Gray looking for a fall guy on budget woes

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), still fuming over last Thursday's confrontation with Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, has called for the head of school system Chief Financial Officer Noah Wepman, who did not report a $12 million to $13 million deficit in the 2010 budget.

"It was shocking to me that we had an unreported deficit," Gray said Monday at his weekly legislative briefing. "We ought to change the person over there."

Wepman handles school finances but reports to city Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, who certified the 2010 budget not knowing it was unbalanced.

Spokesman David Umansky declined to discuss Wepman's status. "It's a personnel matter, so there's nothing we can say," he said.

Gray said Gandhi is "deeply concerned" about Wepman's disclosure, which came at Thursday's council hearing on Rhee's decision to lay off 266 teachers and staff members. Rhee said she elected to reverse a council decision cutting $9 million in summer school funding and achieve the required savings by laying off educators.

Wepman and Rhee said the school agency had accrued spending pressures in fiscal 2009 that made necessary some of the $43.9 million cuts from the 2010 budget. Gray left open the possibility of calling for an audit of school spending.

Gray has also been talking to Gandhi about the questionable construction contracts awarded by the D.C. Housing Authority, which has an agreement with the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to funnel millions of dollars through the independent agency to build parks, recreation centers and ballfields.

Gray said Monday that the council's questions about contracts have expanded to looking at whether the administration has bypassed the legislative body in other ways, from awarding option-year contracts without council approval to failing to seek retroactive approval for contracts.

In an letter Saturday to Gandhi, Gray said he has "become increasingly concerned that the Executive is not following contract and procurement law across multiple agencies."

Gray's budget staff has also found a possible change in the way the administration has been handling contracts, which did not get council approval. In the last council legislative period, the administration sent 85 contracts for "retroactive payment authorization," meaning the council authorized contracts that might have been for more than $1 million or needed council approval but did not get it.

"In 2009, the Council has received only 8 contracts for retroactive payment authorization, indicating either a drastic improvement in the contracting process or the failure to submit retroactive contracts to the Council," Gray wrote.

The council has been fighting to get a variety of documents from the administration.