are you guys ready time right I'm calling to order of this meeting this is an additional meeting meeting of the committee of the whole of the Council of the District of Columbia I'm Phil Mendelson chair of the council and chair of the committee of the whole today is Tuesday November 7th 2023 the time is 10:06 in the afternoon and this meeting is being held uh largely in council chambers room 500 of the Johnny Wilson building although there may be a member participating virtually um we have have roughly eight measures for markup in the committee the whole and then roughly 20 measures that are being reported out of other committees um we begin our committee the whole meetings our additional committee the whole meetings with a roll call to determine whether we have a qu Mr Cash chairman Mendon pres council member Allen here council member Bond here council member fruman present council member gray council member gray council member Henderson here council member leis George here council member McDuffy here council member nidau here council member Parker council member Parker council member Pinto council member Pinto council member Robert White president council member Tron white pres Mr chair Mr chairman you have a quum uh thank you Mr Cash um the first four measures for markup in the committee the whole are resolutions confirming M nominations related to the Department of buildings I'm going to speak uh to the first PR 25- 289 director of the Department of buildings Brian J handland confirmation resolution of 2023 a little bit more gen generally and then uh take each of these resolutions in turn and December 2020 the council approved the department of buildings establishment Act of 2020 which split the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs into two agencies one being the department of licensing and consumer protection and the other being the department of buildings as noted in the committee report for the law that created these new agencies DC law 23- 269 the Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs had long failed to adequately enforce housing code enforcement punish illegal construction uh and identify and register vacant and blighted properties these failures were the impetus for the introduction and passage of DC law 23269 which was fully funded by the council in the fiscal year 2022 local budget Act of 2021 the responsibilities of the department are significant and include permitting building code INSP inspection and enforcement the surveyor's office zoning Administration enforcement of vacant and blighted of the vacant and bled property registration law and housing code inspection and enforcement the impact of the Department's work is felt every day by homeowners business owners and tenants across the district the department is comprised of five offices each of these offices was created by the council via DC law 23- 269 the office of Construction and building standards is led by the Chief Building official the office of zoning administrator is led by the zoning administrator the office of residential inspection is led by the chief inspection official and the office of strategic code enforcement is led by the Strategic enforcement administrator these positions are also subject to confirmation by the council pursuant to DC law 23269 now the first of these four resolutions is PR 25289 District of Department excuse me director of the Department of buildings Brian J handland confirmation resolution of 2023 the on June 15th of this year the mayor U introduced uh PR 25289 to confirm the appointment of Brian handland as director of the Department of buildings Mr hanin is a native of the district and a resident of Ward 6 after receiving his bachelor's degree Mr hland worked at several architectural firms before becoming vice president at brailsford and dun Ley a national program management firm that oversees the financing design and construction of major projects for colleges Secondary Schools elementary schools and professional sports organizations in 2008 Mr hanen became executive program manager in the department of real estate services within the district government and in 2011 he was appointed as director of the newly created Department of General Services appointed by then mayor Vincent gray Mr Hanan served as director of dgs until early 2015 after which he held high level positions at several firms in the private sector including scansa USA Building Inc and lqu Global Group LLC Mr hanah's background and experience is well suited for the position of director Mr Helen has held numerous management level positions throughout his career he oversaw the implementation of a multitude of major construction and real Pro real estate projects and uh has shown a willingness to collaborate and critically examine departmental policies and procedures and has been responsive to the requests and concerns of District residents Mr Hanan in his testimony before the committee at a public round table or public hearing um said and I agree that the creation of this department and his appointment as the Director an opportunity to rethink many of the Department's previous standard operating procedures its workflow structural Arrangements Mr hland has already shown a willingness to examine and modify workflows and standard operating procedur when necessary during his 10 years acting director for instance new Sops for illegal construction inspections have already been developed and approved uh it is hopeful that Mr Hen will continue to critically examine the Department's standard operating procedures and workflows as new issues emerge the department of buildings plays a critical role in the safety and well-being of District residents and economic development in the district to execute its duties effectively and efficiently the department needs a director who is willing to work collaboratively think critically about departmental policies and procedures and communicate with residents and other stakeholders clearly and effectively moreover the department needs an experienced leader who elevates a commitment to service and Mission among all of the agency's 374 employees based on his work history experience and vision the committee assuming we approve this believes Mr hany will do just that this resolution was introduced at the request of the mayor on June 15 20123 the committee of the whole held a public hearing on October 18th 2023 in part we waited uh so that there was some experience with Mr hanen as director uh there was quite a bit of testimony at the hearing some of it was critical of the agency or its predecessor but I think it's fair to say that there was little of any criticism of the nominee himself I moved the resolution would leave her staff I move the committee print with Le for staff to make Technical and conforming changes is there discussion council member Lewis chge thank you chairman um as co-chair of oversight for do um I wanted to uh note that um I support uh director hanin's uh POS appointment to this position he shown an early willingness to address vacant and blighty issues um not just in War 4 but throughout Wards in the city uh he took his team took the effort to go through to various Wards in the city with the w council members and go through some of the vacant emited properties that they have been experiencing um he's helped uh be explain the inner workings of the department with uh the recent dob day um that event for Council staff um and others and has uh continued to show willingness to be uh transparent with uh what the inner workings of Department of buildings are every day um he and his team have shown an interest in making necessar reforms uh and changes as necessary and has worked closely with your uh committee uh and bla stummel uh on the o uh on working together the working group of addressing vacant and blant properties and so I look forward to working with him in the future um and I I what I appreciate is his experience and expertise in this area and his experience as a leader um and so I hope my our colleagues would join in supporting uh him as the chair uh as the director for Department of buildings thank you council member council member rinto thank you very much Mr chairman I just want to note that I've been very impressed with director hanin um and his management of the department of building since he first took position in May of this year acting director hanin has done an excellent job of leading an agency created just over a year ago from a tumultuous DC and I really appreciate that acting director hanin um has had such uh focus and diligence and passion for his new role and I want to thank him and his team especially will damning Jenna Daly and Deion Williams for their receptiveness and very quick responsiveness to me and my team over the last several months acting director hanen from the start of his appointment um has been very responsive when he began his tenure I joined him for a walk around Shaw to discuss challenges that we were having with vacant properties the Department's work to improve the tracking of vacant buildings and the continuation of our vacant visual program is very encouraging for our broader goals and needs around Public Safety in the district the public dashboard that dob launched under acting director hanin's leadership has expanded agency transparency and importantly allows our residents to seek information out about landlord violations housing inspections and agency performance whenever they need it so we continue to be eager to see doob improve their performance under acting director hanan's leadership um and I look forward to being part of that partnership as we support this nomination today thank you thank you council member there's no further discussion the vote will be on the print with leave for staff you ready to do roll call but I think all the members are present oh I see council member gray online uh Mr Cash would you call the role Council McDuffy yes Council McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman mendleson votes yes council member noo yes council member noo votes yes council member Parker council member Parker council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tron white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member Bond votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member L George votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses one absent uh thank you Mr Cash the uh committee print is approved unanimously I move the report with leap for step to make technical con in editorial changes discussion um I think we can do a voice vote on the report with Le for staff all those in favor say I I opposed uh the vote is unanimous the report is approved Madame General council is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is madam but Madam Secretary is the record complete once the report is filed Madame budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the second measure is PR 25- 469 the purpose of this uh resolution would be to confirm the appointment of Nicole Rogers as Chief Building official of the Department of buildings for a term of five years the Chief Building official administers determines compliance with the construction codes which include the building code the residential code the mechanical code and the property maintenance code these codes set minimum standards for house structural systems Plumbing Heating ventilation air conditioning and other aspects of buildings should be designed and constructed to effectuate the duties of the role the Chief Building official heads the office of construction and building standards there are six divisions within this office permitting operations construction compliance building inspection Green Building surveyor's office and third-party inspection program these divisions handle critical functions of the department including permit review building code inspection and the surveyor office given the importance of the Chief Building official within the department the council legislated minimum requirements for the position pursuant to the law the Chief Building official must have not less than eight years of senior level experience and a demonstrated record in administering building standards Nicole Rogers is a native of the district having grown up in Brightwood Park in W four she currently lives in Ward 7 M Rogers began her service to The District in 2011 at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs reading from the report the committee believes that Miss Rogers work history and experience adheres to the requirements of the code which requires of the DC official code which requires the Chief Building official to have at least eight hours of senior level experience in her testimony to the committee Miss Rogers said that if confirmed her vision includes providing strategic leadership to strengthen the Department's Frontline teams improving how the office engages with customers and establishing proactive methods to enhance Public Safety uh this resolution and the two to follow were introduced at the request of the mayor on October 3rd of 2023 and this resolution and the two to follow were subject of a public hearing by the committee on October 18 2023 and I don't believe there was any testimony and opposition to this nomination there's no objection now move both the print and Report with lead for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion uh Mr Cash would you call the role chairman mson yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member Nido yes council member Nido votes yes council member Parker Council Parker council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member trayon white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bons votes yes council member fruman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member LS George yes council member Le George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent the print and Report are approved unanimously Madam General councel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's record complete once the report is filed mam budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection the resolution will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting PR 25-47 would confirm the appointment of Kathleen Beaton as zoning administrator of the Department of buildings for a term of five years the zoning administrator heads the office of zoning Administration which is responsible for the administration and determination of compliance with the zoning regulations of the District of Columbia for fiscal year 2024 the office has 17 full-time equivalent employees and a budget of $2.18 million pursuant to the law zoning administrator must have not less than eight years of senior level experience in interpreting and enforcing zoning regulations originally from Michigan Miss Beaton received a Masters in City and Regional planning at br University she worked as a zoning board secretary and planner for the township of Cherry Hill then spent 13 years as an urban planner and division Chief in the city of Alexandria in 2010 Miss beon began working for the district as Deputy zoning administrator for the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs a position she held until being nominated as zoning administrator the law requires the zoning administrator to have at least eight years of senior level experience in interpreting and enforcing regulations Miss Pon has over Decades of experience in Planning and Zoning Administration much of it at a senior level which far exceeds the statutory requirements at the committee's hearing Miss Beaton said her immediate priorities for the office of zoning Administration would be filling vacant positions the committee hopes that Miss Beaton will also prioritize clear consistent interpretation of zoning regulations several public Witnesses at the Committee hearing on Miss beaton's nomination spoke to the sometimes inconsistent decision ISS made by the prior zoning administrator inconsistency creates confusion could creates counterproductive litigation and is inefficient and diminishes public respect for the agency without objection I move both the print and Report would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion Mr Cash would you call the role council do yes council member no votes yes council member Parker council member Parker council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes Council Robert White votes yes council member Tron white yes council member Tron white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonss yes council member bonds votes yes council member Freeman yes council member frean votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George councilman Lis George councilor McDuffy yes councilor McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendon yes chairman Mendon votes yes Mr chairman there are 11 yeses and two absent I believe councilor Lewis George is here yes counc Le George votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent uh the print and reporter approved unanimously Madam General councel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary is the record complete once the report is filed mam budget director does the measure's fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next measure is pr25 d471 department of building strategic enforcement administrator Keith Parson's confirmation resolution of 2023 purpose of this resolution is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Keith Parsons for a term of five years the duties of the Strategic enforcement administrator the position for which Mr Parsons is nominated include developing and implementing strategic and data-driven deployment of the department enforcement efforts and Advising the Chief Building official and chief inspection official accordingly monitoring violations to ensure that the Chief Building official and chief inspection official are scheduling timely reinspection and that the appropriate documentation and data are being captured tracking and enforcing collection of fines and making referrals to the Office of the Attorney General when necessary developing and implementing consistent enforcement procedures and standards and managing and tracking the enforcement history of individual projects professionals and properties to identify repeat violators or Trends in construction housing code or maintenance violations and developing plans to detect and deter future violations Mr Parsons is a resident of w one originally from West Virginia Mr Parsons moved to The District in 2005 to study law in November 2011 he joined the district government in the Office of the Attorney General since March 2020 Mr Parsons has served in a variety of roles at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs and now the department of buildings including attorney advisor and Regulatory enforcement administrator in his testimony to the committee Mr Parson said his vision for enforcement at the department of buildings is to streamline the customer service experience to quickly identify code violations and their consequen clearly communicate and appropriate clearly communicate the appropriate ask to the responsible party and offer a resolution for compliance escalate if necessary violations to adjudication and where appropriate calling in a sister agency or referring the matter to another Prosecuting Authority and ensuring that the department is transparent Mr person's history and experience demonstrate that he can tackle complex issues in a collaborative manner no objection I move both the print and Report with lead for staff to make technical technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion C would you call the RO council member Parker Council Parker yes Council Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tran white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member freman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member leis George votes yes council member McDuffy yes Council McDuffy votes yes Mendon yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member noo yes Council M noo votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash the um print report approved unanimously Madam General councel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's the record complete the report is filed Madam budget director does the measure fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the ENT agenda for today's legislative meeting the next measure for markup is PR 25- 389 students in the care of DC Coordinating Committee Nikki cardamone confirmation resolution of 2023 the purpose of this resolution is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Nikki cardamone for appointment to the students in the care of DC Coordinating Committee to serve a term of four years expiring in nove on November 15 20 25 the students in the care of DC Coordinating Committee Act of 2018 created the students in the care of DC Coordinating Committee which is a public body composed of non-government residents and agency representatives to support planning policymaking program development and budgeting for successful educational outcomes for students in the care of DC the focus of the Coordinating Committee is on District residents under 25 years of age who are in incarcerated or detained or detained by or committed to and under the custody of or otherwise under the supervision of the Department of youth rehabilitation services the court services and offender supervision agency the pre-trial Services Agency for the District of Columbia the family court Social Services Division the Child and Family Services Agency the Department of Corrections and the Federal Bureau of Prisons Nikki cardamon is a senior education attorney with the children's law Center's healthy together medical legal partnership and the guardian ad lium program she represents parents and caregivers primarily in general and Special Education cases as well as providing technical assistance and consultation to Guardians at lium on education related issues for youth who are the subject of abuse and neglect cases uh given her commitment to the mission of the Coordinating Committee and her experience on these issues uh assuming that the committee approves this the committee recommends the appointment of Miss cardamone to the students in care of DC Coordinating Committee this legislation was introduced uh at the request of the mayor on September 18th of this year the committee of the whole held a public Roundtable on October 27th 2023 and there was no testimony and opposition to the nominee there's no objection n move both the print and Report would lead for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion Mr chairman Mr Parker can you confirm where Miss camont lives a better question would be can you confirm whether or not miss cardamon is a district resident I believe she's not a DC resident thank you further discussion the vote will be on the print and Report Mr KES would you call the role council member Pinto yes counc Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tron white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allan yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fruman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member Le George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman m son yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member Nido yes council member noo votes yes council member Parker no council member Parker votes no Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one no thank you Mr Cash the um print and Report are approved Madame general counsel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's direct complete once the report is filed Madame budget director does the measure's fiscal impact statement comp with Council requirements yes it does no objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting next measure is pr25 d413 District of Columbia Retirement Board of Trustees Adam we's appointment resolution of 2023 it should be reappointment resolution that will be one of the technical directions the purpose of of this resolution is to reappoint Adam we as one of the three Council appointees to the District of Columbia Retirement Board Mr we is a resident of w five if approved Mr we would serve a four-year term to end January 27th 2027 we're going to double check I think he he's in he's a district res pres Mr Parker but I don't know that he's still a resident of w five um if approved Mr we would serve a four-year term to end January 27 2027 Mr we holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from morouse college a master's degree in financial County from Georgia State University and a masters of Business Administration from Harvard University currently Mr we serves as the Chief Operating Officer for traml Crow company where he administers the investment committee and executive committee process processes and overseas marketing the DC Retirement Board is an independent agency of the District of Columbia government it manages two plans the DC police officers and firefighters retirement fund