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Taking note . . .

Observations about public affairs in the nation’s capital
by the editor of The Common Denominator

THE LEAGUE ISN'T LOCAL? Emily Olmsted, a talented sophomore at D.C. Public Schools' Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Georgetown, has been chosen to sing the national anthem at the opening session of the National League of Cities' annual legislative conference on March 13.

Finding Emily or one of her classmates to do the honors at the D.C.-based conference should not have been difficult, especially with "Education Mayor" Anthony A. Williams serving as the organization's president this year and the League of Cities staff being headquartered in the nation's capital.

Yet, on Feb. 16, a fairly new community affairs coordinator in the Executive Office of the Mayor, Delvin Smith, posted an e-mail message to several neighborhood listservs to seek help in locating a D.C. youth to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" to open the National League of Cities session. Smith asked residents with suggestions to give him a call at his office.

At first blush, there might not be anything wrong with what Smith did. But it turns out that Smith, who had been on the job for only about two months, was just completing an assignment for his boss – a boss who had asked him to use his city position and city time to do the business of the National League of Cities staff.

Mayoral spokeswoman Sharon Gang told Common Denominator political columnist Diana Winthrop that she "just assumed the league asked for help since they are not from this area and don't know what schools to call." Never mind that the league's staff works in a downtown D.C. office located at 1301 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Gang called Smith "an earnest new employee" who made a mistake and said she asked him to rescind his e-mail to the listservs.

Aside from the mayor's frequent out-of-town travel to serve the league, accompanied by a taxpayer-paid security detail, the incident serves as yet another visible example of how the mayor's desire for personal prominence is costing D.C. taxpayers money. And the mayor promised to keep his two roles separate.

LIBERTY LEADER: Ward 3 Councilwoman Kathy Patterson has been chosen as the first recipient of the "Liberty Leadership Award" to be presented at a March 15 dinner by the American Civil Liberties Union's national capital chapter. Patterson will be honored for her efforts, as former chairman of the city council's Judiciary Committee, to investigate the Metropolitan Police Department's illegal mass arrest of protesters at Pershing Park in 2002 and to safeguard citizens against other government abuses. Patterson also will be honored for her personal commitment to defending the public's access rights to government information. More information about attending the event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest Washington is available online at www.aclu-nca.org or by calling the ACLU at (202) 457-0800.

Copyright 2005 The Common Denominator