SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2010
KLMNO Thomas asked to turn over nonprofit organization’s documents BY TIM CRAIG The D.C. Attorney General’s
Office is requesting that Council memberHarry Thomas Jr. volun- tarily turn over documents and other information about a non- profit organization he operates that is not registered with the Internal Revenue Service or in good standing with city regula- tors. Attorney General Peter J.
Nickles and Bennett Rushkoff, chief of the office’s Public Advo- cacy Section, wrote to Thomas (D-Ward 5) Thursday requesting information on “Team Thomas” by Tuesday or risk a subpoena. Last week, The Washington
Post reported that Thomas has been soliciting money for Team Thomas, which he bills as a “nonprofit organization for so- cial change, citizen empower-
On a wing and a prayer
Jane Wicker performs a stunning act at the Leesburg Executive Airport’s airshow Saturday. At the controls of the 450 Stearman biplane is her ex-husband, Kirk Wicker.
ment, community development and youth and senior develop- ment program.” But the group is not registered with the IRS as a tax-exempt nonprofit group. Al- though Team Thomas had been registered locally with the De- partment of Consumer and Reg- ulatory Affairs, the registration was revoked last September. Tim Day, Thomas’s Republi-
can opponent in the Nov. 2 election, has accused Thomas of using the organization as a “slush fund.” Thomas, who fre- quently holds fundraisers for the group, has been unable to pro- vide a list of his donors or expenses. Rushkoff is requesting that
Thomas turn over the names of the organization’s executives and accounts as well as information about donors, employees and their salaries, and its beneficia- ries.
“The purpose of this letter is to
request that information and documents needed for an investi- gation of certain charitable orga- nizations be produced voluntari- ly as to avoid the need for a subpoena,” states the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Post. Thomas, who has been a fre-
quent critic of Nickles, said in a statement Friday that he was concerned about the short peri- od in which to respond to the request but that he intends to comply. “It is, and shall remain, my
prime objective to be as open and transparent as possible in all my public programs and activities,” he wrote. In an interview last week,
Thomas defended his organiza- tion, saying he never suggested it was registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit group, which would
entitle donors to a tax deduction. Thomas and his attorney, John
Ray, also argued that DCRA should not have revoked his registration because, they say, it is still in good standing. But the prospect of an investi-
gation could affect Thomas’s fu- ture political plans. Although he is expected to beatDay onNov. 2, Thomas appears to be gearing up for a possible run for citywide office. In recentweeks, he has attend-
ed nearly all of Council Chair- man Vincent C. Gray’s town hall meetings,which has been viewed as a sign that he is considering running for an at-large seat. A special election will be held
in the spring for the at-large seat that would become vacant if, as expected, Council member Kwame Brown (D) wins the council chairman’s race.
craigt@washpost.com
EZ SU
C5
Bowie State provost gets no-confidence vote
Faculty also
target president for not seeking their opinions
BY DANIEL DE VISE Bowie State University faculty
registered disapproval with their provost and president Thursday in a no-confidence vote, faculty members saidFriday. Antipathy centers on new Pro-
vost Stacey Franklin Jones, who has initiated programs and made appointments and demotions without input from faculty, ac- cording to three facultymembers. “Since she’s been here she’s
donenothingbutevadetheshared governance process,” said John Organ, the past chair of the Facul- ty Senate. Jones said she hadn’t received
officialnoticeof thevoteandcould not respond. She said of Bowie State, “I’mhonoredtobehere,and I’m working with the president, with the faculty, the staff and the students, enjoying getting to knowthem.” Jones, hired last summer from
Benedict College,was educated at Howard, Johns Hopkins and
George Washington universities. Faculty members contend she ar- rived“withablueprintor aplanto execute a number of programs without the consultation or any recommendations fromthe facul- ty,” said SidneyWalker, anEnglish professor. Theno-confidencevotewent68
to 2 against Jones and 49 to 8 againstPresidentMickeyBurnim, who has been at the historically blackuniversitysince2006.Facul- ty “are concerned about his man- agement skills,” largely over his handling of the provost, Organ said. Burnimreleasedthis statement
Friday afternoon: “We have not receivedformalnotificationof the action taken or the reasons for suchaction, sowehavenotyethad the benefit of a clear statement of the issues or concerns.’’ Faculty members said Jones
evaded a meeting planned for Thursdaybycallingherownmeet- ing at the same time. Bowie State faculty have deliv-
ered no-confidence votes against at least three previous presidents. One of them, Nathanael Pollard Jr., resigned in 1998 amid allega- tions of financial and manage- ment improprieties.
