The controversial Franklin Shelter issue exploded into an expletive-filled argument over breakfast this morning before D.C. Council members went into a legislative meeting where Council member Marion Barry plans to introduce emergency legislation that would require beds for the homeless in the downtown business area.

Downtown is in Ward 2. That's Jack Evans's territory.

He said he did not understand why some of his colleagues are interested in reopening a "piece of....shelter." (Fill in the blanks.)

"Is this move about you and the mayor or is this about this shelter?" Evans asked Barry. He answered himself that he believed it is "the former."

In an interview, Barry defended his legislation, "Homelessness is a national issue, it is a city-wide issue," he said. "For anyone saying this is a personal issue is out of their damn mind."

D.C.Councilmember Marion Barry will introduce emergency legislation today that calls for the Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to make sure there are beds for the homeless in the downtown business area.

The bill is in response to the recent controversial closing of the Franklin Shelter at 13th and K streets NW. The mayor has announced an ambitious plan to provide permanent housing for the District's homeless. Critics of the closing, however, have said the mayor can't provide apartments for the homeless without making sure that proper support services are available, be it mental health treatment or job counseling. The council passed legislation recently calling on the mayor to provide more details about his plan.

Barry is introducing the "Downtown Shelter Bed Emergency Act of 2008," which calls for the mayor to operate a 150-bed low barrier emergency shelter in the downtown area. The bill even proposes boundaries: south of Q Street NW, North of Pennsylvania Avenue, West of Ninth Street and East of 17th Street.

Barry introduced the bill literally from a hospital bed, where he is recovering from a fall.

Hamil R. Harris

As part of his budget reduction package, Mayor Fenty is proposing to trim $60 million from individual agencies. Most of the reductions will come in the form of elimination of vacant jobs, but agency directors will have the option to find cuts in other places if they want to save the positions. So which agencies got hit the hardest? In terms of pure dollar figures, the winners--er, make that losers--are:

1. Police: $4.0 million reduction
2. Chief Financial Officer: $3.8 million
3. Department of Employment Services: $3.5 million
4. Health: $2.9 million
5. Transportation: $2.6 million

Even the Child and Family Services Agency, under the spotlight after a number of highprofile missteps, most notably the Banita Jacks case, is set to lose $1.5 million.

The mayor's office stresses that none of the police job cuts would be in officer positions, but rather in administrative and other personnel. Here is the complete list of proposed agencies cuts.

In an effort to reassure voters that the Nov. 4 presidential election will be nothing like the District's voter debacle in September, members of the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics have launched an unofficial campaign to restore the public's confidence in the office.

Board of Elections chairman Erroll Arthur and the panel's Executive Director Sylvia Goldsberry-Adams took most of the fire Friday during a D.C. Council hearing on the Sept. 9 primary where phantom votes generated a lot of confusion . While board members tried to assure the council members that things are in control at the board, Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) wanted to know why the body was using outdated equipment and behaving in a reactionary mode.

Cheh grilled the board's general counsel, Kenneth McGhie, who had little specifics to offer. He testified that he was out of town on Election Day and that he's been on leave for the last two weeks.

Video by Hamil Harris

D.C. residents will have until the last minute today to register to vote in the Nov. 4 general election. (For those who have been under a rock, besides the local elections, Nov. 4 is also the national presidential election.)

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics will stay open until midnight to accommodate potential voters, who will have until 11:59 p.m. to sign up in person.

Voters can register by mail by picking up applications at libraries and police and fire stations. The applications must be postmarked by Monday, Oct. 6. Online registration is also available at www.dcboee.org but must be followed by a signed form postmarked by Monday.

The elections board office is at 441 Fourth St. NW, Suite 250 North. More information is available by calling 202-727-2525.

D.C. Wire just got this announcement from council member Marion Barry's office:

Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry was treated and released from Greater South East Hospital this morning suffering from minor injuries to his face after accidentally falling down while out walking earlier in Anacostia Park.

Mr. Barry received a deep gash over his bottom lip that required several stitches. Despite the minor accident Mr. Barry suffered no serious injuries and is in good spirits. According to Mr. Barry, doctors in the emergency room at Greater South East Hospital said he will have a full recovery and be back at work in a day or two.

"I just lost my footing while out doing my daily walk," said Barry. "I am in a little pain and it will take a few days to heal but I will get through this. I plan on being back on my feet in no time good as new."

Mayor Fenty briefed the D.C. Council today on his proposal to make up a $131 million budget gap for fiscal 2009, the details of which we brought you in the Post last week. Among the major initiatives is eliminating up to 400 vacant positions, which will save $31 million, and delaying a $10 million increase to the pension benefits of city employees. (Agencies will have the option to cut their budgets in other ways if they want to maintain the positions, sources tell D.C. Wire.)

The administration appears to have made a few changes from what we had been told by sources, including taking more money from the accounts of city agencies that collect revenues by selling products, such as business licenses. The administration had been initially expecting to take about $35 million that had accrued in those accounts, known as "O-type revenues," but now that figure appears to be $48 million. The full list of proposed cuts is here.

Fenty has squeezed as much as he can from the edges of the budget; many of the budget savings are one-time opportunities, such as taking the banked O-type revenues. Because of that, administration officials acknowledge that trimming the fiscal 2010 budget, which CFO Natwar Gandhi projected to have a $152 million revenue gap, will be even more difficult.

The council must approve any budget changes before they take effect, and the legislative body will be able to make amendments if it desires. Chairman Vincent Gray (D) will have a briefing for the media later today, which will provide the first glimpse of how the mayor's proposal will go over.

"What voters expect of elections are accuracy, confidence and finality, and we didn't get that at its highest value on Sept. 9," said Cary Silverman, a candidate for the Ward 2 council seat. "We still don't know if the results are accurate today."

Silverman was testifying at today's hearing on the Sept. 9 election mishaps being chaired by Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).

Silverman, who lost to longtime incumbent Jack Evans, told the panel that had it not been for about 1,500 "phantom write-in" ballots, the Board of Elections might not have known there was a problem with the results on election night.

"During this process I thought it was an informational black hole," Silverman said. "Calls to the board went unreturned."

Silverman said he still wants to know how at 9:30 p.m. he got 3,097 votes and Jack Evans got 4,379 votes, and by 11:10 p.m. that number changed to 1,582 for Silverman and 2,897 for Evans.

Hamil R. Harris

Saying the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics "essentially shut down" on the night of the Sept. 9 primary when thousands of phantom votes wrecked havoc with the results, Council member Mary Cheh opened a hearing this morning about the mishap with the stated goal of making sure the Nov. 4 election is "glitch free."

D.C. Council member David Catania was more to the point: "This is not a small matter," he said of the election night problems when thousands of write-in votes appeared and disappeared and had several candidates and their supporters at the board headquarters demanding answers late into the night.

The September primary problems came on the heels of the February presidential primary when the board had not supplied polling places with enough paper ballots.

"This goes to the very heart of our ability to govern ourselves," Catania said. "This is a dangerous slope that we are on."

Patrons at an Adams Morgan bar play a drinking game during the vice presidential debate.