The Worst City Government
The Worst City Government Last month, a blue-ribbon citizen commission found that the District of Columbia had 1,200 more school administrators than comparable districts elsewhere. You have to...
...NW Washington, DC 20009...
...I'm still baffled," said Johnny Scott, president of the East St, Louis chapter of the NAACP...
...The mayor's bodyguards responded by coming out with a service revolver and an Uzi drawn...
...Despite a $35 million annual budget, maintenance officials admitted this summer that outstanding repairs on leaky roofs, crumbling walls, buckling floors, and broken plumbing have created a $150 million backlog...
...He intended it to be dumb—and it was dumb," exclaimed Glenwood Roane of the Zaire-American Research Institute, a cosponsor of the trip...
...Almost exactly a year later, another of Officer's bodyguards punched out trash contractor Sidney Collins after Collins had walked into a city council meeting demanding to be paid for his services...
...When the bodyguards escorted the mayor to the bar's bathroom, they locked themselves in it with him...
...James Ingram, the mayor's spokesman, explained why the restrictions applied only to journalists: "We don't have to watch what the general public does at 5, 6, and 10 p.m...
...How can you say something like that...
...According to the commission, many schools regularly go without such basics as light bulbs, clocks, and bathroom soap— which, for the third of District kids who live in poverty, surely makes school seem a lot like home...
...Katherine Boo Shortly after his reelection in 1987, Carl Officer, mayor of East St...
...What did Officer do to spark such ire...
...Between 1986 and 1989, 21,000 work orders were submitted to the District's school maintenance office to make repairs in schools without drinking water, and with 100-degree classrooms, missing doors, and falling ceilings...
...Less than a fifth of those repairs were made...
...He also wanted to take his own blood supply...
...Daniel Mirvish Please send nominations to: Worst City Government The Washington Monthly 1611 Connecticut Ave...
...But even the cheapest of fixes aren't being made...
...In May of this year, Officer was officially "uninvited" from a paid trip to Zaire because of comments he made at a press conference...
...You're black," Scott wondered...
...If there are any accidents," Officer announced, "I don't want any transfusions from monkey blood...
...It wasn't just that he was planning to take his own Spam, Cheese Whiz, and Nestle Crunch bars...
...Meanwhile, a crowd of patrons whose need to relieve themselves was as great as Hizzoner's started pounding on the door...
...Louis, Illinois, announced that he would retain five police bodyguards for the remainder of his new term...
...Where the Washington public schools could really use that kind of extra manpower is in the maintenance division, which is supposed to keep up the District's 191 school buildings, most of which are more than 40 years old...
...A few months later two of them were suspended for their misconduct in a crowded Peoria tavern...
...You have to wonder what all those administrators do all day...
...What with cost overruns from crime waves, prison troubles, and the like, one might blame the broken windows and clogged toilets on city budget blues...
...He didn't intend it to be racist...
...The next day, security guards physically booted a TV crew from city hall for trying to interview Collins, and Mayor Officer declared the building offlimits to all journalists lacking his or other city officials' express permission...
Vol. 21 • October 1989 • No. 9
