Contract Controversy Reveals Lottery's Tangled Roots

Gandhi and his staff have said W2I had the best offer -- a taxpayer savings of $5 million a year -- and newer technology. They also noted that LTE has run into problems, including the printing of $70,000 in phony tickets after a security breach in 2006 and being assessed $336,124 in fines for operational glitches last year.

But LTE said Gandhi's office just wanted to make room for a new local company with no experience to take over.

LTE says the city moved the submission date for contract proposals from Sept. 13 to Sept. 20 to give W2I more time to get its joint venture certified, which occurred Sept. 17. "Are we supposed to believe that was just a coincidence?" asked LTE spokeswoman Ann Walker Marchant, daughter of George Walker of LTE.

Yes, said Eric Payne, Gandhi's director of contracting. The date was moved because, Payne said, some language on local minority businesses had to be clarified. (Both local companies bidding for the contract are minority owned.)

That explanation and answers to other questions raised by council members about W2I and the history of its owners were in a package given to council members.

Warren C. Williams Jr. has been under fire, suspected of trying to force tenants out of an apartment building. Also, he and the senior Williams were the owners of Club U, a former nightspot in the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center where a patron was fatally stabbed.

Some council members say the documents provided by Gandhi's office leave unanswered questions.

But acting Attorney General Peter Nickles said he has looked into allegations of bias in the selection process and found none.

For him, and the city, the answer is clear. "Don't know a single individual," he said. "Do see a significant savings."

A look at the District circles on either side of the fight offer some understanding.

Alaka Williams has enlisted the help of lawyer A. Scott Bolden, former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and former chairman of the D.C. Democratic Party. Former council member Kevin P. Chavous, Fenty's mentor and his first government boss when the mayor was a council aide, represented Intralot in its joint venture agreement with W2Tech. Sinclair Skinner, a campaign coordinator in Fenty's mayoral bid, did community outreach work for Banneker Ventures, a development firm in which Williams Jr. is a principal.

Fenty, Chavous, Bolden, Skinner, Payne and Jeffrey "Jay" Young, current chief operating officer of the D.C. Lottery, are members of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. For some, such connections are a lifelong commitment and a networking tool.