WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010
KLMNO Wal-Mart says it has redesigned stores for D.C.
BY JONATHAN O'CONNELL At smallmeetings in neighbor-
hoods where it plans to open its first D.C. locations, Wal-Mart is unveilingnewurbanstoredesigns and trying to alleviate concerns about its employmentpractices to gain support for its entrance into the city. At ameeting Tuesday night at a
police station in the Gateway neighborhood of Northeast, com- pany officials and real estate de- velopers unveiled plans for a shoppingcenteronNewYorkAve- nue thatwould feature a 120,000- square-footWal-Mart atop anoth- er big-box store. About 50 people were in the audience. Rather than a sea of surface
parking — the typical front lawn for a Wal-Mart — the shopping center would feature an above- ground parking garage. “This is not your typical super-
store,” commented D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D- Ward 5). At the same time, across town
at the Emory United Methodist Church in Brightwood, officials fromFoulger-Pratt,aRockvillede- veloper,presentedplans tobuilda single-storyWal-Martnear the in- tersection of Georgia and Mis- souriavenuesNorthwest. Itwould have a 362-space underground parking garage featuring “cartala- tors,” or escalators for shopping carts. The brick facade has been designed to evoke the site's histo- ry as a storage barn for streetcars. Wal-Mart officials sayD.C. resi-
presentation. Initial questions were aboutparking,management of rodents, security and whether thechainwouldbeabletocontrib- ute to local charitable causes. “It feels like anyone who comes to this community has to, No. 1, be held accountable” for the promis- es they make, said Pat Fisher of Edgewood. But Fisher and others said they stillwanted the store. Thomasmet withWal-Mart of-
COURTESY OF WAL-MART STORES
An illustration of the store thatWal-Mart plans to build atGeorgia andMissouri avenues, currently the site of a car dealership.
dents want the chain to open stores here. Officials point to a survey the company commis- sioned inNovember showing that 73 percent of city residents are “in favor.” But to bolster support and try
topersuadeskeptics, thecompany is emphasizing the fresh food, pharmacies and delicatessens the four proposed stores would bring to the neighborhoods—aswell as
thejobs.Theother twositesareon New Jersey Avenue near Mount Vernon Square and at the inter- section of East Capitol Street and 58th Street. “We knowthat jobcreationand
access to affordable food are sig- nificant needs in the city, and we think our first four storescan be partof the solutioninthis regard,”
Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Res- tivo said in an e-mail. Residents have concerns.
James Sydnor,who represents the area around the Georgia Avenue site on the Advisory Neighbor- hood Commission, said that resi- dents are worried about traffic, wages,hiring andthe effect aWal- Martwouldhaveonexistingsmall businesses. But he said the retail giant
seemed ready to address the is- sues. “They want to make sure they have small, reasonablemeet- ings and they arewilling to set up asmanyaspossible toreachout to as many people as possible,” Syd- nor said. At the meeting for the North-
east store, some in the audience applauded after the company’s
ficials and local labor leaders Tuesdaymorning and said hewas pleased with the chain’s initial commitment to hiring locally and providing job training. When it decided to expand in Chicago, Wal-Mart committed to spending $20 million on local charities, he said, and it is considering similar investments in the District. “Our emphasis has been on career op- portunities,”Thomas said. Wal-Mart estimates that D.C.
residents spent more than $41 million last year at its store out- side the city. It has been looking for sites in the District for years, but Keith Morris, the company’s communityaffairsdirector for the east region, saidbutcouldnot find any that would accommodate the store's typical
layout.Bydesigning smaller, grocery-oriented stores, the chainmayhave easedthediffi- culties. “It'snotdesignedtobearegion-
al mall to attract people from all over the place,” Morris told the crowd in Northeast as he de- scribed the New York Avenue store. “It's designed for the com- munity here.”
