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Mark Segraves
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It was 37 years ago, DC police responded to a third-rate break-in at the Watergate Hotel. As cop stories go, it wasn’t a big deal. As political stories go, it was epic and culminated with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Because police, and the press, were doing their jobs in the summer of ’72, a simple police investigation turned into a national scandal. One day, the same may be said for a simple traffic stop on the Fourth of July, which may wind up being the downfall of DC Councilmember Marion Barry.
As HBO prepares to air the documentary “The Nine Lives of Marion Barry,” Barry may have reached the end of his political rope. While the original charges stemming from the traffic stop have been dismissed, Barry’s real problems are just beginning, again. As a result of the traffic stop, Barry is being investigated by at least three separate groups: the F.B.I., the DC Inspector General and an independent DC Council inquiry being conducted by an outside law firm.
The latest chapter in the Barry saga involves sex, abuse of public funds, fraud, name calling, temper tantrums, grown men crying and councilmembers hiding from the press behind locked doors. For a journalist it doesn’t get any better than this. For the members of the DC Council, the taxpayers of Washington, DC, and particularly the residents of Ward 8, it’s a nightmare.
Here’s a rundown of what happened
US Park Police arrest Barry and charge him with stalking his former girlfriend Donna Watts-Britehaupt on July Fourth. The next day, Natalie Williams, a spokesperson for Barry, holds a press conference and calls Watts-Britehaupt unstable and says that Barry has given her “gifts of money.”
What Williams didn’t say was the gifts of money were taxpayer dollars in the form of a city contract worth tens of thousands of dollars. Watts-Britehaupt had a personal services contract similar to the one Williams has as Barry’s spokesperson.
The next day Williams called another press conference at 11 p.m. to talk about the city contract. Again Williams called Watts-Britehaupt “unstable” but gave no explanation of what Watts-Britehaupt did for the money or why Barry would hire someone he knew to be unstable.
Eventually the United States Attorney decided not to prosecute the stalking charge. Barry called another press conference on the steps of city hall. But prior to this event, Barry’s staff was told he couldn’t have the press conference on the steps of city hall. So the microphone was moved to the sidewalk. Barry was happy to bash the park police but refused to answer any questions about personal services contracts he’s given to Watts-Britehaupt or Williams.
Barry’s arrests have always been a distraction and embarrassment for the other councilmembers, but nothing more. This time it was different. Barry’s troubles were now putting the entire council under the public microscope. Reporters were asking if other councilmembers had given personal services contracts. It turns out they have. Councilmembers Jim Graham, Phil Mendelson and Kwame Brown all have outside employees working under city contracts.
If it wasn’t bad enough for the members of the council that reporters were asking uncomfortable questions, Mayor Adrian Fenty’s right-hand man, Attorney General Peter Nickles, was threatening to get into the game by launching his own investigation. It’s no secret Fenty doesn’t like Barry; this could be Fenty’s opportunity to get rid of Barry once and for all.
But Fenty’s political advisors told him to resist the temptation and sit this one out. Good advice. The Barry scandal had occupied every reporter in town, nobody was bothering the mayor, and nobody was asking if he was in town or out of town. Nobody was asking about the budget deficit. All eyes were on Barry. It was a nice break for the mayor.
Council Chairman Vince Gray, on the other hand, couldn’t sit this one out. It was his house that was under siege. So Gray called the councilmembers to his office and scheduled a press conference to follow the meeting. The topic was Barry and the councilmembers’ personal services contracts.
Reporters got wind of the meeting and showed up as uninvited guests. Several reporters demanded to be allowed access to the meeting, invoking the District’s open meeting law, which allows the public access to council meetings when a majority of the council is present and decisions were being made.
Not only were reporters kept out of the meeting, security was called to escort the press, including this reporter, out of the chairman’s suite. Gray and his colleagues remained behind locked closed doors as the press waited in the hallway.
Several councilmembers who attended the meeting spoke about the meeting on the condition of anonymity. They all told the same story. Barry made a general apology, not for any specific action or misdeed, but for how this latest incident had caused “unintended consequences” for the councilmembers. But Barry made it clear he would not apologize publicly.
The meeting then turned to Gray’s decision to launch an independent investigation into the councilmembers’ personal services contracts. That drew the ire of Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Jim Graham, both of whom have issued similar contracts to Barry’s.
