Catania Reroutes Health Funding

D.C. Council member David A. Catania has orchestrated a plan to redirect $36 million in the 2006 city budget to a group of organizations and projects handpicked to provide health care services, including $13 million in no-bid contracts.

Catania (I-At Large), who is chairman of the council's health committee, extensively rewrote sections of the Health Department budget proposed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). The five-member committee unanimously approved the changes, which were approved conditionally May 10 when the full council voted on the city budget.

"I wish I didn't have to run the Department of Health," said Catania, a lawyer. But the department, he said, is so dysfunctional that it has jeopardized the city's public health. "I guarantee the money wouldn't get spent if we didn't line-item it," Catania said.

Catania's plan calls for the Health Department to provide more than $13 million in no-bid grants to 15 organizations, including hospitals, universities, the D.C. Hospital Association, Transgender Health Empowerment Inc. and Food & Friends. To award those grants, health officials might have to choose between following a council directive and following the city's competitive-bidding laws.

The plan also mandates that $22.8 million of the agency's budget be spent on 15 health initiatives, from providing $6 million to pay home health aides a "living wage" of $10.50 an hour to distributing $150,000 in substance-abuse prevention funds to the city's eight political wards.

Catania's action is a dramatic departure from the budget reviews conducted by other committees, some council members said. Those members worry that Catania, who is in his first year as chairman of the Health Committee, is setting a precedent for micromanaging the budget.

Some council members also question whether Catania's actions comply with the city's purchasing laws and whether the council is trading a competitive-bidding system for one based on political clout, by which council members dole out money to favored groups.

"I'm unaware of anything holy about the current contracting system,'' Catania said. "What's the difference between a bureaucrat picking a winner as opposed to a duly elected body of 13 members?"

The council has criticized the mayor and his administration for not following city purchasing laws. Deborah K. Nichols, the council's auditor, recently said that Williams and City Administrator Robert C. Bobb perpetrated "a sham" by hiring two consultants to plan a trip to China without written contracts and later attempting to make it appear as if they were trying to obtain bids.

"We as a council have been legitimately critical of the mayor and the executive about contracts and following the procurement process," council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) said. "How can we not follow the law we wrote?"

Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), who criticized Williams's contracting methods, also is a member of the Committee on Health. He said he did not fully read Catania's committee draft before voting in favor of it. He now says all spending should be competitively bid.

To address concerns, council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) inserted language in the budget bill mandating that all spending must follow city procurement rules.