News & Politics

Georgetowner • June 18, 2012

There has been a lot of media head-scratching, pondering, pandering and pontification, and deep thinking about a so-called culture of corruption in District of Columbia politics.

You can hardly blame folks for thinking along those lines: I mean, look what’s happened. Just last week, after a lengthy investigation into his financial activities, District Council Chairman Kwame Brown resigned his position and pleaded guilty to a felony bank fraud charge and a misdemeanor charge.

Earlier, the federal investigation into Mayor Vincent Gray’s mayoral campaign, produced two guilty pleas from campaign aides for making illegal campaign contributions to a third and minor candidate, which has been the subject of investigations since almost the beginning of Gray’s term. The federal investigation is still in progress, resulting in a gloomy, expectant political atmosphere about what else may be coming. Everyone is hearing the sound of shoes dropping.

In the spring, Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr., pleaded guilty to embezzling $350,000 of money meant for nonprofit youth programs and was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge.

The name of former “mayor for life” Marion Barry, now and perhaps for always Ward 8 Councilman came up often in discussions. Barry, after all, went to jail on a single drug charge after a tumultuous, divisive trial and then returned to become mayor yet again.

People are now talking about all of that as if it was one big bag of bad coals, a black mark for D.C. politics. There are fears that Congress will take up its anti-D.C. cudgel again and beat down home rule.

It’s always trendy to see trends where none exist. But let’s take a look at things. Mayor Barry’s history in this city—and it’s a history of great accomplishments as well as transgressions, past and continuing —is fit subject for a novel, but not any part of a trend.

Vincent Gray’s election was supposed to be about bringing the city together: “One City,” remember? But his problems are about his election, or more accurately, his election campaign. What we know is that his aides, at the very least, lacked any sort of respect for the electoral process and were none too sharp in how they went about it, enlisting a known political loose cannon to assist them.

The acts of Brown and Thomas destroyed two promising political careers and the faith their communities had in them. It’s not fair, however, to suggest that what has happened—and that includes Barry—is indicative of the D.C. political culture, which grew out of the late arrival of home rule in the 1970s. The city was lucky, in fact, to have for a first mayor a man like Walter Washington, who had size, common sense and authority to which every D.C. candidate for anything ought to aspire.

We’ve had what were basically successful terms as mayor by Anthony Williams, the sometimes maligned but very pragmatic, effective and even visionary mayor, who changed the D.C. landscape in his two terms. Williams was not especially popular with the public, but won two terms easily, in spite of not having a natural gift for politics.

There are plenty of good and fine people on the current council, as there have been in the past—chairpersons like John Wilson, Linda Cropp, David Clarke, and Gray, the popular Republican Carol Schwartz, Bill Lightfoot, Hilda Mason, and others, none of whom came close to dishonoring their offices.

So, we should get a grip. We might remember one other thing, besides the problems of lacking statehood: It’s that often you get the government you deserve. And when you repeatedly have miniscule and embarrassing voter turnouts that send individuals to the council, or to high office, then maybe the results that we see now should not be so surprising. ?

Georgetowner •

The setting was dramatic and unexpected. Mayor Vincent Gray with neighborhood and Georgetown University leaders next to him announcing that peace was at hand in the on-going G.U. Campus Plan debate. They stood on P Street, a block from the campus. After two months of negotiations, the plan was revised with agreement from all sides. The fight was over. Again, unexpected.

“I firmly believe that we have developed a proposal that will go a long way towards alleviating many of the adverse impacts we experience living in such close proximity to the university,” said Jennifer Altemus, president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown. “This is a genuine compromise whereby neither side got 100 percent of what it wanted, but we are all pleased with the outcome.”

Key details include moving more students onto the main campus (at least 450 students); a new Georgetown Community Partnership, comprised of neighborhood and university representatives; a push to make the campus more attractive to students with a new student center or pub and a policy to make it easier for in-dorm parties; moving the School of Continuing Studies to a new downtown campus (not yet found); capping the undergrad headcount at 6,675.

Also on the list for the future: a new 100-acre campus, supposedly for most of the university’s graduate programs. Ditto: Finding housing graduate students outside Georgetown, Burleith and Foxhall.

For some students, the phrase used by CAG — “Living off-campus will be a privilege not a right” — is troublesome. They should be aware that it is up to the university to enforce such a restriction and not the city.

