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Taking note . . .

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

NO REAL STAKE: The departure of D.C. Department of Corrections Director Odie Washington, announced Feb. 16, again brings to the forefront the nagging question of whether high-paid senior city officials who are brought in from out of town are really here to serve D.C. residents.

In the case of Washington, whose family never left Illinois when he took up "residence" here in March 1999, the nation's capital appears to have been a stopping-off point on the way to bulking up his resume. Like visiting congressmen and senators, Washington has decided after six years of "living" in D.C. that it's time for him to go back to his real home in Illinois.

Though not widely known to the tax-paying public during Washington's tenure, his apparent use of his six-figure public salary to help maintain a long-distance familial relationship cannot credibly have escaped the notice of Mayor Anthony Williams, the entire D.C. City Council and many of the corrections director's co-workers. Apparently, the veneer of D.C. "residence" – enabling taxation of Washington's income – was enough to satisfy officials that the letter of the law requiring department directors to live in D.C. was followed, regardless of whether the law's spirit was violated.

Washington's departure also again raises the question of whether senior D.C. government officials really need to be paid six-figure salaries to serve a city of taxpayers with an annual median income below $50,000. Despite the District's high cost of living, if more than half of D.C. residents are able to live on less than $50,000 a year, then why do senior city officials require salaries more than double the amount earned by the majority of those they serve?

Perhaps D.C. residents would be much better served by senior public employees whose incomes required them to live by the same standards as most of the residents whose taxes pay them.

Of course, not having real roots in the community – a real stake – remains the case with Mayor Williams, as well as some of the people who serve in his administration. While urging others to invest in the District, the mayor continues to dodge questions about why he hasn't fulfilled his 1998 campaign promise to buy a home in D.C. if elected. And like most members of Congress, Williams continues to leave town during almost every federal holiday, rather than spending some down time getting to know what life is really like in the District, rubbing elbows with the masses.

LOOSE LIPS TO RETURN: Washington City Paper's popular "Loose Lips" political gossip column, which went on hiatus after writer Elissa Silverman left the paper in December, is expected to return sometime in March with WAMU news reporter Jim Jones taking over the alias.

Copyright 2005 The Common Denominator