'No' Vote Was Only Start of Council Ride

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp and council member Jack Evans listen to arguments about the lease. "Everyone made a valiant effort," Evans said. (By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)

"What's happening? It's happening right in front of you," Evans said, with a laugh and a nod toward the bustling room. "Now whether or not baseball will agree to any of this, that we don't know."

Nearly three hours later, the lease was approved.

It was a remarkable ending to what had been a fairly grim day of arm-twisting, name-calling and frantic messaging about the murky fate of a stadium lease agreement with Major League Baseball. The low point came about 6 p.m. when Cropp lost control of debate in the council chamber and hustled her colleagues into a private room and locked the door.

Outside, a horde of outraged reporters gathered to accuse Cropp of violating the city's open-meetings law by moving the public debate behind closed doors. Inside, several council members vented their frustration with the mayor's lease agreement and refused to vote for it without a cap on spending that would apparently leave MLB liable for overruns.

Baseball officials were furious about that proposal, and the mayor's liaison to the council, Gregory McCarthy, spent much of his day shuttling between the conference room in the mayor's sixth-floor suite and Cropp's fifth-floor office, where her aides worked with two consultants to craft legislation that would satisfy baseball officials and meet Cropp's need to limit the city's share of the stadium costs.

At one point, it appeared as if a third nerve center might be forming when Barry, an opponent of the lease agreement, disappeared into a room with veteran lawyer and lobbyist Frederick D. Cooke Jr., who once represented a private investor interested in helping to finance the stadium. But observers lost interest when they realized that Cooke is also Barry's attorney in the misdemeanor tax case for which he faces sentencing today.

Through it all, Bobb kept trolling for votes. He grabbed Brown and buttonholed Schwartz and even chatted up Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), a stalwart opponent of the stadium deal. When reporters rushed over to eavesdrop, Bobb flashed his wide smile.

"This is about Oak Hill," he said, referring to the District's troubled facility for juvenile offenders. He pointed to Fenty. "But he did just pledge his vote for baseball."

Fenty laughed. So did Bobb. And they both retreated to their respective corners to await the final round.

Staff writer Eric M. Weiss contributed to this report.