As for the dramatic, it came from an unexpected source, Ron Lewis, chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, who said: “This is an extraordinary event in the life of our community, and it’s very promising. We have found a way — the community and the university, together — that offers a new cooperative spirit and real results on issues that have divided us for years.”

Mayor Gray added to the dramatic and to what will now be expected: “What they have done is developed a prototype and set a precedent for how these issues are to be dealt with in the future.”

Something dramatic clicked in the heads of those involved, and we have yet to sit down with the expert in “alternative dispute resolution.” But it is also gratifying to see that some of the advice issued on this matter in these pages over the last year have been taken to heart. Whether it was that the university think beyond its own bubble as well as the neighborhood appreciating the college presence and its benefits and drop the demand for all undergraduates to live on the campus, we cannot be sure.

We do know that a line of cooperation has been joined and should not be cut and that the university’s motto — “Utraque Unum” — translated as “both and one” moves in the background as a guide to this new relationship between town and gown.?

Jack Evans •

Given recent events and the attendant media scrutiny on the Council, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the positive things our government is doing and assure you all that I will continue to work hard for my constituents and the city as a whole. On Tuesday, June 5, the Council had its second and final vote on the Budget Support Act, and I think that it was a definitive improvement over last year’s budget and I want to highlight a few areas of interest.

First, I was pleased that this year’s budget proposal included no tax increases. One of the primary reasons I was unable to support last year’s budget was the inclusion of unnecessary tax increases to support our ever-expanding government. I believe the Mayor and my colleagues should find efficiencies within the agencies they oversee rather than asking our residents to pay continually higher taxes in the face of a recession. We are the only local government in the country to continue to pass the largest budget in our history every year despite the economic slowdown.

Within my committee, for example, I was able, in consultation with our Chief Financial Officer, to identify millions of dollars of unallocated funding through savings achieved in the Gallery Place tax increment refinancing. I was pleased to allocate some of these funds toward enhanced arts programming, which fills a gap in our public education system and supports our small business community. I also recommended additional funding toward marketing dollars that encourages additional tourism in the District. Studies have shown that both of these uses of government funds generate several dollars in new tax revenues for each dollar spent, which increases the pool of money we have for other items of importance to me, such as our libraries, parks, public safety, and education.

Another very positive development is that we were able to push back the implementation of the municipal bond tax another year. If you recall, the initial bond tax proposal initially considered last year would have been retroactive to interest earned on or after January 1, 2011. This was a shocking and unfair proposal. After some amendments, the tax was subsequently set to go into effect for interest earned on or after January 1, 2012, to be included in one’s tax filing in the spring of 2013 if a taxpayer files on an annual basis. As a result of the fiscal year 2012 supplemental budget bill, which we also passed on Tuesday, we were able to push back implementation an additional year, to interest earned beginning January 1, 2013, for inclusion in your tax filing in the spring of 2014. This is great in and of itself, as it provides relief for another year of this tax, and it also gives us another opportunity to seek to fully repeal the tax in next year’s budget prior to it taking effect. While I was disappointed that the municipal bond tax was not fully repealed in the budget, particularly after I had identified approximately $800,000 of the $1.1 million necessary for this repeal within my own committee, I am still hopeful for full repeal the next time we revisit the budget.

Thank you for all your letters of support during this difficult time, and let me again commit to you that our work will remain uninterrupted as we move forward with selecting an interim Council Chair pending a special election. ?

John Fenzel • June 13, 2012

In private sideline conversations between
principals during the G-8 summit meeting at
Camp David, some significant decisions were
made that will impact the long-term fate of the
European Union over the coming weeks and
months.

Those conversations centered on the decision
to plunge ahead with the bailout of the
European banks in an effort to save the Euro
system, with Greece still inside. The prime
influencers behind this decision were Managing
Director of the International Monetary Fund
Christine Lagarde and President Obama. Both
Lagarde and Obama are concerned that if Greece
leaves the Euro, the contagion will spread to
Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and, perhaps, even
Italy. President Obama’s unspoken motivation
in preventing a financial meltdown of the Euro
system is the possibility that it would almost certainly
spill over into Wall Street and adversely
affect the U.S. economy.

