Council Holds Parks Contracts Hearing

On Thursday, it was the D.C. schools chancellor who was grilled by the D.C. Council. On Friday, it was the D.C. Parks and Recreation Department's turn.

A special council committee held a hearing demanding to know why the Fenty administration did an alleged end-around to steer tens of millions of dollars without council approval to contracts for friends of the mayor for parks projects.

Council members say they held the hearing because of the possibility of misuse of public funds, fraud and favoritism. A large amount of money was in question-- anywhere from $40 million to well over $100 million that was supposed to be used for building and improving parks and recreation centers. The council says the contracts are illegal and have to be redone.

Council members say this is a serious matter, and they went to the trouble to make city administrator Neil Albert take a solemn oath to explain how the millions got from the parks department to the deputy mayor of economic development to the D.C. Housing Authority to be awarded to mainly Banneker Ventures, whose owner is a fraternity brother of Mayor Adrian Fenty.

"This was intentional by design," said D.C. Council member Mary Cheh. "This was a scheme and like I've said before it looks sneaky."

The Rosedale Recreation Center in Northeast is supposedly set to benefit from a contract worth over $12 million. Pre-construction is already underway, but now what? The city administrator told the council the District has been trying to make rec center improvements that have been stalled for years and are desperately needed.

"Because of this disappointing reality, we've been very aggressive about trying to move forward quickly," said Albert.

But council member David Catania says the home rule charter forbids anyone from entering into a contract for over a million dollars without council review.

"Under the home rule charter, under our organic law, Mr. City Administrator, these contracts are not valid," said Catania.

The council had lots of questions, but the city administrator did not have definitive answers.

"I'm going to consult with the professionals, with contract procurement director and the attorney general," said Albert. "We'll get back to the council with what's next."

Some of the members say questionable contracts will have to be re-issued with council review, and some sort of compensation for any work already done.

The council still has to hear from the D.C. Housing Authority. Noticeably absent from the list of witnesses testifying Friday was parks and rec director Ximena Hartsock. Council members say she didn't respond to their invitation.

Friday's was the first of a series of hearings. Parks and Recreation Committee chairman Harry Thomas says if witnesses refuse to appear, they will be subpoenaed.