oconnellj@washpost.com
Leslie Johnson is denied committee seats council from B1 Johnson declined to comment,
but she has said she was lawfully elected to serve her constituents. “The voters have spoken,” she saidMonday. The council action on Tuesday
received mixed reaction from county residents. Al Weaver of Upper Marlboro,
who lives in Johnson’s district, said he was not impressed. He visited the council to express his dismay that Johnson would take office. “I do not think she should take
her seat,” he said. “We are out- raged. What do we tell our chil- dren?” Wayne Clarke, a political con-
sultant in Johnson’s district, said he did not vote for her but was troubled by the council’s move. “We don’t have full representa- tion. . . . People are innocent until proven guilty,” he said. State Del. Aisha N. Braveboy
(D), who represents Johnson’s district, said cutting Johnson out of committee work harms her constituents. “Many times the real work is
done at that level,” Braveboy said. “To not have a vote in that process diminishes the role and influence of District 6 in council business,
and that impacts the residents of District 6.” The decision to limit Johnson’s
role on the council came after days of private agonizing by council members and behind- the-scenes negotiations. The dis- cussions involved vote trading in the race for council chairmanship between Turner and AndreaHar- rison (D-Springdale) and an at- tempt to assuage concerns of some members that Johnson’s presence on the council would cast a pall as the county was turning a new political page with the election. While many council members
thought they had worked things out so that the vote on the council leadership would be unanimous, Johnson apparently strayed from the script. She cast one of nine votes in favor of Turner for coun- cil chairman, but then abstained in the vote for Eric Olson (D-Col- lege Park) for vice chairman. Ol- son was one of the five who had asked Johnson to forgo her seat. Meanwhile, Baker on Tuesday introduced Mark Magaw as the county’s interim police chief. Magaw said he plans to create a special office to oversee side jobs many officers hold and have a panel that normally handles po- lice shootings review the cases of
the 47 officers now on suspension or desk duty for alleged miscon- duct. “While change is not always
easy or welcome, it often provides an organization with the oppor- tunity to move forward,” said Magaw, who added that he plans to delegate more authority to his commanders. His appointment appears to
have delivered an immediate boost to morale in the depart- ment, which in recent months has faced allegations of cheating in the police training academy and the arrests of three officers as part of the federal corruption probe. Commanders gave the in- terim chief a standing ovation when he was introduced, and Baker said explicitly that “mo- rale” was one of the most impor- tant considerations in his making a change at the helm. Commanders
shootings this week. That is also the panel that will scrutinize the cases of all officers on desk duty or suspension, making sure all investigations were thorough, he said. Magaw also said he would cre-
ate a special office to monitor part-time security jobs that offi- cers work. He offered few specif- ics but said the office would “ensure that both the employers and the officers working are fol- lowing the rules.” Hylton had commissioned a
review of secondary employment in the wake of federal charges against two officers who were thought to be helping a liquor store owner smuggle cigarettes and alcohol. “There’s a lack of supervision
anticipate
Magaw undoing many of the transfers enacted by his prede- cessor, Roberto L.Hylton—espe- cially those that were thought to be punishments against outspo- ken officers. Magaw said the transfers of the two commanders who first raised questions about impropriety in the police acade- my will be reviewed by a panel that normally handles police
here that we’re looking into,” Magaw said. “The office of sec- ondary employment, the main focus of that is to vet out the different businesses that want officers to work there, to make sure that they’re legitimate busi- nesses that hold the same values as this community and this police department.”
spivackm@washpost.com zapotoskym@washpost.com
Staff writer OvettaWiggins contributed to this report.
Leslie Johnson’s career as judge at odds with arrest johnson from B1 ety. “I have it inmy bra,” Leslie told
Jack Johnson, referring to $79,600 he told her to hide from investigators, according to a fed- eral affidavit. The line would be repeated in news accounts as far away as Taiwan. During the same call, investi-
gators heard a flushing sound after the county executive had instructed his wife to flush a $100,000 checkdownthe toilet in their two-story brick colonial in Mitchellville. Like her husband, Mrs. John-
son was charged with evidence tampering and attempting to de- stroy evidence and could face up to 20 years in prison.Tuesday, her new colleagues on the County Council cut a deal to keep her off any council committee. “She was always an indepen-
dent person who did her own thing, and at the same time, she was the one who made the family work,” said Doyle Neiman, an assistant state’s attorney who worked on Jack Johnson’s cam- paigns and got to know Leslie, helping her write a letter to voters promoting her husband. Now, Neiman said, “her life
will be defined by the money in the bra.”
Conflicting images
That image ofLeslie Johnson is confounding to those who know her as a person of measured words — bright, well-groomed and demure, a devoted mother and grandmother, knowledge- able about national politics, de- vouring books about presidents. “She always carried herself as a
lady,” said Judy Mickens-Murray, a former member of the Prince
MARK GAIL/WASHINGTON POST
Leslie Johnson recites the Pledge of Allegiance in her first meeting as a council member.
