TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2010


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Gray hopes to win D.C., again


gray from B1


campaigned with a message about unifying Americans, only to see the nation’s political fault lines grow wider, and that Fenty wonevery precinct four years ago only to lose in the primary to Gray. Starting Tuesday night in


Ward 5, Gray will hold a series of town hall meetings across the city that he hopes will ease ten- sions and allow residents to get to know him. “I don’t want to be in a situa-


tionwhere people routinely don’t like you, so the onus is on me to reach out at this stage, and that is exactly what I am trying to do,” Gray said in a recent interview.


‘The city has changed’ L. Douglas Wilder, who was


ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Ray Schlegel, left, of College Park andWally Dawall of Gaithersburg pay their respects to Lt. Brendan Looney, who was buriedMonday. Motorcyclists counter protest at Arlington


Members of Kansas church demonstrate at burial of Navy SEAL


BY MICHAEL E. RUANE A group of motorcyclists


staged a counter-demonstration Monday at the Arlington Nation- al Cemetery burial of a localNavy SEAL, parking motorcycles and revving engines to oppose a pro- test by members of the funda- mentalist Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas. The motorcyclists, many clad


in boots and leather, lined up alongMemorial Drive in front of the small group of protesters, opened the throttles of their engines to drown their singing and saluted as the funeral cor- tege passed. The church protesters, who


contend that God is killingmem- bers of themilitary because of the nation’s sins, sang over the din and held signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “Thank God for IEDs.” Members of Westboro, who


often demonstrate at military funerals, are the subjects of a Supreme Court case that seeks to decide whether they have a right under the Constitution to stage such inflammatory demonstra- tions. The court is scheduled to hear


oral arguments in the case Wednesday. The counter-demonstration,


staged by a group of local bikers, some of whom said they were veterans, came at the start of the 1 p.m. burial service for Lt. Brendan Looney, 29, a native of Silver Spring. A 2004 Naval Academy gradu-


ate and 1999 graduate of De- Matha Catholic High School in


Hyattsville, Looney was among nine servicemembers killed Sept. 21 in a helicopter crash in Af- ghanistan. His burial service was closed


to the news media at the request of his family. About a half-hour before the


service, three members of the church arrived by Metro, their protest signs concealed in a large bag. They stationed themselves in a


cordoned-off area on the drive just outside a Metro entrance and then displayed their plac- ards, some ofwhich read: “God Is Your Enemy,” “America Is Doomed” and “Don’tWorship the Dead.” Moments before the funeral


procession appeared, the bikers arrived with a roar, several flying large American flags from their motorcycles.As they lined up and revved their engines to ear-split- ting levels, occupants of cars in


the procession gave a thumbs-up sign. “I’m a vet myself, and I think


what these people over here are doing is horribly wrong,” said motorcyclist Clyde Fleming, 62, who said he lives on the Eastern Shore. “If you want to protest a war,


you do it with government offi- cials, not with the soldiers who died for you,” he said. “You don’t disrespect them and their fami- lies with such hatred.” He said the church “absolute-


ly” had a right to its protest — “just as we have a right to block their noise and their rhetoric.” Margie Phelps, one of the pro-


testers and the church’s attorney, said: “We came here to say the soldiers are dying for the sins of this nation. You want them to stop dying? Stop sinning. This is a fool’s errand, all this patriotic carrying on. . . . Obey God.” ruanem@washpost.com


Fenty freezes hiring to help close budget shortfall BY TIM CRAIG D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty


froze hiring and promotions in city government Monday and restricted discretionary spend- ingwithin the agencies as he and the D.C. Council begin exploring ways to close a $175 million shortfall. The order by Fenty (D), which


comes three days after the start of fiscal 2011, also bans most employee travel and training and limits the amount of money available to agency leaders to buy supplies. Last week, Chief Financial Of-


ficer Natwar M. Gandhi told Fenty and D.C. Council Chair- man Vincent C. Gray that the sluggish national economy and overspending were hampering the District’s efforts to balance the budget for the third consecu- tive year. The council approved the fiscal 2011 budget in June, hopeful that the economy was starting to rebound. But Gandhi


said a decline in sales tax and capital gains tax revenue has created a shortfall just as the budget year is commencing. Gray, the presumptive mayor


after winning the Sept. 14 Demo- cratic primary, and Fenty are expected to work closely in the coming weeks to see whether they can agree on a plan for bringing the budget into the black. Gray called Fenty’s hiring


freeze,which affects all positions except those funded by federal grants, the first step toward “getting a handle” on city financ- es — but he predicted difficult negotiations in the weeks ahead. Many agencies alsowould take


a 10 percent cut in funds dedicat- ed to supplies, contracts and other non-personnel expenses. Exceptions can be made for “the safety of the public or the essen- tial functions of government.” The administration estimates themoveswill save $100million, but some council members are skeptical.