and the District of Columbia teachers retirement fund while other cities and states are struggling to figure out how they are going to pay their government employees when they retire the police and firefighters retirement plan is over 114% funded and the teachers retirement plan is over 98% funded indeed taken together the district's plans are the highest funded public pension system in the United States such success is a direct result of The Prudent and wise management of the plans by the Retirement Board trustees moreover because of the collective excuse me because of the collaborative atmosphere between Retirement Board and the council the board and the council have been able to work together on issues such as fossil fuel divestment and this too contributes to a success of the plans managed by the Retirement Board and I might note as well diversification of fund managers they are committed to that and have been working on that um Mr we's experience on the board because this is a reappointment as well as his knowledge of finances investment make him a valuable member of the Retirement Board this resolution was introduced by me on September 19th 2023 the committee of the whole held a public Roundtable on October 31st 2023 the committee received no testimony or comments in opposition to this reappointment without objection I move both the print and Report would lead for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion yes Mr chairman I'm told he's award three resent okay council member buns thank you very much chairman um I wanted to ask about the membership of the Retirement Board what is the number me um there are three appointed by the council three appointed by the mayor that's six there are active firefighters police and teachers that gets us to nine and a retired firefighter police officer and teacher that gets us to 12 and one ex official not sure if she can vote from the cfo's office all right and how many of those individuals members are are any required to be DC residents uh I think the statute is acquired on that I believe that uh the there might be some non-residents but they would be the um firefighters or police officers or teachers I don't have their addresses in front of me so I don't and I do understand why some of those members uh might not be DC residents because we do not require our firefighters in fact we don't require our First Responders to be DC residents but I do question um the flow of resources out of the city on a regular basis when we have a preponderance of these individuals um perhaps not DC residents um and we can't really tax the money that we're paying them I guess um because they don't live in the city so I was just very curious about that I I think it's an area that we need to look closer at because we're looking at how we spend our money in general um been things get tight you begin to tighten the belt so just wondering if we would want to look at that and I understand that their salaries are pretty high well the board uh has a fiduciary responsibility unlike many of our most of our boards and commissions they manage roughly 10 billion doll in assets and those assets are to the benefit I belong to the police fire and teach um yes that's why they're active and retired from all three of those vocations the council appointments uh our rules generally require we went through this discussion a couple months ago that appointments by the council should be DC residents we do weigh that from time to time I take seriously trying to find individuals who are DC residents uh Mr wears is a DC resident Mr Blanchard is a DC resident and miss BR is a DC resident those are our three appointments the mayor has three and um I believe that well I know one of the Mayors is vacant and the other two I believe are DC residents Clark and Tracy are the Mayors appointees um male female or are there any female appointed to this important um board so um Tracy Harris is uh I assume a female the one yes all right thank you very much Mr chairman one one of the retired teachers is a female it's a fair point that there's not a lot of gender diversity great I mean we have a many of the employees in the district government are female and I just want to make sure that we are more adequately represented um so that's the nature Bond I'm not feeling defensive at all but I think of the roughly 70 appointments that I've either nominated or made in the last three months that the majority of them are female well kutos to you and I believe virtually all of them are DC residents thank you I I I'll be happy to share that list with you and and I and I'm not trying to create a a a quiet storm here but I'm just simply saying that that you know this is something we've got to be conscious of we we we we talk a lot about Service delivery and we talk about the direction our government is moving in in our communities and women are in this community totally and and as long as I'm on this Council I'm gonna stand up for us council member Bond I will be happy to review with you all the appointments that I have made all right well well noted thank you chairman uh if there's no further discussion the vote will be on the print and Report with Lee for staff to make technical conf technical confirming an editorial changes what resolution are we on is this Retirement Board yes Adam Adam we Mr Cash council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tran White yes council member TR white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member Freeman yes council member Freeman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member Lewis George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman mendleson yes chairman yes chairman mendleson votes yes council member noo yes council member no votes votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes Council Pinto votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash uh the print report are approved unanimously Madam general counsel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretary's record complete once the hearing record and Report are [Music] files Madame budget director does the measure's fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does no objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting this is getting a little rough here we got two more um uh without objection I'm going to move them together pr25 d417 Commission on out of school time grants and youth outcomes Andrea Jones confirmation resolution of 2023 and pr25 d418 the commission on out of school time grants and youth outcomes Joanne lamparter confirmation resolution of 2023 uh the purpose of PR 25417 is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Miss Andrea Jones for appointment to the commission on out of school time grants and youth outcomes to serve a three-year term to end on November 7th 2025 and the purpose of 25418 is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Miss Joanne Larter for appointment to the commission on out of school time grants and youth outcomes to serve for a three-year term to end on November 7th 2025 the commission is a public body composed of government agency representatives and stakeholders to support Equitable access to highquality out of school time programs for district youth the commission coordinates among government agencies targets Grant making collects and evaluates data and considers the provision of training capacity building and technical assistance to out of schooltime providers the commission shall consist of no more than 21 members for 14 are serving currently who represent Key Community stakeholder constituencies or District agency administrative heads or their design needes uh Andrea Jones is a committed and effective advocate for students with disabilities Miss Jones started her advocacy Journey for special needs children in 2017 when her daughter was diagnosed with ASD she realized the importance of early diagnosis and intervention for children with autism and has advocated for early intervention measures within the healthc care field she has a passion for educating people on Mental Health to reduce the stigma in minority communities and increase education on early intervention she is currently a member of pave p parent Amplified voices in education uh she is currently a member of parent and alumni Leadership Council for DC Public Charter School Board and an aie surate education parent um Miss lamparter serves as the artistic director of Education and theater for change for imagination stage I read that poorly it serves as the artistic director of education and theater for change for imagination stage in this role she has led the organization school and Community Partnerships theater arts training programs and the development of new work based on youth voices under lamparter leadership imagination stages youth programming has been featured at International festivals national conferences at local universities and even on cap Hill Miss lamparter is a leader in arts education and has over 20 years of experience serving government and nonprofit agencies administering programs researching and teaching both of these measures were introduced at the request of the mayor on September 19th 2023 and the committee of the whole held a public Roundtable on both on October 27th 2023 and with regard to both the commit receive no testimony or comments in opposition to the nominee if there's no objection I will move the prints and reports for both pr25 d417 and 25418 in block with leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is their discussion Mr Cash would you call the role council member Tran white yes Council Tron white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member lewi George votes yes council member McDuffy yes Council McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendon yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member Nido yes council member Nido votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes Council Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes Council Rober white votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash both the prints and reports for both PRS are approved unanimously Madame general counsel are these two measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are Madam Secretary is to record complete for each once hearing records and reports are filed Madam budget director do the measures fiscal impact statements comply with Council requirements yes they do without without objection these measures will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting we will turn now to measures from other committees uh the first is from the committee on educ Executive Administration and labor chaired by council member Anita bonds it is PR 25-31 director of the District of Columbia Department of Human Resources Charles Hall Junior confirmation resolution 2023 council member V thank you uh Mr chairman um I move Mr Charles Hall Jr's nomination to the full Council the DC Department of Human Resources provides Human Resource Management Services that strengthen individual and organizational performance and enables the district government to attract develop and retain a well-qualified ified and diverse Workforce the agency offers executive management to District government officials and the agencies by providing Personnel related services to help each agency meet daily mission mandates moreover the agency provides the government employees with a variety of services including employe benefits um compensation guidance performance management compliance Learning and Development Mr Hall is currently the acting director of the department he is a career-long human resources professional with 15 years of progressive responsibility and Leadership prior to his appointment he served as the assistant vice president of human resources and payroll at the Baltimore City Community he in 2008 began his human resources career as an administrator and from 2012 to 13 he served as the Personnel generalist in the Baltimore City Department of Public Works conducting a range of administrative actions to support continuity of the operations and achievement of core missions more recently through 2022 he horned his experience and leadership in the Baltimore city schools holding several leadership positions including manager of the school based Staffing and director of Employee Engagement um with that I want to present Mr Hall's nomination for a full Council vote um as a matter of business his nomination would silently be deemed approv on December the 12 2023 and so today's vote would be to affirm that process um and so with that I thank you Mr chairman thank you council member Bond are there questions Madame General councel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is madam secretary's the record complete yes it is Madame budget director does the measures impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next measure is from the committee on facilities and Family Services ched by council member Janice Lewis George pr25 d285 director of the Department of General Services deleno Hunter confirmation resolution of 2023 council member lwi George uh thank you chairman uh pr- pr25 - 285 the director of Department general service Leno Hunter confirmation resolution 2023 was introduced on June 15 2023 by you chairman M and another the request of the mayor uh this resolution would confirmed Mr Delano Hunter current acting director as the permanent director for the Department of General services that are known as dgs the committee held a public hearing on the proposed resolution on July 13 2023 and it was unanimously approved at markup held on October 23rd 2023 actor director Hunter has the experience and qualifications and temperament to lead the multifaceted work of dgs across its seven divisions Mr Hunter is a n native Washingtonian and Ward five resident with extensive District government management experiencing experience having led the department of Parks and Recreation DPR for five years uh and simultaneously served as the interm director for the office of neighborhood safety and engagement one's office from March of 2022 to March of 2023 acting director Hunter experienced leading DPR included work with each of bgs's Divisions including its Capital Construction Division where he helped oversee more than 60 60 capital projects totaling 156 million the committee received testimony from over 20 public Witnesses related to Mr Hunter's nomination several spoke in favor of him personally as a native Washingtonian as a war five resident as a Well regged Community leader several others including teachers and parents from DC public schools largely expressed concern about D s's recent struggles with maintaining our public school facilities since taking over leadership of this Committee in January oversight of dgs has been a primary focus Mr Hunter has led in an acting Capa capacity since March 2023 and his testimony focused on opportunities for DJs Improvement uh we organized a school and park Readiness tours in all eight W Wards earlier this summer uh and director and his and Hunter and his team was with us throughout these tours together we developed a list of work to complete to improve maintenance of these facilities systemically throughout the system from the systemic issues we were able to raise uh during these visits in our V first day of schools together this fall here's a few of the things we plan to tackle together DJs will strengthen its communication with client agencies including DCPS DPR and other uh District agencies we will continue to work uh do continue to do tours uh to resolve other systemic issues in other uh buildings and we will continue to create uh Communications between the council dgs and our Community Partners as well preventative maintenance as Capital Improvements plan continues to develop this will be more and more important as we transition uh into a uh predominantly preventative maintenance uh agency at some point preventive maintenance is going to go a long way and this is what we're g uh something we're going to focus on contractor accountability and work order Integrity we just had a hearing on this last month but it's clear that many work waters are still getting closed out uh without the work really happening so together director and Hunter are and I are putting uh improving accountability tools for vendors and to ensure School Readiness and lastly training is a big area ensuring all of our re relevant client agency staff like for foremen and custodians know how to use Salesforce is essential and that Salesforce is going to be used to its greatest potential there's more detail in our committee report posted on limbs uh and so I want to thank thank you again to Mr Hunter for his willingness to take on this role and serve uh and uh I request this resolution be placed on the consent agenda of our upcoming legislative meeting thank you thank you council member Le George other questions from Members I have comment chairman uh only questions are in order during committee the whole if you want to speak to it you can uh put on non-consent it all right I'm trying to frame this as a question um forget it I'll just say it you just cut me off um um I'm in support of uh Mr Hunter uh for a number of reasons he forly was the director of Department of pox and Rex and one of the things I admire about Mr hunter that he didn't avoid the hard challenges and hard conversations even when it when it wasn't a pretty conversation right um in all parts of the city and all ethnicities backgrounds uh of people in the district and so DJs uh I still don't believe that dgs need to be broken up but in the interim uh is my hope that uh Mr Hunter uh spand some of this leadership over at dgs so we can get some things done with our facilities going D of repairs and maintenance and just oversight um and so I want to thank you council member uh Janice Louis George for uh this nomination through the mayor and I'm in support of it today and is my hope to work closely with you guys I know we did a few walks in the community which I admire your leadership in that to get our schools fixed up our libraries recreation centers and all our facilities back where they need to be thank you thank you if if there are no questions we will Mr chairman I have a question yes council member Henderson thank you um council member Le George thank you for that uh presentation um uh of the nominee um I intended part of the hearing I do have a question um as I wasn't able to ask on the record but it's more or less around um committee oversight so there are obviously several projects that dgs manages throughout the portfolio one in particular that um has taken um what is this uh at least three years at this point is the building of the first dog park um in w 7 it would be the first dog park um east of the anacosta river that we've been working on since I became a council member that we had a contractor the contractor was fired it's still not done delays Etc and so I just want to ask I have had extensive conversations with director Hunter about this project but I just want to ask for the committee's um partnership and working to ensure that this project is completed in the spring of 24 um thank you for that question we will absolutely work um with DG with with with dgs um as far as managing timelines and communication around the capital project um and so we'll be happy to work with you and ensure that that happens timely great thank you thank you um question counc thank you chairman um I guess to um councilwoman leis George I wanted to know when we talk about the acreage of green space that is managed by this important agency does that also include the new beginnings Green Space I think it's something like 167 Acres um um you talking about New Beginnings or you talking about the um or Green Space the green space but it's in that it's okay rounding that property yeah oh okay so yes um we are but I do have pending legislation that I just introduced uh to to deal with this issue but um as of right now we do manage our forest lands DJs does man manage our forest lands and Acres um but that did offer a legislation to create an office of Natural Area conservation within do to start handling some of that work um that that is pending um just because of of my assessment of how those are being managed right now under dgs and I think the expertise is um how in a different agency so thanks all right thank you very much if there no further questions Madame General council is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's the record complete yes it is mam budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement complete comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next measure was reported out of the committee on Judiciary and Public Safety shared by council member Brooke Pinto pr25 d384 chief of the metrol and police department Pamela A Smith confirmation resolution of 2023 Council Mento thank you Mr chairman today I am moving to confirm our next chief chief police Pamela A Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department this is PR 25- 384 the resolution was introduced by chairman Mendelson at the request of the mayor on September 18th 2023 and the committee held a public Roundtable on the resolution on September 27th 2023 this confirmation comes at a critical time for both the district and the Metropolitan Police Department the district faces significant increases in violent crime and property crime while MPD similarly faces officer hiring and retention issues the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department plays a crucial role in developing policing strategies working with other agencies to ensure Public Safety and protecting the safety and well-being of our MPD officers doing this important Public Safety work every day fortunately I'm confident that acting Chief Smith will be a strong successor to Chief KY in this important role acting Chief Smith has demonstrated both her ability and her willingness to combat the issues facing our city and MPD she has 25 years of law enforcement experience ranging from patrol officer to chief of the United States Park police and issues spanning Homeland Security to Workforce diversity in her time leading the department so far acting Chief Smith has spearheaded several initiatives that have shown some positive early signs for improving Public Safety in The District in particular she's created a robbery suppression initiative a violent crime suppression initiative and a traffic safety compliance checkpoint program she has also launched the multi- agency police and Community together program and has published a detailed strategic plan for reducing crime over the long term she has already become very involved in communities across the district engaging residents at their homes Public Safety meetings saf safy walks and responding to active crime scenes and as she has begun working alongside all of the DC agencies by meeting with their directors including the Department of Behavioral Health to address violence and crime through a whole of government approach I've been particularly impressed with her recognition of the important roles that families and Faith leaders have in improving Public Safety and her continued effort to reach out to these communities speak with them and listen to to them on what they need acting Chief Smith has been focused on strategies to retain officers and improve officer well-being in particular I understand she has been continuing Chief kti's work to use a cultural assessment of MPD conducted by The Police Executive Research Forum to identify additional areas for improvement none of these issues will be easy but after working with acting Chief Smith for the last several months and hearing her public testimony and the testimony of our public Witnesses Mr chairman may I have 30 additional seconds uh no objection two minutes after working with acting Chief Smith for the last several months and hearing from her at our public Roundtable as well as countless public Witnesses um me most of whom in support of her nomination I believe that she has the ability the experience and the commitment necessary to do this job well the nominees confirmation resolution was unanimous ly approved by my committee at a markup held on October 24th 2023 I understand that the resolution has now been placed on the non-consent agenda for today's legislative meeting I look forward to voting in support of acting Chief Smith's confirmation and I urge my colleagues to do the same thank you thank you are there questions from Members stress [Music] questions Madam General councel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is Madam Secretary is to record complete yes it is mam budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does this measure will be placed on the non-consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next next six measures were reported out of the committee on business and economic development shared by council member Ken McDuffy the first is pr25 d261 Launchpad development 3 DC LLC revenue bonds project