The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
Photo courtesy Phil Mendelson
For being mild-mannered and bookish, D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) really seems to attract a lot of attention. In 2006, he faced a well-funded and visible opponent in A. Scott Bolden, though Mendelson handily won that race. And for the 2010 contest – it would be his third term in office – he's already attracted a challenger in Clark Ray, a former director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.
But more than simply provoke people to run against him, Mendelson has also become one of Mayor Adrian Fenty's chief critics. From his opposition to the school takeover to his strident refusal to speed a crime bill through the D.C. Council earlier this summer, Mendelson is now one of the current administration's biggest opponents. It's not a role he sought out, he told DCist when we sat down with him last week.
"I'm seen as the Fenty critic," he admitted. "That wasn't my goal in life." And though he claims he's not surprised to see a challenger emerge this early on, he does attribute some of it to his consistent haranguing of Fenty. "You can't be too critical of the chief executive without at some point getting a bulls-eye on your back," he said.
But with relations between the council and the mayor at an all-time low and Council Chair Vince Gray openly pondering a run against Fenty, 2010 might see Mendelson aiming for higher office. Of course, if he is, he's being coy about it. When asked if he would consider running for the chairman's seat, should Gray decide to run for mayor, he said, "I'm not going to rule it out, but at the moment I'm focused on my own re-election." (Translation? He's waiting for the "Draft Phil!" campaign.)
As for Fenty's prospects going into 2010, Mendelson thinks with the challengers so far – Leo Alexander and Sulaimon Brown – are no match for the incumbent. But if a real contender emerged, it could be a close race.
"There is deep and widespread upset in this city, and Fenty now has a record. It's not a good record," he said.
And what specifically about that record?
"I think we're gonna see serious fiscal problems emerge because of the way money's been shifted around," Mendelson said. "The cost of government has gone up, but it's not obvious to the average citizen because some of what we used to pay for we're now borrowing for. We're running out of financial capacity."
He also lamented the state of relations between Fenty and the Council. "Relations have not gotten better. Since the council voted down [Department of Parks and Recreation director nominee Ximena] Hartsock, I think that the chill has only gotten colder. They seem to be more deliberately withholding witnesses," he said, noting that officials from the Department of Transportation were prohibited to attend a meeting he held with residents of the Palisades who were concerned with tree-cutting.
Whatever beef he may have with Fenty, Mendelson is even more frustrated with Attorney General Peter Nickles.
"I think we're gonna pay a lot of money for his mistakes," he opined, outlining a number of cases where the controversial attorney general has filed needless appeals and refused to pay arbitrators. As for Nickles' reputation as a hard-charging, take-no-prisoners reformer? "Government is about working with people, and so if you're rubbing everyone the wrong way, right off the bat you'll be counter-productive," he said. "Peter Nickles has become so political for the mayor that he's got no credibility with us. He's not just the mayor's lawyer -- he's the mayor's mouthpiece."
What about Rhee? "I'm not one of those calling for her ouster. We need the stability," he said. "I don't agree with the folks that say this is so awful that we need to blow this up." Rhee doesn't get much more of a pass, though, as Mendelson notes that he doesn't think the schools have improved very much, he fears that he's not getting honest data on test scores and he still doesn't know why 229 teachers were recently fired. "It's been over a month and they still haven't come up with a good reason for the teacher firings," he lamented. "I'd like to think that if there was a different mayor she'd perform more sensitively to parents and school needs."
As chair of the Council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, Mendelson readily recognizes certain advances made by D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, while admitting that crime trends in the District are still something of a mystery. "She's utilizing police officers better to fight crime," he says of Lanier, while applauding her GunStat initiative, which brings together different law enforcement agencies to track gun cases and target repeat gun offenders. Calling the justice system "opaque," Mendelson says he's been waiting seven months for statistics on first-degree murder indictments.
"The transparency of what goes on in the justice system is not there," he said. "What's really going on? We don't know."
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In other words, your choices for Mayor will be limited to Curly or Shemp.
Game over, man. Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
i'm happy to hear someone say that they're not planning to push for rhee's ouster. stability is pretty key here, and the council promised they'd give this change time to work.
Speaking of Chancellor Ironbox, any word on how her inquisition hearing is going today?
check out mike debonis' twitter feed (@mikedebonis). he's live-tweeting the whole thing.
Goes against my "Twitter is the work of Satan and Rachael Ray" worldview, but thanks for the tip. Looks like things are not going all that well for Rhee at the moment.
well, debonis sure makes it sound like gray is coming across as a dick himself.
must...resist...too...easy