Christine Lagarde put the IMF squarely
behind a bailout of the European banks, with
the full backing of the U.S. Federal Reserve and
Treasury to boost the leveraged lending of the
European Central Bank (ECB) to prop up the
European banks. The ECB will likely take junk
bonds and other vastly over-priced assets as collateral
for loans to the Spanish, Greek and other
European banks—a move that will offset an
additional estimated $500 billion in new writeoffs
by bondholders of Greek debt.

So, the IMF, the Obama Administration
and the ECB appear to have colluded to further
delay the reality of the financial and banking
crisis through what are–by any measure–very
risky, hyperinflationary measures. From the
Obama Administration’s perspective, however,
the strategy will have succeeded as the crisis is
effectively postponed, taking many months to
fully play out (versus days or weeks), well past
the November elections in the United States.

In his sideline meeting with new French
President Francois Hollande, President Obama
reached a full agreement on this perpetuation of
the Euro. This is an area where Hollande and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will agree
to disagree. They both want to defend the Euro,
but Hollande will continue to insist that austerity
must be limited and a growth program initiated.
While the feasibility of such a dual-track program
is questionable at best, it is nonetheless the
growing agenda of the Euro-socialists, including
Hollande, Germany’s Social Democratic Party
and the Italian Socialist Party. A majority of
Greek voters are in favor of staying in the Euro,
so long as the austerity is reduced.

Hollande will make continued efforts to push
for Euro bonds as one way to implement this
bailout plan. Merkel will continue to oppose and
block the Euro bond argument. Merkel recently
told her party that “under no circumstances”
would she agree to a Euro bond strategy.

“A Euro bond would take a few years to
implement because there are lots of technical
issues to solve and also implementation of the
Euro bond procedure would take several years,”
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen says. “So
Euro bond[s] are not a solution for this current
crisis,”

The total amount of assets on the books
of the US Federal Reserve and the European
Central Bank, combined, fall well short of the
currently estimated 4 trillion Euro liability of
the European private banks—something that
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is
acutely aware of.

Treasury said, in a written statement, that
Katainen and Geithner recently met and “discussed
the global economy, including the United
States’ economic recovery and the plans of
European leaders to reinforce the institutions
of the Euro area.” Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke, conspicuously absent from the
Treasury statement, also was also present and
participated in the same discussions.

Both Bernanke and Geithner are said to be
extremely worried about the worsening trajectory
of the Euro crisis. While they know they are
in a position to delay a breakup of the EU, they
may well be powerless to prevent it if the downward
spiral continues unabated. Geithner’s
message has been a clarion call to EU leaders to
address their core problems now, not later. With
unemployment at depression era levels, and the
periphery of the EU experiencing zero growth,
the massive deficits of countries like Greece,
Italy and Portugal are simply too large to bail
out, even with U.S. help.

So, while EU politicians sit on their deck
chairs, discussing ways to achieve deeper integration
in the 17-nation euro area, Germany,
Austria, and the Netherlands are privately donning
life vests, preparing for the EU ship to sink
in cold, unchartered waters.

When that happens, the well-practiced
S.O.S. call will go out to U.S. rescue ships in
the area, as always, only to find out that they’ve
run out of gas.?

Georgetowner •

In this issue of The Georgetowner, we celebrate
Father’s Day, remember our fathers and
honor the qualities and virtues of fatherhood.

It’s an especially poignant time for us at the
Georgetowner because my sister, Susan, and I lost
our much loved father, Owen G. Bernhardt. Dad
died on March 24 after a long, arduous and painfilled,
but also life-filled, struggle with leukemia.

It has not been long enough
to acquire a distance from his
passing and to continue to acquire
inspiration from his life
and his role as my father.

When you think about
the loss of a loved one and
try to talk about it, it seems
almost surprising to see just
how rich, unique and original
a tapestry he had created with
his life. He was always our
father, and we tended to look
at him, respond to him and see
him in that way.

He was also a husband to
our mother, Pilar, with whom
he shared a remarkably deep
and enduring 43-year marriage.
She passed away at
62, much too young to lose,
in 2002. Together, they formed an enduring marriage
and partnership and made each other complete.

He was an absolutely doting grandfather to
Elisa, now 13, and Stefan, now 11, my niece and
nephew, my sister’s children.

