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Despite having moved to Florida and become chief of the Sarasota County Fire Department, D.C. deputy fire chief Kenneth Ellerbe remains an employee of the D.C. Fire Department.  Though his status is on leave without pay, his continued presence on the rolls will permit him to begin collecting retirement benefits from D.C. at age 50, rather than 55 -- at a cost to the city of about $600,000.  The Department of Human Resources directed The Washington Times to file a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more, and denied the release of numerous records citing employee privacy.  The Washington Times

As revealed through records released under the District's Freedom of Information Act, many city employees have continued to receive bonuses even during this period of tight fiscal conditions.  D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles pointed to contracts entered into in better times to explain recent bonuses.  The records reviewed by the Examiner detail the names and amounts of bonuses received since Mayor Adrian Fenty took office in 2007 -- $15 million in all.  The Examiner

The District's Inspector General reported uncovering more than $50 million in waste and $125 million in fraud in the city government in fiscal year 2009.  The Examiner

Contractors who duck subpoenas issued by the D.C. Council would be barred from receiving new deals with the city for five years under legislation introduced this week.

Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. proposed the bill after two construction managers, one closely tied to Mayor Adrian Fenty, advised through an attorney that they would not submit to a council subpoena on the date requested, citing scheduling conflicts.  The Washington Examiner

City officials have opposed unsealing a $20 million sex-abuse lawsuit brought by the father of a youth inmate against a city employee and a D.C. Council candidate, according to lawyers in the case.

A D.C. judge issued the sealing order in October to protect the youth's privacy and safety. But the lawyer for the teen's father, who brought the lawsuit, said he thinks the case should be a matter of public record.  The Washington Times

In part due to a backlash to what residents viewed as a proposed speedy and secretive sale of a West End library and fire station in 2007, D.C. councilmember Tommy Thomas has introduced legislation that would require two separate steps when declaring and selling surplus property.  The deal that sparked the outrage was never consummated, but did inspire Thomas to review the city's process for handling surplus property.  Under Thomas' bill, the city's economic development team would need to submit to the Council an initial declaration that a given property is surplus, followed by the separate submission of a potential deal for the property's sale. Read more »

The head of Banneker Ventures, the firm selected to oversee $86 million in construction contracts that bypassed D.C. Council approval, has refused to appear before the Council for hearings on the contracts.  The D.C. Council subpoened Omar Karim, the principal of the firm and a friend of Mayor Adrian Fenty's, but Karim responded through his attorney that his schedule does not permit him to appear.  His attorney also stated that the subpoena was problematic.  D.C. Wire Read more »

According to records of government purchases reviewed by The Examiner, the District's Office of Unified Communications (which includes the 911 system) spent $900 on massages for 40 employees as part of employee appreciation and wellness activities.  The Mayor's office issued a statement noting that this type of charge will not be authorized in the future.  Other details of government spending are also highlighted in the article.  Washington Examiner Read more »

A Washington Post profile of Mayor Adrian Fenty's governing style touched on some disappointment supporters have had about the level of transparency he's brought to the role.  Noting that "when he moved into the Wilson Building, Fenty reconfigured the mayor's suite as a bullpen featuring a glass-enclosed meeting room, a symbol of his commitment to transparency," the article also quotes Adams Morgan community leader Brian Weaver saying, "We had a vision that he would be transformative, young and energetic, open and transparent . . . There would be no backroom deals, and he would take on larger issues that had held the city back."  But, Weaver says, "There are still elements of the old machine politics," he said. "It's just got a shinier chassis." Fenty dismisses the complaints about a lack of transparency as "generalizations."  The Washington Post Read more »

Work performed on D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray's house may have been undertaken without the proper license, according to a Washington Times review of records related to the construction company that did the work. Read more »