Williams said there's no need for an audit because the city's chief financial officer will be preparing a fiscal impact analysis and the council will have at least one public hearing, probably the week of Oct 25. The mayor said he is planning a series of public meetings and information sessions.
As for Fenty's stadium proposal, the mayor's spokeswoman, Sharon Gang, said: "RFK is just not the right place for a new stadium. You wouldn't get anywhere near the economic benefit that you would get at the Southeast waterfront site."
D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7), with Mayor Anthony A. Williams last year, said he's leaning toward supporting the stadium plan, but most people in his ward oppose it.
(Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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Still, there were signs that Fenty could pick up support. David A. Catania (I-At Large) is among the most vigorous opponents of the mayor's financing plan. He said that he is not opposed to baseball, just to the enormous expense of a new stadium, and that he might support a move to make the Expos play at RFK.
"We'll raise taxes to build a baseball stadium, but we won't raise money to build a school," Catania said. "If we wanted to, we could tax these businesses and spend the money on a new public hospital, to improve public schools and the sewer system. It is dishonest to suggest that these dollars couldn't be spent on anything else."
Meanwhile, council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7) offered his view of the stadium plan for the first time. He said he is leaning toward supporting it, even though "in my ward, most folks don't want it."
Chavous called the prospect of baseball in Washington exciting. But said he wants to "look very closely at the financing package to make sure it won't interfere with our school, library and recreation construction plans, as well as our neighborhood development plans."
Another voice missing from the stadium debate has been that of former mayor Marion Barry, who last month won the Democratic nomination for the Ward 8 council seat. Yesterday, a spokeswoman, Linda Greene, said Barry is totally opposed to public funding for a stadium, including the gross receipts tax.
"He welcomes baseball to D.C.," Greene said. But Barry thinks "they should play at RFK."
Staff writers Serge F. Kovaleski and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
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