Gently
Dear Gentle Readers:
In the first season of the BBC series “Inspector George Gently,”
Gently explains to his younger subordinate, John Bacchus, why an army
officer would resign when he discovers the malfeasance of one of his
junior officers: “Because when you’re the man in charge, you can
never say you don’t know. It’s your job to know.”
It’s a tough and unforgiving ethic, and it sets a standard that we
certainly don’t live by today, either in business or in government.
But we could use a good dose of it in DC government. We are governed by
people who don’t take responsibility for their own actions, much less
for the actions of the people whom they are supposed to supervise. As an
electorate, we don’t demand accountability and responsibility from the
people we elect to run our government, and we don’t expect them to
demand accountability and responsibility from the people whom they
manage.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Cardozo Renovation, Keith Lomax, and RBK, Part
1
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
On September 21, the Gray administration issued a press release
announcing the renovation of modernization of Cardozo High School. It
said that the city had “awarded the design-build contract to GCS-Sigal,
LLC,” http://tinyurl.com/3dczjrb.
The press release, however, failed to note that RBK Construction would
be the principal minority firm working on the multimillion-dollar
project.
RBK Construction is owned by Keith Lomax, a close friend of former
Mayor Adrian Fenty. Lomax achieved some notoriety in 2009 when it came
to light that he was illegally chauffeuring Fenty in a city-owned sport
utility vehicle. During Fenty’s tenure as mayor, RBK went from being a
mere shell of a company that did landscaping, including having contracts
to cut the grass at some DC Parks and Recreation facilities, to being a
construction company that received eleven million dollars in city
contracts in 2007 to 2009. Most of its contracts were awarded by the DC
Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, which was then
headed by Allen Lew, who has since become the City Administrator in the
Vincent Gray administration. In addition, RBK Landscaping and
Construction was awarded several contracts through the controversial
scheme the Fenty administration established to funnel $82 million in
parks and recreation construction contracts through the DC Housing
Authority to Banneker Ventures (see the Report of the Council’s
Special Committee on Investigation of Capital Projects of the Department
of Parks and Recreation, http://dccouncil.us/media/libraries_parks_rec/capprojectinvestigation_finalreport_03112011.pdf.
In addition to his friendship with Fenty, Lomax’ success in
receiving DC contracts was due, in part, to RBK’s receiving reference
points for being a “resident owned business,” even though Lomax’s
principal residence is in Fort Washington, Maryland, according to the
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.
According to well-placed sources in the District government, Lomax
continues to benefit from his close friendship with Adrian Fenty.
Apparently Allen Lew selected RBK to be the minority firm on the Cardozo
project after Fenty intervened on Lomax’s behalf.
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We have now entered the empty baseball stadium season, lasting
one-half year. The nearly billion-dollar stadium was built with District
of Columbia bonds that edged the District’s bonded indebtedness
dangerously close to its ceiling. Can the stadium be put to some use for
the benefit of those less fortunate during its six months empty season?
If the District is contractually precluded from doing so, then who
approved such a contract? Who signed it? Why?
Possibly those who benefited most could contribute their skyboxes to
keep homeless people warm this winter.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Jane Jacobs Lecture at the National Building
Museum, October 11
Stacy Adamson, sadamson@nbm.org
Tuesday, October 11, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Smart Growth: Ideas That Matter:
The Legacy of Jane Jacobs. Free. Registration required. Walk-in
registration based on availability. Urban scholar Mary Rowe discusses
the key tenets of Jane Jacobs’s work and how her ideas have risen to
prominence in urban planning and design, ecological economics, and other
fields. At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary
Square Metro station. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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