January 8, 2008
Pollin Coughs Up Extra Luxury Suite for D.C. Council
As you may recall, the luxury suite at the Verizon Center that owner Abe Pollin gave to the city as a thank-you gift for that $50 million check to upgrade the facility has caused some bad feelings between Mayor Adrian Fenty's staff and the D.C. Council. Each office thought they ought to have total access to the box, and the mayor's office even tried to block the Council from getting their hands on Wizards tickets. But now WTOP's Mark Segraves updates his ongoing Phone Booth saga to report that in order to douse the flames of indignity flaring up between the two governing bodies, Pollin has given the D.C. Council their own suite.
It's nice to know the District is being run by grown-ups such as these:
Oh, fine, Catania did quickly note that he was kidding, but apparently the Council members proceeded to spend a good chunk of their monthly breakfast meeting swapping tickets with each other. The tickets were all for luxury suites, though not necessarily the same suite. We guess it's too bad Abe Pollin doesn't have any magic slips of paper that will make the D.C. Council feel like Mayor Fenty actually cares what they think about anything.Council Chairman Vince Gray handed out January's tickets to each council member at the monthly council breakfast Tuesday morning. Council members immediately tore into the envelopes and began thumbing through the stack of free tickets.
"Dancing with the stars, this is sweet! I live for this," councilmember David Catania exclaimed.
Photo of Council Chair Vincent Gray and Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry at the Verizon Center by Kyle Gustafson
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Why does this make me think of Animal Farm?
I used to pretend that DC Gov was okay or getting better. Sorta like a little brother trying to find his way. I had to give that up after my third year in this city. Little brother just does too much dumb shit.
Catania is a douche.
This is ridiculous. I wish there was at least one member of the council that would turn down the tickets if only to make it seem like buying them off isn't that easy...
I believe Cheh and Mendelson were the only two to vote against giving Pollin the $50 million for Verizon Center upgrades. I doubt they would maintain some dignity and also hand back the Pollin freebies.
Gotta love the ethics that these elected officials have. This is completely disgusting that they were "paid" off in this manner
Can't all them of them afford their own tickets?
What about the public? How about the council give their seats to deserving kids in the DC area.
If any of you complaining of a "payoff" would have bothered to read the linked article, you would see that Gray wants the members to use the tickets to help bring businesses into the city. I know that all of the holier than thou commentors are above such dirty tactics, but a guy who is considering whether or not his chain should have a DC location may want to be wined and dined a little bit.
It is indeed scuzzy that the Council whores itself out for free luxury box tickets. It would be nice if more of the media focused on how utterly scuzzy and inappropriate this practice is.
have they no shame?
It would be nice if more of the media focused on how utterly scuzzy and inappropriate this practice is.
You mean those members of the media who, themselves, get treated to free luxury crap? Anybody remember the Zoe Baird story and how it took forever to break because the esteemed members of the press themselves had hired illegal aliens? Good luck getting invited to a shindig at Sally Quinn's place after you raise that kind of stink. I'm persona non grata in the Bradlee household myself, ever since I mistook their walk-in humidor for a toilet. Never seen a man weep so bitterly over poop-covered cohibos.
The real media lapse was not reporting which alpha dog scored the Hannah Montana tix.
What's the point of holding office without the occasional kickback?
Dan tastic: Now, do you really believe those luxury box seats will be used to bring "economic development" to DC? You think the Chuck E. Cheese chieftains will be wooed to come to DC because they got to sit next to Kwame Brown in the Verizon Center luxury box watching a WWE match? Gray needs to put the best face on this thing because he knows the p.r. disaster that it represents. How many councilmembers have used their RFK luxury box seats to bring business into DC?
I'm all for requiring that any time these seats are used, a record of who used the seats be publicly released. That way we can see if it's really economic development types that get to sit in the fancy seats, or whether it's councilmembers' campaign supporters, friends and relatives.
And I hate Sally Quinn with a passion. She is an utter dumbass. I can't believe that the Post publishes the massive amount of crap that she comes up with. It's beyond vapid - it's totally irrelevant to anyone other than Sally and her gaggle of giggling girlfriends.
And since I am on things that I hate, I also hate Chuck E. Cheese. And if that's the kind of development that Kwame Brown is trying to bring to the city, we're totally screwed.
Meh. Why all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth?
I can't work up any indignation over this, it just doesn't seem like a big deal. This isn't a DC thing, it's a politician thing and politicians are whores.
What a bunch of cheapo sellouts. It's an election year, time to retire every council member that is up for re-election.
A list of who gets these seats should be published. Very good idea.
This whole thing reeks of small town stupid government. It's an ungentle reminder that we call ourselves a big city but clearly our local government officials are one short bus stop from Bugtussle.
It's just one more irritating perk for a bunch of status quo dingbats who think they're above the law. If it isn't free tickets, it's get-out-of-parking-tickets-free cards or voting themselves raises or the inevitable factfinding mission to Cancun.
Monkey,
I hear ya. And while I would like to think that if I ever served as an elected official I would have the integrity and decency to not participate in the de rigueur perk grab, the truth is that I would probably dig into the goody bag with both hands.