approval resolution of 2023 council member McDuffy thank you Mr chairman PR 255-261 would authorize the issuance sale and delivery and the aggregate principal amount not to exceed $32 million of District of Columbia revenue bonds in one or more series and authorized the loan of the proceeds of the bonds to assist the borrower in obtaining funding to secure a long-term leasehold interest in its current W five campus operated as rocket ship Infinity Community prep located at 5450 thir Street Northeast this is one of three schools operated in the district by rocket ship Public Schools DC the committee received testimony and support from the executive indicating that this project satisfies the requirements of section 490 of the District of Columbia home rule Act with that uh I would move uh that the resolution be placed on the Cent agenda for the legislative meeting thank you Mr McDuffy other questions from [Music] Members mam General council is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's the record complete yes it is madam budget director does the measure fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting meeting if there's no objection uh Mr McDuffy will present the next two resolutions which concern the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board uh together pr25 d388 alcoholic beverage and cannabis board Donovan W Anderson confirmation resolution of 2023 NPR 25475 alcoholic beverage and cannabis board silus H Grant Jr confirmation resol of 2023 Mr McDuffy thank you Mr chairman I'm move with the next two measures as you mentioned in Block the first is PR 25- 388 the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board Donovan W Anderson confirmation resolution of 2023 this proposed resolution would confirm the reappointment of Donovan Anderson as a member of and as chairperson of the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board for a term to end on May 7th 2027 Mr Anderson has served on the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board since 2015 and currently serves as the chair outside of his board service Mr Anderson is a dedicated public servant has been an advocate for DC families with special education needs for nearly 20 years both inside and outside of the school system in 2000 he started his own Law Firm that specialized and representing families of children with special education needs he received his Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and a jsh doctor from Georgetown University Law Center Mr Anderson is a 22-year resident District of Columbia and currently resides in w 7 during the committee's markup we had a conversation about the importance of ensuring Geographic diversity uh on the ABC Board uh given that it is home to uh a number of uh residents that are currently unrepresented on the board uh we believe that there's additional members on the board and I have been in conversations with um the committee and executive office of the mayor to ensure that uh we meet this goal additionally uh I know there have been some other concerns raised about the ABC Board and his role it has to improve Public Safety in the district uh we've been in touch with the alcoholic beverage and cannabis Administration about that very point and they've assured me and my team that this is priority for them as well as has been demonstrated in their actions the next resolution is PR 25475 the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board Silas H Grant Jr confirmation resolution of 2023 this proposed resolution confirms the appointment of Silas Grant Jr as a member of the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board succeeding Ed grandis for a term to end on May 7th 20127 Mr Grant has dedicated his life to community engagement and activism in Washington DC Metropol are and dedicates much of his time to volunteerism as well as developing the next generation of public leaders he served as an elected official in the District of Columbia as a former advisory neighborhood commissioner and a former chair of the war five Democrats and has assisted in the implementation of gang and violence prevention programs throughout the District of Columbia Mr Grant received the Bachelor of Science and accounting from Hampton University and he is a w five resident also want to just reiterate something that I shared during the commit markup um Mr Grant has a deep background in working on public safety issues so that's going to help enhance the ABC board's ability to respond to District residents and businesses public safety concerns um with that I would move in Block uh that and ask the resolutions be paced on the agenda for the council's November legislative meeting thank you counc Mia are there questions from Members I'm General are these two measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are mam secretary is the record complete for each yes and budget director does do the measures fiscal impact statements comply with Council requirements yes uh without objection pr25 d475 will be on the consent agenda and pr25 d388 will be on the nonconsent agenda it's right now listed as consent but it will be nonconsent uh Bill 2571 Children's National Hospital research and Innovation campus Equitable tax relief Amendment Act of 2023 council member McDuffy the purpose of bill 2-71 is to permanently enact the substance the emergency and temporary legislation passed by this Council earlier this Council period this bill amends the CD requirements that are conditions of the real property tax exemption provided in 2020 to Children's National Hospital to support the Redevelopment of the research and Innovation Campus located at Lots 824 and 826 in square 2950 the original tax exemption required childrens to meet 35% CB subcontracting spin requirements on an annual basis this bill changes the annual spend goal to a Project based goal giving children's more flexibility in the construction of the campus without lowering the overall subcontracting spin requirement the bill also changes the enforcement provision for penalties in the event the spin goal is not met all these changes are supported by the department of small and local business development that I move and ask that the bill be placed on the consent agenda for uh the legislative meeting to follow thank you Mr McDuffy are there questions from Members M General council is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is M secretary's record complete yes yes it is madam budget director does measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does is there a fiscal impact there is not no objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting Bill 25-1 126 life and health insurance guarantee Association Amendment Act of 2023 Mr McDuffy thank you Mr chairman the purpose of Bill 25- 126 is to address changes in the long-term care insurance market and update the district's framework for addressing insurance insure insolvencies under existing law the life and health insurance guarantee Association intervenes in the event of an insolvency of a long-term care insure process the orderly payment of certain statutorily guaranteed benefits owed to the insolvent insur policy holders when there is a shortfall after the liquidation of the insolvent insurance assets the association pays these benefits by syst ing I'm Sorry by assessing current health insurers or life insurers that hold a health insurance license in practice when a long-term care insure goes insolvent Health insurers bear Approximately 80% of the assessment cost and life insurers with the health insurance licenses cover the remaining 20% this balance of cost sharing in the event of an insolvency is problematic because over time the long-term care insurance Market has shifted from primarily Health insurers to now mostly a few life and annuity insurers this bill is based on model legislation recently enacted in Most states to establish a more Equitable assessment system to better protect consumers and stabilize the insurance Market first the bill would change the Association membership by requiring all Health maintenance organizations to be members second the legislation would change how a long-term Health Care insurance insolvency is assessed from having only health insurance assessed for the insolvency of a longterm care insur to having both health and life insurers assessed third the bill would make changes to the operation of the associ Association by removing the insolvency provisions and the health maintenance organization Act of 1996 in its place the bill will require hmos with members in the district to be covered by the insolvency provisions administered by the Association finally the legislation will allow the association to fire for Justified rate changes clarify health care products covered by the Association and increase the board membership to between s 11 members the committee received testimony describing how fragile the long-term health insurance Market has proved including the impact of a relatively recent high-profile insolvency these reforms reflect a shift in the types of carriers that now offer these policies and enact a more balanced approach of how different types of insurers will share in future assessments after an insolvency this time I move uh actually I think we uh have it on the legislative agenda to move an amendment so I could wait till that point if you prefer chairman I can move it now uh well it is on nonconsent on the agenda so let's leave it there you'll move the amendment there sounds good are questions from Members Adam General council is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's the record complete yes it is M budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes does is there a fiscal impact there is not and this will be on the non-consent agenda because there's an amendment that was circulated and I believe linked on the agenda Bill 25-150 motor vehicle and homeowner insurance prior approval rate filing Amendment Act of 2023 Mr McDuffy thank you the purpose of bill 25-150 is to address a recent Trend in motor vehicle and homeowner insurance markets in the district where insurers have been requesting double digit rate increases in some cases the increases have been in excess of 20% in response the Department of Insurance Securities and banking also referred to as disb sought legislation to change how insures file for rate increases from the fou and use standard that exists under permanent law to a prior approval standard proposed in this legislation the Practical problem identified by disb with the filing you standard was that the department is often unable to review the rate filings and consult with the insurers to substantiate the rate increases before the rate increases take effect the bill changes the rate filing standard from motor vehicle and homeowner insurance rate filings to Prior approval and gives the department time to review the filings and ensure that the rate increases are neither excessive nor discriminatory before they become effective insurers are also required under this bill to provide at least 45 days advanc written notice of any rate increase a version of this legislation was passed as emergency and temporary legislation by the council in March and may of this year this bill now tracks the substance of provisions of the temporary Bill uh I ask that this be placed on the consent agenda for the legislative meeting to follow thank you Mr McDuffy are there questions from Members Madam General councel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is madam secretary's directed complete yes it is mam budget director does the measure fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does is there a fiscal impact there is not a fiscal impact without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next 12 measures were reported out of the committee on health shared by council member Christina hendri Anderson the first is PR 25- 386 censor the Council on the opioid INF fental epidemic resolution of 2023 council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman PR 25- 386 the sense of the Council on the opioid and fitel epidemic resolution of 2023 urges the mayor to declare the fitel and opioid crisis in the district of Public Health Emergency recognizing the seriousness of the situation committing sufficient resources to safeguard the well-being of District residents between 2018 and 2022 opioid related fatal overdoses in the district more than doubled from 213 to 461 lives lost in 2023 the city is on track to experience an increase from 2022 as there were already 296 opioid related fatalities in the district um as of a report from a couple of weeks ago alarmingly more than 90% of the opioid related fatal overdoses in the past three years were linked to fentanyl or its analoges the district's non-fatal overdose rate is even higher in FY 23 fems reported to approximately 5,261 suspected cases of overdoses with emergency Personnel administering Naran in about 2,435 of those cases the United States Department of Health and Human Services has already declared a national public health emergency in response to the opioid crisis neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland have also done this it is important for the district to do the same when the public health emergency is declared in the district and initiates a comprehensive response plan it also empowers the district to implement necessary policy and operational changes and heightens public awareness about the severity of the situation with that Mr chairman I move this resolution other questions from members and this will be on non consent Mr White uh thank you chairman and thank you council member uh Henderson um the statutory uh powers for the mayor uh under um uh emergency powers are very extensive and includes uh procurement Authority without regard to the law uh the power to destroy property that's real property or personal property in the district of Colombia to take land to regulate or stop distribution of of resources food to limit utilities uh detain people they are very extensive um we balance that against uh what is a very real emergency in our city hundreds of people losing their lives uh because of opioids and we're not doing enough um and we have to do more so my question is uh should the mayor agree to declare an emergency uh council member Henderson would you be open to evaluating the scope of powers that that we offer yes um council member um thank you so much for that question so as we discussed at the breakfast um because this is a sense of the council resolution we don't have the ability to um tailor specifically what we would like to see as the mayor would have to issue that order um but I've now talking I've spoken with her twice on this matter and I feel like um prior to her moving forward on something the council will have the opportunity to see specifically the parameter um I don't think anyone either party has an interest in um some broad reaching or broad spanding Authority in the same way that we saw during the public health emergency as um with the opioid uh crisis we wouldn't necessarily be asking the public to do particular actions in the same way that we asked them during coid whether it's wear a mask or stay home or anything to that effect um and so I think this is really tailored around how do we um one execute a very coordinated response plan to um stabilize and bring our numbers down um and two how do we ensure that the funding that we have received even from some of the opioid abatement settlement um dollars um do not get hamstrung in bureaucracy such that the money never gets out the door thank you council member bonds for a question yes for question thank you very much chairman and to um uh councilwoman Henderson I wonder in your discussions with the mayor about the extent of her exercising her Authority would you um consider um a chat about the utilization of group homes in communities because if we're talking about an epidemic and we're speaking of the need for um utilizing these resources to bring down the count within the epidemic it stands to reason we may have to create um living environments that would help with that and I just wondered if you would consider approaching that subject matter um thank you for that question council member bond that hasn't necessarily come up specifically in my conversations with the mayor but it has come up in conversations with the Department of Behavioral Health um we have a um we don't have an adequate number of residential treatment facilities particularly as it pertains to young people for instance so dbh actually currently has uh I don't know if it's a NOA or RFA out um now uh soliciting individuals to um operate a residential treatment facility for young people um but those types of conversations are happening with the opioid abatement commission um whose next meeting is tomorrow all right well thank you very much thank you if there no further questions Adam General council is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary is the record complete yes it is M budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does thank you this measure will be on the non-consent agenda for today's legislative meeting there's no objection to the next four measures all pertaining to the health benefit exchange Authority executive board will be moved or presented in Block there there PR 25-41 to confirm Henry J Aaron PR 25-42 to confirm Gabriela MSI PR 25-403 to confirm Leon coup and PR 25-44 to confirm Tamara Watkins council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman PR 24 uh excuse me 25-41 nominates Dr Henry Aaron for reappointment to the hbx board for term ending July 6 2025 he has served on the board since its founding in 2012 Dr Aaron is a senior fellow in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institute and is the former chair of the Social Security Advisory Board Dr Aaron has nearly 50 years of scholarly experience and is a national expert in Medicare Medicaid Social Security tax and budget policy and healthcare costs financing and access he earned his PhD in economics from Harvard University and he is a w one resident PR 25-42 nominates Gabriella MOSI for reappointment to the hbx board for term ending July 6 2026 Miss MOSI has served on the board since October 2020 um she leads the Uptown Community initiative a district based nonprofit that that addresses commercial revitalization for the last decade Miss MOSI has served as the exe executive director of the Washington English Center and the director of program and resource development at the greater Washington Hispanic chamber of commerce Foundation she is a w one resident PR 25-403 nominates Dr Leen cou for reappointment to the hbx board for term ending July 6 2025 Dr coup has served on the board since its founding in 20202 sorry in 2012 he is a 10-year professor of Health policy and management and the director of the center of Health policy and research at George Washington University milk in Institute School of Public Health Dr coup is a nationally recognized scholar in health policy and Health Services Research with more than 25 years of experience he earned his PhD in health policy from Boston University he is a w one resident and finally PR 25-44 nominates Tamara Watkins for reappointment to the hbx board for a term ending July 6 2027 Miss Watkins has served on the board since 2020 2015 she has over 21 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry she is currently an executive director of for oncology United States value and access at amen she also um has led programs at Amen to improve coordination of sales and marketing to meet the needs of consumers she's a w six resident um Mr chairman we held a hearing on all of these nominations and they did go through um markup through the committee so moved I asked that they be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting thank you council member are there questions from Members mam General Council are these four measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are M secretary is to record complete for each yes mam budget director do the measures physcal impact statements comply with Council requirements uh yes without objection these measures will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting there is no OB ction the next three measures which concern appointments confirmation of nominations for appointment to the board of psychology I'll be considered in Block pr25 d46 which would confirm Dr Jeri Co cosney PR 25-47 which would confirm Dr joet James PR 25-408 which would confirm Dr Anthony gimenez hearing no objection council member Henderson for all three thank you Mr chairman PR 2-46 n nominates Dr Jeremy uh kosy for an appointment to as a licensed psychologist member for the board to serve for the remainder of an unexpired term ending on November 30th 2024 Dr coosy is a licensed clinical psychologist in the district he's the founder of capital therapist Collective a private practice he holds several training C certifications including um from the APA emerging leaders in Psychology Dr cosney uh earned his Doctorate in Philosophy from poo Alto University he's a w five resident PR 25-47 nominates Dr joet James for a reappointment as a LIC and psychologist member for the board for a term ending November 30th 2025 Dr James is the director and owner of Alina Assessment Services she specializes in the diagnosis and assessment of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders particularly AU and Asperger syndrome Dr James has served as an expert witness in various States testifying on issues such as competency to stand trial Dr James earned her doctor in philosophy and Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University and she is a w one resident finally PR 25-48 nominates Dr Anthony Jimenez for reappointment as a licensed psychologist member of the board for term ending November 30th 2025 Dr Jimenez a licensed psychologist and current chairperson of the board operates a private practice focusing on adult therapy he provides counseling Psychotherapy and specializes in sex offender uh risk assessment with expertise working excuse me expertise and experience working with the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons he received his PhD from Florida State University he's Awards six president um again Mr chairman a hearing were held on all three of these nominations and I ask that they be placed on the consent agenda thank you council member Henderson other questions from members Madame General councel are these three measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are Madam secretary's direct record complete for each yes Adam budget director do the measures fiscal impact statements comply with Council requirements yes they do without objection these measures will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next three measures concern the board of Optometry if there's no objection I'll ask council member Henderson to present them in Block they are pr25 d414 to confirm the nomination of Dr Lisa Johnson pr25 D415 to confirm the nomination of Dr Gregory D Foley and pr25 d416 to confirm the nomination of Dr David Reed council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman pr25 d414 nominates Dr Lisa Johnson for reappointment to the board of Optometry Dr Johnson is currently the chairperson of the board of Optometry which she has served on since 2002 she has practiced optometry in the DC area since 1985 and has experienced working with children seniors and persons with disabilities Dr Johnson earned her doctor of Optometry from Pennsylvania College of Optometry she is award for Resident pr25 D415 nominates Dr Gregory Foley for appointment as an optometrist registered in the district Dr Foley has spent 15 years as a licensed optometrist in the district he's a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry the American op op metric Association um and an associate member of the DC op metric assoc Society he earned his doctor of Optometry from Pennsylvania College of Optometry and is a war I resident n pr25 d416 nominates Dr David Reid for reappointment to the board of Optometry Dr Reed has served on the board since 2002 he is currently a licensed optometrist practicing at I Central doctors of op of Optometry and has over 35 years of experience providing Optometry services and consultation Dr Reed received um his doctor of Optometry from Massachusetts College of Optometry and he is a War 3 president um a hearing was held on all three of these nominations and moved through the committee I ask that they be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting thank you thank you questions for members mam General councel are the three measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are M secretary is the record complete for each yes M budget director do the measures fiscal impact statements comply with Council requirements yes they do without objection these measures will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting PR 25477 Board of Occupational Therapy Frank Gainer confirmation