George’s school board. “She al- ways projected an image of civili- ty and a moral code.” Through her attorney and a
friend, Mrs. Johnson declined to be interviewed. A native of Queens and daughter of a physi- cian, she studied history at Fisk University in Nashville, a histori- cally black college that her moth- er had attended. She received her law degree from Howard Univer- sity, where she fell in love with Jack,whojokedinarecent speech that hemet his wife at the library, the place his father had told him to go to find a nice girl. “He was very serious, and she
was very serious — all they did was work,” said a law school classmate who still knows the couple and spoke on the condi- tion that she not be identified for fear of jeopardizing their friend- ship. “Most students carried backpacks. He carried a brief-
case.” The Johnsons were married in
1976 and settled twoyears later in Prince George’s, where they raised three children, Nia, 33, a physician, Jack Jr., 31, a business- man, and Zachary, 25. Mrs. Johnson eschewed the
law firm life that many of her Howard classmates chose, prefer- ring a9-to-5 job thatwouldlet her get home to her kids. She worked for the D.C. government for 27 years, becoming an administra- tive law judge, a post that paid $91,000 when she retired last year. Meanwhile, Jack became a
player on the Prince George’s po- litical stage, becoming the coun- ty’s chief prosecutor before cap- turing the county executive seat in 2002. If Leslie Johnson played a role in that political ascent, it was not obvious to his advisers. “We would have meetings of
the campaign workers, and very rarely did she show up,” said Henry Arrington, Johnson’s for- mer campaign chairman. “She always appeared to be supportive of her husband and stayed in the background.” During the 2002 campaign,
Mrs. Johnson wrote a letter to voters titled, “If you knew Jack like IknowJack . . . ,” in which she described his soul as being “as deep as the ocean.” “When he says or does some-
thing, it’s because he believes it is right,” she wrote.
A new chapter As the county’s first lady, Mrs.
Johnson became involved in her husband’s personnel decisions, county workers said. William Ritchie, a retired D.C. police ad- ministrator, said that Mrs. John- son interviewedhimwhenhewas
a candidate for a senior position in the county Department of Homeland Security. More openly, she presided at ribbon-cuttings and other cere- monies, a well-coiffed if enigmat- ic representative of her husband’s administration. She helped start Leslie’s House, a program offer- ing aid to women recently re- leased from prison. The program was later criticized by the County Council because its $300,000 budget seemed too large for the relatively small number of wom- en it helped. Mrs. Johnson joined neighbor-
hood clean-ups and spoke to girls about keeping out of trouble and being careful about sexual activi- ty. “She would call and ask what we were doing, and she’d join us in planting trees,” said Phil Lee, president of the Kettering Civic Federation. As Jack Johnson’s second term
wound down and Mrs. Johnson planned to retire from her D.C. job, some political observers wondered whether she might run for county executive. But she chose to run for the County Coun- cil and mounted a campaign that stayed silent about her ties to the county executive. But Mrs. Johnson benefited
from her husband’s years in poli- tics, raising more than $80,000 from peoplewhohad contributed to his campaigns. OnSept. 14, shewontheDemo-
cratic primary, starting a new chapter of her life. Two months later, two FBI
agents knocked on her front door, andMrs. Johnson made the pan- icked phone call to her husband that led to their being escorted from their home in handcuffs.
schwartzmanp@washpost.com thomaslestera@washpost.com
EZ SU
B5
Challenging tests for school board in Pr. George’s
New and returning members face fiscal, academic struggles
BY MICHAEL BIRNBAUM More than half of the Prince
George’s County school board is new this week, but the challeng- es that members face aren’t. The school system is confronting an- other year of budget troubles and struggles to improve academic performance. In interviews, board members
— two of whom were laid off by the school system over the sum- mer — pledged that they would try to shield classrooms from further financial fallout. They also said they wanted to make it easier for community members to voice their opinions during budget planning. Superinten- dent William R. Hite Jr. will announce his budget proposal next week, kicking off a process that could last until June. “The school system has not
done a good job of communicat- ing to its stakeholders,” said new board member Henry P. Arm- wood Jr. (District 7), a former parent liaison at Charles H. Flowers High School. “We’ve got to really start working on that.” Hundreds of school system
employees were laid off over the summer. The new board also has to operate in the county’s tense political environment, where a corruption investigation has re- sulted in the indictment of for- mer county executive Jack B. Johnson, his wife, new County Council member Leslie Johnson (D-Mitchellville), and others. During the budget process,
Armwood and other boardmem- bers said, the nine-member pan- el wants to focus on administra- tive costs. “I believe there are too many
supervisors, and we pay too much for our administration,” Armwood said. Costs clearly are weighing on
board members’ minds. Edward Burroughs III (District 8), an 18-year-old Bowie State student who formerly served as the stu- dentmember of the board, asked for a full list of district programs and their associated costs in his first remarks from the dais after being sworn in Monday — an unconventional request, given that board members typically reserve that time for thanking their families and supporters. Rushern L. Baker III (D), the new county executive, has
pledged that no teachers — or police officers or firefighters — will be furloughed, and he has promisedmoremoney for educa- tion. He also has entertained the possibility of extending the school day, which school board members endorsed—if themon- ey can be found. Even if amajority of the board
is new, a partial byproduct of redistricting, some veterans re- main. “This is the full circle,” said
board Vice Chairman Donna Hathaway Beck (District 9), re- ferring to the configuration of the board, which resumes the structure it had before legislative
“The school system has not done a good job of communi- cating to its stakeholders. We’ve got to start working on that.”