Although city leaders say the


District has fared far better than most cities and states in navigat- ing the recession, the council and the mayor have had to make hundreds ofmillions of dollars in cuts in the past three years. The District also has increased doz- ens of fees, including parking- meter rates, as well as the sales, cigarette and gasoline taxes to try to keep the budget balanced. “We have not only cut to the


bone, we are down to the bone marrow,” Gray saidMonday. To try to prevent further cuts


to social programs, councilmem- bers JimGraham(D-Ward 1) and Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) are expected to renew their push to raise income taxes on the wealthy. Taxpayers who make $40,000 a year or more pay an 8.5 percent rate. Graham and Brown will probably offer com- peting proposals to create new rates for somewage earnerswith six- or seven-figure incomes. Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Mary M. Cheh


(D-Ward 3), both of whomrepre- sent wealthy neighborhoods in Northwest Washington, are ex- pected to resist calls to raise taxes on the wealthy. Gray also appears hesitant to raise taxes, although he didn’t rule it out during a news conference Mon- day. “I personally would like to


look at the expenditure part of the budget before we look at revenues,” Gray said. But significant spending cuts


could pitGray against the public- employee unions that enthusias- tically backed him in his race against Fenty. When asked whether the city might have to lay off employees, Gray said, “Everything is on the table.” Council member Phil Mendel-


son (D-At Large) said he thought the council would “look at spending” before it considered a tax increase. “But I do think they will do


some taxes,” he quickly said. craigt@washpost.com


D.C. school enrollment appears to be up schools from B1


run. The reversal could represent a


groundswell of parental support for Rhee and her reforms. Or it could simply reflect the sagging economy, a force that has driven families back to public schools from private campuses. Some D.C. leaders were cautious in their praise. “It’s a good thing that enroll-


ment is going up. I knowthat the economy is causing a lot of people to take a second look at” the public school system, said Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), the presumptive new D.C. Coun- cil chairman. Brown has two children at Eaton Elementary


“I think people are putting more and more trust in the school system. ” —Leticia Long, PTSA president at Woodrow Wilson High School


School in Northwest, and his wife is a public-schools employ- ee. “The challenge is going to be starting to make our middle schools better, so we can keep those families in D.C. schools.” Stanching the flowof students


out of traditional public schools has been one of Rhee’s top priori- ties. Rhee has declined to say whether shewill continue asD.C. chancellor in the aftermath of Fenty’s loss in the Democratic


mayoral primary lastmonth. She has clashedwith thewinner,D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who is the city’s presump- tive newmayor. The school population stabi-


lized last year on the strength of a system-wide effort to attract pre-kindergarten and kindergar- ten students. The system is still losing students in many grades, and across most of the upper grades, but at a slower rate. Fromfall 2007 to fall 2008, the


Operators standing by. Call for home delivery.


1-800-753-POST


District lost 7 percent of children moving from kindergarten to first grade. That attrition rate fell to 1 percent in 2009, and officials expect a net gain this year. The public school system’s de-


SF


cline long has been the charter system’s gain. Charter enroll- ment climbed from 6,980 stu- dents in 2000 to 27,953 last fall. Charter schools claim38 percent of public enrollment in the Dis-


trict. Charter schools have pro- moted themselves as an alterna- tive to the administrative bloat and labor constraints that often vex large public school districts. The new enrollment figures


are based on an official count taken early in the new school year, at a time when classroom populations are thought to have stabilized. The numbers will be audited


by an independent accounting firm. A school-system promotional


campaign has encouraged par- ents to “take another look” at the public schools, acknowledging the system’s devalued brand even as it highlighted Rhee’s reforms in ads on radio stations and the sides of buses. D.C. public schools once were


the largest in the Washington area. But decades of decline have left the D.C. system about one- third the size of the 140,000 Montgomery County system. Fairfax County schools enroll 175,000 students, and the Prince George’s County system enrolls about 125,000. devised@washpost.com turqueb@washpost.com


elected the first African Ameri- can governor of Virginia in 1989, said Gray can succeed only if he governs in a way that makes supporters and detractors sense that they are being taken serious- ly.


“It’s really unfair to be painted


with any brush oneway or anoth- er, notwithstanding how the polls turned out,” Wilder said. “But Gray is seasoned enough to know you can’t have a black audience and a white audience, and that the city has changed, gentrified.” To combat what he views as


unfair impressions, Gray has be- gun attending lunch and dinner parties with small groups of Northwest residents, the first of which was Sunday night in Spring Valley. In advance of the Nov. 2 general election, the Gray campaign also plans to send out mailers, and perhaps air televi- sion ads, to try to improve his reputation in the white commu- nity. In the days after the primary,


much of Gray’s public schedule has him in settings with voters who probably supported Fenty in the primary. On Sept. 25, Gray campaigned at a bar in Dupont Circle that primarily serveswhite gay men. On Sept. 27, he ad- dressed business leaders at an event downtown. Later in the week, he taped a segment on “Q&A Cafe” with Carol Joynt, where he answered questions at the Ritz Carlton in Georgetown in front of a lunchtime crowd of socialites. “Gray had a broad, wonderful


mix of supporters, and this no- tion that it was just a group of unemployed people in Ward 8 that got him there is one thing that we got to debunk, because it’s absolutely false,” said Reuben O. Charles II, director of opera- tions for the Gray campaign. “We have to invite everyone into this broad, robust conversation about moving forward.”