resolution of 2023 council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman PR 25477 nominates Dr Frank gayner to the Board of Occupational Therapy Mr Gainer is currently the vice president of meetings and events at the American Occupational Therapy Association as well as a professor at Howard University's Department of occupational therapy and has been a practitioner in occupational therapy for 48 years Mr gayner previously served on the Board of Occupational Therapy from 2001 to 2009 and then again from 2014 to 2018 Mr G earned a Masters of Science uh excuse me a master of Health Science and occupational therapy from the University of Florida he's currently a War II resident a hearing was held on his nomination and I ask that um this nomination be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting thank you counil member are there questions from Members M General council is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is mam secretary's directed complete yes it is madam budget director does the measure phal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection in this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the last measure is pr25 d420 director of the Department of Licensing and consumer protection Tiffany Crow confirmation resolution of 2023 reported out of the Committee on Public Works and operations chaired by council member Brienne NAD council member n thank you chairman the purpose of pr25 d420 is to confirmed the mayoral appointment of Tiffany Crow as the Director of the Department of Licensing and consumer protection this resolution was introduced September 19th 2023 by chairman mendleson at the request of the mayor and was the subject of a public Roundtable held by the public works and operations committee on November 1st 2023 Miss Crow brings to dlcp over 15 years of experience including five years in the district government immediately prior to this appointment she served as associate Chief technology officer and previously spent several years at the consumer fin ccial Protection Bureau functions of dlcp are critical to the effective functioning of the district government and the economy after a period of significant change and transition this is a time for the agency to establish stability performance and public trust I Believe Miss Crow has the experience in management skill needed for the task ahead in the time she has served as acting director I found her to be engaged and responsive she has been present in the community and appears to give considerable strategic thought to how to implement new agency initiatives and mandates like the street vendor enforcement Amendment act that went into effect this year I want to note from my colleagues that the mayor relied on an interim director a dlcp since the agency's establishment on October 1st 2022 far longer than the 180 day limit I hope this is a practice we do not see any more of that said I'm looking forward to working with bcp's very first permanent director I think it's also nice that we're doing the same for Mr hlin at dob on the same day I move the measure and request that it be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting thank you chairman thank you council member are there questions Adam General councel is the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is Adam secretary's record complete yes it is Madame budget director does the measure fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does no objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting meeting sorry guys but I think we've run out of agenda here um we will take a brief break no probably 10 255 uh it is time it is 2:41 PM in this meeting's insurance um I have three reports from the last for you do you want me to you now or I put them on we okay I did not somebody didn't mention that at committee the whole uh for members benefit this is Page four item 10 correct me if I'm wrong Mr Parker pr25 d389 that is correct all right is on nonconsent are there other changes and Mr chairman a question PR 25-38 eight you are we moving that off it was uh put on non-consent so but thank you for pointing that out because members should know that on page five number 17 is on nonconsent are there any other changes to the consent agenda hearing none we have the consent agenda with two items removed we're gonna have a roll call vote correct Madam Secretary on the consent agenda as revised council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tran white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Le George yes council member Le George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendon yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member noo yes council member noo votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses uh thank you Madam Secretary the consent agenda is approved D unanimously uh so before us now is PR 25- 389 students in the care of DC Coordinating Committee Nikki cardamone confirmation resolution of 2023 this was marked up in the committee the whole earlier today I'm not going to repeat all the presentation this is conf confirming the mayor's nomination for appointment Nikki cardamone so move moved discussion Mr chairman Mr Parker I just want to make clear for the record that my only objection of this nomination is that she is not a district resident thank you thank you I think we can do this by a Voice vote uh the vote is on PR 25- 389 all those in favor say I I I no are there any opposed Mr Parker you were recorded pleas Mr chairman please record me as being AOS I believe all members are present um the the majority prevails the resolution is approved Mr Park will be recorded as no uh the next measure is PR 25- 388 I'm on page five the alcoholic beverage and cannabis board Donovan W Anderson confirmation resolution of 2023 Mr McDuffy so move as your discussion uh I am going to be voting against this which is why it's on non-consent um at the breakfast I noted that there was um correspondence that I had received from an ANC commissioner indicating difficulties that ANC commissions are having with the ABC Board because of rulings by the chair which is Mr and Anderson um and I'll read some of this into the record uh ANC often have to use the protest process to gain additional time to negotiate a settlement agreement with the with an applicant we often have not developed the specific arguments but do have an idea that the issues would be would fall under the allowable reasons for the protest the most common of which is impact on peace order quiet one week before the protest hearing the parties including protesting ancs are required to submit a protest Information Form there seems to be no issue with any that however at the hearing chair Donovan uh chair Donovan Anderson has regularly ruled that unless the specific arguments the specific arguments are included in the original protest letter the arguments are inadmissible please note that protest hearing is often 30 over 30 days after the protest petition deadline this puts agencies in a terrible position of having to lay out their arguments for the protest even before thec has had a chance to fully flesh out the concerns of the community in a cohesive manner that can be articulated in the case of new applicants chair Anderson has ruled that unless an ANC presents specific evidence that the applicant is actually having an adverse impact again this is new applicants uh even when the establishment has not started operating in a recent case the ANC attempted to show that there is an existing problem with the addition of a new establishment no that there's an existing problem and the addition of a new establishment would exacerbate the existing problem how is an ANC supposed to prove that an establishment that is not operating is having an adverse impact on the community it's impossible uh finally many Commissioners are not attorneys and as such are not well versed in the intricacies of the Abra protest hearing process commissions often have an ANC commissioner represent the ANC on a case and we have to go up against high price attorneys who do nothing but Abra law these attorneys regularly object to ANC cross-examination of questions and chair Anderson regularly rules in favor of the applicant I will add so that was reading from a letter from an agency commissioner fromc 6V uh that there's one other person with whom I've spoken who is close to the process and who um I spoke with before today's meeting to remember some of the concerns and basically they fall under this that shair Donovan Anderson maintains that when there are issues of Public Safety such as cuttings and shootings inside establishments and even right outside by patrons of that establishment that the position of the chair is that it is quote outside our lane unquote and therefore not considered so I've not talk to members about this other than at the breakfast uh but I am not comfortable with this nomination I recognize that the um board is struggling with a quorum I also would note that the mayor only sent this down what a month and a half ago and uh so this is moving very quickly which might speak to why there's not been more noise about this but I'm just simply not comfortable with confirm voting for confirmation of a member who is making it difficult for AMC's to represent their community and is not sufficiently concerned about Public Safety in ABC establishments thank you further on this Mr chairman let me recognize council member L George I'll come to you counil Lewis George thank you chairman um I want to speak uh to this um I will be voting yes on Mr Anderson but I do want to raise some of the conversation I had with him and assurances for the record as he moves into this uh potentially moves into this uh new term um we did I have have raised issues from some War four constituents uh regarding uh last minute changing of hearing times um and or notice uh and therefore some of those constituents were unable to uh appear at a protest for hearing uh times that had changed last minute I talked to uh Donovan about uh the impact that has on our community uh and what impact that has and and uh he made assurances that that was something that they would look at as a as a board um and ensuring community members who have set hearing times would be able to uh have that have it happen at that time especially those who may be taking a break from work um uh to do that and then having something moved last minute that prevents them from uh notably being able to uh testify I've talked to him about some of the scrutiny on businesses who move from nearby jurisdictions uh who have uh a number of violations that have added up from a prior jurisdiction in Ward four we share borders with Montgomery County and PG County and oftentimes businesses will move from uh who got who gotten violations in those jurisdictions will move from the Silver Spring side of Georgia Avenue to the northwest side of Georgia Avenue and cause issues uh and so I've asked that when we look at these businesses who are seeking licenses that we look at they're past behaviors and nearby jurisdictions um and um lastly I I talked to him about um some of the locations of cannabis shops um particularly uh on Kennedy street we have a a cannabis shop that is directly next door to a Early Child Care Center and just talked about when we look at approving those uh as we look to when February happens what that scrutiny will look like um with my conversation with him I uh he assured that they were going to uh address some of these issues and so I say this on the record so that my community members who have uh reached out to me and talked to us about a great deal uh that we will stay vigilant um and work together to make sure that they have better processes in the future so thank you chairman thank you council member Pinto get to you last thank you Mr chairman and thank you chair McDuffy um for moving this nomination today I'm going to be supporting it but I do just want to note and ask the board to consider their larger impact on Public Safety as we have um additional incidents that we're seeing around the city with late night establishments with guns being brought into some of our nightlife establishments certain incidents where nightclub owners have assaulted people who have been protesting their application um all of these connections to Public Safety are really important for the board to take seriously um as they're considering considering applications and considering the follow-up enforcement that's required um to keep our alcohol and Nightclub establishments thriving and successful and to make sure that they are good partners with our Public Safety goals in all of our neighborhoods thank you thank you council member council member McDuffy uh thank you Mr chairman just um briefly um I I appreciate the concerns that I raised and I think the public safety concerns are are are very serious uh and I appreciate my colleagues raising them I've raised similar concerns with the board and have had conversations with uh members of the board in the past with the director of the agency and frankly uh the director of apka is one of the most responsive uh directors in DC government and I think he takes his job seriously and and I think his team um provides a service uh for our city that is consistent with uh the seriousness in which I think the director takes his job in terms of the board specifically you pointed out that there's a quorum issue Mr chairman and I mentioned that in today's breakfast and while there is a Corum issue in this nomination as well as that of Mr Grant who was confirmed on consent are moving quickly I don't think that is the reason well I'm telling you it's not the reason why people have not raised issues in the past I think it's important to point out that Mr Donovan is a reappointment this nomination that we voted on today as a reappointment this would be his third appointment he was first appointed uh and confirmed by the council in 2015 so I think concerns that anc's or others have um um would have been a part of the record I think it's important to note for my colleagues that no anc's um opposed and written testimony or oral testimony before the committee nobody opposed uh Mr uh Anderson um at the hearing I want to thank council member Lewis George U because not only did she raise um very important issues with Mr Anderson she actually took the time to reach out to him before today uh and she involved my team we helped to coordinate that call and I think it was productive and and I don't want to speak for her but I think uh she plans to support this nomination today and I appreciate that um you and I had opportunity to chat Mr chairman I do want to note though that I think the letter you referenced you read from uses ANC Commissions in the plural but I think it's only representative of a single NC commissioner perhaps he's been authorized to speak on behalf of his commission that's not clear um but I don't think he represents multiple commissions or at least that's not uh what was conveyed to me or anybody on my team about this nominee and so um these issues are important and I think frankly if you look at the record like for example when tragically uh Blake Boseman was killed uh inside crew uh hookah lounge uh that the board acted swiftly in response to NPD uh and shut it down temporarily um and and my staff monitors these hearings and we take this seriously and we're going to take the concerns raised seriously and engage uh both Donovan Anderson as well as others on the board to make sure uh thatc Civic leadership and ordinary residents who are impacted by Abra and apka establishments are having their voices heard thank you thank you Mr McDuffy if there's no further discussion uh I think we can do a voice vote on this uh all those in favor of pr25 d388 say I I opposed Nay please record me as voting no Mr chairman please record me as present uh I'll be recorded as no Mr Parker will be recorded as present and the motion or the resolution is [Music] approved the next measure is on page8 Bill 255-278 school student vaccination Amendment Act of 2023 uh this uh legislation was approved on first reading this is final reading today this and I'm moving it today uh this was approved on first reading on uh I believe it was September 19th the report was not filed right away which is why it was not taken up at the October meeting uh the primary purpose of the bill is to remove on a permanent basis the requirement in the law that all students in the district this would be uh prek through High School have to have the coid vaccine uh so while that would still be recommended the build ises not recommended it's still recommended by um City officials it would no longer be a requirement the bill also makes some other changes uh to the law with regard to the immunization requirements but I would say there's nothing U that's really significant there it's all explained or was explained in the report and with that I move the bill is there discussion Mr chairman yes counc M Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I just wanted to uh comment so we worked on this legislation um together and just uh to clarify for the public that this is a requirement that hasn't been in place for school year 23 24 so there hasn't been any student who's been excluded for this particular vaccine however all of the other required pediatric immunizations um have moved forward thank you and that's correct by temporary legislation we um delayed the uh effective date of the Mandate so it's not in effect for this year as you noted correct there's no further [Music] discussion uh we'll try a Voice vote on this no I've been corrected Madam Secretary you'll call the role the vote is on Bill 255-278 council member trayan white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fruman yes council member fan votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member LS George yes council member Lewis George votes yes council member McDuffy council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes council member noo yes council member nadoo votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member pin yes council member Pinto votes yes and council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madame secretary the bill is approved final reading unanimously the next measure is Bill 25-55 Pathways to behavioral health degrees Act of 2023 so moved there's an amendment nature of a substitute that was circulated yesterday looking at the memo covering that uh circulation uh the ANS Amendment nature of a substitute includes mainly Technical and clarifying changes with a few substantive changes which include a three-year rather than two-year work commitment for individuals who participate in the program uh the addition of a clawback provision should an individual not complete the three-year work requirement and striking the requirement that participants must have graduated from a district Lea local Education Agency or be currently employed by the district government or District healthcare provider this broadens the eligibility pool while still requiring post-graduate service in the district the thrust of this legislation is to essentially fund a scholarship program at UDC for an academic program that it has already initiated uh in the hopes that this will help get more uh so social workers and Behavioral Health experts professionals uh in the district uh um so I move the amendment nature of substitute and I think I can do this uh which is then I circulated another amendment that I worked out with um couple of council members that um revises the clawback provision to add the phrase uh that the service requirement is three-year minimum provided that in extraordinary circumstances Beyond individual's control DC May wave or prate the obligation to return all of the financial assistance so I move that Amendment so what we have before us is the amendment nature of a substitute with this amendment I just noted as their discussion yes Mr White Robert White uh thank you chairman uh after reviewing the gaps both within the human services system and the public Public Safety space it became clear that the behavioral health specialists including social workers and counselors are essential in addressing many of the challenges we face in the district including homelessness crime and growing mental health needs there's a high demand for social workers and counselors but we don't have enough professionals to meet those needs leading to staff shortages and competition between agencies and nonprofits for the same small pool of people to respond to these challenges I introduced the pathways to behavioral health degrees Act of 2023 to offer a master of Social Work program at the University of the District of Columbia offering free tuition to District residents this bill aims to create a pipeline of Specialists from our communities who can work in our community in times of Crisis and prevent such crisis from happening in the first place and after your amendments uh these participants will give back by working in the district for at least three years after receiving their degrees I want to thank you chairman for your support in getting this legislation over the Finish Line I support your proposed ANS after some tweaks that I understand my staff worked with you and your team on related to the clawback provision before I close I also want to thank our colleagues council members McDuffy Bond Allan noo gray Pinto Lewis George fuman and Parker for co-introduced this bill and thank my legislative director Katie white house uh for doing the heavy lifting on this bill and getting it over the Finish Line I'm excited that when we pass this legislation it will go into effect more quickly because we already funded it in the fy2 24 budget thank you chairman thank you council member white what's before us is the amendment nature for a substitute with the uh second degree Amendment attached to it any further discussion we'll have a Voice vote on the amendment a substitute with the uh with the second level Amendment attached to it all those in favor say I I Mr chairman can you please record me as voting present let me ask if there any no votes I don't hear any no votes uh so by voice V Voice vote the amendment nature for substitute with the second level Amendment are approved unanimously with council member Henderson present so we have the bills amended before us discussion just we're doing roll calls Madam Secretary council member Allan yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes coun MC gray he can't hear okay his sound is off yes your audio is very low Mr Gray but we think you're saying yes yeah I can see you shaking your head I'm saying yes okay thank you council member council member Henderson uh present council member Henderson shall be recorded as present council member Lewis George yes council member L George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member Nido yes council member Nido votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pino yes council member Pino votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes and council member Tran white yes as Tran white votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one present thank you Madam Secretary the bill as amended is approved unanimously the next measure is Bill 25- 312 health professional licensing board's residency requirement Amendment Act of 2023 council member Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I'll be brief as I presented this already um the bill is intended to address the high number of vacancies within the health professional health professional licensing boards which are responsible for licensing and conducting disciplinary hearing proceedings uh for the district's health Workforce among the 19 health professional boards um none oversee Health Professions where more than 40% of the licensed professionals are district residents with one board or only 8% of its health professionals are district residents on average only 19% of health professionals licensed under these boards are district residents um I'll give you a couple of examples Board of Medicine has five out of uh 15 or a third of its seats that are currently vacant similarly the Board of Nursing has 11 of it has 11 seats in seven vacancies the board of psychology has five seats in two vacancies it's even more difficult for boards who have small number of professionals license in the district um so for example of the 145 licensed podiatrists in the district um 8% or 11 individuals actually live in the district of the 232 optometrists licensed in the district 14% or 41 individuals live in the district um and I can go on and on the bill would change the requirement to require that only 50% of the seats held by professional members of the Health licensing boards be District residents that um the bill would not change the current requirements that all consumers um as well as the chairperson of the board be a district resident to ensure that non-district residents serving on boards are committed to the district the bill adds several