According to the sources, Brown and Graham were furious that their contracts were going to be scrutinized because of Barry’s problems. Brown and Graham told Gray they wouldn’t be a part of his press conference if the investigation included them.
Brown and Graham weren’t the only ones upset. Tensions were high and the language coarse. Gray didn’t want to have a press conference by himself or worse just him and Barry. He knew the symbolic importance of a unified council. He reluctantly agreed to limit the investigation to Barry. He also agreed that Barry wouldn’t speak at the press conference. Several members were concerned that Barry would lash out at federal authorities for the stalking arrest or defend his contracts. They didn’t want any part of that.
As the press conference was about to begin, the councilmembers jockeyed for seating position. It was clear nobody wanted to sit near Barry. Gray began the conference by announcing the investigation. As reporters began hammering away with questions, it became clear Gray was losing control of the event.
Reporters were looking for some real answers and some accountability. Gray wanted to buy some time. Reporters began asking Barry questions. When he took to the microphone, several councilmembers began to squirm. They knew what was coming, and Barry didn’t disappoint. He launched into an attack on the park police and defended his contracts. Councilmember David Catania couldn’t take it. And said so.
“I can’t take any more of this,” he said and stormed out. Councilmembers Mary Cheh and Muriel Bowser were right behind him.
It’s no secret that Catania and Barry don’t play well together in the sandbox. The two have been at odds since Barry changed his position and voted against recognizing gay marriages. But it wasn’t that long ago that Catania was anxious to be Barry’s buddy. Catania took Barry to see Mary Wilson in concert; Barry got them both back stage to meet the former Supreme. But those days are gone – now the two spend their time yelling at each other across the budget table.
Just days after the train wreck of a press conference, where Gray announced the investigation into Barry’s contracts, the council voted to authorize the investigation, but things had changed. Public pressure was demanding the investigation include the entire council, and the Washington City Paper broke the news that Barry’s contracts weren’t the only public monies the “Mayor For Life” was handing out.
It turns out Barry was handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in government earmarks to groups that were run by his staff members. According to the City Paper several of the documents submitted to the District on behalf of the groups that got the money were forged.
The council voted to authorize the investigation to include all the councilmembers contracts. But some councilmembers wanted more. Bowser wrote a letter asking that the earmarks be investigated as well.
Gray has wanted to do away with the earmarks for a while. When two councilmembers who don’t share the same view on earmarks heard the news about Barry’s earmarks, one said, “Damn, there go the earmarks.” The other said, “Great, now we can finally get rid of the earmarks.”
Now the F.B.I. is investigating the earmarks, and so is the DC Inspector General. Depending on what they find, this really could be the end of earmarks, and Marion Barry.
Fenty / Gray Love-Fest Update
In case you’re wondering how the top two elected officials, the two men in charge of fixing the $340 million deficit, are getting along, allow me to give you this snapshot.
Last month Mayor Adrian Fenty, Council Chair Vince Gray, Councilmember Jack Evans, Chief Financial Officer Nat Gahndi and staff traveled to New York City to meet with the three big bond-rating agencies. Bond ratings are the lifeblood of every government, think of it as you would your credit score. The better the bond rating, the easier and cheaper it is to borrow money. When you borrow as much as the District, a change in your bond rating can save or cost you millions.
So it was a pretty important trip. When he was candidate Fenty running for mayor, Channel 4 reporter Tom Sherwood asked him to name the bond-rating agencies – he couldn’t name one. It was his most embarrassing moment on the campaign trail. Now, Fenty can name them all.
The DC Delegation traveled to the Big Apple together, stayed in the same hotel, drove to the meetings as a group, and met before the meetings to strategize. Well, most of the delegation did. Fenty stayed at an undisclosed location, away from the rest of the delegation, and he didn’t coordinate on talking points or message strategy.
Gray wasn’t much better – he skipped a working dinner that had been planned for the night before the meetings. Fenty made the meeting but was late and disengaged. In one of the early meetings with one of the rating agencies, Fenty talked about wanting to go to Congress to ask them to ease federal restrictions on the District’s budget.
Fenty found out quickly that telling the person who is evaluating your credit score that you need to dip into your savings is not a good idea. Another problem for Team DC was the mayor’s proposals on filling the huge budget gap. The Wall Street suits looked at the plan and saw the same thing several councilmembers have complained about. Fenty’s fixes are all one-time band-aids. The budget problems are like your monthly bills, they keep coming – stimulus cash won’t. |