He was more than that: of Swiss, German and
Russian stock, he grew up on a farm in the smalltown
world of heartland Kansas with a childhood
spent during the American Depression. He had
some of that quiet, almost stoic, demeanor that
might be typical of both his background and generation,
but he was also warm, energetic, optimistic
and strong and steady. His was the voice I
knew that would listen to my plans, my hopes and
fears, and he would hear me out, offer advice, and
be totally supportive, no matter how crazy the idea
or project. That included my foray into newspaper
publishing by acquiring the Georgetowner newspaper.
I know in my heart that the success we’ve
had would not have happened without his support,
without that steady voice on the phone, in person
and now in spirit.

His own career was varied and — combined
with his first enduring marriage to my mom —
original and even colorful. He came from a large
family of 11 children. At first, he dutifully took
on the role of managing the family farm but ruefully
discovered that perhaps he was not meant to
be a farmer. Instead, he enlisted in the Air Force,
a decision that landed him in Spain attached to
the Air Ministry in Madrid in 1956 where he met
my mother. He was an enlisted man but operated
among the highest ranks. He served in Vietnam
and acquired a Bronze Star. At the Pentagon, he
had a successful career that made him travel to
most places in the world.

My father had a keen curiosity about people,
about everything he came in contact with. He was
one of those hidden experts who knew a lot about
some very specific things, and at least a little about
most other things, a good quality for the father of
two daughters to have. He played tennis with passion
and loved sports, and his favorite football
team remained the Kansas City Chiefs.

Mostly, I miss his expertise about life. Even
when he was struggling with his illness, which at
one point left him without a viable immune system,
he remained a visible presence in his own
life—and ours. Until the end, he had that unique
skip in his gait that told everyone that everything
was going to be fantastic.

On Father’s Day, I miss my dad, Owen Bernhardt,
a lot. I know that everyone else who knew
him more than casually does, too.

On Father’s Day, I remember my father and
here at the Georgetowner, we remember and celebrate
the life of all the dads, ever, and ask you to
do the same.

— Sonya Bernhardt, publisher

Georgetowner •

**The Peace of 2012: Georgetown?s Town-Gown Relationship Is Reset**

After months of contentious discussions, private and public meetings and news coverage on Georgetown University?s 2010-2020 campus plan, the town-gown relationship of the oldest neighborhood of Washington, D.C., with the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in America has been reset and has become collegial.

The war is over. Peace has been declared. Discussions continue: a special meeting is set for June 14.

?This is an extraordinary event in the life of our community, and it?s very promising. We have found a way — the community and the university, together — that offers a new cooperative spirit and real results on issues that have divided us for years.?

So said Ron Lewis, chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, at a sunlit media announcement at the intersection of 36th and P Streets, N.W., just outside the university?s main campus June 6.

Assembled at the peace-treaty-like setting were Mayor Vincent Gray, Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans, Georgetown University President John DeGioia, the Office of Planning?s Jennifer Steingasser, peacemaker Don Edwards and other advisory neighborhood commissioners and university officials as well as Georgetown, Burleith and Foxhall neighborhood leaders.

Praise rang all around between the players in this conflict resolution. Said Gray: ?What they have done is developed a prototype and set a precedent for how these issues are to be dealt with in the future.? Evans called the mayor ?a miracle worker.? DeGioia called the agreement ?exciting? and noted that it ?reset the relationship? between the neighborhood and the university. ?Without the mayor,? DeGioia continued, ?this moment would not be possible.?

Lewis ended the announcement, saying that details would be issued the next day.

And here they are, according to ANC2E, issued June 7:

**Key elements of the revised plan** ?

? A new collegial partnership of senior GU leadership and community representatives ? the Georgetown Community Partnership ? to work toward making the Campus Plan a success and to work together on planning for the future

? A Campus Plan for a seven-year term, beginning January 1, 2011, and ending December 31, 2017

? 450 more undergraduates housed on campus at the Leavey Center and other on campus locations by Fall 2015, including 65 moved from the ?Magis Row? townhouses on 36th Street NW and housed on campus by Fall 2013 so that the ?Magis Row? townhouses can transition to faculty and staff housing or daytime administrative offices

? Undergraduate enrollment to remain at a maximum of 6,675 and total enrollment at the main campus over the Campus Plan period to be a maximum of 14,106 students; and a new, more accurate method for measuring enrollment semester-by-semester

? New emphasis on a living and learning campus that centralizes student social life on campus

? Clear standards for appropriate off-campus behavior and a results-based system for maintaining the peaceful, quiet atmosphere of our residential neighborhoods

? Significantly improved measures for relieving parking and traffic congestion from GU traffic

? A new commitment to explore providing university-sponsored graduate student housing outside the Georgetown, Burleith and Foxhall communities.

