In Politics, Time Is Everything

The D.C. Board of Education had prepared for weeks to make the big announcement of its long-awaited plan to accelerate school reform -- and fend off a system takeover by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D).

The board told reporters last week it would have an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. Monday at McKinley Technology High School in Northeast, where the plan would be unveiled.

Late Sunday, reporters got another urgent bulletin -- from the Fenty team, which announced that the mayor would be having a news conference with acting Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier to talk about the rash of killings over the weekend.

The "availability" would be Monday at, wouldn't you know it, 10 a.m.! Across town, in Southeast.

Although both events were well-attended by the media, only Fenty's drew live TV coverage. The Post's Web site posted a clip of Fenty's event but not the school board's.

Carrie Brooks, Fenty's spokeswoman, said the timing was simply a coincidence. She brushed off suggestions that the media-savvy Fenty was using his event to steal the thunder from school board President Robert C. Bobb.

Fenty did not know about Bobb's news conference until Bobb briefed him on the school board's plans about 9:20 a.m. Monday, Brooks said. By then, it was too late for the mayor to call off his production, which included an FBI official and others.

Some reporters found that explanation a bit hollow, considering the media and school activists knew about the board's plans by the middle of last week, thanks to numerous e-mails from the panel.

Seems the communication between the various branches of D.C. government could use some of the streamlining Fenty and Bobb have been talking about.

Show Her the Money

D.C. Council employees were abuzz this week about the treatment of their longtime colleague Sharona Morgan, whose government paycheck was rescinded from her checking account shortly after she resigned as director of constituent services for council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) and went to work for another council member.

Morgan, who had worked for Schwartz 12 years, said the council's personnel office told her that her biweekly salary of $1,916.15, which had been deposited into her checking account automatically last month, would be withdrawn because she was paid for a week that she did not work. She said she also was told that another check would be issued immediately for the week she worked during that pay period.

Two weeks later, though, Morgan still hasn't been paid, and she is frustrated and suspicious.