Once a month the 13 Council members and the Mayor sit down for breakfast. The meeting dates back to when Tony Williams was Mayor and Fenty was not. The meetings have been known to last for hours and at times become rather heated, to the point of one Council member throwing the F-Bomb at the mayor. Such was not the case at February's meeting.

Scheduled to begin at 8:30, by 9:00 a.m. there was only 6 Council members in attendance, 3 more would arrive later. 28 minutes later the meeting was over.

The Council members were treated to a ten minute presentation by CFO Nat Gandhi. The news? For the first time in years the city is facing a massive budget shortfall, nearly $100 million.

After Gandhi put the bad news on the table, the only Council members to ask questions were David Catania (I-At-Large) and Marion Barry (D- Ward 8). The rest of the District's elected officials sat on their hands. What that moment revealed was the youth and inexperience of the majority of the current council members.

The combined total legislative experience of the majority of the Council is 10.5 years, compared to 86 years of experience if you add up the time the other six members have held office

That's a pretty big gap with Barry's 25 years in City Hall at one extreme and Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and Muriel Bowser's ( D- Ward 4) nine months of experience at the other.

So maybe it's no wonder that Bowser, Alexander, Brown, Cheh, Gray and Tommy Thomas (D- Ward 5) sat silently. As elected officials, they've never heard the words "budget gap," they've never had to cut services or raise taxes. They seemed to have no idea what they’re facing.

The next budget is due on March 20th just in time for the Council's Easter recess. When they return to roll up their sleeves, it will be the first real test of a very inexperienced body of legislators.

The experience gap isn't lost on the worker bees in the Wilson Building. "Imagine what would happen if Jack left," one insider pondered. It's common knowledge in the Halls of the 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue that Gray leans on Jack Evans (D Ward-2) for a great deal of advice. Many people do.

Make some noise
Joe Fengler is mad, but it's a quiet kind of mad. The Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner from Ward 6 is upset that the noise Bill introduced by Council member Tommy Wells (D- Ward 6) won't be debated by the entire council. It won't be debated because it was killed just moments after it was introduced. Wells says it was his colleague, Jack Evans, who dealt the death blow when Evans moved to table the Bill indefinitely.

"I’m fairly certain the intent of Jack Evans, was to kill the bill. He did not offer a time for this to come back, and that's what my colleagues voted for. So I think it's really to let the bill die." Wells said.

Once the bill was dead, it didn't take Fengler long to make his move. Commissioner Fengler fired off a letter challenging two of the Council members who voted to table the bill to a public debate. Fengler's chosen opponents: Kwame Brown (D-At-Large) and Yvette Alexander. The reason he singled out Brown and Alexander is because they had both publicly supported the bill. Brown was a co-introducer.

"I still support the bill," Brown said, "there just needs to be more dialogue."

Alexander had a similar response, "I'm in total support of the essence of the legislation." she said, "but the unions need a better understanding."

Alexander, who has only been on the Council for about a minute (OK, 9 months), took exception to the characterization that the bill was killed. "I'm going to have to profess at 70 decibels, to table is not to kill." Is that inexperience talking or just spin? I’ll report, you decide.

Both Brown and Alexander said the Bill needs more time, but neither would commit to any time frame. As for the challenge to debate Fengler, Brown said "I'm happy to have a conversation with Joe."

But it's possible what really killed the noise bill was blowback from another legislative battle. Paid sick leave was given preliminary approval by the Council last month. The final vote was 11 - 2 in favor, but that came after four attempts to table the bill. Brown and Alexander voted to table each time, but eventually voted to support the bill. Council Chair Vince Gray (D- At-Large) led the effort to table the sick leave bill. "I have concerns about how it will impact small businesses," Gray said.

In the end, the votes Brown and Alexander cast to support paid sick leave and table the noise Bill made one group very happy -- the unions. When asked if union pressure was behind Brown and Alexander's decision to table the noise bill, Wells said,

 "It's pretty hard for some folks to really stand up to special interests like the unions and some of my colleagues are just not able to do that yet."

Both Alexander and Brown are up for re-election this cycle.

Trying to keep up
Everybody knows by now that Mayor Fenty is a stud. There's just no other way to put it. Fenty is a serious athlete competing in marathons and triathlons. And the guy is fast, take it from the only reporter in this town to accept the Fenty Challenge and show up at his house for his regular pre-dawn run through the woods of Rock Creek. I kept up with Fenty for about two miles, but only because he stopped twice to wait. Eventually Fenty put me out of my misery and had one of his friends walk me back to his house. Embarrassing? Maybe, but at least I showed up. Fenty was gracious about it and has even offered me some advice on how to better my speed.

But there's another stud in the Fenty Administration. Peter Nickles, the Acting Attorney General. Much has been written about Nickles and his hard-ass management style. Some have compared him to Dick Cheney because of the way he imposes his will on others and the way he interprets the laws to his liking. But that's what lawyers do.

What you may not know is that Nickles is a serious long distance runner. At age 67 he competed in the 2005 Ultraman World Championship Triathlon covering a total distance of 320 miles on the big island of Hawaii. For you couch potatoes, that's a 6.2 mile ocean swim followed by a 261.4 mile bike and ending with a 52.4 mile run. And just so you know it wasn't a fluke, 2005 wasn't the first time Nickles ran the race.

"I did it when I was 63 years old and again when I was 67." Nickles said.

The accomplishment has even Fenty in awe, "I've known about the Attorney General's athletic feats for a long time. They really are not just amazing, they really are almost inhuman. He doesn’t just do this in a vacuum, he does it in the 100 degree heat of the Hawaii volcanoes and swimming through the ocean with the sharks. I think Peter's athletic accomplishments are pretty much second to none."

Bush budget cuts could hurt azaleas
Friends and employees of the National Arboretum, located in northeast DC, are bracing for hard times. President Bush has proposed cutting the nature center's budget almost in half. If the massive cut is approved by Congress, it will mean lay-offs at the Arboretum and a reduction in the hours the sanctuary is open to the public. Weekends will probably be the first thing to go.

Sandy Miller Hays, a spokesperson for the Agricultural Research Service, the branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture which operates the arboretum, says President Bush has proposed cutting $2 million from the arboretum's $4.9 million dollar budget.

"One possibility would be losing 20 full-time employees," Hays says. "We would have to make adjustments such as limiting the hours the arboretum is open to the public."

Hays is quick to point out that the proposed budget cuts are not official until they are approved by Congress, but says agency directors do work for the President.