Reply to Restore Funding for Duke Ellington Modernization

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Reply to "Restore Funding for Duke Ellington Modernization"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Has Grosso commented on this at all?  I know it's capital but he's the chair of the education committee.  Where does he stand and how does he respond to these sorts of demand for inquiry/accountability?[/quote]

Good point. Anyone know of this needs to go through the council?[/quote]

Chairman Phil Mendelson is usually in the weeds on budgets and mis-spending.  However, his kid attends Ellington so he might be more inclined to give them a pass.[/quote]

Uh yeah, this is a HUGE conflict of interest. [/quote]

Maybe not - I think his daughter is a sophomore. She may end up spending one year in the new building (assuming no more delays). The current Ellington students are shuttling daily between two different campuses and the construction delays hurt them more than anyone.[/quote]

Well, I can also understand why he allows the DC gov't to keep throwing money at the problem. Anything that speeds up construction is good for his daughter. It puts him in a bind - he can't say "no."
Like I said, this is a big conflict of interest.[/quote]

The reality is that neither he nor the other members of the council have much to say about this, except at a very macro level of the DC budget.  And that's the problem.  Neither the council nor the mayor gets to appoint any members of the Duke Ellington board.  The board largely nominates and elects itself, so they have virtually no accountability to the political process and the taxpayers.  [/quote]

But then how the hell are they allocated funds from the DC government budget? Does the DCPS just transfer a part of their annual budget and says "enjoy, we won't audit you"? [/quote]

This seems to have been a reallocation directly by Bowser, of "surplus" money.  What I want to know is why Ellington has such special status and gets allocation after allocation on top budget overruns that are almost mind-boggling in magnitude.  And then other DC schools have seen their renovation budgets cut.  (And they're the lucky ones, as some others are in an infinite queue, with their target dates pushed out year to year.)[/quote]

Check out their Board - tons of DC power players. The head of the Kennedy Center is on the board, along with a few other people with Kennedy Center connections. My guess is that David Rubenstein has a lot money in the Ellington school and the Kennedy Center folks are there to make sure it's spent properly.

Bowser and the rest of the Council has to pay the piper. Hence why no one says peep.[/quote]

Ellington gets little direct support from the Kennedy Center.  Believe me, if KC big funders were involved, DE would be a lot more transparent and better managed.   And DC wouldn't be picking up the tab for over 80% of its operating budget and basically 100% of its construction costs.  It's time that DE grew up beyond being the Peggy Cooper Cafritz Club.[/quote]

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