>> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> thanks for joining us for a look at business and finance in the washington regi. those who had electrity and ose who did not. businesselost customers and inventorduring one o of the mostworst outages we have s seen in the region's history. first, while pepco says performance has seen improvement, d.c. mayor vincent gray remains one of the

utility's loudest critics. we will talk to him about both of those topics. before we get to that, we start with jobs. the highly anticipated june jobs report cam outn friday and it was a big disappointment. ly 80,000 jobs cated last month. reo discuss those issues and more, d.c. mayor vincent gray. your third appearance on "washington business report." we keep h havinyou back becausee there are some many important issueses to discussss. thank you focoming back. weome. it has been a tough week. you did make it to thfourth of julyly parade. >> it was the nominal. it did notot det people f from cong out from the parade. i think there were more people out is year than i have seen.

i hahave been there for years been betting >> . >> the first let's start with the friday jobs report. the private sector far outperforming the public sector. teachers contitinue to get laid off. police officers continued to get laid-off. give us the perspective. >> we ha had a program put in place or we have asked employers across the district and some outside to sp up and provide jobs for our people in the city. there are still jobs to be filled. ununder this program, we have gotten almost 3500 people hired. almost 700 employers have stepped up. tetell u how that breaks down. where we are in ththe wal-l-mart process. >> wal-mart is just starting

constrtructioon in the district. they have already started one story in northwest. 6 6 stores will be built over the next 12 to 18 months which will result in anaverage of 300 jobs per store. we will be adding 1800 jobs from that alone. we have anotherroject where we have a costco o openingng rshalls, shoppers warehouse. thatat will bring hundreds of jobs toto the city. >> what took them so lonong? always had to go to the 'burgh to go to a target t or wal-mart. whatas taken them m so long? >> i think people have been hesitant moving into the district because they were not sure that they could be successful. that is the bottom line.

>>ecause of real-estate costs? >> whehether customers would come whether they could compete with cost, whether it is a businessss- friendndly environme. we have tried to chip away atat ththat. since january 2011, we havaveeen responsie for $5 billion in construction projects largely involving retaiail and office projects. overall, we havee - -- eveven in this economy, $8 billn of construction aivity going on right now in the diststrict of columbiaia. >> i have been to china many times. they like to over-air conditionedd in hong kong. where did you go chi? did you have any success talkingng to businesses? >> we were in beijijing and

shanghai. i think it was a very successful tripip for us.s. we alsoo dedicated the opening of a new office representinthe diststrict of columbia in shanghai. >> taxpars wonder whwhether that is worth t the expense. >> let me give yoone example. have a f federal progogram that basically says if you are in a foreign country and you would like to o invest in the ited states, if you are willing to put up $500,000, we will ge yoa visa. roadside e development -- we cameme home with a check for $ $40 million to invesest in that project. the office will cost t us about $20000,000 a year to operatate. it will be a present for u us in

china,ch a placece where they will do business. has already paid for itstself and will continue to do so. >> you have knowme for a long time. i talk to a lot of people. time and again i talk to business leaders and reporteters many of f whom were skepticacal about yo election as mayor. they have l been pressed by your performance. ey alslso remain ccerned about the citity's perception problelem. investigations continue of your campaign. we have seen kwame brown have to step down. what do you say to those people who say whether or not you are doing a goodob perception is still a big problem in the city? >> i would ask them to look at ththe record.

public safety, economic dedevelopment, jobs, education and fiscal sbility. we got our auditn february. a rpluss in a weak econo mai bank look at public safety. the lowest number of homicicides in 48 years in the city. i talk about the job performance earlier. 11.3% unempmployment down to 9.3%. what i am rereally proud of it is the dropops we have seen, and w we have lot of worork to do, but the most pronounced have been ward 5, 7,7, and 8. we havave focused on those things that we promed to do. i would ask people fos on those issues. our population is the fastest

growing in thnation. 2.7%. >> everyryone is deciding to move into the city.y. lots of questns abobout pepco's performance. let's take a quick break. pepco when we come back. whoever said that "less is more" is more or less mathematically challenged. less isn't more, it's less. and the only thing more than more is a lot more. which is exactly what i ge at embassy suites. more space... more down time. more e family time. more me time. more me time. more me time. because the more more i have, the more i have to have... more. [ female announcer ] more room. complimentary drinks. free breakfast. embassy suites. get more.

>> after a week that saw aot of power outages in thee washington area, w we are back with d.c. mayor ncent gray

you we one of many who said that pepco would try to have the power back on by friday, and that was an acceptable. why did you call that estimation unacceptable? >> we continue to treat this as ju a problem. we have not addressed the problelem. i have said this publicly. it is time for a game changer to look at how we move forward with creating a situation where we are not susceptible to power outages. my game change woulde let's talk more about -- >>ou have heard pepco's response. >> letet's put it on t the table. let's have peopleut it on the table. there are things that we can do. we are doing street work all the time. when the citity opens up t the streets, we would be happy to figure out how to do the work in

a coordinated fashion. look at the cost of the outages that we have been been lost food, productivity, and cost. my power was out fororays. i know how much food i lost. we have to do this differently than we have done it before. i do not see value in simply criticizing p people or whatever. let's find a new way to do this then bing >> what did pepco do well and whatt did they do poorly? >> i go bk to what i said. i believehe power outage at lasted for days given the inconveniencnce and the hotel costs for people and businesses were not able to function -- that is just unaccepble.e. people want toto see the solution more than just getting the powerer back. >> has pepco then a better job

in years past? are you seeing imprement? >> y you have to go backck to the fact that i do not want to evaluate on the basis of how quicklwe restore power. the evaluation for me is how we find a solution and how w we can implement that solution. >> ok, mr. mayor. thank you so much. stay with us. first, the federal hot minute. >> since their introduction not that long ago the mobile hand- held telephone has evolved to bebecome an important business tool. challenges for executives at the merged especially in the u.s. government's. the data they hold is so vital to national security.

