Photo by Bullneck

A Barry campaign pin from the 1980s. Photo by allison_dc.

During a D.C. Council meeting Monday, Ward 8 Councilmember and Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry criticized Mayor Vincent Gray for reducing funding for the D.C. summer jobs program.

The Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides summer employment opportunities for D.C. youth, was Barry’s signature program during his mayoral tenure in the 1980s, and something he’s been long fighting to keep relevant throughout his political career in Washington. But in recent years, funding for the program has been scaled back significantly, especially during Gray’s administration. And Barry was not shy in voicing his disappointment with Gray about this issue, The Washington Examiner reports.

“I’m just dismayed about it,” Barry said during Monday’s meeting. “I’m not going to be quiet about it anymore.”

And he shouldn’t. This year’s proposed-and-council-approved budget for the program was only about $11.7 million, a stark decline from the $34 million that the Fenty administration put up in 2010.

But not everyone is on Barry’s side. The year that Fenty put up $34 million for the program, the District went $11 million over budget to do so. And when that much money is being put up, it becomes harder to keep track of where the money is actually going. Scandals arise; participants in program t-shirts are mugged on payday; and it becomes harder to keep tabs on all the individual funding.

“When the program got really big, it definitely suffered a loss of accountability,” Ed Lazere, executive director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, a local think tank, told the Examiner. Ward 2 Councilmember and new mayoral candidate Jack Evans agreed that the smaller budget implemented by Gray helps keep the problems with the program to a minimum, stating that, “You can only go by what you hear, and we don’t hear a lot.”

But another mayoral candidate, Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), agrees with Barry and told the Examiner he thinks the program should be extended throughout the school year to include after-school employment options.

Still, Barry remains unhappy about Gray’s slender program budget, claiming that the real victims of the scaled-back program are the children. And, as Barry is known to do from time to time, he took to Twitter to so elegantly voice his dismay about the current state of the summer jobs program in a barrage of tweets.

And here he becomes so frustrated he even shakes his head:

Filed Under: d.c. council, jack evans, marion barry, Summer Jobs Program, tommy wells, vincent gray,