additional eligibility criteria including that in addition to being licensed in the district and engaged in the practice of the Health occupation uh for at least three years non-district members must continue to actively practice in the Health occupation covered by the board in the district for the entire time that they're members of the board non-resident members must have a physical practice in the district where they practice for at least 20 hours a week they must also demonstrate that their practice is not primarily telea Health um added on to that the mayor's office of talent and appointments must verify on an annual basis that board members meet the requirements under this legislation um we uh voted on this once already but so moved again Mr chairman so the measur is before us is there discussion roll call vote I'd be happy with voice votes but I'm being told we're going to do roll call votes mam secretary council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member Lewis George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman mson yes chairman mson votes yes council member Nido yes council member Nido votes yes council member Parker no council member Parker votes no council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tran white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allan yes council member Allan votes yes Mr chairman there 12 yeses and one no thank you Madam Secretary the bill is approved final reading first reading and vote on proposed bills bill 25-1 126 life and health insurance guarantee Association Amendment Act of 2023 council member McDuffy thank you Mr chairman I move the bill and I'd like to uh move an amendment that was previously circulated uh the Bill's before us and Mr McDuffy you're moving this amendment yes and um the am I on the right page so after discussion with the American Council of Life insurers and the Department of Insurance Securities and banking uh I'm moving this amendment to introduce applicability language to the bill uh this language would mean that those who are entering the life and guarantee Association uh due to this legislation are not liable for an insolvency until the date the bill is enacted into law uh the applicability language has been enacted in other jurisdictions that have enacted life and health insurance guarantee Association reform as well uh we have the amendment before us is there discussion if there's no objection the amendment will be deemed approved the amendment is approved we have the uh bill before us as amended discussion guess what go call Vote counc fuman Yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member leis George yes council member Le George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman mandelson yes chairman Mendon votes yes Council M noo yes Council M nadoo votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tran white yes council member Tran white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member Bond yes council member bonds votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bill is amend as amended is approved unanimously first reading we'll turn now to resolutions the first is PR 25- 384 chief of police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Pamela A Smith confirmation resolution of 2023 council member Pinto so moved Mr chairman is there a discussion Mr chairman I knew somebody would come forward council member Parker thank you Mr chairman chief acting Chief Smith comes to us with experience and after having done significant Outreach across the city as I've said many times I have found acting Chief Smith to be accessible and she delivered results for w five at a time when w five's Brooklyn Community was under siege having the highest robberies in the city at the end of the summer the district is facing a crime crisis and it will require all branches of government working to together to Advance real solutions to address alarming rates of carjackings homicides and violent crime while I appreciate the high level plan that acting Chief Smith has published on mpd's website there Still Remains a need for a much more detailed proposal for how we're going to drive down crime in the district I've shared with all members of the council a letter I sent on October 23rd to acting Chief Smith following up on the auditor's October 20th letter in my letter I asked the chief for reassurances on three things first first that she would work collaboratively with the auditor as it investigates the appropriate level of officers needed at MPD second that she cooperates with future studies including an investigation about whether or not white supremacist organizations have direct ties with MPD and third that she will commit to fully and expeditiously holding officers accountable with proven misconduct that said I share the auditor's concern that deferring responsibility of ranking fou officers to fop uh is concerning what's more going back to all branches of government working together to address our crime crisis there are two things that I hope the council continues to zero in on first our closure rates within MPD and providing acting Chief Smith whatever support she needs to improve the Department's efficacy and ensuring that the usao and the courts hold people accountable for violent crimes take for example robberies in a city which are a concern MPD only clears about 35% of robbery cases and from there only 26 of robbery cases are papered by the US attorney's office which doesn't account for the drop in rates for those actually convicted or the drop in rates for those who are offered plea deals let's take assault with a dangerous weapon MPD clears only 57% of cases while the Uso only papers 38% of all adws which does not account for fewer convictions and plea deals coupled with the funding that the council continues to provide MPD today's vote for acting Chief Smith is the council working with the executive doing our part in supporting MPD to improve its efficacy and closure rates and getting individuals who commit violent crimes off the streets there is a needed conversation about the ways in which the usao and subsequently the courts have an important role to play as well I plan to vote in favor of confirming acting Chief Smith understanding she has a tall order uh in front of her to present concrete plans for how she will improve mpd's efficacy while closing more cases while building deeper relationships with the community while closing ranks within the force adits complaints that mpd's leadership may be at times at odds with her while building trust and at last while addressing riseing violence I continue to stand ready to do everything I can to advance Public Safety on behalf of War five neighbors and District residents and I look forward to continue partnership with acting Chief Smith thank you uh chair Merson who seems to to be distracted so I I'll will continue I'm sorry I'm paying attention Mr Parker further discussion uh council member Henderson council member bonds I knew it would happen um thank you Mr chairman and and thank you council member Pinto for moving this measure today I voted in support of acting Chief Smith and committee and I will again support her appointment to be chief of police today um I agree with the chief's whole of government approach to addressing the crimes and behaviors that impact the livability of our communities and neighbors feelings of safety the opioid crisis in the city is certainly linked to the violent crime we are seeing and chief Smith is able to solidify cross agency relationships and improve community policing to meet the needs of all affected residents I trust that she will because lives are very much at stake I have high hopes for chief Smith I also have expectations MPD needs to be consistently responsive to constituents and to commit to better follow through mpd's culture morale must also improve if we want to retain and recruit officers an MPD must also be willing to collaborate with other agencies to address problems that only collaboration real collaboration can solve I know this isn't an easy job but I anticipate that the chief and I won't excuse me I know that this is an easy job and I anticipate that the chief and I won't always see eye to eye while I expect that we can agree that she with that I expect that we can agree on this she'll be transparent and accessible forthcoming in her interactions with the council and that she'll hold the force to high standards um she has already been very responsive in the community and engaging and and I know that she will strive to make MPD one of the best departments in the nation Chief Smith is an accomplished leader and has an opportunity to develop a public safety Vision not only addresses but prevents crime I hope she seizes the opportunity for the betterment of District residents thank you Mr chairman thank you council member council member bonds thank you um thank you very much um chairman I um am joining in my support for acting police chief Pamela Smith as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department I've had several conversations with her and I feel her passion for the community and for serving people and I think that's one of the requirements that we have before us today she has demonstrated that she's a good communicator and her leadership style gives our community hope I believe she has the background and the leadership qualities that can repair the relationship between the police department and the community it serves she's shown us that she has personal convictions and has a Clear Vision as it comes to Public Safety and law enforcement I've seen her multiple times at Community meetings and neighborhood walks and I was impressed by her willing willness to engage people directly without assistance from other officers or senior MPD staff and I must say I was extremely impressed with her conducting her um in the street response to criminal activity by herself that's that's that's outstanding in these moments she stands firm and strongly Embraces her role as police chief and accepts responsibility as a leader it is clear that she understands the weight and the severity of the um position for which she has not taken lightly I appreciate the initiatives and strategies that she has advanced and that are in fact showing some fruit and I look forward to more as relates to prioritizing what happens in our community um traffic safety and of course tackling this Rising um crime situation we've been confronted with for a few years now since she became acting Chief we have seen car jackings as well as we continue to see um robberies um and those kinds of things that Community is extremely fearful of and so I am very hopeful that we will see more in the direction of bringing those um issues down and we are looking forward to her also having the strength and the will to work with the officers of the Metropolitan Police Department that's very very important I know that she doesn't make the direct assignments but I'm expecting her to get in there make sure that the assignments or assignments that work in the community so that we all can begin to feel safe again I appreciate her accepting the job but that's not good enough because I like all of District residents expect her to do the job so thank you very much chairman I'll I'll close on those seconds that I have thanks thank you very much uh thank you council member bonds council member Lewis George uh thank you chair uh the chief uh took on her role at an incredibly difficult moment for our city uh the the crime and violence in our city is impacting every community and every neighborhood uh and instilling fear and pain pain among so many DC residents uh from drop 911 calls to evidence not being able to be processed here in the districts to cases not being closed to charges not being filed and to people failing through the cracks of our system DC residents across our city are tired and desperate for solutions they need every agency in our public safety system to work better more strategically including MPD and they need us to stop with blame pointing fingers and blaming but to be together across the district working to make sure our residents are safe and we can never lose sight of the reality that crime prevention is not only the work of law enforcement but also rental assistance is crime prevention job training is crime prevention uh that fighting poverty is crime prevention that mental health care is crime prevention and substance abuse treatment is also crime prevention adequate education systems after school programs are are crime prevention breaking s of violence depends on us addressing these underlying issues causes too I have met with acting Chief Pamela Smith and spoken to her about the issues we have in War four uh when it comes to War four I know we have had continue to have great hardworking commanders and captains at fourth district but the frequent when changes in fourth district leadership make it harder uh to rebuild rebuild trust and the relationships are NE necessary for Effective policing I have emphasized the need for stable leadership at fourth district from here on out Additionally the acting Chief has expressed a commitment to implement several of the changes our residents have been asking for from MPD having more officers on foot patrols rather than in cars and engaging with a public servant attitude and mindset improving MPD Community engagement through the weekly multi- agency safety walks in every W which my office and constituents have participated in and emphasis in completing investigations and closing cases I am also moved by her experience with the child welfare system growing up and I'm looking forward to working with her more since I'm chair of facilities and Family Services committee which has oversight over cfsa she's committed to working with our young people and I think that uh you need that type of experience with with what we are dealing with today in our community I also want to uh add an important note that we need and expect acting Chief Smith's full cooperation with the important studies DC is undertaking on MPD Staffing and preventing officer ties uh to hate groups I will be holding the chief at her word that that there will be full compliance with both studies which are critical for MPD to function well and build trust in our community this is a time that requires bold leadership from our chief in the sole interest of the people of the District of Columbia I ask that she Bly lead and not allow any group to circumvent her her leadership including the fop these important commitments are why I'm going I am voting for to confirm Pamela Smith and I look forward to working with her uh as we move forward thank you thank you council member Lewis George council member Allen thank you very much Mr chair um as I did at the committee markup I'm be supporting uh Chief Smith's nomination and certainly grateful for her stepping up into this leadership role what is as we've all said a very difficult time um I'll certainly associate myself with all the comments that I've made thus far um but there are three quick items I wanted to focus on in my comments as well um one of the things that when I'm talking with officers day in and day out that I hear um officers be frankly demoralized from is watching officers that are uh doing their level best making an arrest and then seeing the lack of papering uh from the US attorney's office and it is very demoralizing to those officers but most importantly from a leadership perspective they often tell me they never hear why that case didn't get papered why that arrest didn't move forward and the officers I'm talking to want to do their job better tomorrow than they're doing it today so if something didn't go right they want to know about it and what I appreciate the chief Smith talked about was working with the US attorney's office to have us attorney Representatives even going to the roll calls and the shift changes to help talk with officers help provide that information I think that type of very Hands-On leadership information sharing is going to be important and I appreciate that um we've have mentioned already several times about the cross agency work um I think that's really important at the hearing I asked the the acting Chief about that and my concern is that it felt like the acting Chief is in a position where she's having to start those relationships um a new when what we want is for those to be baked in we want I mean how many times do we say whole of government we want those relationships to be built in baked in with every agency and I'll note when I go on a lot of our community walks with MPD with Commander Hall and all the officers of the first district rarely do I see other other agencies there um and the way that neighbors want to see their government work is across all of government and so we've got a lot of work to do there but I know the chief has has highlighted that as a priority the last thing I'll note is as we continue to work on recruitment so that we are funding lots and lots of positions and hires but we still struggle with recruiting getting folks in one of the things that Chief Smith talked about was reinstating in-person recruitment you simply can't do recruitment from behind a keyboard and so having that type of in-person activity that's going to work on recruitment I think is a very good strategy uh and I'm glad that she's putting that in place I think it's going to make a difference as we continue that hard work so um like my my colleagues here I am uh excited to be able to support this nomination um I think we all are rooting for her success but we also recognize that combating the crime that we are seeing in our communes right now does not rest on her shoulders alone and it is something that's going to have to take the entire government all agencies everybody has to step up and do their part of this job so that we can all be successful thank you Mr chair thank you council member Allen further on the um council member noo thank you chairman uh Public Safety is the number one concern for residents right now with an increase in gun violence theft and carjackings it's a critical time for us to work together with the executive and find solution the interesting thing is that for all the finger pointing and heated debate and sometimes misinformation we're really not that far apart we all agree on the need for improving the tools the district already has such as the 911 call center we all agree the US attorney's office must do more to respond to the current crisis and we all agree that crime requires both policing and preventative work such as making sure that after school programming is fully funded and accessible to all kids engaging community members to interrupt crew and gang activities before and after they begin funding Mental Health Services and providing housing for people who have nowhere to go in the city these social factors and violence are inter interconnected I remember when the mayor nominated Pamela Smith to the role of MPD Chief I was looking for certain things like commitments to more community policing by officers with residents and businesses increased presence of specialized units like the community patrolling unit and the robbery suppression unit I was looking for real conversation about allocation of MPD resources such as recruiting officers and installing mobile cameras in hotspots I was looking for collaboration commitments between MPD and other agencies and groups similar to The Nightlife task force which DT and DPW play a huge role in traffic safety and parking enforcement this collaboration gives officers more time to go after crime doers since she came on board in July I've spoken with acting Chief about these things and I've seen and heard what she has to say in Council hearings press conferences and elsewhere and I'm encouraged I found her to listen and willing be willing to share and explain her vision I invited her and she accepted my invitation to speak with Ward one residents on November 28th in the evening at the festival center and I appreciate her openness my work on an approach to Public Safety can be organized into three areas prevention policing and prosecution Chief Smith's in charge of one of those policing and plays a role in the other two even with 20 $25,000 signing bonuses MPD struggles to recruit more officers than the amount that leave the force every month she faces the challenge of managing officer workloads throughout the city and she's inheriting the forensic backlog problem which has had significant impact on investigations and case closure rates however what I'm heard for her from her what I've heard from her so far tells me she will be thoughtful and deliberative she wants officers out of their cars walking the block and speaking with residents and businesses she's looking at how resources can be best allocated around the district and that final category of work prosecution belongs to the usao and U and oag we have no control over the usao which is a federal operation and his low rate of prosecution is frustrating to say the least I want Chief Smith and her officers to have the tools they need to do their jobs not to mention the ability to focus on the most critical crimes the district has important tools that could be wielded even better I believe Chief Smith understands and appreci appreciates these many challenges and I look forward to having her as a valuable partner and leader along with mayor fellow council members residents Advocates and others and our shared effort to improve Public Safety thank you chairman thank you council member Nido uh further council member Robert White uh thank you chairman I um look forward to voting in support of uh Chief Smith's nomination today uh I support Chief Smith and I need her to succeed because we are in the midst of a public safety crisis and we have got to get our arms around it uh in order to do that our department has to be able to recruit and retain the best and most competent officers to do that we have to listen to officers we can't politicize this stuff we can't point fingers we have to listen to officers about why they're burning out why they're not feeling respected uh why there seems to be um a continuation of sexual harassment ment within the department and we have to address those things uh I think that the city stands behind our department uh and we need to make sure they have the resources and the things they need to stay in their roles we need MPD to be able to close cases that means we need to improve or change our relationship with the US attorney's office we cannot be a safer City if there is not consistent prosecution an MPD doesn't do the prosecuting that's done by primarily uh federal employees but we have an opportunity and an obligation to understand for every case that is not prosecuted why it was not prosecuted what we need to do differently uh the next time in order to make sure there's prosecution because it's not the the length or severity of sentences that is going to deter crime it is the certainty of consequences and right now there's not certainty certainty again that lies primarily with us attorney's office but MPD is our lead agency in working with them and we need officers on the streets uh MPD has been saying it's doing community policing for at least a decade and a half but almost no Community feels like they see that uh I've spoken to Chief Smith about this she believes that officers should be out of their cars in neighborhoods uh when people when communities know the officers on the beat they talk to officers when people don't know the officers on the beat they don't talk to officers and if communities aren't talking to officers we're not closing cases so this is a public safety initiative and I believe the chief uh wants to do the right thing here uh being the chief of police for MPD is a very difficult job I'm glad uh someone with Chief Smith's resume wants it uh but there is no way that she will be successful in making our city safer unless she has resources and support outside of the agency that means mental health education jobs taking care of communities that is how we address Public Safety in our city it is not uh solely with MPD uh it is with the other things that lead to crime in our city uh so I look forward to voting in favor of Chief Smith today and look forward to working with her in her new capacity thank you chairman uh thank you council member white I'm told council member fuman you wanted to be recognized pretty sleep thank you very much chairman uh melon I I too am looking forward to partnering with um chief Smith I think uh from the start her her first comments went to the importance of community engagement and I think that is a critical comp component um addressing crime is got at least three components of it one of it is uh getting at the root causes of crime a number of my colleagues have spoken about that we're not going to make this city safe until we've addressed the fact that thousands of people are out there without hope that's fundamental that's not her job but I want