—Henry P. Armwood Jr. (District 7), new member of Prince George’s school board.
action in 2002 that dissolved the elected board and replaced it with an appointed
one.The elect- ed board returned in 2006. “Now it just feels comfortable
to be back towherewe had been,” Beck said. Future elections will be stag-
gered. Board members who re- ceived the highest percentage of votes in last month’s election won four-year terms. In addition to Beck, they are Peggy Higgins (District 2), Amber Waller (Dis- trict 3) and Carolyn M. Boston (District 6). The other board members received two-year terms. They are Armwood, Bur- roughs, Rosalind A. Johnson (District 1), Patricia Eubanks (District 4) and Verjeana M. Jacobs (District 5). The newboardwill be charged
with deciding whether to extend Hite’s contract in 2013. Board members acknowl-
edged that their tenurewill prob- ably be difficult. “Our decisions, I understand,
are going to be very, very tough,” Higgins said.
birnbaumm@washpost.com
NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY ON STUDENTS
The schools listed below are members of Independent Education and/or the Association of Independent Maryland Schools. They admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin and accord them all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the schools. The schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of their educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school- administered programs.
THE ACADEMY OF THE HOLY CROSS AIDAN MONTESSORI SCHOOL ALEXANDRIA COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL THE BARNESVILLE SCHOOL BARRIE SCHOOL
BEAUVOIR, THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BROWNE ACADEMY BULLIS SCHOOL BURGUNDY FARM COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL BUTLER SCHOOL THE CALVERTON SCHOOL CAPITOL HILL DAY SCHOOL CHARLES E. SMITH JEWISH DAY SCHOOL CHRIST EPISCOPAL SCHOOL COMMONWEALTH ACADEMY CONCORD HILL SCHOOL CONGRESSIONAL SCHOOLS OF VIRGINIA CONNELLY SCHOOL OF THE HOLY CHILD THE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL DeMATHA CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL EDMUND BURKE SCHOOL EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL EVERGREEN SCHOOL THE FIELD SCHOOL FLINT HILL SCHOOL FOXCROFT SCHOOL GEORGETOWN DAY SCHOOL GEORGETOWN PREPARATORY SCHOOL
GEORGETOWN VISITATION PREPARATORY SCHOOL
GERMAN SCHOOL WASHINGTON D.C.
GESHER JEWISH DAY SCHOOL OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
GONZAGA COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL GRACE EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL GRACE EPISCOPAL SCHOOL GREEN ACRES SCHOOL GREEN HEDGES SCHOOL THE HARBOR SCHOOL THE HEIGHTS SCHOOL THE HILL SCHOOL HOLTON-ARMS SCHOOL
THE JEWISH PRIMARY DAY SCHOOL OF THE NATION’S CAPITAL
THE KEY SCHOOL THE KINGSBURY DAY SCHOOL
THE LAB SCHOOL OF WASHINGTON LANDON SCHOOL THE LANGLEY SCHOOL LOUDOUN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL LOWELL SCHOOL THE MADEIRA SCHOOL MARET SCHOOL MATER DEI SCHOOL McLEAN SCHOOL OF MARYLAND MERCERSBURG ACADEMY MIDDLEBURG ACADEMY NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS SCHOOL NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SCHOOL NATIONAL CHILD RESEARCH CENTER NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL THE NORA SCHOOL NORWOOD SCHOOL OAKWOOD SCHOOL PARKMONT SCHOOL THE POTOMAC SCHOOL POWHATAN SCHOOL THE PRIMARY DAY SCHOOL THE RIVER SCHOOL ST. ALBANS SCHOOL ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL ST. ANSELM’S ABBEY SCHOOL SAINT JAMES SCHOOL ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL ST. PATRICK’S EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL ST. STEPHEN’S & ST. AGNES SCHOOL ST. VINCENT PALLOTTI HIGH SCHOOL SANDY SPRING FRIENDS SCHOOL SHERIDAN SCHOOL SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL SMITHSONIAN EARLY ENRICHMENT CENTER
STONE RIDGE SCHOOL OF THE SACRED HEART
WAKEFIELD SCHOOL WASHINGTON EPISCOPAL SCHOOL WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL WASHINGTON JESUIT ACADEMY WASHINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS WASHINGTON WALDORF SCHOOL WESTMINSTER SCHOOL THE WOODS ACADEMY WORCESTER PREPARATORY SCHOOL
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