devised@washpost.com
Rhee plan at issue in union leader vote
teachers from C1 TRACY A. WOODWARD/THE WASHINGTON POST Despite some high hopes, no debate slated in Mikulski race BY BEN PERSHING There is one thing on which
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and her reelection opponent, Queen Anne’s County Commis- sioner Eric Wargotz (R), agree: They won’t be convening for any full-fledged debates in the 11 days remaining before Election Day. On Thursday, the Wargotz campaign blasted out a release hitting Mikulski for her “refusal to debate.” “I don’t know if it’s because her
record is indefensible or because she justdoesn’t careanymore, but either way, Mikulski’s unwilling- ness to engage intellectually with Maryland citizens is troubling,” Wargotz said in the release, add- ing that “several media outlets . . . have expressed interest in host- ing debates.” Not so, says SimoneWard,Mi- kulski’s campaign manager. “We
were never contacted by a media outlet or by the [Wargotz] cam- paign untilMonday of this week,” Ward said Thursday. She said the one outlet both campaigns discussed the issue with wasMaryland Public Televi- sion — the only statewide televi- sion station. MPT offered two options: separate interviews with the two candidates, to be aired back-to-back, or a joint interview with both candidates appearing together. Mikulski’s campaign accepted
the second option, and she and Wargotz are scheduled to appear onMonday night’s edition of “Di- rect Connection” onMPT. Ward said neitherMPTnorany
other media outlet or interest group ever offered to sponsor a full-fledged debate between the two candidates, with a stage and an audience and the other trap- pings of such events. “There have been no debate
requests in the general election that have come to us,”Ward said. Wargotz spokesman Demetri-
os Karoutsos acknowledged that it was difficult to drum up inter- est in such an event — some media outlets he contacted about hosting a debatenever calledhim back. But MPT was more receptive,
he said, and was “willing to do anything in any format [the two campaigns] can agree on,” not just the joint interview. So which campaign’s version of
the negotiations is correct? “Somewhere in the middle is
the way it went down,” saidMark Keefer, a producer atMPT. First of all, Keefer said, “there
were several different conversa- tions with multiple people,” so “who knows what exactly was conveyed.” As for Karoutsos’s contention
that MPT was “willing to do any- thing in any format,” Keefer said,
“I don’t believe that to be true.” On the idea of a full-dress debate, Keefer said, “I’m certain there was never any mention of an audience.” Whatever the reason, the two
candidates won’t be appearing together other than on Monday’s program. The lack of interest from po-
tential debate sponsors could be because debates are expensive to produce and the race is viewed as uncompetitive; the lone Wash- ington Post poll of the contest showed Mikulski leading by 35 points.
Because of their need for visi-
bility and free television expo- sure, underdog challengers are typically eager for debates and often accuse veteran incumbents of seeking to avoid them. Follow- ing that playbook, Karoutsos said his camp believesMikulski never wanted such a session to happen.
pershingb@wpost.com
College Park officials urged to shut down bar thirsty turtle from C1
residence life officials. Turtle was “the primary prob-
lem — not the only problem, but the primary problem,” Mitchell said. Last week, Mitchell urged city
officials to shut down the Route 1 bar, saying at a news conference that he wished he could padlock the doors himself. A liquor licens- ing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.
“I will use every legal angle at
mydisposal toensure the safetyof my students,”Mitchell said. “Iwill use anything and everything.” LindaCarter, a lawyerwho rep-
resents Turtle owner Alan Wa- nuck, said that the bar is still investigating the allegations against itbut thatevidenceuncov- ered so far “is leading to a far different story.”When those facts come to light, Carter said, “I don’t think people are going to want to close down the Thirsty Turtle.” Of the three popular student
bars near campus, Turtle is the largest and often the site of stu- dent fundraisers. Although it’s a popular late-
night bar,with long lines forming outsidemostweekendnights, stu- dents say it’s also the easiest place to snag a tableduringhappyhour. There’s usually a $5 cover
charge, but the bar has drink spe- cials that are nearly unheard of in nearby Washington. On “Thirsty Thursdays,” the bar serves $2 bot- tles of beer, $2 rail drinks and $3 shots of Southern Comfort and lime until close. Monday nights, customers can order “garbage buckets”—arandommixof sever- al hard liquors—for $4. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s definitely
crazy,” said Chelsea Soobitsky, a junior public relationsmajorwho is underage. “When you come in
as a freshman, that’s where you are excited to go. You hear rumors about it inorientation. . . .Youjust want to get out there.” Carter said Turtle “has always
actively reviewed identification cards to ensure people underage don’t get in.” But students say there are sev-
eral ways around that. Some ar- rive at the barduringdinner time, whenthere’snobouncer, andhide out.Othersuse fake IDsorborrow someone else’s.Andsome say they justwalk in. Mitchell decided to test the
bar’s carding systemwithwhat he calls an “integrity test.” In late September,Mitchell recruitedtwo student aides from his office and asked themto try to get into three popular College Park bars using their Maryland-issued licenses, whichshowedtheywereunder21. No tricky fakes.No sneaking in.
