ANC 3E Special Committee on the Tenley Library/Janney School Proposal

Demolition of the Tenley Public Library.

From e-mail:

For Immediate Release: February 12, 2008
Contacts: Sue Hemberger: (202) 364-8423 (smithhemb@aol.com)
Anne Sullivan: (202) 244-2461 (acsullivan@starpower.net)

CHANGE IN PLANS MAKES MOCKERY OF COMPETITIVE BIDDING: ANC COMMITTEE CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION OF RFP

Last week, Tenleytown residents and ANC Commissioners learned, not from DC government but from a developer, that the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (“DMPED”) has radically altered the terms of the Janney Elementary School/Tenley-Friendship Library RFP nearly a month after the submission deadline had passed.

Eric Scott, Project Manager for the project issued a number of Amendments to the RFP, the most significant of which prohibits a component (the construction of a mixed-use library/residential building) that had been an essential element of at least two of the three submissions DMPED received on January. Developers were given two weeks to rework their proposals to eliminate the library component or have their original submissions disqualified as “non-responsive” to the revised RFP.

No information has yet been made available regarding whether the third bidder, Roadside Development, which has been working on this project for more than a year and whose unsolicited proposal prompted the issuance of the RFP, will also have to radically alter its plans or whether its original submission anticipated this turn of events and already complies with the revised RFP. Community members had requested that all submissions be made public, but DMPED refused that request.

The Amendments to the RFP do not place the reconstruction of this much-delayed neighborhood library in jeopardy. In fact, they substantially increase the odds of the project’s timely completion. The rebuilding of the Tenley-Friendship Branch library is fully funded and DCPL will continue its work already in progress. The branch is scheduled to reopen in Spring 2010. The Amendments do, however, exacerbate concerns that Janney Elementary School’s facilities needs cannot be fully met if an anticipated 100+ housing units are also built on the site.

The proposed public-private partnership has been mired in controversy since last May. ANC 3E’s Special Committee on the project recently requested an investigation of the process that led to the issuance of the RFP. Citing documents received through the FOIA requests, Committee Members charge that the Director of Development David Jannarone, who was a project manager at Roadside prior to joining DMPED, violated District law and employment guidelines through his involvement in this matter. The documents reveal that Jannarone began strategizing with Roadside as to how to get this project approved within two weeks of becoming Director of Development, that he personally requested that Mayor Adrian Fenty issue an RFP for the project, that he didn’t reveal his conflict of interest issues to immediate superior Valerie Santos Young until after a decision had been made to issue the RFP, and that, despite her offer to take over the project in mid-August, Jannarone continued to be actively involved at least until mid-October, when reporters began looking into his role after learning that he had illegally claimed a second homestead exemption on an investment condo he bought from Roadside in a building across the street from the project site.

DC Auditor Deborah K. Nichols, citing competing priorities and a lack of resources, responded that she was unable to conduct an investigation of the Tenleytown RFP at this time, but indicated that citywide issues related to decision-making about the disposition of public lands may “be considered for future audit work.” She also referred the Committee to the Office of Campaign Finance for an investigation of the conflict-of-interest issue in this particular case.

ANC 3E will take up both issues – the RFP revision and the FOIA findings -- at its February 14th meeting which will be held at St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church at 42nd and Fessenden Streets, NW. The meeting begins at 7:30 pm.