I don’t usually respond to such poorly written and investigated “stuff” (“article” is too nice a word) as Stephanie Mencimer’s (“Crony Baloney,” 9/5), but I have to make an exception in this case. For whatever reason, she felt it necessary to include my name at the end of her long piece on District government set-asides, heaven only knows why. If she had asked me, I would have told her that I have no work for the District government and all my clients are in the private sector. Just by placing my name in the article, she attempts to imply that I am the recipient of fat government contracts where the work performed was not satisfactory or am highly overcompensated for little or no work. Wrong. No way. Fat chance.

I guess my major sin is that I am a former District government employee. I confess. I did work for the District for six years. I also worked for two newspapers, two television stations, one radio station, three Fortune 500 corporations, and the federal government. I also have a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in journalism and an MBA in marketing and human resources management from Columbia University. I believe that makes me more than qualified to do marketing communications consulting for a variety of clients.

While I do not normally rattle on about my credentials, Mencimer seems to think working for the District government is some type of crime. (By the way, what are her credentials?) Only a small percentage of my career was spent working for the District government, and I am quite proud of the work I did there.

I think Mencimer’s problem dates back to my tenure as director of communications while at the D.C. Department of Corrections. During this period, Mencimer attempted to sneak into the various prisons under false pretenses, was caught by me lying several times to employees and prisoners, and was told by me she consistently wrote poorly investigated and prepared “stuff.”

Having worked as a journalist for the first part of my career, I find Mencimer’s actions and ethics to be below those of the paparazzi. While I have moved on, she has not. Get over it, Stephanie.

Michigan Park