DCWatch
1327 Girard Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009-4915
202-234-6982 voice and fax
http://www.onlinesportsbooks.us.com
January 15, 2007
Mr. Peter J. Nickles
General Counsel/Senior Advisor to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty
Executive Office of the Mayor
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 327
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Mr. Nickles:
Thank you for your letter of January 10, 2007.
Over the past twenty-five year or so, I have been a
community activist and journalist who has interacted with three previous
Washington mayors and their staffs (as well as with the Control Board and
numerous councilmembers and their staffs, including Mr. Fenty when he was
a councilmember) in exactly the same manner that I currently do with Mayor
Fenty and his staff. As executive director of DCWatch, a good government
organization that publishes the online magazine onlinesportsbooks.us.com, I have
attended press conferences and asked officials for information that should
be made public, and I have not hesitated to ask repeatedly when they don’t
provide that information or when they do not answer questions or answer
them misleadingly. Yet this is the first time a government official has
had his attorney write, in his official capacity, a threatening letter
demanding that I treat that official and his staff with more deference or
back down from asking for information that the official does not know or
might find to be embarrassing.
I do, however, have some difficulty fully understanding
your complaint. When you write about the candor with which members of the
Fenty administration and communications staff treat members of the press,
are you referring to their failure to respond to my numerous requests for
information, including:
the names, positions, and salaries of the Fenty
transition staff;a detailed accounting of the cost of the November 6,
2006, Fenty birthday party at St. Coletta’s School and how it was
paid for;the budget for all inaugural activities, including the
prayer service, swearing-in ceremony, inaugural ball, etc., and
detailed information about the contributions received for all
inaugural activities;the salaries and remuneration contracts negotiated
with Fenty cabinet appointees and mayoral staff;detailed information regarding Fenty’s education
reform initiative, including the cost of and who commissioned and paid
for the Parthenon Group report, “Fact-Base for DCPS Reform”; andthe legal opinion of the District’s Attorney General
that you claimed supported your position that the mayor could
reappoint in an acting position officials subject to council
confirmation who had already served more than 180 days in an interim
position.
Moreover, when you refer to the respect with which members
of the mayor’s staff treat members of the press, are you referring to
the occasion at the inaugural ball when the director of communications
refused to give me my press credentials to enter, and threatened to have
me put out of the building if “I didn’t behave”? Are you referring
to the decision made by the Fenty campaign, transition staff, and mayor’s
office of communications not to speak with me or provide any information
regarding the budget and contributions to Mr. Fenty’s inauguration, even
though the request was made at a press conference at which Mr. Fenty
distributed tickets to his inaugural ball? Are you referring to the
transition press conference at which a press spokesperson for Mr. Fenty
refused to provide a copy of that day’s press release to the reporter
from WTOP?
I also have difficulty understanding what you are
referring to when you claim that I am not treating members of the Fenty
administration, especially the communications staff, with respect. Are you
complaining that I am asking questions that are too difficult or for which
Mayor Fenty and his staff are not prepared? Are you disturbed that I
continue to try to get information that the Mayor’s Office of
Communications does not provide in a timely fashion, even after repeated
requests? Or do you think that the press should be satisfied with the
handouts that we are given, ask only softball and flattering questions,
and refrain from asking for additional information? It seems to me that
when you are making baseless assertions, you should at least try to invent
details that would give those assertions some verisimilitude.
Again, thank you for your letter. I would normally treat
our exchange of letters as a private matter. However, since you felt free
to provide your letter to me to the press even before I had received it in
the mail, I assume that you want to make your complaints about me public.
Therefore, I am also releasing my response to other
members of the press. If you intend to make any further attempts to
intimidate me, please don’t hesitate to write, call, or E-mail. I look
forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Dorothy A. Brizill
cc: Mayor Adrian Fenty
City Administrator Dan Tangherlini
Chief of Staff Tene Dolphin
Director of Communications Carrie Brooks