Eugene Kinlow is one of two nominees for the control board. By Tom Allen - The Post

By David A. Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 5, 1998; Page B01

President Clinton said yesterday that he will nominate Eugene Kinlow, a member of the regional Metro authority and former longtime member of the D.C. school board, and Darius Mans, a World Bank economist, to the D.C. financial control board.

Both men will begin their two-year terms Sept. 1, when Alice M. Rivlin takes over as chairman of the control board. Rivlin said that Kinlow, a retired federal official who has been involved in community projects in Anacostia for 30 years, and Mans, who has lived in the city for 17 years and focuses on economic development and management issues at the World Bank, bring complementary backgrounds to the panel.

"They bring great strengths to the board in very different ways," Rivlin said. "Darius Mans is an economist who has lived in the community for a very long time. But professionally, he has worked mostly on international issues and managerial problems of various sorts. . . . Gene Kinlow has been an active participant in the D.C. community for a long time, serving on the school board and with neighborhood collaboratives and is very well known in the D.C. community generally."

The balance of the board will consist of Constance B. Newman, whom Clinton named to a one-year term as vice chairman of the panel, and Robert Watkins, a partner with the law firm of Williams & Connolly, who was named to a three-year term.

"It gives us a board of five people with different kinds of experience but a strong mutual focus on making the District a better place," said Rivlin, the number two official at the Federal Reserve Board.

The control board members, who are unpaid, were put in charge of the city's finances when the District was going broke in 1995. Since then, Congress has increased the panel's power so that its members now oversee the operations of District agencies as well. Under federal law, power will return to locally elected officials after the city balances its budget for three more years.

Yesterday, the White House recognized the efforts of control board members at a White House tea given by Hillary Rodham Clinton. All past, present and incoming control board members were invited to the tea, during which the first lady expressed the administration's gratitude.

"This is Mrs. Clinton's way of thanking those who are doing very hard and valuable work on behalf of the District of Columbia," said Linda Ricci, spokeswoman for the federal Office of Management and Budget. "She recognizes this is not always an easy job but one that is vitally important to the future of the District."

Earlier in the day, the first lady convened a meeting to discuss the growing charter school program in the city. In addition to District officials, charter school experts from across the nation attended to discuss successful practices elsewhere that could be replicated in the capital. While charter schools are publicly funded, they are permitted to operate outside the restrictions regarding curriculum and personnel that govern D.C. public schools.

During the session, Hillary Clinton said she had a very positive meeting with D.C. School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman a few weeks ago, describing her as a "forceful proponent" for improving education in the city and a supporter of charter schools. Clinton acknowledged that some charter schools will be successful and others will fail but said the expansion of the program in the District, and the prospect of added federal funding, offers parents greater choice regarding their children's education.

"When the president moved into the White House, there was only one charter school in the country," Clinton said. "This fall, over 1,100 schools are expected to open their doors. . . . As a charter school, you have the advantages of greater flexibility. . . . But you also hold a sacred public trust. If schools accept the freedom from the bureaucracy but don't do the hard work of being accountable for improving student achievement outcome, then the students lose. And we all lose."

At least one of the new control board nominees, Kinlow, has extensive experience with education in the city; his five children graduated from the city's Ballou Senior High School in Southeast Washington. He served as an at-large member of the D.C. school board from 1979 to 1990 -- including a term as board president in 1981 -- and his daughter, Tonya Vidal Kinlow, is a member of the current elected school board. Before his retirement from the government, Kinlow served as deputy assistant secretary in the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said that Mans, who has a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, adds to the financial expertise on the control board.

"The new control board has been thoughtfully and wisely assembled by President Clinton to continue the tough oversight of the first board and to take up the challenge of power-sharing with elected officials to assure the responsible return of home rule," Norton said. The District delegate said she is pleased that all five members on the new board are "longtime Washingtonians with deep knowledge of the city" and a "strong commitment to home rule and self-government."

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Oversight subcomittee on the District, said he is glad that Newman is remaining on the control board to provide "continuity" and said the president had made good choices. "I'm very comfortable with the new nominees and look forward to working with them," he said.