Candidates Address Business Concerns
Questions About $1 Billion Spending Pledge Surface at Board of Trade Forum

By Elissa Silverman and Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006

The five major candidates for D.C. mayor were asked yesterday to explain how they planned to pay for pricey promises made on the campaign trail, including a pledge to commit $1 billion in public money to affordable housing and youth programs.

Seated before captains of industry at a Greater Washington Board of Trade forum held at George Washington University, the five candidates, all Democrats, positioned themselves as pro-business, lean-and-mean budgeters who would resist raising taxes. But they also were asked several times whether the $1 billion commitment they made weeks earlier to the Washington Interfaith Network was feasible without a tax increase.

"As business owners, our members are concerned where all the money for the billion-dollar promises will come from," said Mary L. Lynch, who is an officer of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Greater Washington.

Council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4) has pledged not to raise taxes.

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp was asked for the price tag of the broad policy platform she released earlier yesterday. She offered goals for education, affordable housing and public safety.

Cropp, who resisted efforts by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) to take total control of the public schools and put them under the authority of the executive branch, said she would push the council and Congress to allow her as mayor to take over "failing schools."

She also pledged to seek pre-kindergarten education for all 3- and 4-year-olds, to give principals more training and to help teachers buy homes with down-payment and mortgage assistance.

Cropp said most of her proposals could be done "cost-effectively," but she did not give specific numbers. She said existing staff could be redeployed to help the mayor take over failing schools, but Cropp did not explain what criteria she would use to implement her plan.

A question about pending legislation that would require big-box stores in the District to pay a living wage and allow unions to organize workers drew passionate responses from the candidates.

Fenty is a co-sponsor of the legislation and said the bill was important to protect the city's workers, especially immigrant residents, from exploitation. Cropp said she has talked with Wal-Mart officials -- who have considered opening a store in the city -- and said she needs to examine the legislation before the making a decision.

The other three major contenders, lobbyist Michael A. Brown, council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (Ward 5) and former Verizon executive Marie C. Johns, each took a position on the issue.

Brown expressed support for the legislation, while Orange, who trumpets delivering a Home Depot to his ward, said all existing businesses as well as those in the pipeline "should be exempt" from the legislation. He said concern over the bill has delayed Costco from opening a store in his ward. Johns said she would examine the living wage issue but was emphatic that union organizing on the retail floor was "anti-business" and that "we shouldn't have that in the District of Columbia."

During the forum, moderator Tom Sherwood, a reporter for WRC-TV (Channel 4), who asked questions along with Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Colbert I. King and Washington Business Journal reporter Sean Madigan, resurrected a challenge to Fenty to name the three bond rating agencies. Only able to name one at a forum last year, Fenty answered all three in quick succession but stumbled a bit in detailing why a good bond rating is important to the city.

Fenty, who heads the council's Human Services Committee, was a surprising no-show last night at a forum organized by the city's disability community. Cropp, Johns, Orange and four lesser-known mayoral contenders made appearances, but Fenty said he had a scheduling conflict.

"There are so many different things going on," he said later of the campaign's pace.

Fenty has called for creating a single Cabinet-level department for issues involving the disabled, who make up about 22 percent of the city's population.

Johns and Cropp said it would be better to make existing agencies more accountable for improving services.

"We need to look at the best practices at cities that do it well," Cropp said. "We don't need to spend money re-inventing the wheel."

All the candidates at the forum said they would be more inclusive in considering people with disabilities for city jobs. Each pledged to meet, if elected, with a delegation from the disability community before the new administration takes office.

Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.