Conciliatory humor At the same time he courts


Northwest residents,Gray advis- ers say they understand thewide- spread sentiment among African Americans that Fenty favored those same upscale voters. “Gray is not going tomake the


same mistakes Adrian Fenty made, neglecting the people who got themthere,” saidD.C. Council member and former mayor Bar- ry (D-Ward 8). After Barry was elected to a


fourth term in 1994, he was widely quoted as saying his oppo- nents in Upper Northwest had to “get over” his election. Gray has beenmore conciliato-


ry. While speaking to Joynt, Gray


said his childhood home in Northeastwas in a neighborhood that is “gentrifying.” Joynt asked him if gentrification was a “good word or bad word?” “It’s adescription,”Gray saidto


laughs. Gray faces only nominal oppo-


sition in the Nov. 2 general elec- tion, but his advisers worry that their transition could get off to a rocky start if large numbers of residents support a third-party or write-in candidate. More than 5,000 people have joined a Face- book page calling on voters to write in Fenty’s name on their general-election ballots. “I’mconcernedhe doesn’thave


an actual platform for the city,” Steve Snyder of Logan Circle said of Gray. “He was elected because he ran against a personality, but he hasn’t proposed anything con- crete for the city.” Council member Mary Cheh


(D-Ward 3), who endorsed Gray during the primary, said Fenty’s television ads questioning Gray’s oversight of the Department of Human Services in the early 1990s took their toll. “The Fenty campaign did paint


a rather dark picture of ‘we don’t want to go back,’ ” Cheh said. “It was completely convincing, or somewhat convincing, and now


Getting to know Gray Democratic mayoral nominee Vincent C. Gray will hold the first in a citywide series of town hall meetings Tuesday night inWard 5, with meetings in each of the other wards coming later this month. Ward 1: Tuesday, Oct. 19, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Columbia Heights Youth Center, 1480 Girard St.NW Ward 2: Thursday, Oct. 14, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at SchoolWithoutWalls, 2130 G St.NW Ward 3: Thursday, Oct. 7, 6 to 8 p.m. at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, 4201 Albemarle St.NW Ward 4: Tuesday, Oct. 26, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Peoples Congregational Church, 4704 13th St.NW Ward 5: Tuesday, Oct. 5, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Community Academy Public Charter School, 1400 First St.NW Ward 6:Wednesday, Oct. 27, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Eastern High School, 1700 East Capitol St. NE Ward 7: Tuesday, Oct. 12, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Sousa Middle School, 3650 Ely Pl. SE Ward 8: Thursday, Oct. 21, 7 to 9 p.m. at Matthews Memorial Baptist Church, 2616 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE


Source: Gray for MayorWeb site


“This notion that it was just a group of


unemployed people in Ward 8 that got him there is one thing that we got to debunk . . . it’s absolutely false.”


—Reuben O. Charles II, director of operations for Gray campaign


the burden is on Gray to dispel that because it seems to have scared people inWard 3.” Gray is looking to Cheh and


others to help. “People just don’t know who


he is,” said Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who support- ed Fenty during the primary but now is helping Gray. “Vince is a warm, genuine, good guy, and as he gets out there more and speaks more, it will help him a lot.” Some council members say


Fenty voters will wait until Gray starts making appointments to top city jobs before forming an opinion on his administration. Cheh is lobbying Gray to send a “comforting” message to voters in Northwest immediately after the general election by stating that he will retain Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, whose populari- ty has been shown in polls. One ofGray’s biggest challeng-


es is what will happen to Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. Polls showRhee remains popular in Northwest, home to growing numbers of young white couples with children who appeared to overwhelmingly support Fenty. But many African Americans have an unfavorable view of Rhee. “If Rhee stays, that is one


thing, but if she goes, the voters who backed Fenty because of school reform are really going to want to have a strong opinion and voice on who becomes the next chancellor,” said political strategist Chuck Thies. When Gray attended the 17th


Street Festival on Sept. 25 in Dupont Circle, where he only received 21 percent of the vote, a Washington Post reporter heard at least two passersby yell “Mi- chelle Rhee” as he walked through the crowd. “My only concern is the


schools,” said Sarah Gilmore, 35, who attended the festival with her 5- and 6-year-old children. “I’ma big Rhee fan.” Until the question about


Rhee’s future is resolved, many expect that Gray will struggle to make inroads in the white com- munity. But some are coming around.


A week ago, several members of the Federal City Council, largely made up of business leaders, said Gray delivered a powerful speech in which he vowed to continue school reform. “It was an excellent, impas-


sioned address,” said Margaret Dunning of Georgetown, who heads the Washington office of Widmeyer Communications, a large public relations firm. “Change always brings concern, but I must say after hearing him I’mvery favorably impressed.” craigt@washpost.com


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