District politics hit its nadir last week.
A legislative session was called to consider a request to extend the summer youth jobs program and vote on a nominee to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. Some D.C. Council members, led by Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray, demonstrated during that meeting that they will do whatever it takes to defeat Mayor Adrian Fenty, including pitting residents against each other and sullying an ordinary citizen.
Gray and at-large Councilman Michael Brown deliberately couched the debate over the extension as the mayor taking money from homeless residents to give to youth. But there was $46 million in a special account, some of which will go unspent until 2012. Therefore, there was money for summer jobs without injury to homelessness programs.
Legislators’ criticism of Fenty’s overspending was appropriate. Deliberately creating a dichotomy — homeless versus youth — to score political points was unconscionable.
Gray has lamented incessantly over the divisions in the District. But during his mayoral campaign he has used every opportunity to exacerbate and exploit those fractures. That means he’s probably not the right person to unite the city.
Truth be told, Fenty’s record of service to homeless residents is better than others: Former Mayor Marion Barry put them in rat-infested motels owned by his cronies. As director of the Department of Human Services, Gray put them in trailers. Fenty has placed many in their own apartments.
In this political season, integrity is dying an awful death.
That also was even more evident during the discussions surrounding Mital Gandhi’s nomination to the elections board. Republican Gandhi, who is no relation to the city’s chief financial officer, Natwar Gandhi, would have been the required minority party representative on the panel. Initially, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, chairwoman of the committee with jurisdiction over the board, supported him. But she flipped, saying: “I no longer have confidence in this nominee.”
Cheh cited a litany of so-called offenses, which sounded similar to those committed by council members. For example, as an alcohol beverage board member, Gandhi missed too many meetings. But The Examiner’s Kytja Weir reported that Brown, a member of Metro’s Board of Directors, has missed 66 percent of 79 committee and board meetings since his appointment last year.
Gandhi may have violated the Hatch Act when in 2007 he signed a Fenty fundraising letter, Cheh said. But Gandhi isn’t a government employee, wasn’t acting in his capacity as a board member and didn’t use its letterhead.
When Gray used his council stationery to hustle $10,000 from Comcast for local Democrats to attend their party’s national convention, he was acting in his official capacity. His committee oversees Comcast and other cable companies.
Finally, Cheh expressed concern about a subpoena Gandhi allegedly received from the board of elections. Not only are there questions about whether he even received a subpoena, my reporting indicated at the time that the related elections board investigation was itself suspect and politically motivated.
At-large Councilman David Catania observed that the campaign to sink Gandhi’s nomination was inexplicable and he had “never seen anything like it.”
I hadn’t, either. Sadly, the absence of integrity is becoming the rule — not the exception.
Jonetta Rose Barras can be reached at [email protected]