? Acknowledgement of long-term goals of the community and GU (attached) for the future, including a new satellite campus of up to 100 acres located elsewhere; at least 90 percent of undergraduates living on campus by Fall 2025 (an additional 244 beds); cooperating in developing and implementing a 20 year campus plan following on the success of the 2011-2017 plan; and the mutual goal of ?a collegial and harmonious relationship between the University and the community to address future plans and common issues in an effective, creative and lasting way? Further details of the proposed Campus Plan are available on the ANC 2E website, anc2e.com.

ANC 2E will hold a special public meeting to consider the proposed revised GU Campus Plan on Thursday, June 14, 6:30 p.m., at Georgetown Visitation Prep, 35th Street NW at Volta Place, N.W.

**Citizens Re-elect Officers,
Present Awards at Annual
Meeting**

The Citizens Association of Georgetown
re-elected its officer and directors May 30 at
Dumbarton House, as Mayor Vincent Gray and
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans assisted with
its awards ceremony. The annual CAG awards
were presented to Nancy Taylor Bubes, Karen
Daly, Ron Lewis and Ruth Werner.

Gray talked about the campus plan agreement
with Georgetown University which was
made public a week after CAG?s meeting and
also touted the District government dedication
to customer service. Evans, one of whose
staffers received an award, said, ?Citizen participation,
exemplified by the award recipients,
remains a major force in making Georgetown
the unique place it is.?

Awardees approached the podium in following
order:

Ron Lewis, chair of Advisory Neighborhood
Commission 2E, received the Captain
Peter Belin Award for Distinguished Service.
Lewis ?patiently orchestrated the G.U.-community
relations discussions? and ?has been
instrumental in securing city services.?

Karen Daly, executive director of Dumbarton
House, received the Bill Cochran Award
for Exceptional Efforts to Protect and Enhance
Parkland and Architectural Resources. Daly
?has significantly increased the public programming
at Dumbarton House? and ?seen
museum attendance surge by 75 percent? over
two years.

Ruth Werner, community liasion between
the District Council and the Office of Jack
Evans and Georgetown, received the Charles
Atherton Award for Exceptional Service by
a Public-Sector Professional. Werner ?works
tirelessly to improve, preserve and protect
historic Georgetown? and ?was central in identifying
additional funding for . . . Georgetown
Waterfront Park.?

Nancy Taylor Bubes, a top real estate agent
at Washington Fine Properties, received the
Martin-Davidson Award for an Outstanding
Business. Bubes ?actively supports numerous
organizations. [Volta Park, Rose Park, Georgetown
Village] . . . Her ability to connect businesses
and newcomers is unparalleled.?

The CAG slate remains: Jennifer Altemus,
president; Luca Pivato, vice president; Topher
Mathews, secretary; Bob Laycock, treasurer —
with directors, Diane Colasanto, Hazel Denton,
Bob vom Eigen and Pamla Moore.

Robert Devaney • June 8, 2012

Malcolm “Mike” Peabody and his neighbors successfully rescued Scheele’s Market at 29th and Dumbarton through an agreement with property owner Jordan O’Neill to pay $70,000 for improvements and other covenant details. The neighborhood group, Friends of Scheele’s, has worked to keep the store, which served the town for 118 years, operating for another 15 years and with a new shopkeeper, Dougjuk Kim.

Meanwhile, a retirement party for Shin and Kye Lee will take place on June 21, from 6 to 9 p.m., along 29th Street between Dumbarton and O Streets. The neighborhood will also welcome Kim as well as O’Neill, who lives in the second-floor apartment. The neighborhood still needs more money to complete the purchase of the covenant by June 30. Sponsors have already stepped up; more are needed, however. Come join the celebratation honoring a great neighborhood tradition. For more information or to make a donation, contact Mike Peabody at mpeabody@ptmanagement.com.