A dream deferred; a black mayor betrays the faith - Philadelphia mayor - W. Wilson Goode

Washington Monthly, July-August, 1986 by Chuck Stone

In August 1984, Joanne T. Medina, a publishing company executive, became ill after taking large amounts of cocaine and barbiturates at a party with several top city officials. She died four days later. After her death, city officials attempted to get the medical examiner to change the autopsy results. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration then tried, unsuccessfully, to find out if the mayor and another top city official had used cocaine with Medina or been involved in buying cocaine with her or for her.

In February 1985, the city paid $11 million to Jeffrey N. Cohen, a real estate developer and godfather to Barry's son, for land it valued at only $6.7 million.

In August 1985, Robert L. Green, the Barry-supported president of the University of District of Columbia, resigned amid charges from the D.C. auditor that he had misspent money from a special university checking account for his personal travel, catering and consultants.

In January 1986, three principals of a firm hired by the city to renovate a housing development pleaded guilty to income tax evasion. The grand jury investigating the Bates Street project, a showcase of the administration's housing policy, was delayed by the Barry administration's repeated failure to turn over its records.

Finally, the Barry administration appears to have turned the city's minority set-aside program into a treasure chest for the mayor's friends. In 1984, D.C. auditor Otis Troupe said the city could not justify about $200,000 in contracts given to the former Barry aides and a former D.C. politician after they left government. "The mayor's policy of settling windfalls on a few political influentials is unsatisfactory; making millionaires of a few well-connected lawyers is a perversion of minority participation,' complained The Washington Post. They noted that in one downtown project a proposal that ranked last on merit was approved "because of the prominent blacks on the development team.'

Two city officials lost their jobs after complaining of illegal practices in the minority contracting program. Jose Gutierrez, the city's former chief purchasing officer, charged that the Barry administration was paying millions more than necessary for goods and services provided by minority contractors with close ties to the mayor. Then Alvin C. Frost, a black senior cash management analyst, charged that the city's finance department was "rife' with corruption, again singling out minority businesses in which the city had invested. Frost was forced to resign. Deputy Mayor Alphonse Hill told reporters to ignore Frost because he was a "nerd and an imbecile.' Hill was later fired after he admitted accepting $3,000 and assorted gifts from a city contractor. The minority contracting program is now in serious jeopardy in Congress, which still has the power to reject the D.C. budget.

The FBI has subpoenaed nearly 500 people in or involved with D.C. government for various investigations. As this magazine went to press, new scandals were unfolding almost daily, several involving contracts awarded by the Department of Human Services and problems at the Department of Employment Services.