Harry Jaffe, The Examiner
2008-02-01 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Levone Seegars could be a poster boy for native Washingtonian success stories. Born in the nation’s capital, he got a decent education in public schools, graduated from H.D. Woodson High, earned a degree at the University of the District of Columbia, took courses at George Washington University.

A few years ago, he started Billboard Connection, an advertising agency for outdoor ads, a one-person shop on Capitol Hill that just added its first employee.

Now, thanks to Republican Council Member Carol Schwartz’s “Sick and Safe Leave Bill of 2007,” Seegers, 40, is considering a move out of town.

“I could move my operation to Prince George’s County,” he tells me, “but I want to stay in D.C. That’s where I live. That’s where I want my taxes to go.”

Seegers joined other businessmen last fall to beg Schwartz to change provisions of her bill, especially clauses that would mandate paid sick leave for temporary workers. Schwartz says she forged a compromise between advocates for workers abused by part-time working conditions and business owners. “Every time the business community raised a concern,” she tells me, “I dealt with it.”

Seegers and others say she ignored them and rammed the bill through her committee. When Sick and Safe comes before the full council Tuesday, a rare alliance of business folks — from hospitals and hotels to bars and printing shops — will show up to kill the bill.

“The bill was poorly written and badly handled,” says Paul Cohn, longtime restaurateur whose Capital Restaurant Concepts does business in Virginia and Maryland. “It already costs me 29 percent more to do business in the District. This will make it in the high 30s and affect bottom lines in every business.”

The political firestorm over Schwartz’s bill could affect the bottom line of her re-election in the coming campaign season. Businessmen are beginning to meet privately to come up with potential challengers in the Republican primary and the general election.

You would think the business community would love the District’s lone Republican council member. Carol Schwartz has been a loyal vote for decades. But her handling of this bill has shaken their allegiance.

Will it matter?

Schwartz is already facing a challenge from Adam Clampitt, a blogger and public relations executive running as an independent. The business community ran against Adrian Fenty and lost. Schwartz is a name brand in D.C. politics, as hard-wired into the voting public as is Marion Barry.

Depending on how Schwartz plays this political dustup, she might come out stronger with the backing of the unions and advocates for the working class. Playing the common man against the Establishment could be a winning strategy.

But if her bill becomes law, it will become harder for businesses to survive.

“If you run businesses out of the city, their tax dollars go with them,” says Seegars. “I want to grow my business in the city where I grew up.”

The Sick and Safe Bill, he says, will drive him away.