her as an Ali in that work then there's policing and then there's prosecution and in the policing space she can't do her job unless she is deeply linked with the community and the community is with her I think that all of the things that she said since she came on board is her commitment to doing that her commitment to recruiting allies in the faith Comm community in different communities around the city in order to connect with our residents and our communities so the police department can do a the best job it possibly can um I want to Second a thing maybe it's a fifth because every a number of people have spoken about getting police out of cars and onto the streets and for in in W 3 in every place in the city but in W 3 there are a number of places where it is really important that we get folks out of their cars and on the streets forging relationships with the businesses forging relationships with the residents so that we can get at these issues I really deeply hope that she will be as committed to that in action as she has so far in the way that she's spoken about it this morning we talked a lot about this the issue with the auditor and uh and transparency around these staffing issues and I looked at the letter that council member Parker received and I I I see the claim that the fop in the strongest terms said that contact or direct facilitating officers speaking with the auditor could be direct dealing in violation of the Union contract which puzzles me maybe that is the case but what that is not an effort to affect a negotiation that's an effort to get a clear picture on what how Staffing is working and we need that clear picture and if the fop thinks that getting that clear picture somehow affects their negotiating position that worries me as much as anything else we need to get that clear picture and I hope that the chief will help us get that clear picture thank you Mr fuman you know I'm going to jump in you would be second round um I'm going to jump in and just say you know I probably should not say this but I find that the fop is in the way and is um I cannot believe that the fop has alleged that the auditor interviewing police officers about Staffing which is the task that the council asked of the auditor to look at Staffing 4,000 off officers 3,300 officers how many officers does the police department need and I think it makes a lot of sense for the auditor to talk to police officers and for the fop to assert that that is an unfair Labor practice is absurd uh you know we've been dealing with the fop on other levels like the house oversight committee which seems to give deference to the fop rather than let's say the chief of police or the mayor or the councel with regard to if anything I think the fop's been contributing to demoralization in the police department I'll repeat that there were some heads nodding I think the fop has contributed to demoralization in the police department uh so this notion that the fop is asserting that this is an unfair Labor practice to understand how many police officers we have is absurd and I would hope that the chief whom we are going to confirm IR we'll push back on that uh there was a second round anybody on first round who's not spoken that's right you said so moved that was so clever that was so clever can I do council member Parker and then let you wrap up he doesn't have any more excellent council member Pinto uh thank you Mr chairman I I want to thank all of my colleagues um for your comments and for your commitment to improving Public Safety I recognize in sharing this committee that this is an important issue to all of us this is as many have mentioned the number one issue we're all hearing from our constituents every day about um and so I look forward to our continued collaboration on these issues on the interventions that we can do at a council level um with additional oversight with our budget Investments with legislative changes that I think will will help fill some of the gaps that we're seeing um and I invite you all to be a part of the work that we're doing on the committee we are working with MPD every single day we are working with the US attorney's office every single day so a number of folks talked about some issues that we have with our closure rates for example I agree we would love to to see those up I will say I am proud of MPD and the work that they do which has higher closure rates than almost any city of a comparable size um so we should also be talking about that uh but we can continue to work with them to see how we can get that up when we talk about the declination rate for the US attorney's office some mention you know we don't have direct oversight over them true but we do partner with them them we speak with them every day um and so when we are putting forward legislative packages and solutions it is in order to fill those gaps to drive down the declination rate to ensure that our case closure rates are improved these are all tied into our strategy as a committee um and I hope that I can continue working with with all of you um on those important efforts moving forward um and I'll just lastly say is we continue to strive for this balance of MPD leadership and fop and and others in the department I have 30 extra seconds without objection the fop represents thousands of officers they are our officers and so we can't really say on one hand we need to focus on demoralization challenges with our officers and see what they need and also be opposed to the fop the fop are also our partners um and they are representing thousands of officers and so we will continue striving to get that balance right um between what we need to do with MPD leadership I will say MPD leadership has stood up to the fop in other regards like when we passed disciplinary measures to make sure that somebody couldn't collectively bargain their way back onto the force that was important that was passed and MPD leadership stood with us on that even though the fop was against it and so there's always going to be a difficult balance and we see this in other regards too with with um schools and the chancellor and and Washington teachers union so there's a lot of these complicated arrangements so I just oh I I see the time so I just wanted to note that that a lot of the input that we're getting on what the Metropolitan department needs comes from leadership comes from Chief Smith but it also comes from our officers who we talk to every day um on what they need so I just wanted to to make those additional points but thank you all thank you and a prec congratulations hopefully to our new Chief thank you council member p no I don't I want to go to a vote I haven't heard from a single one of your constituents today Mr McDuff Mr McDuffy thank you Mr chairman uh I uh I plan to also vote to confirm Pamela Smith as the police chief of the metopon police department but I think it's important I know there's been some comments about this but it's important that people recognize no individual be it the chief of police or or any other department head is the solution to um the crime problem that we're seeing right now um she's the leader of that department I think it's important that we have a strong leader of the Metropol Police Department during a time where morale uh is at one of the lowest points I've seen it in my tenure on the council more than 10 years um I've been pleased with the conversations that I've had with the chief about enhancing community policing I think it is very vital uh that there is a higher priority amongst the MPD leadership and enhancing community policing uh building fostering better relationships with the public I think it helps to lead to the ability of imp to close more cases both the quality of life type cases of retail theft that we're seeing as well as the serious uh gun violence homicides that we're seeing uh it's encouraging to see the support that the chief is Garner uh from community members and Civic associations I've heard directly from people who support the chief who' met the chief who've appreciated um the energ that she's brought to the position um I think we need a leader of this department right now though uh who is going to prioritize working across our criminal legal system to ensure that the accountability is being is happening in the system and that there isn't any finger pointing um that we've seen over the last several months and in some cases for some years homicides robberies car jackings and other violent crimes have reached a level that many residents have never seen before and I know there are people like me on this des and across the city who have seen these types of numbers uh or worse uh but I refuse and I know others refuse to allow our city to return to a time when we were known as the homicide capital of the United States it's unacceptable the chief has expressed as much uh not only have I met with her in my office but I also have the opportunity to work with her in the community along 8 Street uh recently uh meeting with business owners meeting with residents uh and directly addressing some of the concerns that people have seen uh she's got a work cutout for uh you all have talked about the fop uh it's going to take more than the chief it's going to take more than relationship with the fop it's going to take others who are part of this Criminal Justice System including the US attorney's office the oag DRS DC jail pre-trial Services Agency C Sosa the courts and Court social services and so uh I look forward to uh contining to work with her uh as she gets department on track uh and that we reduce the violence that we're seeing across our city thank you council member uh we're going to proceed to a vote um Voice vote we're going to have a Voice vote on this the vote is on PR 25- 384 all those in favor say I I I I are there any opposed uh the eyes have it unanimously the next measure is PR 25- 386 sense of the Council on the opioid INF fentanyl epidemic resolution of 2023 council member Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I I presented this at the um Committee of the whole meeting um but I also there was a recent report from the office of the chief of medical examiner and I just want to put some additional statistics on the record in case colleagues or members of the public haven't um uh seen it so uh this looks back to 2017 um and it goes through July um 31st of this year in 2022 there were 461 opioid related fatal overdoses with an average of 38 deaths per month there have been a total of 296 so far in 2023 to date um I realized in a conversation with someone else earlier that perhaps when I use the terminology opioids many people believe that it's prescription drugs but um in the district our issue here is is heroin and fitel and fitl analoges there are some overdoses related to uh prescription and opioids but that is not the vast majority um in terms of demographics what we're facing here in the district is quite unique approximately 72% of all fatal overdoses occur among adults between the ages of 40 to 69 years old 29% of the deaths are among people's aged 50 to 59 so we're we're talking about um um folks who are seniors or in their early stages of being seniors um I'm trying to I I don't want to offend anybody in those numbers um 85% of all deaths uh are among uh black individuals um it is most common amongst males and in terms of where in the district we are struggling the highest rates are in warts um 5 seven and eight but for this particular year WS seven and eight um most certainly stand out and so I just wanted to put those statistics um on the record but so moved on this resolution Mr chairman thank you council member is there discussion council member Allen thank you I just want to weigh in briefly in this in in full support here um I appreciate Council Henderson moving this forward um government is often RIS R averse um government is often wey of taking the first step in doing something and you add on top of that harm reduction which really requires you to think about solutions to a problem in a very different way I mean I remember sitting here years ago when this Council said you know what we should do we should probably have our police officers carry Naran because they're probably going to be the first person on the scene with someone who's overdosing and we had a police chief who gave us 18 different reasons why that was just an impossibility would never be able to be done and within a couple of years that same police chief was in front of us proudly talking about how many times officers deployed in Ouran help save a life I think time and again this Council has tried to push on harm reduction strategies and how do we treat this like the emergency that it is to realize that we have more people more residents more neighbors that die of overdose deaths then are killed with gun violence there's not a single person up here that wouldn't say gun violence is a public health emergency in our city why can't we say that for this so I really appreciate that uh we're continuing to push I think the council will continue to try to uh lead in this space to create the urgency in this space and I certainly hope that we find ways to partner uh across all of government all branches and really be able to realize that um we are losing entirely too many people in this city to this and there are things that we can do so I appreciate uh the work here and the push and continue to make this an urgent impressing matter thank you thank you council member further on the resolution council member Parker thank you chairman mson I too uh want to thank uh council member Henderson for her leadership on this the committee of Health has now held what four or five different hearings about the opioid crisis and um I too am baffled why we can't treat this as the crisis that it is for our city where more people are dying from overdoses than any other incident and largely we are not addressing it as urgently as we should I did want to though highlight um a press conference that the mayor had last week and she spoke about a sense of openness that she had in weighing and declaring a public health emergency she also suggested that if the council wanted to act in name only that she was not interested in that and so I wanted to just give some concrete ways that uh by declaring a public health emergency we can attack the crisis head one one is accelerating getting money that has already been approved by the council out the door uh the committee of Health in our recent hearing uh with the behavior uh Department of Behavioral Health director bazron uh confirmed that there has been no movement with addressing um monies for w five W one and other parts of the city that are uh facing this crisis and there doesn't seem to be any plan to have movement in the coming months so a public health emergency would allow the freedom the flexibility to get that money out a sharing data uh we now have access to data uh but that is often uh several months behind um and by having more data readily available uh we might be able to pinpoint Solutions um in real time and then lastly uh it has been said time and time again from providers that they want more money they need more money from reimbursement rates uh so that too could be something that uh by declaring a public health emergency we could address all that said uh I am hopeful that the council can work with the mayor and the executive to to treat this crisis as urgently as it deserves thank you thank you council member Parker if there's no further discussion we'll proceed to a vote council member Nido thank you chairman I want to thank council member Henderson for introducing and moving this resolution This truly is a crisis what makes it all the more frustrating is we have the resources and experience to address it but we're not capitalizing on those resources in W one we've had struggles with substance use and Behavioral Health in certain areas for years residents businesses and others have expressed concerns about this and you know my office has worked in coordination with many other folks in government and Community yet the behaviors continued and even begun to spread to neighboring areas in an effort to combat the problem council member henders and I have funded a few Pilots to provide targeted substance use and behavoral health Outreach and specific locations most in need across the district in hope of getting people to help support so desperately needed by our residents and I hope the mayor will hear us and agree that more needs to be done thank you chairman thank you council member if there's no further discussion we will proceed to a vote uh it's a resolution so I think we can do a voice vote on this uh the vote is on pr25 d386 all those in favor say I I I are there any opposed I don't hear any no votes the res olution is approved unanimously the next item is emergency rental assistance program funding removal reprogramming request number 2573 disapproval resolution of 2023 this was uh brought to the council by both myself and council member Robert White council member white you want to take the lead uh yes thank you Mr chairman and thank you for co- introducing this disapproval resolution with me the purpose of this resolution is to block the administration from removing over $20 million from the emergency rental assistance program or Erp ER Erp provides one-time rental assistance to DC residents facing eviction this program protects thousands of residents from eviction which means it prevents people from being displaced prevents homelessness and gets landlords the overdue rent they need to maintain and improve housing conditions in fiscal year 23 $43 million for Erp was completely Tapped Out in just 5 months for fiscal year 24 the chairman working with my office directed an additional $33 million in supplemental funds for ER for fiscal year 23 in addition to significant Council Le investments in fiscal year 24 this funding was from undes undesignated federal arpa money for which both ER and Rapid rehousing are authorized uses this money can carry over between fiscal years until it's expended in June of 2023 my team became aware of the Department of Human Services intention to reallocate the $33 million that the council budgeted for Erp to the family rapid rehousing program unfortunately the administration didn't submit the reprogramming request until October of 2023 four months after my office learned of dhs's intent to reprogram These funds during this time two significant things happened first our budget team observed DHS utilized $20 million in contingency funds for Rapid rehousing second the ER portal reopened on October 1st of 2023 DHS is now staggering the operating uh uh the opening of er of the ER portal in quarterly increments accepting 3500 applicants per quarter the demand for the program was so overwhelming that the portal crashed within two days DHS resolved the problem but it only stayed open for 5 days because 3,578 applications came in in five days these 3578 applications represent thousands of residents who without this assistance would be at risk of eviction of the additional money we budgeted for ER and fiscal year 23 the administration only used $4 million out of the remaining $29 million in fiscal year 23 funds that have rolled over the mayor intends to reallocate $20 million away from ER to repay the contingency funds expended on rapid rehousing my team worked closely with our budget team to identify potential alternative funding to repay the $20 million that was spent out of contingency funds unfortunately I've received no substantive response from the administration on this alternative option we have now been forced to move uh one additional minute chairman without objection thank you we've now been forced to move a disapproval resolution because of an emergency created by the administration and presented as a false choice between two programs Each of which support our lowest income residents the need for ER is obvious which is why we focused so much on it in the last budget and we have already passed legislation barring unnecessary evictions from Rapid rehousing without a transition plan the families in Rapid rehousing are currently being supported by contingency funds and the Administration has two years to repay those contingency funds therefore disapproving this resolution today will not require any evictions and the Administration has time two years to find additional money if they don't agree with the funding I I identified that money doesn't have to come out of the Department of Human Services and doesn't have to harm lowincome residents I want to express my appreciation to the council's budget director Jen budoff and her team in our budget office for their collaboration with my team and the Chairman's team in addressing this issue uh with your Indulgence Mr chairman I'd like particularly because we got a letter from the mayor today raising some concerns I'd like to ask Miss budoff to share her understanding about the administration's uh choices here I'm just noticing that you're a minute 20 over your time you asked for a minute but sure thank you sure thank you so I think the first thing to say is that Council can always disapprove a reprogramming you know the budget is set by the um budget that we pass every year and a reprogramming is a request to change what we passed and was signed into law um and we with all reprogramming over 500,000 we can either passively approve them which we do 99.9% of the time and in very rare circumstances we have you know a strong polic policy disagreement and we do a disapproval and we can do that and that's where we are right now um in the mayor's letter she indicated that um there are uh they submitted a proposal or an application to the federal government for the use of these funds and that these funds are um tied uh a portion to emergency rental assistance and a portion to um rapid rehousing um you know if that is the case and I'm not going to you know opine on on on that um it's we can still proceed the funds can be swapped um between um f frsp and um the emergency rental assistance um so that we comply with the letter of their agreement with the feds and um emergency rental assistance still has the full 33 million that um we intended to be um used in that program um when we pass the supplemental budget I'm going to jump in here and uh give a slightly different way of framing this which is as you know Miss buol and me many members know when we're going to the budget we are constantly being told that there's something we can't do because it's contrary to some federal promise that the executive made that they never actually show us I would have to say that in a word this argument from the mayor today is tiresome it gets trotted out all the time it is tiresome but if you read it more carefully one of the permitted uses for the funds is Erp that's what they say one of the permitted funds is - so this just I wish they would stop it uh but I will add this how often are we looking at issues particularly with regard to Social Services where we talk about we ought to be trying to help the problem or manage the problem Upstream Upstream is erra Downstream is rapid rehousing we know that we have a huge need an overwhelming need with regard to emergency rental assistants we talked about it at the breakfast that our offices are getting requests and and what we're hearing from nonprofits is that they've run out of money for emergency rental assistance I would rather help a family stay in their housing than to say ah screw it we'll deal with you at the downstream when you um we want to get you out of a shelter and we're going to put you in Rapid rehousing so I appreciate the way you've characterized it Mr White as a false Choice um we the council has been a strong supporter of emergency rental assistance this disapproval is consistent with that further discussion council member trayon white then Lewis George didn't see me I'm not Lis George thank you chairman um I'm deeply concerned about the state of the district as relates to our poor and Working Class People in the district uh receives uh my office have receiving as you heard from other colleagues overwhelming calls text messages about people concerned about where they live where they going to rest their head um most people felt like they were going to get some type of safety net in October after waiting several months and when octob October got here uh the the system was down and then we got to notice that the system is closed will open back up in January so those who had previous eviction notices uh facing frustration anxiety depression um about what they're going to do uh to be even considered these resident anymore and most of these residents are predominantly African-American uh and brown Latino residents and so we at the council even in executive have an opportunity to uh help these these residents with the money that we allocated um there's been a lot of time effort hearings conversations doing budget time trying to get money into erap and I want to thank uh my colleague Robert White also you chairman