Tag Archives: city council

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CM Yvette Alexander fined $4,000 by OCF for misuse of constituent funds

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_4345’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander was fined $4,000 by the Office of Campaign Finance, related to the findings that “Councilmember Alexander’s Constituent Services Fund (CSF) made an expenditure for campaign activities; and that her Constituent Services Program (CSP) failed to report certain expenditures on required quarterly reports, both in violation of the D.C. Campaign Finance Reform and Conflict of Interest Act. A fine of $4,000 was imposed for these violations.”

It appears that Alexander was acquitted of responsibility for the most serious charges levied against her in the complaint, but some of the more minor charges, which include using $300 from her constituent services funds to pay for robocalls for her campaign, still cost the council member’s campaign $4,000 in fines.

Alexander joins several other members of the City Council on the wrong side of scandals this year.

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Ticketed on Presidents Day? You Might Be In Luck

Photo courtesy of
‘Amount Due’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

Were you (un)fortunate enough to have not heard about the snow emergency (declared Sunday evening, aka Valentines Day) and got smacked with a nice big $250 ticket for parking on a snow emergency route on February 15th? I don’t know about you but I sure wasn’t checking to see if there was a snow emergency that night. Well, City Council members Brown and Wells are fighting in your corner to have those forgiven. Give them a hug.

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Bonuses Keep Flowing for DC Officials


cash by TheTruthAbout…

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, or possibly in a mansion, you’ve probably heard of the economic downturn we’re in the middle of.  No?  Apparently our city officials are living in your dream world too.

According to a recent article by the Washington Examiner, $15 million in bonuses have been handed out to city officials since Mayor Fenty took office in January of 2007.  Granted, many of these bonuses were written into contracts in the good old days when our economy was believed to be strong, but bonus money keeps flowing despite the recession.

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Less Money for Kids, Higher Taxes for You


‘The puzzled and the sad.’
courtesy of ‘Gin Fizz’

The Washington Post is reporting that D.C. schools will be losing $30 million in funding in FY2010 and smokers will be paying another 50 cents a pack for cigarettes. Among other tax increases and several other service cuts, these changes will become a reality assuming Mayor Fenty signs the latest revised budget that was just recently approved by the city council. He is expected to sign it, despite his original 2006 campaign promises of not raising taxes. But who campaigns saying they’re going to raise taxes anyway? And who can predict a nasty recession that kills city revenues and causes a $666 million budget gap? (Wait…$666 million? Surely Lucifer had something to do with this…)

The general sales tax is increasing by .25% on the dollar to an even 6% and gas prices will be going up a bit as this revised budget also increases the gas tax by 3.5 cents a gallon. About $350 million worth of service cuts had to be made for this budget, which includes significant funding cuts for social services like Bread for the City.

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