Reply to Chancellors email on Marion Barry

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Appalled that you are so disrespectful and judgemental. [/quote]

+1. Mr. Berry was someone that I deeply admired. His actions that night will never take away what he has done for this city just like Bill Clinton's legacy was not tarnished in my eyes. Crazy we can have presidents and politicians do cocaine, drink and drive, kill, solicit indiscriminate sex in aiport bathrooms, cheat, solicit prostitutes, have slave concubines etc but a mayor tries crack and he's shamed for life. If he did coke like Bush would that have been better for you?[/quote]

I think the crux of the matter is that MB was a complex and important figure. Racial politicking and divisiveness are part of that complexity. For the Chancellor to send a message in which she praises Barry for helping "all children" and then including photos of only African American students is insensitive. A tribute that is instantly controversial isn't much of a tribute. [/quote]

I do have a problem with DCPS celebrating someone whose many public failures can only euphemistically be described as "complex."  I wonder if how many teachers who are encouraged to speak about Marion Barry to their classes are encouraged  as well to note his cocaine and crack usage as DC's chief elected official (at a time when many, including children, were dying directly or indirectly through violence during DC's crack epidemic.  How many hear about how he misused his security detail to pick up women off the street or mis-managed the city, such that it couldn't even plow the streets or pick up garbage? [b][u] How many hear about how dysfunctional DC agencies, especially those that served the poor and vulnerable directly, were taken away from Barry's stewardship by a series of judges and how the federal control board was finally put in to usurp Barry's remaining authority and save DC from financial and operational implosion?[/u][/b]  How many are told about his repeated tax evasion?  Or his racist rants against Asians, whites and others?  It's especially ironic that Henderson celebrates him when the indifference of Barry and his political cronies led to DCPS reaching its nadir, really an absolute crisis stage, during his mayoral years.[/quote]

Which agencies specifically is the bolded true of?  Which agencies were taken from under his leadership, and which agencies had a Federal control board put in to run them?  Please be specific.[/quote]

Not PP, but the best example is child welfare which is STILL under federal court control in 2014. IIUC the court remains of the view that more milestones must be met before the DC govt can be trusted with the handling of its most vulnerable children. Is that enough for you?

[/quote]

As someone who works for CFSA (yes, that is DC's child welfare agency), CFSA is still under the consent decree for "LaShawn A.", but 1) that is NOT the same as being "under federal control" (newsflash: the Mayor of DC has appointed at least the last 4 Directors of CFSA, if not more); and 2) while CFSA is still under the consent decree, we are all but almost out of it.  The agency has been well-managed for years, the current Director was 95% likely to stay in place no matter who won the election, and you are WRONG that somehow the agency is currently under federal control.  The feds are NOT calling the shots; the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the City Council are making budget and Director appointment decisions.

You are free to have your opinions about Barry, but you are NOT allowed to spread misinformation about the status of DC agencies and since you're wrong about this one, to answer your question: No, that example is NOT enough because it's no longer true and I'm wondering if it was ever true because you got it so wrong.[/quote]

You may be entitled to your own opinion about the mayor-for-life (has a Mugabe-esque ring to it, no?), but not to your own facts.

The Washington Post reported in 1998 that D.C. government, under [b]Barry, had hired more municipal employees than any other U.S. city.[/b]

Despite this (or perhaps because of it), according to Business Week, as part of the Barry record were [b]guilty pleas or convictions of more than a dozen people in his administration for misconduct in office[/b]. Courts appointed receivers to oversee city agencies that provided public housing and cared for the mentally ill. In 1995, the U.S. Congress took away much of his remaining power by creating the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, which oversaw city finances through 2001.

According to Washingtonian magazine,[b] by the time Barry left office as mayor the final time, five city agencies were in court receivership or under court management[/b].

As Business Week noted:  “He was very bright, with wonderful leadership and oratorical skills,” said former U.S. Representative James Walsh, a New York Republican who chaired the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversaw spending for the District of Columbia. “[b]But he didn’t have a clue how to run a city[/b].”
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