THE D.C. Council is perhaps confusing a whole bunch of residents. It proclaims that it’s providing rigorous oversight and watching how Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration is spending the public’s money for education reform. But earlier this month, it passed emergency legislation that opened the door for the Department of Parks and Recreation to spend more than $2 million on snacks—and not just for children but also the agency’s adult workers.

With salaries being paid to government bureaucrats, it’s hard to fathom that they can’t buy their own food. After all, foot long sandwiches at Subway sell for five dollars.

The city already runs a year-round feeding program for children and adults. That program is intensified during the summer and is operated by the State Office of Education.

Despite that effort, Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas Jr, whose committee oversees the DPR, felt compelled to introduce the legislation, supported by his 12 colleagues, that amends part of the DC Code to allow fees collected by the agency and placed in the Recreation Enterprise Fund be used to “purchase food, snacks, and non-alcoholic beverages for the general public, [DPR] program participants, and District government employees.”

The carte blanche legislation comes even as the DPR struggles with maintaining its pools, hiring sufficient numbers of lifeguards, properly caring for the trees on its properties, and keeping its facilities up to District building and fire codes. Further, it flies in the face of the flagrant historical misuse of the fund, which initially was created to help the DPR fund programs and maintain recreation centers.

Between 2005 and 2007, the DPR deposited a total of $5.3 million in its Recreation Enterprise Fund. (See TBR Feb. 10, 2008). Those revenues were collected from a variety of sources including senior citizens programs, daycare services, permits and general administrative fees.

In fiscal year 2007, the DPR provided a check in the amount of $8,500 to the head of the citizen committee that oversees the fund. Evelyn Woolston said the money was the promote Camp Riverview. But she eventually returned the check. DPR officials then, in violation of the law, used the funds to pay for a staff Christmas party.

Now, Christmas comes in July, thanks to the Council.

Interestingly, when TBR asked DPR spokesperson John Stokes who actually will be fed, he said the agency will “provide food for District residents at DPR sponsored events,” including Camp Riverview. He says there are 800 more children in the overnight camp program.

What did the agency do last year to feed the children in that program? And, did it not in its planning for this summer consider that it had to provide three square meals and snacks? If it did, why the emergency raid on the enterprise fund. If it didn’t well we have yet another example of poor program management.

Either way, the council still has time to set some restrictions on the spending from this fund. Let’s hope it does that on Tuesday at its last legislative meeting before summer recess.

SPEAKING OF THE COUNCIL: Chairman Vincent C. Gray last week came out guns blazing after critical media reports, columns and editorials, including in The Washington Post and The Northwest Current, about his decision to delay approval of critical school renovation projects.

On Friday, Gray opened the Committee of the Whole’s roundtable on DCPS and the facilities modernization operation with a lengthy explanation for the meeting. He detailed issues he and the council have had with the way school construction contracts have been sent by the executive and the huge requests to reprogram money in this fiscal 2008 budget. Further, he took issue with those who ascribe political motives to his actions.

“I have spent my entire life working with children,” Gray said, “and my oversight of school modernization has nothing to do with politics. I repudiate any suggestion that it does.”

To ensure that everyone understands he is not backing down, he said, “The council has a right and obligation to examine these issues and we will continue to do so.”

Gray is right; the council should provide vigorous oversight of the mayor’s school reform efforts. But it needn’t morph into the new local board of education to do that. Unfortunately, it is dangerously close to fulfilling At-Large member Phil Mendelson’s prediction.

Last year, while voicing opposition to the mayoral takeover, Mendelson argued that the council would become an education board—a role he was loath to take on. It appears, however, the chairman has no qualms about taking on the job.

In his opening statement, he challenged Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s decision to merge elementary and middle schools, although in the master education plan prepared by former Superintendent Clifford Janey there was a similar plan.

“The literature,” Gray said, “is fairly consistent in that even though some school districts are turning to [this model] there is no conclusive evidence that shows that reconfiguring the middle grades improves learning for all students involved.

“One interpretation of these findings suggests that instead of debating grade configurations, time and energy should be spent on creating, engaging curricula that intellectually stimulate students,” he continued. “Moreover, it is important that we focus on creating organized structures that support high quality relationships at schools and finding better ways to reach out to families and communities.”

It’s high unlikely that Gray will get any arguments from Rhee or the mayor on the importance of curricula and parental or community involvement. What he may get push back on is what is implied in his comment: He knows better than both what will work in the DCPS.

Instead of creating an unnecessary adversarial environment, District leaders should reach out to each other in partnership. Their constant bickering sends the message to the public that there is something untoward in education reform. There isn’t.

Allen Lew, head of facilities modernization, was given the task of repairing buildings that had been neglected for decades. Not unlike what Anthony Williams faced when he became the city’s first chief financial officer, Lew has been forced to construct 21st Century delivery systems where none existed. He has had to do this with minimal staff and no time to consider anything.

The decision to close schools placed an enormous burden on Lew to configure buildings for the consolidations that would begin next month. That has meant contracts are being sent to the council at record speed and not in the best shape. In other words, the process isn’t ideal.

Gray and his colleagues probably would best serve the citizens by monitoring costs and delivery, rather than nitpicking every line. (TBR says this as someone who knows the flaws of the city’s contracting and procurement system and even some mistakes made recently by Lew.)  Meanwhile, the mayor, given the problems of this summer must work with Lew to prepare and deliver to the council a real master facilities modernization and maintenance plan that anticipates additional changes in the DCPS physical plants. 

Additionally, the legislative branch must be prepared to permit the chancellor time to fully implement her plan, which for all intents and purposes is a tweaked version of the Janey plan. Raising questions about strategies is helpful, second-guessing them and rallying the community to do the same is not.

Reforming a bureaucracy as big and as constipated as DCPS won’t happen in day—not even in a year. It requires toughness, willingness to tell residents what they may not want to hear and the guts to stand up to unions.

District education issues require the full attention and cooperation of all the city leaders, regardless of the level of unpleasantness or individuals’ perceived political aspirations.

SIDESHOWS AND SOUVENIRS

ERIC GOULET, the Council’s budget director, tells TBR that none of the more than 100 organizations earmarked in the city’s fiscal year 2009 budget have provided documentation as required by law to receive those funds.

“We have received a lot of phone calls from groups asking questions,” says Goulet.

Still, the council has decided to make it easier for the groups to access the money. It is expected to pass Tuesday emergency legislation that will allow groups to submit a financial statement instead of an actual audited report of their finances. Further, instead of a certification from the federal IRS and D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue that all tax obligations have been met, groups will be allowed to submit a notarized statement attesting to that fact. And the deadline will be extended from August 1 to August 15 to submit information to the budget director.

“We don’t want to be too draconian,” Goulet explains as the reason for the changes. “But we do want to make sure [the organizations] are legitimate.”

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