And instead of sending women dressed up for a night out,Mitch- ell sent two youngmenwho fit the “typical student” profile. “I said, ‘This is going to be
straight up,’ ” Mitchell said. “Straight up.” The first two bars turned the
students away. The two students walkeduptothebounceratTurtle andhandedover their student IDs and cover charge, Mitchell said. Thebouncer askedto see licenses; the students handed them over and theywere let in.Mitchell said a bar owner was standing by the door as this happened. Within minutes, the students
sent a text message saying they were on the second floor of Turtle and had ordered beer. County li- quor inspector John McGroarty walked in, seized the two Bud Lights as evidence and cited the bar,Mitchell said. “When Big John walks in, the temperature is going to drop 40
degrees,” Mitchell said. “They knewtheywere in big trouble.” The bar was cited for serving
alcohol tominors.The infractions will be discussed at the Nov. 3 hearing. Mitchell saidthat ina later test,
none of the three bars, including Turtle, allowed the students in. Turtle was cited in 2008 for
filling top-shelf bottles with cheaper alcohol and fined$3,000. In2009, itwas citedfor sellingtoa minor and fined $5,000. Turtle opened in 2007, replac-
ing Lupo’s Italian Chophouse res- taurant and bar. Before that, the space was occupied by Terrapin Station, a bar that lost its liquor license in the late 1990s. Terrapin Stationwas the site of
several violent fights. In 1998, two Maryland lacrosse players were stabbed just outside the bar.Later that year, a 19-year-old was charged with attempted murder for beating four male students with a tire iron outside the bar. Students said that since last
week it has become nearly impos- sible to sneakintoTurtle.Normal- ly, both floors of the bar are packed Thursday, Friday and Sat- urdaynights.ButFridaynight, the bar was sparsely filled, even after amidnight rush. Maybe it was because the bas-
ketball team was kicking off the season with Midnight Madness. Maybe it was because the place was swarming with liquor board and county employees,who stood out in the young crowd counting heads to make sure the bar was belowcapacity andwatching over the shoulders of the bouncers checking IDs. An officer dressed in black with a gold badge hang- ing around his neck quietly sat at the bar without a drink for more than an hour. The bartenders huddled and
talked quietly, glancing at the pa- trons. As students sipped $2Mill- er Lites and ordered bright-col- ored fruity shots, the word “stab- bing” kept popping up in conver- sations. “Thingsaren’t lookinggood, I’ll
say that, for the Thirsty Turtle right now,” saidMarcus Afzali, 25, aCityCouncilmemberwhoalsois a government and political sci- ence graduate student at U-Md. The council supportedscheduling the November hearing. “We don’t want towait for something else to happen,” he said. Students have been talking
about what it would be like if Turtle closed. An editorial in the student
newspaper theDiamondbacksaid that instead of closing Turtle, offi- cials shouldworkwithbarowners to address the bigger problem of underage drinking and overcon- sumption. Meanwhile, Diamondback col-
umnist Bethany Wynn compared Turtle to Ke$ha’s song “Take It Off” (lyrics include: “It’s a hole in the wall, it’s a dirty free for all”) and called for Turtle to close. “I once loved you and your
flaws, but now you’re suddenly gross in a sadly uninteresting way,” she wrote, wishing Turtle farewell. Several students said closing
Turtle could make the other two bars in the area more crowded. They say it also couldleadtomore house parties or drinking in the dorms. “I think people would be really
upset if it closed down,” Soobitsky said. “I’d hate to be a freshman right now.”
johnsonj@washpost.com
Staff researcherMagda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.
