More about the schools facilities proposal...

Entry: Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Mark Borbely writes further (slightly edited):

Just got off the phone w/ Councilmember Brown... He held off introducing his bill today. He plans to introduce it at the next Council session, in two weeks (Oct. 3). CM Brown's intent is to get a quality maintenance program for our schools: too many schools still don't have paper towels, soap or toilet paper in their bathrooms. He has two small children who attend DCPS. He pointed out that there is always toilet paper and soap in the Wilson Building, which is maintained by the Office of Property Management.

He'd like to be working with us on this. He wants to meet with a group of us, and possibly with DCPS, over the next two weeks, and will consider our input in shaping the bill he introduces.

I told him we were with him on wanting school maintenance problems addressed, and that we'd be grateful for a hearing or roundtable on school maintenance problems, with DCPS, parents and the community, to figure out what DCPS is doing to improve maintenance, what's still going wrong and why, and what, if any, legislation would be necessary to make a fix. Mr. Brown said the best way to hold a hearing and get answers or alternative solutions would be to offer his legislation, and then have a hearing on the legislation. Just as the School Modernization bill was changed through the legislative process, he said, so too can his bill be changed even after it's introduced.
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This is a pretty funny story.

I've heard this story isn't true, but Henry Ford II (I am from Detroit) used to rave over the quality of the hamburger he would get in the Ford Executive Dining Room, best he could get anywhere in the world. No place better. So he always ordered a hamburger there. Given all the choices that were available to the company's top executives, this always puzzled Lee Iacocca, the president of the company.

One day Lee went into the kitchen and asked the chef his secret. The chef said, "For a hamburger for Henry Ford," reaching into the refrigerator and pulling out a high grade, well marbled New York Strip Steak, "I use this," putting it into a grinder.

I imagine that OPM, or the custodian company that has the contract to maintain the Wilson Building, knows that this particular building, within which are located the people who make contracts and pay the bills--the Executive and Legislative Branches of the local government--requires extra special treatment.

CM Brown should go try to use the restrooms in the MLK Library... or the average DC Government-owned building I imagine...

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