Mr. Gandhi Behind the Plate
The baseball stadium parking deal is behind in the count.

Friday, September 1, 2006

THE ON-FIELD WOES of the Washington Nationals pale beside the obstacles in the way of a new 42,000-seat baseball stadium and parking spaces by the March 1, 2008, deadline. There is a reasonable certainty that a Washington baseball team will be ready on Opening Day 2008. The same cannot be said of a new ballpark with any degree of confidence.

An Aug. 24 letter from Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi to the office of the District's attorney general underscores the seriousness of the situation. At issue is whether a land disposition agreement that Mayor Anthony A. Williams and the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission propose to execute with WDC Baseball Partners LLC (or developer Herb Miller) will violate the cost-cap legislation passed by the D.C. Council; create new liabilities and unbudgeted expenditures for the city; and be legal under the terms of the disposition resolution also passed by the council. Despite grumbling in the John Wilson Building about the CFO's rigid stance, Mr. Gandhi rightly will not sign off on the financial feasibility of the city's proposed agreements with Mr. Miller until he has clear legal guidance.

District taxpayers -- through their government -- could be sued for damages running into millions of dollars if the city does not meet its obligations under the baseball stadium agreement. Mr. Williams will be long gone from office by then, but Washington residents will still be around. For an indication of the gravity of the problem, residents need look no farther than Mr. Gandhi's testimony only eight weeks ago before the council's Committee on Economic Development. He warned that a number of legal and financing issues had to be resolved by Labor Day if the city hoped to complete the project in time for Opening Day 2008. Look at the calendar.

The city is in the final stages of negotiations with Mr. Miller's group, but many issues remain. Mr. Gandhi wants to know whether the city has the legal authority to execute a land disposition agreement if the terms go beyond the council's cost cap. Among other questions, he's also asking for a legal ruling on whether the city has the authority to lend funds to Mr. Miller's group to help with excavation or other underground work.

With the council in recess and several members fixated on their campaigns instead of the city's business, Mr. Gandhi is a lonely figure standing up for the interests of D.C. taxpayers, who will have to live with the decisions of an outgoing Williams administration. The city's independent chief financial officer has no choice but to hang tough until every financial and legal concern is resolved to his professional satisfaction. At this stage, he appears to be all that stands between fiscal prudence and folly.