Merson for helping to create this safety net now we're concerned that the money is sitting there residents are feeling left out of the equation and not get any help uh and so I'm concerned we should all be concerned because quite frankly as I mentioned in the breakfast this going to create some really dark times for Resident District of Columbia we talking about that the crime is up now we can imagine what's going to happen when not just the low Working Class People are out but everyday Working Class People don't have anywhere to live don't have anywhere to go don't have any way that destabilizes families households even going to school right I often interact with families who are in shelters across the city is disrupting their children several children going to school in the morning so the the the trickle down effect of us not getting the money where it need to be is is it's unimaginable about what we can do with the the 20 billion doll budget mind you the highest budget I ever seen in DC history the time is now to act and so I support this but I'm hoping that the mayor can chime in and do something um to support our residents who go out here and try to make a living each and every day thank you thank you council member council member Lewis George followed by council member bonds uh thank you chairman I I would like to thank you and council member uh Robert White um and H and both of your staff for working together on this disapproval resolution and the work that you all continue to do um emergency rental assistance is a Lifeline for our residents that keeps our families from being evicted becoming homeless or being displaced last year the need was so great for rental assistance that app applications were closed only uh five months into the year uh with two days notice uh this year DHS restructured the program to spread out applications throughout the year uh and the need for this quarter was so overwhelming it's noted applications closed after just 10 days uh like my colleague trayon white my office has been flooded with calls from W for residents that need rental assistance but have nowhere to go to turn to down that applications are closed until January uh and the service providers nonprofits who have been able to step up which I appreciate and we thank you uh are as as our last resort are tapped out too uh uh people who do have constituent Services funds thank you to the chairman who's tried to help some of our Warf for residents are tapped out too um when someone in in DC desperately needs help to keep their family house or our answer can never just be no and right now we have to keep saying no um in our budget we worked hard to reverse all the proposed cuts to R assistance and add 35 million in funding for the programs uh my committee on facilities and Family Services with a readly small budget but we're able to still dedicate more than two million so DC families could help keep their homes the idea that the administration would now take away $20 million from the era program that our communities are are counting on is unacceptable and would have a devastating impact on housing on Working Families in DC that is why today I'm voting to support this disapproval re resolution against this reprog pramming request and in support of rental assistance for DC residents who need it while I am supporting this disapproval I'm also requesting that DHS reopen the process for applications before January uh we are entering the winter months November December these are holiday months uh this could be devastating and the impacts could be far-reaching needing emergency rental assistance is not a quarterly issue uh people and families are are in need now and shouldn't have to wait I hope the next reprogramming request that comes before the council is to move funding to ER uh and to ensure that residents don't have to wait um and I want to thank council member Robert White and council member mson again for this and I want to end there's a quote uh that Jane ball Balwin says is we have yet to understand that if I am starving you are in danger and I think that is what my colleague was trying to say if people are starving if they are unhoused if they are not taken care of we are in danger as a city and we have to ensure that that is not the case uh and reopening the the emergency rental assistance is a way to do that thank you council member council member bonds thank you um thank you chairman and I just wanted to add um voice to this particular issue I know that we are very concerned about how do we keep people in their homes as we should be but I think beyond what we do to today and I believe we're going to pass this disapproval resolution but we have to think about what's the future what is really the future for families our Working Families we spent a lot of time in the past um 10 years focus on those that didn't have homes we said we're you're entitled to a home and we're going to make sure you have a home here so we put all of our resources in that direction now we're confronted with those who said we're working every day we're in this community and we just cannot make ends meet and I am delighted that we're finally at this point because all families that want to live here and if we can find a way should have an opportunity to live here so I would say that we have yes Public Safety is our number one concern these days as it should be but we also if we're if we're serious as a community we've got to begin to look at how do we help those longterm longterm if you're in rental housing the landlord or the housing provider has expenses that constantly are going up so we can't ask but so much from that side of the um syst system so are we going to put our resources into this situation that we find ourselves in and that is the Working Poor the moderate income um households just can barely make ends meet that's my question I think you said this is for questions no that was four hours ago council member okay all right so now we're not no more questions no more questions okay now now just statements but was that a rhetorical question as in rhetorical yes no I mean it's it's like we if we're serious we got to get serious we have to put our money there and yes we do you know a few million maybe we need to say we're going to have um a pot that we filled with a billion dollars that goes towards helping people who are uh Working Poor as we like to use that term helping them to stay in this city we need them if they work in this city it's very important thank you I'm being mindful of the time because I would like us to be out of here by 5:30 maybe and 5:30 maybe and we have at least one possibly loquacious AR uh measure coming up still anything further on this measure with that introduction I will be brief I just have a question for uh the budget director if that's all right yes um can you talk about practically what happens with the contingency reserves I heard you or someone mentioned that the itive would have two years to replenish that fund but what that what does that mean in practice if those funds are not identified sure so typically um at this point in the year the mayor does a number of reprogramming to repay the contingency cash reserves withdrawals that were taken during the fiscal year to repay it by the end of the fiscal year the next step is during the yearend close um while they're going through the Acer process there's um surplus funds and they go through a waterfall and one of the places that they would fall into um prior to being excess would be into the contingency reserve if there are no excess funds at the end of the year and the contingency reserve is still in a deficit then um pursuant to the home rule act we would have two years to pay back that deficit so what we would need to do what the mayor would need to do in the fy2 budget and the FY 26 budget they would need to budget 50% of that 20 million so 10.3 million repayment in the fy2 budget and a 10.3 million repayment in the FY 26 budget um if all else fails in terms of yearend close and act for waterfall so on and so forth but if all else does not fail this reprogramming will be limited to this current fiscal year because the funds can still be identified from another source to replenish the contingency reserve sure so I mean I think the mayor has until today to do reprogramming for the yearend close so it probably won't be done through a reprogramming um because this is like month 13 and we put in the LBA that she has until the 8th to do reprogramming but when they when the year when they go through the act for process and they identify all of the Surplus it goes through that waterfall and it first you know fills up all of the all of the reserves and the contingency cash is one of those reserves and then anything left over then goes to you know pgo and hbtf so um uh yeah okay thank you very much thank you Mr chairman Parker and then we're gonna go to a vote uh that was pretty much my question it was more about process uh so then uh we will proceed to a vote on this the vote is on pr25 d509 I think we can do a voice vote all those can we do a Voice vote Madam Secretary all those in favor say I I I opposed uh the eyes have it unanimously uh the next measure is uh self-defense spray sale and transfer clarification emergency declaration resolution of 2023 pr25 d530 council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman this is a little bit technical in nature so bear with me but under current law the definitions for self-defense spray and destructive device overlap by defining such items such as lacerator which is a chemical that irritates the eyes and causes tear production common lacrimator include Pace excuse me mace and pepper spray while The Possession and use of self-defense sprays are affirmatively permitted in DC law the law does not address the sale of self-defense sprays consequently the definition for destructive device is used when interpreting the legal ways that lacerator may be sold or delivered in the district only those with a dealer's license can transfer offer to sell sell give or deliver a destructive device in the district so a local or internate based retailer that otherwise has no other reason to have a dealer's license must acquire one in order to sell pepper spray in the district or to deliver it to a district resident address in everyday terms this means that District residents cannot buy pepper spray from popular online marketplaces like Amazon if you go on Amazon's site right now and try to buy a keychain of pepper spray you're told at checkout that they cannot ship the product to the District of Columbia this is because there are many independent sellers on Amazon site and few if any are licensed dealers of destructive devices here in the district um I should mention that we learned of this issue from a article in the Washington examiner after reviewing this language that we proposed here before us today Amazon Representatives confirmed that passing this legislation would allow for them to sell and deliver pepper spray to District residents immediately this bill would simply clarify that the specific types of lacr mators that people in the district are already allowed to possess and use can be sold and delivered in the district um we talked earlier during the confirmation for the chief of police about the rise in violent crime and believing that in this environment District residents should have access to all the tools that could decrease their vulnerability or Empower them to address threats to their personal safety the current limitations on purchasing hurt residents and we can fix that effectively today thank you Mr chairman so moved thank you councilor Henderson is there a discussion on the Declaration uh by a roll call vote uh Madame secretary council member gray thank you very much um M Mr chairman uh I appreciate the opportunity that we've had to talk about uh what we want to have happen I'm sorry but we're we're now doing a roll call vote how do you vote Mr Gray voting council member gray votes yes thank you council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member LS George yes council member LS George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman mson yes chairman mson votes yes council member n yes council member Nido votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tron white no council member Tron white votes no council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses one now voting on the whole thing the uh declaration is approved the underlying Bill Bill 25560 council member Henderson don't move Mr chairman discussion I think we can do a voice vote all those in favor of the bill say I I uh any no votes chairman m is voting no uh the um the bill is approved with council member TR white recorded as voting no the next measure is pr25 d512 director of the Department of youth rehabilitation services Sam Abit confirmation emergency declaration resolution of 2023 and the time is 457 I may at some point uh limit debate to two minutes per person but we'll try three Mr White uh thank you chairman I ask my colleagues support this emergency confir confirmation um interim director Sam Abed is director of Department of youth rehabilitation services the committee on Recreation Library youth Affairs held a round table on mr's nomination on October the 10th uh without coun approval A's confirmation will be Pally approved on November the 21st which before our next legislative meeting um Mr Abed is a well qualified is well qualified having served as Secretary of of Maryland Department of Juvenile services for the last 13 years in their role he successfully oversaw a budget of $280 million and managed the work of 2500 employees by running for running the May the mayor Maryland Department of Juvenile Services he recommended and oversaw the implementation of various reforms adopted by Maryland state legislator including establish a minimum wage of deliquency jurisdiction at age 13 prohibiting incarcerating incarceration for misdemeanors except for firearm offenses creating an office of equity and inclusion in 2016 saved over $52 Million anually by investing more in community based interventions as opposed to Residential Services uh during the Senor merland we understand that the youth crime declined sign youth crime declined significantly under Mr Bay's work and open a collaboration manner with policy makers legislators Judiciary commit Judiciary agencies and constituents in a data driven and result driven system um despite Mr B's many qualifications I do have some major concerns with DRS as most of my colleagues do I'm just yesterday uh my Council colleague uh neita Bond and I and also Stafford for uh councilman Pinto visit visited the facility uh and then wanted to address a number of issues um such as uh Staffing safety job training and supports education Community Based interventions uh pass pass release supports better system to get youth in placement on time and and many more in fact today I received an email from the mayor about there are 57 missing guars to date missing from work um but I've heard Mr ab's action plan um we are expecting also to get his action plan by the 27th of this month with the draft by this Friday um and I I plan on also holding a hearing in the next 45 days to give everyone a chance to weigh in on his plan with with the improvements planed for set forth DS and I continue I will continue to you know uh hold hearings go to the facility make visits and make those uh visits available to other council members because we this didn't happen yesterday it won't change overnight but I assure you we we will be steadfast and holding this agency this director accountable if approved today um I ask my colleagues to vote in favor of this measure thank you thank you further on this on the Declaration council member Parker and then Robert White emergency resolution on whether to approve Sam evett to lead DS without a doubt Mr evot has an impressive background and he comes with impressive accolades after this morning's Lively breakfast I spoke with both the mayor and Mr eot to get a better sense of the work underway to immediately shift the culture within de dyrs and address several of the complaints that have come to light in the last week a few things were illuminated there does not seem to be a commitment to maintain the oversight office throughout the fiscal year when prestor and Mr ebot's plans to address the issues at the facilities there were several highlights one is around capacity uh the ysc is at capacity and there is an attempt to convert an 11 bed unit within the facility and Mr Abbott is working with dgs actively to convert that unit so that it may be available within the next two months underscore two months also Mr ebot is working with ocp to accelerate contracts with providers namely in Maryland that would also expand capacity the second theme was around violence when asked about violence in the facility Mr Abbott shared that they are moving to using key cards I'm sorry Keys as opposed to cards uh and that the cards that are now being used have been adjusted to limit access within the facility and the third theme is around Staffing in terms of Staffing there is a staggering 20 to 25% of staff on medical leave about 57 individuals of almost 250 employees Mr Abbot did say that he is planning to implement a quality insurance team to implement standards uh and to check in on ongoing progress all that it I did not get a sense that the young people or the staff at the facility today or tomorrow are safe nor that there is an immediate plan to help turn things around I originally entertained the thought of whether or not to introduce a disapproval resolution um I'm confident that that would not have passed and so I'm going to save us a lot of time on that um and I have resolved not to actively try to get in the way of Mr Abbott's confirmation all that said I cannot in good conscience ignore the ongoing complaints about DS while continuing to wait for concrete plans for things to turn around I will be voting no and I implore my colleagues uh to raise our standard for confirmations as we all want to do do better oversight of DS lastly I am pushing back on this confirmation because I care about uh how we address crime in the city it may be suggested that because of the crisis in our city especially among youth that it may that it is unacceptable for us not to confirm the acting director of DS however the crisis among our youth is the very reason I am demanding we do better and insisting that the council use as primary tool of Leverage and oversight and Confirmation to see real changes at DS and a Clear Vision for the future uh before we rubber stamp yet another confirmation our city deserves better and more importantly our children deserves better uh so with that Mr chairman uh I I do want to acknowledge and respect thank you Mr Parker thank you Mr chairman council member Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman um I'm G to be voting present uh on this nomination and and the reason I'm voting present and not no uh is because I believe that Mr bet is is talented uh and will come in the door with the intention to do the right thing but much of what needs to happen to turn around dyrs is above his head he will need the support of the administration and we at this point don't have a commitment from the administration that they're going to give him the support he needs to turn the agency around what I don't want to have happen is have a good director come in not be able to make the changes that he intends to make uh then leave and the new director will come and say well I can't answer for the last person because I'm new and the same thing again and again and again at some point we have to get stronger commitments from the administration from the mayor specifically on the things that we believe are important some of the things that we believe are important here are the oversight office that is critical to this agency it is not performing well right now and the mayor has announced that she's going to get rid of this oversight office that is not the right move right now now there are serious questions about education the quality and consistency of Education in the facility about uh safety of residents where multiple fights are breaking out guards are being injured um neglect where do these young people make complaints do we know if these complaints are taken seriously uh Mental Health Access to Mental Health Services transparency on facility issues uh the list goes on and on if we don't have a firm commitment from the mayor that she is going to give Mr Abed the resources he needs to turn the agency around he just won't be able to do it doesn't matter what his plan says and we don't have that and I'm uncomfortable with that uh so my prediction is that we're going to find ourselves in no better position uh months from now uh despite having a talented director uh in place and this is our opportunity to get the commitment that we need from the mayor and I think that we haven't gotten that and and should pause in the nomination uh until we have it uh I'm again I don't want it my concern uh to be attributed to Mr AED so I'm going to vote present as opposed to no uh but these concerns are real thank you Mr chairman council member Pinto thank you Mr chairman I want to thanks council member Tryon white for your efforts here as well I will be supporting the nomination of Sam Abed uh to the role of director of the Department of youth rehabilitation services Mr abbid has a tremendous amount of experience from his role as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile services and I think we're lucky to have him bring that experience to bear in the district I will note that I am very concerned by numerous recent reports about failings that we've seen at DS we've heard concerns that DS is a persistent shortage of shelter home placements for young young people awaiting trial shelter homes are a crucial tool because they provide a controlled environment without needing to place a young person at a full Detention Facility Like Our Youth Services Center the ysc itself faces critical Staffing shortages resulting in some detained children spending large portions of the days on lockdown in their cells there are also reports of guards being injured and even a brawl after two youths stole an ID badge last week we all up here must prioritize the critical staffing needs in this year's budget it is so vitally important to our Public Safety goals that our correctional facilities for Youth and adults have the Staffing they need it's vital that DS fulfills its role in The District's Public Safety ecosystem by supplying a safe and controlled environment to house our most high-risk young people while also doing all it can to educate and help rehabilitate them we have a crisis of crime and violence in our city and I do want to note while a vast vast majority of the children in our city are not committing crime about 99% of them are not committing crime um and they're doing the right thing but For Those About 1% of kids who are engaged in criminal activity we're seeing very concerning Trends we've had over 800 carjackings this year over 60% of those have been committed by young people we've had over a hundred kids be shot this year um we were seeing more and more first offenses being committed with a firearm that used to be a fifth sixth or seventh arrest and so it's imperative that we have someone leading DS with experience and a commitment to improving the agency and improving how the agency is working within our Public Safety ecosystem to fill the gaps that we see and I am um hopeful by my visit visits to dyrs and and uh ysc New Beginnings as well as multiple conversations with director abbid about what he's doing they're now having parent watch have a location in ysc to better connect young people with families there's more efforts around education around Recreation space for kids outside and inside uh during meal times more opportunities to learn and so there's a lot more work to be done but I'm confident that this director is the right person to lead that effort thank you member further on this yes counc member Allen thanks Mr chair um I appreciate all my colleagues here and I want to especially uh single out Council trayon white um who has been keeping all of us I think up to date and has been making personal visits and so I appreciate the work that he has done uh especially the last week of that communication um I I've chewed on this one for quite a while because from everything I have heard and seen we have a nominee an acting director who a lot of people have a lot of confidence in um and so I am hopeful and optimistic that this is an individual who's going to help run this department in the way that we need um where I've been been struggling with this is that we talked this morning about the fact that we don't actually have a plan or a vision that's been laid out and he's supposed to be providing a response back to the council this Friday with an outline of a plan but of course that's going to come after