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wednesday, april 7, 2010

LOCAL HOME PAGE

69, 9 a.m. 80, noon 85, 5 p.m. 76, 9 p.m.

Obituaries As leader of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, 64, paved the way for Indian women in higher roles. B5

Ask Tom

Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema will be online at 11 a.m. to discuss dining in Washington. Go to

washingtonpost.com/local.

THE REGION

Bunk beds, no cable

When Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas reports to the halfway house, he won’t have many creature comforts. But he can play basketball. B2

PENSION CHANGE PROPOSED

Government workers, groups rally for funds

by Michael Laris

PHOTOS BY SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Lateesha Williams, a member of Tavon Nelson’s family, comforts a friend of the slain teen at Tenth Street Baptist Church.

Sorrow at funeral for ‘a normal kid’

Service turns into call for action as first of 4 shot dead in SE attack is laid to rest

by Maria Glod

A

week after 17-year-old

Tavon Nelson was killed in one of the deadliest shootings on District streets in years,

family and friends gathered to re- member a “normal kid” who was a PlayStation fanatic, loved cheese pizza and spent hours at local malls. Nelson, known to his friends by the nickname Tadom, was one of four people slain March 30 when young men in a minivan sprayed bullets into a crowd hanging out on a corner in South- east Washington. Five others were wounded. “This is the hardest thing I’ve

ever had to do in my life is to say words over Tavon,” Nelson’s un- cle, Kenneth Nelson, told the crowd gathered at Tenth Street Baptist Church in Northwest Washington. “He was supposed to say words over me. But we live in a world that is topsy-turvy.” The service, the first held to honor the four victims, began as a memorial to a young man who was close to his family, a sports fan and enjoyed listening to rap.

Tamara Nelson, Tavon’s sister, waits in a limousine to be driven to the cemetery as funeral procession tags are distributed.

“One was too many. Four was unspeakable. This, my friends,

was an outsized tragedy.”

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)

But, as community leaders and local politicians arrived, it also became a call to action and rally for change in the city’s most trou- bled neighborhoods. “My friends, this is the first of four that are to be buried. Is this our city? Will we claim it?” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said to the crowd. “One was too many. Four was unspeakable. This, my friends, was an outsized tragedy.” D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Council Chairman Vin- cent C. Gray (D), who has an- nounced that he will challenge Fenty in this year’s mayoral race, were among the local leaders who came to offer condolences. Ward 8 council member Marion Barry (D) spoke at the service. “Your politicians and elected

officials need to be there for these families and this community af- ter the cameras are gone . . . after the headlines,” Barry said. “I stand ready to do all that I can.” The night of March 30, Nelson,

16-year-old Brishell Jones, 18- year-old DaVaughn Boyd and 19- year-old William Jones III were killed in gunfire that police think

funeral continued on B8

With revenue taking a new hit and advocates from residents to large public employee unions ramping up lobbying for resourc- es, members of the Montgomery County Council are catching a clearer glimpse of the unprec- edented and uncomfortable budget squeeze they face. On Tuesday, they found them- selves surrounded. Union leaders representing

government workers led a rally on the roof of the parking lot behind the council’s office building, while parent and teacher groups gath- ered on the council’s front steps. More than 400 government em- ployees clanging blue and yellow cowbells chanted, “We’ve had enough!” Later, a series of budget hearings — which began Monday and will run through Thursday —

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DC MD VA S

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

Some grim 3-D graffiti

The owner of the Washington Coliseum doesn’t intend for that phony graveyard — apparently erected as an antiwar statement — to remain on the roof for long. B2

Montgomery budget tumult hits fever pitch

continued inside, as waves of speakers sat in panels facing elected leaders with the power to say yes or no to funds for libraries, classrooms and health programs. Council members were at the hub of a day of bad fiscal news, impassioned appeals and a pro- posal that could save millions of dollars next year but initially gar- nered a lukewarm reception. The approaches of council members differed sharply. Coun- cil member Phil Andrews (D-Gai- thersburg-Rockville) proposed legislation that would end contro- versial retirement benefits known as “phantom” cost-of-living in- creases. Under an agreement last year, the county makes contributions to the pensions of general govern- ment workers, firefighters and police based on raises they did not receive. Ending that unusual practice would save $7.2 million in the next fiscal year and more than $200 million over 40 years, Andrews said. “It’s bad practice to tie pensions to salaries that aren’t provided, and this is the year to change it, before it gets established and when there’s a very clear rationale

