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Taking note . . .

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

PUBLIC NOTICE: Government officials generally try to keep personnel matters under wraps, driven by concerns that the personal privacy of public employees not be invaded. That's why it was unusual that the D.C. Board of Education chose to go public at a special meeting on July 27 with its unanimous decision to abolish the job of its staff executive director, Russell Smith. Even more unusual was that Smith showed up for work the next day and remains on the job.

Nobody – not even Smith – is saying much publicly about what's going on inside the school board's headquarters. "They made a decision to reorganize the board's staff," Smith told The Common Denominator. The 51-year-old Smith said earlier this month that he is considering retirement, but expects to remain executive director "until I transition out in the next month or so" as the new school year begins.

The board's resolution to abolish Smith's job specified no date for its effectiveness. Introduced by elected District I (Wards 1 and 2) school board representative Jeff Smith, who is not related to Russell Smith, the resolution was framed as a "reorganization … to improve the operations and organization of the board." Despite stating that the board intends to revamp the executive director's position and "undergo a recruitment and selection process" for the new position, the resolution failed to put in place any new staffing plan to replace its executive director.

Jeff Smith told The Common Denominator that the resolution was "like giving someone notice" and that it should not necessarily be interpreted as an indication that the board is unhappy with its executive director's performance. "If we were [unhappy], that would be a personnel issue," the school board member asserted. "That wasn't the cause for our action." Smith declined to clarify why the board felt an urgency to add a resolution abolishing its staff director's job to the agenda of a previously announced special meeting, which originally was called only to approve several government contracts. "When everything's done, I think it would be very clear," Smith cryptically responded.

At this writing, everything remains unclear to the public.

Curiously, the school board voted to abolish Russell Smith's job about two weeks after he withdrew his request for an advisory opinion from the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics regarding a potential conflict of interest resulting from school board member Jeff Smith's employment as a contractor for the D.C. Public Charter School Association. Under the contract, the school board member is expected to help local charter schools -- some of which received their charters from the Board of Education -- get Medicaid reimbursement for special education services they provide to students. [See "Charter conflict? School board seeks ruling on member's outside employment" in the May 30, 2005, issue of The Common Denominator.]

Jeff Smith denies any connection between abolishing Russell Smith's job and the executive director's questioning of a possible conflict between the school board member's outside employment and official duties.

Despite withdrawal of Russell Smith's May 2 request for an advisory opinion, the Board of Elections and Ethics voted unanimously at its Aug. 9 meeting to refer the matter to its general counsel for "further review." Elections board chairman Wilma Lewis, the District's former prosecutor, said the board "during the time the matter was before the board … had the opportunity to look at it," prompting its own concerns about a potential conflict.

Stay tuned.

PRIVATE SUPPORT: Creators of a new Web site called RunTonyRun.com, an online effort to "draft" Mayor Anthony A. Williams to run for a third term in 2006, apparently intended to keep their identities secret when they launched their campaign. The domain name for the site was privately registered June 19 with Network Solutions, a mechanism which allows domain owners to keep their address and telephone number from being published in online registries. However, Internet protocol rules created by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) specify that a domain name registrant's name must be a valid name, according to a representative of the Herndon-based Network Solutions. The company's domain registration directory says the person who registered RunTonyRun.com was named "Tony, Run."

Copyright 2005 The Common Denominator