Businesspeople as municipal saviors

Harry Jaffe is co-author of one of the best books on the unseemliness of DC's local politics, Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington.

So I have this belief, having never met him, that he is pretty sophisticated in understanding how things are done, that businesspeople and leaders seek to use the wheels and levers of government, for the most part, to benefit their projects and ideas at the expense of others.

But that kind of understanding sure doesn't come across in Jaffe's writing for the Examiner. Today's column, "Business Board for Adrian Fenty," suggests that Mayor-Elect Fenty appoint a board of business advisors, because according to Jaffe there are too many groups and that rather than making 10 calls, the Mayor could make one or two?

Don't you think that's all the number of calls he does make?

Don't you think that these advisors will tend not to do what JFK said: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" but they will tend to ask what DC government can do for them?

Doesn't Jaffe understand that DC is where it is today because of strong business backing and control of most of the local political elites (i.e., Councilmembers)? I mean, if I didn't know he was one of the co-authors, I'd suggest to him that he read Chapter 4, on real estate development downtown during the Barry years! (See "Tom Sherwood, Duncan Spencer , Anwar Amal, and thinking about what I call the 'Uncivil War'.")

Hey, don't get me wrong, it is exciting to see the new residents and the increased activity and vitality in neighborhoods across the city, I just think we could have done even better, had the programs and projects and plans been better devised to be more equitable, to get more for the city, and for the projects that have been created to have been much better designed.

Anyway, I suggest reading this piece from the Journal of Accountancy, about government corruption, alongside Jaffe's encomium to the wonderful business types he thinks will save the city. See "THE FRAUD BEAT: Auditors can help detect and deter bribery and kickbacks. Corruption: Causes and Cures."

Bribery and Kickback Red Flags

• Rising expenses for goods and services.
• Slow deliveries from or substandard performance by a vendor.
• Rapidly increasing purchases from one vendor.
• Excessive purchases of goods or services.
• No division of duties between new vendor approval and authorization for purchasing.
• Contracts written to limit competition (for example, sole-source contracts).
• The same vendor always wins contracts by small margins.
• The contract always goes to the bid received last.
• Splitting one purchase into multiples to avoid the approval process.
• Paying above-market prices for goods or services.

Source: Fraud Examiners Manual, Third Edition, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Austin, Texas, 1999.

Anyway, I am idly thinking of running a referendum campaign to rename the position of Councilmember to "bagmen" (and women). Although I think that would make it difficult for me to work with people on Council...

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