This edition of The Washington Informer’s Collins Council Report comes on the heels of a controversial summer recess. On Sept. 17, all council members, other than Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Vincent C. Gray, participated in legislative proceedings.
Throughout much of the afternoon, the council touched on several aspects of government operations, with unanimous, emergency approval of Sharon Kershbaum as director of D.C. Department of Transportation and further solidification of medical marijuana laws intended to withstand congressional interference and the proliferation of illegal cannabis operations.
The following is an overview of some other topics the council tackled during its legislative meeting.
Committee Reassignment amid Ward 8 Councilmember White’s Legal Troubles
D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) virtually attended the council’s Sept. 17 legislative meeting and voted on a bevy of measures, including that which is related to a council committee he will no longer chair.
A federal criminal indictment during the earlier part of September alleges that White, a Democrat representing Ward 8, leveraged his chairmanship of the council’s Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs to accept bribes and make arrangements for more bribes in exchange for securing government contracts for a nonprofit.
As explained in our previous reporting, a council ad-hoc committee, composed of all of White’s colleagues and led by D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large), will mull over whether to reprimand, censure or expel White. The council has also hired outside counsel, Latham & Watkins, LLP, to conduct a $400,000 investigation.
During the recent legislative meeting, the council unanimously approved, with Ward 8 Councilmember White and D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large) voting present, the split of the Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs into two subcommittees — Recreation and Community Affairs and Library and Youth Affairs.
Each of those subcommittees, to be housed within the council’s Committee of the Whole, will be chaired by D.C. Councilmembers Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3) and Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), respectively.
Parker’s committee has purview over D.C. Public Library, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), and Serve DC, among other District agencies. In a statement, Parker said that he will focus on improving facilities and operations at DYRS while tackling recidivism.
He also expressed a desire to address policy changes that jeopardize District public libraries’ utility as community gathering spots.
“My plans for this subcommittee include holding hearings in the fall, conducting announced and unannounced visits to the agency facilities, addressing residents’ concerns, and ensuring there’s a robust public record about each agency’s operations,” Parker said.
Hundreds of Missing Vouchers, and Rapid Rehousing Extension
Amid an affordable housing crisis, the council unanimously approved the Family Re-Housing Stabilization Program Protection Temporary Amendment Act, which further extends families’ stay in affordable housing.
Throughout much of the 2024 budget season, Councilmember Robert White (D-At large) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) sifted through D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Fiscal Year 2025 proposal to find avenues for funding for families transitioning out of an expiring rapid rehousing program.
That process, as a council staffer explained during the Sept. 17 council breakfast, involved discussions with the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA) about several factors, including the assumption of a 3% inflation increase and cost savings that can be translated into vouchers.
Council staffers also said they conferred with Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Glen Lee before solidifying the budget adjustments that secured 600 vouchers for FY 2025.
Well, all of that has apparently been for naught. DCHA and the Department of Human Services said those vouchers no longer exist as a result of miscalculations by the council and CFO. Mendelon has since pushed back against that assertion on Sept. 17.
“DHS is continuing to have financial problems and they’re covering it up by stealing from programs the council enhances in the budget,” Mendelson said during the Sept. 17 council breakfast. “We added about 600 new vouchers and somehow those vouchers evaporated into paying for existing vouchers,” Mendelson continued in his affirmation of the budget process. “There is nothing done in our budget market that isn’t vetted by the CFO.”
On Sept. 17, the council unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2025 Local Budget Emergency Act and Fiscal Year 2025 Local Budget Emergency Declaration Resolution Act, legislation that Mendelson introduced at the request of Bowser.
Now the legislation awaits Bowser’s signature, which she must add before Oct. 1 to put Fiscal Year 2025, as the council sees fit, in motion.
A day before the council vote, Mendelson bemoaned Bowser’s submission of her Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal, and not the version that the council adopted, to Congress. He said that the mayor, by making that move, likely wants to remind people that she favors zero vouchers and the decimation of social programs.
“The council has the ability to amend the budget, which is what we did,” Mendelson said. “That version is what we submitted but we will have to go through the exercise of circulating the amendment in the nature of the substitute and voting on that. Which is what the council did in June. After the council did that, I heard widespread relief. The budget was satisfactory. Why we have to go through that exercise, I do not know.”
As the clock winds down to Oct. 1, when FY 2025 starts, the council is exploring its options to secure housing vouchers, including legal action. At the beginning of the year, the council took such steps to compel the Bowser administration’s allocation of extra SNAP benefits, as outlined in legislation that D.C. Councilmembers Christina Henderson (I-At large) and Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) championed during the 2023 budget season.
As Mendelson explained, the language that triggered the extra SNAP benefits pigeonholed the mayor into allocating those funds. Meanwhile, hundreds of District residents still find themselves in a precarious situation, which D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At large) said he’s been trying to avoid for months.