we vote today um but I think most importantly for me is that this is an agency where we we are proud of the fact that we have come out of the JM uh class action suit and yet as we're about to have this vote we're also being told that the the administration wants to eliminate the office that is funded for the entire fiscal year and eliminate them in January and this is the JM transparency office this is the office that keeps its eyes on DS's facilities its functions its services exactly because we have young people that are committing harm and being victims of harm that type of transparency is crucially important to being able to both hold them accountable and rehabilitate them in the way that we want so that we don't see that reoffence um I don't want to have us find our way just kind of going through the back door back into a jerrym day um the Department of Corrections has cic an independent body to try to help provide advice and reviews there MPD has the office of police complaints an independent entity that helps keep eyes on there and in the same way this office helps with Ds and helps us do our job so I'm deeply concerned that that office uh is being proposed to be eliminated I talked to several of my colleagues yesterday about this and one of my colleagues talked about it at the breakfast meeting as well um if that is the case especially since it's fully funded through the fiscal year I think that we're going to need to move emergency legislation to ensure that that office remains and if that function remains um and so I'm looking forward to working with colleagues on that because I think that's going to be a crucial part of oversight to make sure this agency is able to do what it's supposed to do um so I'm not a no um I want the director to be successful but I am not prepared to vote Yes so I don't want my vote to reflect poorly on the director that we're hoping will be successful but I in light of removing the office and ending it I can't vote Yes today so I will vote president Mr chair thank you council member council member fuman so I wonder if if I can use my time for a question um council member Parker reported on conversations that he had and the first takeaway council member Parker was that there was no commitment to keep the oversight office in place and I'm wondering where you you had a couple of conversations which conversation is that from is that uh acting director AED saying no we don't support that we don't want to do that or is that the mayor saying to you no I'm committed to uh closing that office time it was from my conversation with the mayor and to be clear uh she did not say that she's not um committed to keeping the office what she did do at length was Express her concern about the function of the office and argue why it may not be operating as the council originally intended and so from that I took that there was no commitment to keep it past January all right and and I I hear you on that I I am in a similar place to a number of my colleagues I I'm impressed by director bed and I think that he will do a good good job and will try to do a good job in very difficult circumstances and so I don't see opposing his nomination it it has a little bit of a feel of uh you know cutting off your nose despite your face and I think there are serious problems and that the idea that we could have less transparency around this critical agency is deeply troubling but I see it separately is this do we critically need a director there and is this person qualified and with the best of intentions to run the agency well so I will be supporting the nomination even as I share in many of the concerns about transparency council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman I'll um I'll be brief I I do want to add um uh my voice to this conversation as um you know I in the last even couple of months have been having conversations with the office of independent Juvenile Justice facilities oversight um about some of the work that they were doing so for those who are not familiar they they do assessments um uh they have a dashboard that can show how many young people are in the facility at any given time they were working on a behavioral health assessment which I had a particular interest in um because we had heard um concerns around some of the medical services um being provided at the facilities given some staffing challenges um I raised these concerns the Staffing challenges um or my Staffing concerns at the confirmation hearing for Dr excuse me for director Abed and I felt that um you know he's very cleared eyed in terms of the challenges that he has ahead of them in terms of recruiting good staff retaining good staff and frankly providing some stabilization to an agency that has seen um a lot of O uh turnover in terms of leadership and therefore turnover in terms of Staff um but as many of you have already said council member fuman especially um and I've expressed this to him I've expressed this to the mayor the deputy mayor for Public Safety as well as their chief of staff that I feel like the timing of um closing down this office or potentially closing down this office when it is funded through the end the f school year and given some of the challenges that we have seen at the same time of increasing population gives me pause this is the time I feel like we need more transparency and more eyes on what's Happening um as opposed to less that being said I feel as though these are separate issues um while director Abed was open uh and and responsive to my concerns around a decision to close this office early I also know that it is a decision in some ways that's a little bit above him and so I don't want to vote no on his confirmation he's qualified the individuals who testified in favor um in in support of his uh confirmation uh from his experience in Maryland um all had glowing things to say um even when Preston comments and so I'll be voting to support this legislation today but looking forward to working with my colleagues on perhaps emergency legislation um to ensure that transparency and oversight continues for this important agency thank you thank you council member Henderson not seeing anyone else uh we'll have a vote on the Declaration this is pr25 d512 Madame secretary would you call the role council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member LS George yes council member leis George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member m McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yesc member Nell yes council member Nell votes yes council member Parker no council member Parker votes no council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White present council member Robert White will be recorded as present council member Tron white yes council member Tron white votes yes council member Allen please record me as present council member Allen will be recorded as present council member Bond yes council member bons votes yes counc member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray yes council member gray votes yes Mr chairman there are 10 yeses one no and two presents thank you Madam Secretary since there are 10 yeses the Declaration is approved we have the underlying measure pr25 d513 council member trayon white so move discussion I think we can have a Voice vote on this all those in favor say I I are there any no votes Mr chairman please record me as no Mr Parker will be recorded as voting no are there any present Mr chairman you record me as present please please record me as present Mr chair members Allen and Robert White will be recorded as present the resolution pr25 - 513 is approved the next measure is pr25 d531 tipped wage increase implementation clarification emergency declaration resolution 2023 council member Vons thank you uh Mr chairman um in November 2022 the District of Columbia voters approved initiative measure 82 the District of Columbia tip credit elimination Act of 2022 this act gradually eliminates the tip minimum wage through Progressive increases until it eventually equals the district's minimum wage in 2027 the rationale for this measure stems from the timing of the initiative approval initiative 82 was originally intended to appear before voters on the primary election ballot in June 2022 but after a challenge to the petitions the board of election determined that the initiative backers did not meet ballot access requirements because they failed to get signatures from at least 5% of the voters in five of the city's eight Wards as a result the initiative was delayed and appeared on the November 2022 general election ballot instead of the June primary ballot because of this delay coupled with the standard time frame for the Congress rgal review period the law did not take effect until February 23 2023 however this effective date contradicts the language of the official act or law as approved by the electorate which provided for the first increase to the tip minimum wage to begin on January 1 2023 to avoid confusion about when the first increase to the tip wage actually occurred the council enacted emergency and temporary legislation in January 2023 to postpone the first increase until May 1 2023 this legislation the tip minimum wage increase implementation clarification temporary Amendment Act of 2023 will expire on November 30th 2023 without our intervention the date of the first increase to the tip wage will retroactively revert to January 1 2023 which will create further confusion among stakeholders it is essential that tip employees in the district and their employers have clear guidance from the council about which minimum wage amount is applied between January 1 and May 1 of 2023 specifically we want to make sure that District employees do not pursue wage theft claim under the impression that they were entitled to a higher hourly rate under the original language of initiative 82 especially between January and may of 2023 the emergency and temporary legislation before us today may I um have 10 seconds Sir before us today will ensure continuity in the law by maintaining May one thank you 2023 as the effect Ive date of the first increase to the tip minimum wage until this change can be permanently codified I strongly urge my colleagues to support this measure and to continue to support the district's tipped employees and their employers during this transition period thank you Mr chairman and I move this emergency thank you council member this council member I mean council member this emergency is sort of is continuing action that the council already took that that is correct sir okay I'm just thinking that's a shorter statement Is there further it's a shorter statement but I think for the Public's benefit it was important to be as specific as I'm just thinking about it's 523 understand I promise to council member would be out of here I got it I got all evening but well you know you're doing you wanted me to be thorough I attempt no I apologize so we have the Declaration before us is there a discussion not hearing any discussion Madam Secretary would you call the rooll the vote is on the Declaration counc BL George yes counc member Le George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendon yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member noo yes council member Nido votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member trayan white yes council member Tran white votes votes yes council member Allan yes council member Allen votes yes council member Bond yes council member Bond votes yes council member fruman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray is absent and council member Henderson yep council member Henderson votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent thank you Madam Secretary the Declaration is approved unanimously we have the underlying Bill Bill 25562 council member BNS so move discussion by a Voice vote the vote is on Bill 25-5 62 all those in favor say I I I I are there any opposed I don't hear any uh the bill is approved unanimously the next measure is clear Lanes bus priority enforcement regulation emergency declaration resolution tion of 2023 pr25 d528 council member Allen so move Mr chair well that was brief uh is there discussion I'm not looking for approval at that end of the day yes not hearing any discussion we'll have a roll call on the Declaration I do believe the Declaration was explained in the memo that you circulated I'm going to speak to it on the under L Bill Mr chair but if you'd like me to I can go go ahe and do it now if you'd like which would you prefer you you really want that brevity two minutes has lapsed since the last time I admonished all right Mr chairman today I'm moving legislation that's going to reduce the fine for driving or parking in a bus lane which will allow dot to begin enforcement of violations for driving and parking in a bus lane this has been many many months in the making testing the patience of neighbors small businesses and our Transit Riders and I hope this really is the final excuse being given to enforcement of violations and slows down our residents our workers and our students who rely on buses to get around the district as background you may remember when the mayor presented her proposed FY 24 through 27 budget there was a significant increase in Revenue collected from citations issued by automated traffic enforcement cameras called Ates this was because the mayor was doubling the number of at cameras in the district over the four-year financial plan the mayor raised a total of 578 million in new Revenue but the vast majority of that was in FY 25 26 and 27 in oversight hearings last spring then director DT director lot said that dot planned to have all those new at cameras installed by the end of FY 23 despite that Assurance the CFO would not uh assume that cameras would be installed by the beginning of FY 24 so there was only about 13 million in FY 24 budget associated with all those cameras but I believe the DT director at the time and DT would be moving quickly to get those cameras in place you'll also recall that in May the mayor asked the council to approve several at contracts on an emergency basis so that d could move forward on installing cameras immediately including bus cameras in partnership with wada I was happy to help expedite that process this Council approved that because again it reinforced that DT was serious about beginning enforcement quickly bus lane enforcement was to be a joint effort between waata and DT called clear Lanes consistent with the request to expedite the contracts all the cameras were installed and the clear Lanes program began to issue warning citations on July 24th DT and W did Outreach to educate residents about the new cameras and of course those bus lanes are generally painted bright red and marked by lots of signs they're pretty hard to miss enforcement was scheduled to begin after a 45-day warning period on September 18th uh we took data at its word it would stick to that schedule uh as we all know District residents disproportionately rely on Metro Bus in particular residents with lower incomes and black DC residents and other residents of color about a quarter of the people who ride the bus make $110,000 per year or less when people block bus lanes it slows down commutes for our kids trying to get to school workers headed to their shift downtown and seniors trying to get to the grocery store both DT and wada have made clear this enforcement tool will speed up buses and improve service so we were surprised when we found out via Twitter on September 18th that the clear Lanes enforcement would not begin that day on September 22nd I sent DT a letter asking for an explanation of the delay it took the mayor and DT until last Wednesday more than a month to come up with an answer they raised a new issue that they'd never raised before they thought that the fine for blocking a bus lane should be the same as blocking a bus stop and they added that they would not enforce blocking a bus lane until it was changed the find's been in place since at least 2015 indeed has never raised this as a concern but if that really is the problem well then today we're going to fix it the council can change that fine amount by Statute while do do can simultaneously start the rul making process to permanently change the fines let me just emphasize that this is not a new violation doot asserted in its letter to me and again in the Washington Post this morning that blocking Andor driving in a bus lane is a new violation DC regulations have prohibited driving in a bus lane since at least 2006 and has prohibited parking in a bus lane since 2015 the mayor set the $200 fine amount in 2015 I'm not really sure where this assertion is coming from but it certainly is not trying to solve the problem back hand Mr chairman with 30 extra seconds finish this up 30 extra excellent so today with this action we're going to be reducing the fine for driving or parking in a bus lane from $200 to $100 I'll note that there is no cost to change the amount of the fine for the period of the emergency and temporary measures because as I mentioned the projected fy2 24 Revenue associated with at cameras was pretty small actually starting enforcement will overcome any reduction associated with reducing the fine amount however the FY 25 through 27 budgets included significant amounts of at Revenue so our budget office and the CFO said that there will be a cost of permanent reduction of the fine amount starting in fy2 though we don't know by how much so we assume that the mayor and doot have already identified a source to make up for that reduction in Revenue before proposing to reduced fines through rulemaking and the D director assured me in her hearing last week that this would not be a cost to reducing the fine amount for this fiscal year um I will skip ahead since we are out of time I want to address the letter we also got from the mayor about to to's meeting while she supports the legislation today they are saying that they will not begin enforcement for another two months but after today's legislation there is no reason to continue the to force bus riders to sit behind block bus lanes DT and wada have done months of public Outreach warning tickets and education it's been illegal to drive or park in a bus lane for many years and most importantly many of the bus lanes we're talking about are painted bright red I don't believe it's right to prioritize our out ofate drivers over District residents students workers and neighbors who rely on the bus there are much more important problems for the district to be focused on instead of finding reasons to not enforce our traffic rules with this action today the council will be removing the latest excuse for the delays and make clear we want to see fines proportional Equitable and enforced thank you Mr chairman and with that I will move the Declaration you'll move the Declaration for a second time thank you and appreciate the drama on the reading um discussion cor clity yes Mr Tran white is this bill to decrease the F or enforce the enforce the ability to receive money through F to decrease the fine from $200 to $100 so it's cutting the fine in half okay is it already enforcable Beyond this bu it could be it could be enforced today so it's already law so it's been law for a number of years the fine amount was it $200 or we're dropping it to 100 you said something that bus should no longer have to go around we have wait to go I think the issue is that uh the do is not enforcing the bus lanes and and the latest from them is because the fine is too high Mr alen Kirk all too high so they want to drop the everybody everybody wants to drop the fine so the Fine's GNA get dropped we're going to take that action today to drop from $200 to $100 to cut it in half I'm V 50 thank you thank you further discussion we have the Declaration before us this is pr25 d528 Madam Secretary please call the council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendon votes yes council member n council member noo votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Tran white no counc member Tron white votes no council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes member Bond votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray is absent council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member Lewis George votes yes Mr chairman there are 11 yeses one no and one absent the Declaration is approved we have the underlying Bill Bill 25556 council member Allen thank you Mr chairman before I move the underlying measure uh as I mentioned in the bref meeting I have a technical Amendment after Consulting with the opic general Council there was a small typo in the introduced version of this measure so the amendment would change one digit in a dcmr citation and so let me move that Amendment first and then I'll move the underlying well you sort of have to move the underlying and then move the amendment the underly kind of is there right the underlying is already here only when you say move the amendment to the underlying measure and the amendment is the technical amendment that was circulated previously okay there's no objection to the uh under the amendment it will be accepted not hearing any objection it's accepted we have the uh bill as amended before us so mve Mr chair it's already moved you can't amend something that has been moved um further discussion by a Voice vote on the um on Bill 25-5 56 as amended all those in favor say I I I I no um I was going to say are there any no votes council member TR white you want to be recorded as no the uh bill is approved emergency legislation at the request of the mayor let our vows endure emergency declaration resolution of 2023 PR 25- 468 council member Henderson thank you Mr chairman I introduced this measure at the request of the mayor the bill would allow the mayor to issue marriage licenses during federal government shutdown this legislation is identical to an emergency law passed in 2019 when the federal government last had a breakdown the district's judicial branch is funded and controlled by the federal government and is thus unable to conduct normal business while the federal government remains unfunded this is an unfortunate um this is an unfortunate issue not only for local self-determination but also for couples who like to be married here in the district a canceled wedding is a terrible thing to force on people whether they have been planning it for years or for months or just want to do it spur of the moment the local courts of no other jurisdiction in the country are so immediately affected by the federal government dysfunction and this measure will ensure that the mayor can take over an important function of our courts in the event that Congress cannot get their act to together and agree to fund the government in the next 10 days so move Mr chairman we have the Declaration before us is there discussion we'll do a roll call on the Declaration Madam Secretary chairman Mendon yes chairman Mendon votes yes counc M nadoo council member she's driving she's driving okay council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes council member Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member trayon white yes council member Tron white votes yes council member Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member bonds votes yes council member fuman yes council member fuman votes yes council member gray is absent council member Henderson yes council member Henderson votes yes council member Lewis George yes council member Lewis George votes yes council member McDuffy yes council member McDuffy votes yes council member nadoo yes council member nidau votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent the Declaration is approved unanimously we have the underlying Bill Bill 25- 531 council member Henderson so moved discussion by Voice vote on Bill 25531 all those in favor say I I I I are there any no votes the bill is approved unanimously there's no objection we'll take the three temporary bills in Block that's Bill 255-5616 Bill 25 5- 563 tipped wage increase implementation clarification temporary Amendment Act of 2023 and Bill 25557 clear Lanes bus priority enforcement regulation temporary Amendment Act of 2023 and I misspoke because part of this will also be the fourth temporary Bill 255-5323 and for clarification for General councel clear Lanes will include the temporary will include the um amendment that was moved to the emergency any discussion any need for clarification the vote is on the four Temporaries um all right the vote is on the four well I think we'll do a Voice vote uh all those in favor of the Temporaries the four temporary bills that I just read first reading say I I I are there any opposed I'm not hearing any no votes uh the eyes have it unanimously uh thank everyone for their patience the time is 5:39 p.m the next regular legislative meeting is December 5th 2023 there's a committee of the whole in two weeks that would be this on November 21st and I think I said the time is 5:39 this meeting's a jour