Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. and several commissioners of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5A (ANC 5A) flexed their political muscle to pressure the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to issue a permit to an ally of Mr. Thomas.

The moves led to the revocation of a permit held by the Greater Brookland Garden Club.

The permit in question was to operate a Sunday farmers market on the 1200 block of Newton Street NE.

The permit process administered by DDOT was marked by charges of deceit and lying on both sides, but there is one thing that participants seem to agree on: it’s not about a farmers market.

“It’s not about the farmers market,” said Jo Moore, member of the Greater Brookland Garden Club. “It’s about politics.”

“It’s not about the market anymore,” said Bob King, ANC Commissioner 5A12. “It’s about honesty and integrity.”

At the center of the controversy were statements made by Lavinia Wohlfarth, executive director of the Brookland Community Development Corporation (CDC) and an ally of Mr. Thomas.

At the Ward 5 Economic Development Summit in February, Ms. Wohlfarth announced that the Brookland CDC would no longer operate a Sunday farmers market in Brookland. Citing concerns about competition with other Sunday markets, Ms. Wohlfarth said the Brookland CDC would concentrate exclusively on its Tuesday market.

The Brookland CDC has operated a Sunday market on Newton Street since 2005.

The Economic Development Summit was videotaped, including Ms. Wohlfarth’s announcement. The video is available on www.youtube.com using the search term “Brookland farmers market.”

According to Jeff Wilson, president of the Garden Club, the news of Ms. Wohlfarth’s announcement prompted the Garden Club to submit an application to continue the farmers market at the same location.

“I had felt for a long time that the farmers were unhappy with the market, and I was unhappy with it, and this was an opportunity to make a better situation for the community,” said Mr. Wilson.

Last year, the Sunday farmers market operated by the Brookland CDC collapsed before the end of the season amid complaints of mismanagement from the farmers.

As part of the permit application process, the Garden Club obtained a letter of support from the ANC Commissioner, Don Padou, in whose district the farmers market is located, and gathered signatures of support from nearby residents. Mr. Padou brought the information before ANC 5A in April and obtained an ANC resolution of support for the Garden Club’s application.

Matthew Marcou, head of the DDOT public space permit office, informed the Garden Club on May 13th that its permit was approved.

The political gymnastics began when Ms. Wohlfarth said the Brookland CDC would continue the Sunday market and denied having announced its end.

“The Brookland CDC said that they always had every intention of operating the market,” said Commissioner King. “They emphatically stated their position.”

By that time, however, for the Brookland CDC to take back the farmers market, ANC 5A’s resolution of support for the Garden Club had to be revoked.

According to Mr. Padou, ANC 5A Chairman Angel Alston said she received a phone call from Councilmember Thomas’ office about the matter.

Ms. Alston then apparently called DDOT with several different versions of events in an attempt to derail the Garden Club’s permit.

According to two sources close to the situation, Ms. Alston first called DDOT to say the resolution of support for the Garden Club was a “fraud” because ANC 5A had never discussed the farmers market at its April meeting.

This explanation was not viable because minutes of the April meeting had already been distributed, showing that the resolution had been discussed and passed.

According to the same sources, Ms. Alston then called DDOT with another explanation. This time, Ms. Alston said ANC 5A had passed the resolution, but had done so in error, thinking the resolution supported the Brookland CDC.

Again, this explanation was not viable because the meeting minutes and the resolution itself indicated that ANC 5A was acting in support of the Garden Club.

Mr. Wilson and Mr. Padou said Ms. Alston subsequently denied making the calls to DDOT. Ms. Alston did not respond to a request for comment.

The third attempt by Ms. Alston to derail the Garden Club’s permit was to claim that Commissioner Padou had misled ANC 5A about Ms. Wohlfarth’s announcement at the February Economic Development Summit.

This explanation featured prominently at a May 15th meeting held by Mr. Thomas for all the parties involved.

According to Mr. Padou, Mr. Thomas told him prior to the meeting that DC Inspector General Charles Willoughby would be present to assess whether Mr. Padou had acted unlawfully by supporting the Garden Club’s permit application.