these challenges are vexing in the area of protecting dat dand privacy. a federal c i o recently released a road map on the digital strategy. several groups have been formed to promote guelines and standards that will help agencies more easily develop applications. the avalanche of mobile devices will continue. making sure the policies are paramount to successful implementation. please go to wjla.com for the latest related

>> we need to meet wit our news

maker of the week. ththomas graham, p'sregional president - pepco's regional present. a later of misery has been added for customers without electricity. thomas graham, thank you for ining us. i ran into you at the montgomery county chamber of commerce's annual awards. we should not wait until t there is a power outage. we waid until there w was a power outage and now there are someoughuestions that you face. hohas pepco done facing the storm? >>e are workingng our way through i about t 4.3 million customers or out of service fm indiana ohio, west virginia. some of those areas aretill struggling.

440,000 customers areut of servic. over half of their customerers out of service. >> i have seen pepco cruz and they do not like me telling you this. i have seen them take their gloves off and put t themselves at risk to get that power back on. it is serious business. you have heard your critics who continue to say pepco does not perform at levels tt other utilities and states perform at. how do you thinkepco is doing in comparison? >> we are performing at the same level if not better. >> based on n what measure? >> if you l look at customers out of service. our prediction was we were going toestoreervice 90% of our customers by friday. we came in two days earlilier with

respect to that prediction. we continuto wk and get resources. that was really the key day. because ththe storm was so widespread they kept those contraors d thr employersrs. we ininitially asked for 1000. we were only y able to get to 200. ultimately we got upo 800.0. at the end of the day, we had 3000 people working to restore service.e. >> roger berliner has been of11 of your outspoken critics. he says if you are startingut at the lowest point of peperfornce, there is only room for improvement. you are still n nowhere where you need to be.

pg&e manag to x them at a higher rate. if you perform your performanance yo still fail on many andards. >> i do not accept at because i look at the facts andhe numbers the. is it a a competitio against other utilities? no. the competition is with their customer's. >>ny other industry would be gradedow they perform against indudustrytandards and mparison. >> it is a competition to restore serce too our custome as quickly and safely as possible. there has been a number of injuries through this process. it is all a function of damage. if you sustain a lot of damage, there is a lot of work to do. i have been in neighborhoods where they haveeen devastated. every couple hours a day, i walk

through communities and speak to the neighbors and my customers to see what the issues are. >> it is v very easy foror us as reporters to talk about people suffering and show people in a lot of misery and businesses could go under. to be fair, i am more of an pirical data kind of p person. the washington post did in investigation and put together all kinds of metrics to judge pepco and they found on several differen measures, pepco performed d at the bottom of the babarrel for utilities. you all promised to improve that but you haveot made any numbers avaible publiclfor anyone to look at whetr or n we are seeing that improvement. why nonot make thos statistics available? >> it has been a very transparent process. very early on, a five-year plan

over the next five years betwn $9 million an d $10 milln they've been >> the million. >> where it now we are looking at an improvement of of frequencncy paying >>. >> and a lot of people are wondering where you are getetting those statistics. what a they based on? >>those measurements take place year to yeabased on the performance of 2011. we look at the perfoformance of 2012. that information iavailable and we would willing to she it been betting >> one count the wowoman is considering subpoa powe toook at your documes. are you willing to make all of

your documents available? >> our data is not a secret. we are pleased with our performance. there is nothing to be embarrassed about it. we also he a five-year pn. we arewo years into that plan. we have startrted to see ely indication of that improvement. >> are alll internal documents available? >> i have no problem sharing that information. duration and f frequenency babying i also want to askou about e propoposed rate increase. pepco o should not be increasing rates. those costs should be borne by your shareholderss. y a a an increase win -- why an increase when pepco has not kept the lights on?

>> we are a business tt has to make investments. $910 million is our commitment over five years. will we have to do is -- there is cost recovery. there is a fair and reasonable cost recovery. >> thohomas graham i aays appreciate you coming on to answer thehe tou questions for individual vwersnd businesses as well. one more item of business is our explanation of the hour number of t

>> welcome back. the hour number of the week confirms something that we heard months ago. we were told that the housising market is heating up. 16,000 is s our number of the week, the number of new residents who moved into the district according to the census bureau. a washington post story says d.c.'s growth ratete listed amomong the country's fastest growing cities. we h hope to see you again next sunday on "washington business report." i'm rebecca cooper. if you want less you can always have less but i like having a lot more

a lot more than having a lot less. and the more more i have the more i like having more. and that's exactly what i get at embassy suites. more post-meeting celebrations more complimentary drinks more for my money... mmm, more bar snacks... ♪ ♪ more olives. definitely. i want so much more it's more more than a mortal man can handle. now that's more like it. [ female announcer ] complimentary drinks. free breakfast. more room. embassssy suites. get more.