In 1996, lawyer Paul Strauss started two jobs in public service.

For one, he was elected as one of two unpaid “shadow senators” tasked with drumming up support for congressional voting rights for the District. In that position, he’s done a job with minimal, ill-defined responsibilities and zero pay well enough to win re-election in 2002 and, having won the Democratic nomination last month, to be on the verge of winning a third six-year term in November.

Also in that year, he accepted a slot on the District’s Board of Real Property Assessment Appeals (BRPAA). Unlike being a shadow senator, that posting comes with rather important, well-defined responsibilities and decent pay ($50 an hour) to match. In that position, which has included a stint chairing the board for most of the last decade, he’s done well enough to earn this endorsement from D.C. Auditor Deborah K. Nichols, whose office recently wrapped up a probe of the board: Strauss, her report [PDF] says, has “provided a dubious level of service to residents and businesses of the District of Columbia.”

OK, Deborah, tell LL how you really feel.

Where Strauss has discharged his duties as shadow senator with a measure of salutary buffoonery—hiring legions of unpaid aides, for instance, and hobnobbing with Hollywood types—his performance as BRPAA chair has been anything but salutary, if you believe Nichols’ report, released last Wednesday.... Continued