Mr. Padou was unable to attend the meeting in person and requested to participate by speakerphone. Mr. Thomas rejected the request and would not allow Mr. Padou to participate.

Mr. Thomas did not answer questions about this or other aspects of his involvement in the farmers market.

One of the meeting participants was Gottlieb Simon, ANC Liaison for the District. According to Mr. Simon, “the Executive Director of the CDC [Lavinia Wohlfarth] was present and she disputed that she had ever said the market would not continue.”

Mr. Simon said that on the basis of this claim, Ms. Alston and other ANC commissioners in attendance said that “they had been duped” by Mr. Padou into passing the resolution of support for the Garden Club.

In a written statement, Ms. Wohlfarth accused Mr. Padou of “misrepresentation.”

However, A Brookland Heartbeat review of the video indicates that Mr. Padou was correct. The recording captures Ms. Wohlfarth saying that the Brookland CDC would no longer operate a Sunday farmers market.

In interviews, meeting participants emphasized the importance of the videotape.

Asked whether the videotape would have settled the truth of the matter, Mr. Simon said “correct.” Mr. King said emphatically, “Oh yes it would!”

Despite the tape’s central role, meeting participants said no action was taken by DDOT, Mr. Thomas or Ms. Alston to obtain or view it.

Ms. Alston said their reasons for not doing so were simple. “Nobody was interested in watching it,” she said.

Jeff Wilson, Garden Club president, attended Mr. Thomas’ meeting. Mr. Wilson said he was disturbed that Councilmember Thomas would not allow Mr. Padou to participate via telephone in order to respond to the charges against him. “It felt very wrong,” said Mr. Wilson.

Inspector General Charles Willoughby resisted Mr. Thomas’ efforts to involve the Inspector General’s office in discrediting Mr. Padou. Mr. Willoughby provided a written statement about the matter which said in part “there were no such issues within the jurisdiction of my office.”

Mr. Thomas’ actions on behalf of the Brookland CDC are notable given the organization’s poor record of accomplishment and fiscal discipline. [see article this issue: Brookland Main Street Program Terminated].

There is no record of financial problems associated with the Greater Brookland Garden Club.

Subsequent to the May 15th meeting, Ms. Alston provided a fourth explanation for her decision to overturn the resolution of support for the Garden Club.

At the June ANC meeting, Ms. Alston said that ANC 5A gave a “commitment” to support the Brookland CDC’s farmers market application at a meeting during the first week of April. “We were obligated to honor the commitment we had made to the Brookland CDC,” she said.

The April 3rd meeting where the commitment allegedly took place was not announced to the public and no quorum of commissioners was present. No vote was taken and the meeting minutes do not reflect a commitment having been given.

Nevertheless, on May 28th ANC 5A passed a resolution of support for the Brookland CDC, superseding the resolution of support it had passed for the Garden Club just one month before. The resolution was introduced by ANC 5A Chair Angel Alston at a time when Commissioner Padou was out of town on a pre-arranged absence.

Based on the new ANC resolution, DDOT permanently revoked the Garden Club’s permit and issued a farmers market permit to the Brookland CDC.

DDOT spokesman Billy Terry justified the agency’s actions by denying that a permit had ever been issued to the Garden Club.

Mr. Terry said the agency was “about to issue” the permit when “the ANC raised with the Permit Office a concern about the letter submitted on the ANC’s behalf in support of the Greater Brookland Garden Club’s application.”

Asked what she thought of Ms. Alston’s conduct, veteran ANC Commissioner Mary Baird Currie said she was appalled. “Good politicians don’t have to be the smartest people in the world,” said Ms. Currie, “but they have to have integrity.”

Mr. Thomas did not release public records relating to the matter in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Brookland Heartbeart in May.

The Brookland CDC’s history with Councilmember Thomas includes hosting a campaign event when he was running for office and taking part in Mr. Thomas’ efforts to establish a “multicultural center” in Ward 5. More recently, Mr. Thomas defended the Brookland CDC when the organization was found to have misappropriated $10,000 of District grant funds.