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City Desk
While his legislative colleagues politely clapped and stifled their yawns at Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ State of the District address on Thursday, March 1, At-Large Councilmember David Catania commandeered his own audience at One Judiciary Square at precisely the same hour. Was Catania’s hearing on a local advisory neighborhood commission a deliberate rebuff of D.C.’s chief executive? Catania staffer Carl Schmid insists that the no-show by his boss was not a snub but simply a scheduling snafu: When Williams switched the State of the District address from Tuesdaywhich would have conflicted with President George W. Bush’s State of the Union addressto Thursday, Catania already had people committed to testify at his own hearing. “I had 50 community residents signed up,” says Catania, “and I didn’t want to reschedule.” Elissa Silverman