Rhee’s signature measure, the IMPACT evaluation system, which can trigger dismissals for teachers with low scores. Parker said his opponents
don’t understand the political and cultural climate that now surrounds public education. Unionized teachers need to get in front of the reform movement and assert some leadership, he said, or risk being steamrolled by it. He calls their candidacies a vestige of “old-school unionism.” “We need to become a different
kind of union,”hetold a gathering of teachers earlier this month at Miner Elementary. The election, which concludes
onWednesday when mail ballots are counted by an independent arbitrator, has been nasty and long. Union bylaws call for the election to have been held inMay. But a series of procedural dis- putes that landed in federal court led the union’s national parent organization, the American Fed- eration of Teachers, or AFT, to assume control of the contest. It has also been marked by
internal feuds and charges that Parker attempted to punish Saun- ders, a political opponent and his most outspoken union critic. The union’s executive board, which is friendly to Parker, voted this spring to suspend Saunders’s sal- ary and withhold renewal of his annual leave of absence from teaching duties. Parker says that the accusations of retaliation have no merit and that Saunders was sanctioned by the board for failing to perform his duties as general vice president. The AFT nevertheless ordered
the local union to restore Saun- ders’s pay and leave status last month. The executive board has offered to reinstate Saunders, but without back pay. Afederal judge dismissed Saunders’s challenge to the matter on Friday. Saunders, 45, ran on a reform
ticket with Parker in 2005, after the union was devastated by a financial scandal that sent presi- dent BarbaraA. Bullock to federal prison as the central figure in the theft of more than $4 million in union funds. But he now says Parker has
been far too passive, presiding over a period inwhichRheedisre- spected and maligned District teachers. “The poor treatment union members receive is a result of poor leadership at the top,” said Saunders, who teachesU.S. histo- ry at H.D. Woodson High School while he attempts to resolve his dispute with Parker and the exec- utive board. Parker has said that because of
1996 D.C. Council legislation ap- proved by Congress, the District is not required to bargain with the union over evaluations. Saun- ders said hewouldworkonmulti- ple fronts to weaken or abolish IMPACT, pressuring Gray and go- ing directly to Congress if neces- sary. “You don’t just sit back and say
what you can’t do,” Saunders said. Davis, 59,whoteaches comput-
er-aided design at Phelps Archi- tecture, Construction, and Engi- neering High School, said Parker and Saunders are both account-
able for ground lost during the Rhee era, starting with their fail- ure to more vigorously contest her appointment by Fenty in 2007. “I’ve been in meetings with
both of them, and I am not im- pressed,” she said. Davis, who hosted a fundraiser
for Gray at her home this sum- mer, expressed the hope that his inclusive style would start dia- logues that can lead to changes in some of Rhee’s initiatives. That includes the use of “value-added” methodology, a statistical model that measures student growth on test scores as part of teacher evaluations. Davis said the value-added sys-
tem fails to control for too many factors beyond teachers’ control, including lack of equity in the funding of individual schools and inept or hostile principals. “These are constraints that
need to be addressed,” she said. Bergfalk, 37, who teaches fifth
grade at H.D. Cooke Elementary, has produced several detailed analyses that challenge Rhee’s ba- sis for claiming significant growth in test scores. He said he wants to see the
unionbecomemoreof a driver for reform by developing its own ability to analyze test scores and teacher performance data. “You need an organization
with the kind of capacity to dig into data and analyze what’s hap- pening in schools,” he said. “The union sometimes focuses only on putting out fires for individual teachers rather than looking at what makes successful schools.” Parker, 60, a former middle
school math teacher, said that he also favors changes in IMPACT but thathehas notspokentoGray about the evaluation system, nor solicited any commitments in ex- change for the union’s backing in the Democratic primary. He said teachers are not op-
posed to rigorous evaluation, but he added: “We deserve to be held accountable with a fair instru- ment, period.” Teachers judged “minimally effective” under IM- PACT — and who face dismissal next summer if they do not im- prove — need more support and professional development, Park- er said. “You can’t just tell them ‘You’re minimally effective, see you at the end of the school year,’ ” he said. Parker also said that much of
what Rhee achieved in contract talks already existed in D.C. law but was not used by her predeces- sors, including the power to weaken seniority protections for teacherswhoare “excessed,” or let go from their jobs because of school closures. He cited other contract provi-
sions designed to help teachers, such as union-operated centers, based in schools, for educators to work out performance and pro- fessional issues. The pact also calls for development of a “certi- fied classroom,” a set of standards for materials and equipment that all classrooms must have for teachers to be successful. “I think there are a lot of things
we negotiated in the contract. I wantto be there to help lead that,” Parker said.
turqueb@washpost.com
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