter vehicle (he parks it at the Wilson Building).  Few who live here are surprised to learn that Mr. Lomax’s firm has received $11 million in city contracts since his pal became Mayor, and that the firm has donated thousands to the Fenty re-election campaign.

When it comes to DC Government, contractors and developers are usually in the driver’s seat. 

Expect more on this issue tomorrow.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Street Light User Fee

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed imposing a street light “user fee” on residents and businesses in Washington DC. Funds raised would help defray costs of street light maintenance and operation, and would be collected through surcharges on electric utility bills. If enacted, the measure would cost average DC households about $51 a year.

The rationale for a “user fee” is that it isn’t a tax imposed on everyone; a user fee is only paid by those using a specific service, and is proportional to the rate of use. Mayor Fenty’s measure, however,  does not exempt blind Washingtonians from this “user fee,” and they are not consumers of street light services.

Wrong End of the Telescope

Everyone loves to root for the home team, but while the sentiment is charming, it also makes bookies rich. Why should government make the same kind of dumb bet, but at higher stakes? That’s exactly what happens when the dynamics of real estate speculation are magnified by taxpayer-funded sports stadium projects.

Objective assessment of athletes is difficult; inflating the merits of a sports team with hometown loyalty and wishful thinking is a sucker’s game. Likewise, a publicly-funded sports facility is a sucker bet for citizens and a speculator’s dream.

Yesterday’s local news featured pathetic interviews with DC baseball fans. Folks in Nationals ballcaps, standing near lots laid waste by stadium-fueled development delusions, said it had taken a decade for the downtown arena neighborhood to develop, so they were willing to endure ten years of unproductive desolation caused by Nats Park construction. With all this “Wait Until Next Decade” talk it was hard to remember that Monday was Opening Day, not the end of a losing season. 

DC Buys Bronze Bobbleheads for Billionaires

As part of its economic recovery effort, the DC Government commissioned $700,000 worth of sculpture for billionaire Theodore Lerner and his family. DC already built $611 million Nationals Park for the Lerners, who own the local Major League Baseball franchise, and the government wants to decorate it to suit the wealthy tenants. Who knows, this might even encourage the Lerners to actually pay rent on the stadium.

You can admire the artistic gifts your tax dollars bought for the Lerners at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, April 8th, when the sculptures will be dedicated. RSVP to Deirdre Ehlen at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) by email or phone (202-724-5613). The event is free, so go see the art you paid for before you have to buy Nationals tickets to do it.

Forbes estimates the personal wealth of Theodore  N. Lerner at $2.5 billion, but why spend your own money on art when the taxpayers will commission it for you?  The DC Government dead- panned that the baseball art belongs to DC and is only on loan to the Lerners, an assertion worthy of a Larry Neal Award for fiction.  The sculpture  is site-specific, so saying the art is on loan is like saying you don’t own the fillings in your teeth, you only rent them.

DC Creates Public Art Program Vision in the District of Columbia

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has invited Washington residents to “Get Involved: Learn About the Public Art Community Open House.”

When: Today, Tuesday February 11, 2009, 5PM to 7PM

Where: Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library (901 G Street NW, near Gallery Place-Chinatown and Metro Center stations).

How:To RSVP and for more information call or email: Deirdre Ehlen at (202) 724-5613 or Deirdre.Ehlen@dc.gov

What: For more information, look here and here … well … not much more information, is there. No agenda has been provided; we will bring our own.

Background: DCCAH Public Arts Programs,  DC Revised Comprehensive Plan, Chapter 14 (Arts and Culture)

 

[Full disclosure: the writer worked for this agency many years ago].

Image by Mike Licht (with help from DCCAH and the State University of Iowa). Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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DC Budget — Good News and Bad News

Good news and bad news on the District of Columbia Government budget:

The good news — there’s a surplus of $191 million.

The bad News — that’s only because DC departments are glacially slow in spending budgeted funds to meet the crushing needs of citizens.

Read the column by Jonetta Rose Barras in the Examiner. 

 

Hat tip: Mike DeBonis.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Inauguration ‘Refresh’

One DC Inaugural Weekend event seems rather … effervescent; even a bit … gassy. It’s the Refresh the World Symposium  on January 19th, presented by Spike Lee, Howard University and PepsiCo.

The event at historic Cramton Auditorium (2455 Sixth Street, NW) is free to college students, and features Spike Lee (natch) with fave celebs Rev. Al Sharpton, Bay Buchanan, Sean Combs, Arianna Huffington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, Queen Latifah, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Michelle Rhee, Dr. Cornel West, and more. Pepsi says topics will include the economy, education, race, gender, hip-hop, carbonated beverages, and other vital national issues.