DMV Daily: What Can You Do For Brown?

Council chair gets "fully loaded" SUV

Kwame Brown’s taxpayer-financed 2011 Lincoln Navigator L might be “fully loaded,” but the District government is not.

With a half-billion dollar deficit looming, the new D.C. Council chairman instructed city officials to order him a “fully loaded” navigator “with a DVD entertainment system, power moonroof and polished aluminum wheels,” the Washington Post’s Mike DeBonis reports. When the story first made the news, Brown “said he had merely requested a black sport-utility vehicle and was driving the vehicle that the District had procured for him.”

But e-mails obtained by the Post “tell a different story, beginning with a Department of Public Works solicitation in November for a 2011 Lincoln Navigator L series, an extended-wheelbase version of the Navigator. The e-mail specified ‘Fully Loaded Required’ and indicated that the vehicle was being sought at Brown’s request.”

In fact, the city “was stuck paying for two Lincoln Navigator L’s after the first arrived with a gray interior and Brown insisted on the black-on-black color scheme, touching off a scramble for the model he wanted.” The unacceptably gray version cannot be returned until October, meaning taxpayers remain on the hook for $1,500 per month until then. Former DPW director William Howland told DeBonis that “he was not aware of any previous council chairman-elect requesting personal use of a city vehicle.”

DCist says Brown’s office “seemed to have had multiple opportunities to accept an SUV that was not as much trouble nor as costly to procure -- but they didn’t.” Washington City Paper’s Alan Suderman chides Brown for his “clumsy untruths” about the episode, saying Brown was saying as late as last week that he “only requested that he be given a black-on-black SUV.” But when Brown was offered “a ‘common standard-length Navigator’ with a black interior,” his office replied, “Chair-Elect Brown would like to go forward with the vehicle from the Midwest” -- that is, the fancy one. “In the meantime we will keep the vehicle that was delivered yesterday. Just to make sure, we want black-on-black, rear entertainment system, gps, moon roof, aluminum wheels.”

Elsewhere in the DMV:

* The Post had a big story Sunday on how Mayor Vincent Gray “has hired more senior staffers than his predecessor and is paying his top managers tens of thousands more a year amid city employee furloughs and looming budget cuts.” But what immediately jumped out to observers is that Gray hired Sulaimon Brown, “a minor mayoral candidate who would bash Fenty and praise Gray on the campaign trail” last year, as a “special assistant” at $110,000 per year.

Brown, who finished last in the Democratic primary with just 209 votes, spent most of his debate time loudly haranguing Fenty and telling audiences to vote for Gray if they wouldn’t vote for him. On his campaign website, the accountant claimed to have “helped in efforts to get White House Legislation passed and most recently trying to get a Supreme Court nominee appointed,” and boasted of being a graduate of “the University of the District of Colombia.”

* Ted Loza, the former chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, faces up to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty Friday to federal charges of accepting an illegal gratuity and making a false statement on a financial disclosure form. City Paper reports Loza’s lawyer Pleasant Brodnax said Loza “wasn’t copping to the most dramatic of the charges the government lobbed at him,” which dealt with “bribery, conspiracy, and extortion.”

The Washington Examiner says Loza “admitted that he accepted $1,500 in cash payments in exchange for pushing legislation” introduced by Graham to create “a hybrid vehicle exception to a moratorium on new taxi cab company licenses.” Graham has not been charged with anything and has denied involvement.

* City Paper writes, “At the Metropolitan Police Department, rumors about budget cuts are flying.” The department is said to need to eliminate $40 million from its budget “due to city belt tightening, and that the cuts will either amount to the loss of 300-400 police jobs, or 30 days of ‘furlough’ (unpaid time off) for a large swath or all of the department.” There has been no official response to the whispering.

* Maryland Republican Party Chairman Alex Mooney sent an e-mail to party activists Saturday urging them to “take a stand” and call on their state senators to “vote no on the assault on traditional marriage.” A bare majority of 24 senators have said they will vote for the bill, while 21 have said they will vote against it. Only two Democrats -- John Astle of Anne Arundel and Joan Carter Conway of Baltimore -- are wild cards.

* The Baltimore Sun reports Maryland Republican Party First Vice Chairman Diana Waterman “has angered some members of her party by having a black Angus cow named Oprah.” Waterman “said the black Angus was named by her children ‘after a famous person they admire.’”

* The Post reports Maryland Senate President Mike Miller “said Friday that although he still personally opposes an alcohol tax increase, he expects that the state’s General Assembly will vote for a ‘modest raise’ on alcohol and perhaps increases to other so-called ‘sin taxes.’”

* The Hill reports Tim Kaine told the Virginia Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner Saturday that he is “‘reflecting’ on a potential 2012 Senate run and plans to make an official decision ‘soon.’” Kaine, who currently heads the Democratic National Committee, said, “I have a job that I absolutely love. I get to travel this country on behalf of the president, advocating for the values I believe in. … I was completely focused on doing that all the way through 2012.” But that president is one of many Democrats urging Kaine to run.

The Examiner reports Gov. Bob McDonnell and GOP Senate contender George Allen “both said Friday that Kaine would be a strong candidate if he chooses to run.”

* Annandale is going to the dogs -- one in particular. The Annandale VA blog shares the news that Hillbrook-Tall Oaks Civic Association has “elected a dog, Beatha Lee, as president.” She succeeds her human companion Mark Crawford, “who had served three consecutive terms and can’t run again.” Crawford serves as his dog’s vice president.

* McDonnell cut a video message expressing his “strong support” for Wisconsin’s Scott Walker in that state’s heated battle over budget cuts and collective bargaining:

Follow P.J. Orvetti on Twitter at @PJOinDC
 

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