Friends share in D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's good fortune

Against gentrification

Fenty met Skinner at Howard when the future mayor was a law student and Skinner was studying engineering. At the time, Skinner later told campaign colleagues, he would deliver meals to Fenty, who would hole up in his room for marathon study sessions.

From his earliest years in Washington, Skinner demonstrated a penchant for activism, winning election in 1998 to Petworth's Advisory Neighborhood Commission.

Lenwood Johnson, a commissioner and friend, said Skinner opposed white professionals migrating to the Northwest Washington neighborhood, if only because they could raise property values and drive out longtime residents and businesses. "He'd say, 'Why are they moving over here?' "

Joe Englert, who owns taverns in the District, was planning to open another in Petworth in 2006. Skinner confronted him, asking, "Why would a white man open a business on Georgia Avenue?" said Englert, who is white. "It was hard to respond, it was so outrageous."

As president of a business association, Skinner published the Georgia Avenue Defender, which in 2005 lampooned council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) as "Gramzilla," slayer of black-owned businesses. During his campaign, Fenty rebuffed demands by Graham and others to disavow or fire Skinner.

After the election, Fenty's aides tried to find Skinner a government post, said two former administration officials and a former campaign volunteer. Fenty, meanwhile, on several occasions promised that his friend would not get a job. Asked last month about the administration's efforts on Skinner's behalf, the mayor said only that "he doesn't have a role in my administration."

Skinner started his engineering firm and another company, renting space downtown and in an unmarked house with bars on the windows on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE.

By then, Skinner was close to Warren Williams Jr., who owned Club U, a nightclub on U Street that was shut down in 2005, during the administration of Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), after a patron was fatally stabbed. Warren Williams also owned an apartment building where tenants complained of rat infestation and no heat. In 2008, council members cited the stabbing and the building when they criticized Fenty's choice of a team that included Warren Williams to manage the D.C. Lottery.

During Fenty's campaign, Warren Williams, at Skinner's suggestion, joined Karim at Banneker Ventures, Williams said. After the election, the developers won several D.C. projects, including managing reconstruction of Walker-Jones Educational Complex and work on redeveloping a theater in the Deanwood neighborhood in Northeast.

The administration and the D.C. Housing Authority picked Banneker Ventures as "master planning consultant" for the redevelopment of the Park Morton housing project in Petworth. After Karim and Warren Williams split up in 2008, the District chose Williams's company, the Warrenton Group, as co-developer of Park Morton. Williams, in an interview, said his company was chosen because of its competence, not its political connections.

Ben Soto, Fenty's campaign treasurer, said the mayor's ties to Skinner and Karim are rooted in a common commitment to improve the city. "He likes people who have a sense of urgency," Soto said. "Omar and Sinclair have that." Their bond, Soto said, trumps any political embarrassment. "When Adrian knows you have his back, it's a hiccup."

Although the friends have benefited from minority contracting rules, access to the mayor does not ensure winning bids, Soto said. The District twice rejected proposals from Karim's company, said Sean Madigan, a city spokesman.

Former mayor Barry (D), now the Ward 8 council member, said Fenty's friends have turned up in D.C.-sponsored projects often enough to raise questions.

"There's nobody in this government more Afro-centric than I am, but you can't hide behind that," said Barry, a longtime advocate of minority set-asides. "The problem I have is the circle is so small. The same ones over and over again. It's not fair."

Lomax is among the Fenty friends helped by Banneker Ventures. Banneker hired Lomax's RBK Construction for at least $3.5 million of the $16 million in D.C. contracts that RBK has received since Fenty took office. That's up from $1 million in city work that RBK got during Anthony Williams's administration.

The D.C. inspector general and the city auditor in May began investigating whether Lomax, a Prince George's resident, falsely used a house in Northeast Washington as a business address to improve his chances of winning city business. Lomax declined to comment.

The investigation, which is continuing, apparently has not dampened Fenty's friendship with Lomax. On a recent Saturday, the pair attended a Georgetown-Duke basketball game, where they posed for photos with President Obama.

Nor have Skinner's troubles made the mayor rethink their relationship. One night last month, as Fenty trolled for votes in the Northeast neighborhood of Burrville, there, following the mayor as he knocked on doors, was Sinclair Skinner.