budget continued on B4

Fenty takes big risk over worker boards

Proposed merger, staff cuts could exacerbate tensions with unions

by Tim Craig

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is testing his tense relationship with city unions and local government employees by proposing to merge two labor relations boards as he guts the staff of both offices. As part of the 2011 budget pro- posal that Fenty (D) unveiled Thursday, the mayor wants to merge the Office of Employee Ap- peals with the Public Employee Relations Board, which serve as outlets for city workers to file grievances or contest punishment or dismissal. Fenty, who has been battling

city employee unions since his first year in office, also is propos- ing to slash 15 of the combined 17 staff positions allotted to the two agencies, according to budget

documents. Under Fenty’s plan, it appears

that the adjudication of the agen- cies’ cases — they have a com- bined backlog of nearly 600 cases —would be transferred to the Of- fice of Administrative Hearings, where public complaints against D.C. agencies are heard. D.C. Council members are demanding to know how the combined agen- cy would operate with only two staff members, and how the Office of Administrative Hearings could bear the additional workload. Kristopher Baumann, head of the local police union, said the mayor’s proposal is an “attack on every District employee that is not a friend of Adrian Fenty’s” be- cause it will reverse the city’s long tradition of valuing workers’ right to due process. “Unless you are a mayoral ap- pointee, it will directly impact your job,” Baumann predicted. “It will either personally impact you or the people you work with.”

district continued on B4

In neighborhood of despair, Obama stays silent Va. revises irksome Northrop contract

Southeast Washington for Easter services at Allen Chapel AME. But instead of addressing the battle-weary congregation, as he did with the troops in

S

Afghanistan last month, Obama fell curiously silent. The president neither spoke nor shook hands, didn’t wave or even turn around in his pew to smile at the 700 or so churchgoers who began arriving as early as 3 a.m. to see him. Allen Chapel is less than a

10-minute drive from one of the city’s worst shootings in recent memory. Five young black men were wounded and four killed in a drive-by shooting. You would think Obama could have taken to the pulpit and shouted: Enough already! He had made a campaign promise to revitalize urban America, and what better way to

o President Obama made another surprise visit to a war zone — this time to

COURTLAND MILLOY

make good on his word than declaring war on Depression-era jobless rates, Jim Crow-era incarceration rates and post-Reconstruction

hopelessness and despair in his own back yard? All we got instead was grainy video of him in muted communion while a fawning congregation acted as if he were the risen Christ and not a politician who owed them a debt. Later that night, I canvassed the neighborhoods of Southeast looking for signs of any uplift and inspiration that the presidential visit might have

spawned. What I found instead was another shooting — in the 200 block of Atlantic Street SW, just around the corner from last week’s deadly drive-by attack in the 4000 block of South Capitol Street. “Winter is over, the streets are

heating up,” said Stephen Barnard, a member of the D.C. Air National Guard who lives in the neighborhood. The victim was another young black man who D.C. police said had been hit in the abdomen. After he was taken to a hospital and the crime scene tape came down, I joined several people who had gathered near the spot where he had collapsed. “We were having a backyard

barbecue,” one man said, still holding a sandwich for which he no longer had an appetite. It had been a traditional family gathering on a pleasant Easter

milloy continued on B8

State to pay more, but penalties for poor service increased

by Rosalind S. Helderman

richmond — Virginia has re- worked its massive $2.4 billion computer services contract with defense contractor Northrop Grumman, extending the life of the 10-year contract by three years and agreeing to pay the company over $100 million more than originally envisioned. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) hailed the agreement as a way to clarify the responsibilities of the company and better track its per- formance, as well as resolve an ongoing dispute that had bedev- iled former governor Timothy M. Kaine (D) in the months before he left office.

Reaching an agreement with

terms, and reducing the amount of money that the common- wealth would have to pay,” he said. “This gives us hundreds of millions of dollars of value at a discounted rate.” Virginia contracted with Nor-

throp in 2003 to overhaul the state’s computer networks after reviews found the technology was out of date and expensive to maintain, agreeing to pay the company up to $236 million a year for its services. But the company has missed

BOB BROWN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell said the agreement was better than trying to end the contract.

the company, McDonnell said, was also preferable to attempting to end the contract, which state officials estimated would cost at least $350 million. “What we wanted was dramat- ically improved performance, dramatically better contract

several deadlines to complete its work and state agencies have re- peatedly complained of poor computer service. At the same time, Northrop has maintained that Virginia owes the company money for performing services not envisioned in the original contract, which is the largest in state history. McDonnell said he set out to fix

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