“We funded a number of vouchers to help families transfer out of rapid rehousing,” White told his council colleagues on Sept. 17. “We got our numbers from DCHA. Now the mayor is saying the council made a mistake in budgeting. I’m not sure why [she] is so adamant about us not finding a way to help these families. We thought we had a solution.”
Councilmember Pinto and Mayor Bowser Bless Response to OUC Personnel Shortage, While Councilmember Nadeau Demands More
The D.C. Council unanimously approved the Retired Firefighter and Police Officer Redeployment Extension Emergency Amendment Act and the Retired Firefighter and Police Office Redeployment Extension Declaration Resolution, both of which would continue an arrangement under which the aforementioned retirees will be able to work in the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) without a loss of benefits.
This vote took place more than a week after D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 1) conducted a surprise tour of OUC headquarters at Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in Southeast. It also came weeks after a technical glitch delayed the response to a five-month-old baby’s medical emergency.
That baby later died.
As we previously reported, Pinto expressed her misgivings about staffing shortages that, in part, complicate the agency’s efforts to answer emergency calls and effectively dispatch police, firefighter, and emergency medical units.
On Sept. 17, Pinto expressed her gratitude to D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) for introducing the legislation, saying: “Retirement is a really creative and effective way to go. I appreciate you moving this bill and look forward to exploring additional tools to increase attractiveness for hiring and retention.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also had something to say, though it was long before the council’s legislative meeting. In a letter she circulated, Bowser encouraged her counterparts to approve the emergency extension in the spirit of public safety.
“Authorizing retired Metropolitan Police Department officers and retired Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department firefighters to be rehired by OUC as 911 call takers and dispatchers without diminishing their retirement benefits will benefit District residents,” Bowser’s letter said.
“I support expanding the pipeline of qualified potential OUC employees who have deep knowledge of the city and our public safety system.”
However, D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau continues to demand a bit more from the executive. Her remarks on the dais follow not only her introduction of legislation that splits police emergency response from that of fire, but what she called failed attempts to gather Ward 1-specific data from the mayor.
“Residents are now scared that if they call 911, they won’t answer or they will go to the wrong address,” Nadeau said. “The executive has excuses and refuses to share data and facts. I’ve been offered briefings, but not data.”
D.C. Council Officially Extends United Negro College Fund Property Tax Abatement
On its first reading, the D.C. Council unanimously approved the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Real Property Tax Abatement Amendment Act, which, as the name suggests, renews property tax relief that UNCF secured in 2010 during its move into the Progression Place mixed-use development in Shaw.
The property tax relief amounts to more than $500,000 in the 2025 fiscal year. It will be extended for another decade.
This legislation, placed on the non-consent agenda, sparked some conversation about what qualifies an entity for property tax relief, and the steps that can be taken to prevent lapses in such arrangements, much like what happened to UNCF in 2022.
D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said that, as the District struggles to generate revenue in the post-pandemic era, the council must develop a system to scrutinize every property tax relief proposal. Though he later expressed support for UNCF on the dais, McDuffie, chair of the council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development, noted that the legacy nonprofit, unlike many Black-owned businesses in the District, owns its building.
“It’s important to see if it’s still needed,” McDuffie told his colleagues during the council’s Sept. 17 breakfast. “It’s important for those folks getting tax abatements to track expiration so we can get ahead of it and have a process in place to see if it’s needed in advance of it lapsing.”
During a committee hearing that McDuffie conducted earlier this year, representatives of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer said that, given its small tax liability and financial health, property tax relief wasn’t necessary. Desiree Boykin, UNCF’s general counsel and senior vice president, later pushed back against that assertion.
“UNCF is deeply committed to fiscal responsibility and the wellbeing of the community and the great people of Washington, D.C. However, as a non-profit organization, UNCF exists for public benefit and does not have exhaustive financial resources,” Boykin said during the Jan. 24 committee hearing. “While we have been fortunate to attract significant financial resources in the aftermath of the pandemic, we must point out that the majority of these resources are restricted funds and are designated for specific use to support scholarships and programs that directly benefit our HBCU member institutions and students they serve.”
In the era of gentrification, moving into a commercial area, much less staying there, has become increasingly difficult. Due to a recession-era drop in stock prices, Radio One pulled out of the Progression Place project in 2010, despite the council and then-D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s approval of a nearly $30 million package of subsidies.
However, UNCF would occupy that space, acting as an anchor for housing and small businesses along 7th Street, including Wanda’s on 7th. D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), author of the UNCF Real Property Tax Abatement Amendment Act, said that, in order for that arrangement to continue, the District must make the proper investments.
“Their continued existence is important to the community,” Nadeau said. “We do all types of things in development projects. Sometimes, in order to make the financing work, you have to use government resources and tax abatements. Some of the [tenants] have struggled with common area management fees. We tried to help but it’s challenging with an expensive area.”