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Mark Seagraves

Late last year our community lost a good friend. Abe Pollin, the philanthropic owner of the Washington Wizards, passed away leaving behind a legacy that will be hard to match. No one place or one group of people benefited more from Pollin's generosity than the people and the government of the District of Columbia.

Whether it was Pollin's visionary and risky decision to build the Verizon Center with his own money or his many charitable endeavors like building affordable housing in Ward 7 and helping to rescue a historic Jewish synagogue, Pollin never missed an opportunity to do the right thing. He was a gifted businessman who knew how to make a profit, but he never forgot his working-class roots.

So it was only fitting that our city paused to remember this great man.

Yet the two highest ranking elected officials in the District handled the loss in two very different ways. And in doing so, each gave the residents of the nation’s capital a good look at who they are as leaders and as men.

DC Council Chairman Vince Gray, like many local leaders including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Councilmembers Jack Evans (Ward 2) and Mary Cheh (Ward 3) and Maryland State Delegate Bill Bronrott joined the Pollin family and hundreds of others at the funeral.

“There is no place else I would have been,” Gray said.

Noticeably absent was DC Mayor Adrian Fenty. Rather than attend the funeral of arguably one of the greatest friends the District has ever known, Fenty opted to take one of his many secret out-of-town trips. And to add insult to injury, Fenty was not away on pressing government business – no, Fenty decided his time was best spent flying to Miami to watch a basketball game.

When Fenty was asked about the apparent snub he had “no comment.” When confronted with the fact that he had attended a hoops game rather than the funeral of a man who Fenty himself had said, “There are not enough words or actions to show our appreciation for,” Fenty again had “no comment.”
And this isn't the first important funeral the mayor has missed.

After the worst crash in Metro's history that claimed nine lives, seven of them District residents, Fenty was a no show at all but one funeral, and then he was an hour late and wearing a casual, light colored suit as if he were attending brunch at the country club.

Of course the mayor is a busy man and can’t be expected to be at every important event. And yes, Pollin was buried the day after Thanksgiving and Fenty is a family man, so perhaps he had committed to taking his family to Miami for the holiday weekend. But what many find inexcusable is that the mayor did not bother to send any representatives on his or the city’s behalf.

When asked why he didn’t bother to send someone on his behalf, Fenty sighed and said, “I’ll get back to you.”

His director of communications, Mafara Hobson, did get back to me. In an e-mail she said a representative from the mayor’s office was at the funeral. When pressed for the name or title of the person, Hobson refused to say. Sources inside the mayor’s office as well as officials for the Wizards all say they knew of no mayoral representative attending the funeral.

When a public tribute was held for Pollin inside the Verizon Center, Fenty was in attendenance, as was Gray. Fenty read a predictably less than adequate and uninspired resolution honoring Polin. In contrast, Gray seized the moment and pledged to name the City Title High School Basketball Tournament in Polin’s honor.

Gray’s tribute was at the same time meaningful and inspired, but it was also a stroke of political genius. By naming the tournament after Pollin, Gray almost certainly ensures that the tournament will have a home at the Verizon Center for years to come. A few years ago, the game had fallen on tough financial times and was being played in a high school gym. Gray struck a deal with Pollin two years ago to return the game to its past glory days by holding it at the biggest venue in town. It would be hard to imagine the Abe Pollin Annual High School Basketball Championship being played anywhere but the Verizon Center.

The Race Is On, or Is It?
For a while it looked like Mayor Fenty was going to get a run for his money. Multi-millionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles was telling anyone who would listen that he was ready to put as much as $5 million of his own money behind a “Peebles for Mayor” campaign. Peebles pulled no punches pointing out what he sees as Fenty’s weaknesses.

At the same time, Chairman Gray was basking in the glow of several polls showing him with higher approval numbers than Fenty. The polls echoed what many City Hall beat reporters have been seeing over the past 12 to 18 months – a steady erosion of Fenty’s rock-star popularity.

But as the days turned into weeks of speculation and waiting for some viable candidate to challenge Fenty, nobody stepped up to the plate. Gray was enjoying being asked every day, and Peebles enjoyed stoking the flames of discontent. But as we turn the page on 2009, neither has seized the moment. And it looks less and less likely that either will take the big step.

Gray’s dreams of the executive office have been all but squashed by his inept handling of two relatively minor scandals. And Peebles, well, Peebles seems to be backing off his once steadfast determination to have anybody but Fenty as mayor. Peebles’ most recent comments have him deferring to Gray and only running should Gray opt out. Somehow that doesn’t have the ring of leadership District residents seem to be wanting.

Gray has two problems. First is a fundraising letter he wrote on District government stationery asking for contributions to the DC Democratic State Party. Gray has already said he won’t make the same mistake again. But in typical Gray fashion, he refused to acknowledge he did anything wrong, instead insisting that because he was raising money to help further the cause of voting rights, that bending the rules really isn’t a big deal.

The second problem is a bit bigger than the letter but again was made worse by Gray’s refusal to just admit he made a mistake. Gray had about $10,000 worth of home repairs done by a developer who enjoys millions of dollars worth of city contracts. Gray paid for the work, but the appearance of impropriety remains.

Now the Office of Campaign Finance has launched investigations into the letter and the home repairs. As with most OCF investigations, this will probably end with no real consequences except that it will drag out long enough to plague Gray in any race against Fenty.

It would appear the safe thing for Gray to do is to run for re-election as chairman. He’s unlikely to have any real opposition on that front, not that there aren’t plenty of councilmembers who want to be chair, they just don’t want to run against Gray. Councilmembers Jack Evans, Kwame Brown (At-Large), and Phil Mendelson (At-Large) were all just waiting for Gray to run for mayor, so they could duke it out for chair.

And, yes, I know there are candidates challenging Fenty. Leo Alexander and Sulaimon Brown have both announced their campaigns, but neither has a shot at winning. They are relatively unknown and can’t possibly raise enough money to be anywhere near competitive. Fenty will have no trouble ignoring both of them and won’t even have to dirty himself with a debate should they be the only candidates on the ballot.

Alexander is probably the best known of the two. A former local TV newscaster, Alexander presents himself well and has some grassroots support, but he’s kidding himself if he thinks he can keep up with Fenty’s green machine.

Brown on the other hand makes Alexander look like a legitimate challenger. Browns’ website makes him look like a White House party crasher wannabe. His homepage sports a photo of Brown with President Obama. Well, “with” is a loose term here. Unlike the Salahis, who actually posed with Obama and Vice President Biden, Brown looks like he’s sneaking into the pictures. And his website does not list any actual work experience.