Jonetta Rose Barras, The Examiner
2008-02-07 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty doesn’t seem to know the country is facing a recession. He wants more money for D.C. Public Schools, even as there are signs of a national recession, which the chief financial officer warns certainly will affect the District. Further, the mayor is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on inefficient contracting.

Didn’t he promise to run the government like a business?

Fenty’s $17 million request for DCPS will come next month when he formally submits his 2009 budget. But already he’s spending madly. Since taking over last June, he has received more than $100 million for schools. He had assured everyone that he wouldn’t need any additional money to effect a successful reform of the system.

City Administrator Dan Tangherlini said spending last year on schools was on “one-time” expenses: severance packages for departing central office staff and repairs to buildings. “There were huge bills stacked up.”

He said State Superintendent for Education Deborah Gist had recommended a 5 percent spending increase for schools in 2009. The mayor cut that to 2 percent, adjusting for reduced student population and smaller overhead costs. He added there “will be substantial increase going to the classroom.”

Few believed the mayor’s “no-new-money” promise. But they didn’t expect that every time he opened his mouth he’d ask for more funds. Residents are right to demand results before slipping him another check. They’re right to suggest Fenty should find that $17 million through radical improvements to special education and measurable cuts in spending for central office administration.

But if contracting and procurement are any indication, residents’ pleas for better financial management and real reform may be ignored. This week, the council approved retroactively and on emergency basis millions of dollars in contracts. Tangherlini said in some cases officials didn’t accurately compute the cost of an agreement; in others, they didn’t include contingency spending, they simply didn’t plan, or existing rules got in the way of timely execution.

Actually, it’s old-fashioned incompetence. McKissack & McKissack provided more than $280,000 in project management services to the city as it repaired dozens of schools last year but didn’t have a valid contract. Unity Health, which operates seven health clinics, was paid more than $800,000 after its formal agreement expired in March 2007.

“It was nine months before the contracting officer became aware that IBM was working without a contract. You can’t justify that,” said Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry, who was one of only two legislators critical of the administration.

“When I started this government in 1998, a written contract was more of a suggestion. It’s much improved from where it was. We’re trending in the right direction,” Tangherlini said, before quoting Yogi Berra: “Rome wasn’t burnt in a day.”

True. But each day in the District, taxpayers’ money goes up in smoke.