foreign this meeting this is a regular meeting of the committee the whole of the Council of the District of Columbia I'm Phil Mendelson chairman of the council chair of the committee as a whole today is Tuesday May 16 2023 the time is 11 38 in the morning this meeting is being held in person in the Council of Chambers room 500 of the Johnny Wilson building it's also being broadcast live on Council channel 13. it's available on the council's website which is www.dccouncil.gov um this is a regular meeting of the committee as a whole we have several items from markup including uh two measures related to the fiscal year 2024 budget uh this meeting will be followed by an additional legislative meeting as a council I expect that um there will be a fair amount of time spent in the committee of the whole with the budget measures and so folks who are here for the legislative meeting uh maybe a little bit of a wait and then we'll get to the legislative meeting we begin our committee the whole meetings with calling the role to determine whether we have a quorum Mr Cash chairman Mendelson president councilmember Allen here councilmember bonds councilmember bonds councilmember Freeman here councilmember gray councilmember gray council member Henderson here councilmember Lewis George here councilmember McDuffie councilman McDuffie council member Nadeau here councilmember Parker councilmember Parker here councilmember Pinto president councilmember Robert president councilmember Tran White that's my family Mr chairman you have a quorum uh thank you Mr Cash uh we have the filing of reports we have the secretary's report of uh committee filings for the chair Pro Tem looking for the senior member uh the uh Council um I will move to waive the reading of the secretary's report let's take a moment here councilman McDuffie I will move to Waverly region of the secretary's report an emotional wave the reading of the secretary's report is their discussion on the motion by Voice vote all those in favor of the motion say aye aye aye are there any opposed oh the odds have it unanimously we have the uh secretary's um log of introductions and referrals councilmember McGuffey and again I will move to rape the reading of the secretary's log of introductions and referrals an emotion to waive the reading is there discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye are there any opposed of the eyes have it unanimously we have four measures for markup in the community the whole the first is Bill 25-22 Alan y Lou Place designation Act of 2023 of this legislation would officially redesignate Mount Vernon Place Northwest between 7th and 9th Street as Alan y blue place Northwest the location is in Ward 2 I believe the report says Ward five uh this is an official naming this is in front of the convention center an official naming typically involves the designation of postal addresses and enables the placement of primary entrance to residences or offices I believe there are only two buildings that front on this and that would be the old Carnegie Library and the current Convention Center the naming would be after Alan Liu who joined the district government in 1996 is the managing director of the Washington Convention Center Authority now known as events DC in that role he oversaw the Planning Development construction of the new Washington Convention Center which was completed in 2003 at a total cost of 850 million dollars and is one of the district's largest public building projects from 2004 to 2007 Mr Lou served as Chief Executive Officer of the District of Columbia sports and entertainment Commission another precursor of events DC where he managed the renovation and operation of the Kennedy of the RFK Memorial Stadium and the construction of the Washington Nationals uh baseball stadium uh he um uh and the new baseball stadium was completed in 2008 in 2007 Mr Lou was appointed executive director of the District of Columbia office of public education facilities modernization affectionately known as oppeffem which was responsible for construction renovation and stabilization of District of Columbia public school facilities during his time there are many long neglected education facilities otherwise known as schools were brought up to 21st century standards with many projects held as examples of urban academic architecture for which the district received a number of awards for design Innovation construction excellence and environmental sustainability in 2011 mayor then mayor Vince gray uh appointed Mr Liu as the city administrator where he managed the district's budget and overall operations included a number of capital projects um uh the report lists a variety of project City oversaw Alan Liu had a reputation as an eccentric and Innovative Builder and Problem Solver and exhibited Innovative leadership he demonstrated an ability to deliver projects on time and on budget his leadership style focused on delivering results and changing the Status Quo when things weren't proceeding as they should unfortunately Mr Lewis succumbed to complications associated with covid-19 on June 23. 2020. this legislation was introduced last fall and it was reintroduced on January 11th when of this year when it was reintroduced it was introduced by councilmember gray together with council members bonds Truman McDuffie pinto and Robert White it means the whole healthy hearing on this legislation the version that was introduced last fall the hearing was held on December 12 2022 as I said the bill was introduced reintroduced essentially the same and the committee has received no testimony or comments in opposition to the designation or to the legislation without objection I'll move both to print report would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion uh we'll have a roll call vote on uh in the um the vote is on the print and Report would leave for staff Mr Cash would you call the role council member Pinto yes councilman Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon white yes councilmember Trey on white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes council member bronze yes councilmember bonds votes yes council member Freeman yes councilmember proven votes yes councilmember gray is absent council member Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes councilor lose George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilman McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes council member noodle yes councilman yes council member Parker yes that's our Parker votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent uh the print reporter approved unanimously Madam general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretary is the record complete once the reporters Madam budget director does to measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without a protection especially will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting the next bill for markup is Bill 25-31 entitled zi Omega way designation Act of 2023 this legislation would symbolically designate 14th Street between Allison Street Northwest and Arkansas Avenue Northwest as I Omega way this location is in Word four it's a symbolic naming it's for ceremonial purposes and shall be in addition to and supporting it to any name it is an official name in December of 1923 20 women chartered the Zion Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Inc say omega's long history of organized social activism began in the 1930s when the chapter worked to assure decent living conditions for people of color eliminate police brutality and establish home rule in the 1940s Omega members participated in non-violent demonstrations Marchers and sit-ins today Omega still is active and holds voter registration drives voter forms and transports voters to the polls every year the zyomega chapter has also been recognized by the district for its successful series of consumer advocacy seminars on home buying in 1956 the chapter purchased property on New Hampshire Avenue um this was a phenomenal achievement at the time 25 years later Zion made a chapter purchase Zion Omega Center at 4411 I'll stay that again 4411 14th Street Northwest which has provided a home base for programs and the 14th Street Community including a little Library converted to a food pantry during the pandemic is legislation was first introduced last fall by council members Lewis George and Henderson the committee of the whole held a hearing on the legislation on December 12 2022 the bill was reintroduced by council members Lewis George and Henderson on January 12th of this year the committee has received no testimony or comments and opposition to this legislation there's no objection I'll move both to print report would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there a discussion on the motion yes come councilmember Lewis George and councilmember Henderson thank you chairman for advancing this symbolic Street designation measure to officially dedicate the 40 43 and 4 400 blocks of 14th Street between Allison Street and Arkansas Avenue Northwest and Ward 4 as XY Omega way the zyomega chapter of the historic Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority was charted as the sorority's very first graduate chapter in 1923 now and celebrating a hundred years of service to the community both Alpha Kappa Alpha and XY Omega are proud to have their origins in the District of Columbia zyomega's long history of organized social activism began in the 1920s when the chapters founding members work to assure decent living conditions for people of color eliminate police brutality and establish home rule in the 1940s chapter members participated in non-violent demonstrations marches and sit-ins for equality this chapter has grown from 20 graduates to nearly 700 Soros that sores that call the district home The Sisterhood of college educated leaders has served the citizens of our community with the plethora of programs for seniors and youth for a hundred years now including Partnerships with Roosevelt High School and Powell Elementary School which are located around the corner from the chapters headquarters on 14th Street I am also particularly proud of one of xiaomega's longest running programs of service their Monday activities for more than 42 years every Monday the doors of zyomega are literally and figuratively open to seniors in our community currently raging in the age of 55 to 102 years old for arts and crafts sign language class aerobics Bridge memory stimulating games Spanish class and free lunch during the isolating days of covid Isaiah Omegle pivoted to Virtual Monday activities to ensure no seniors were left isolated or lonely on June 25th zyomega will celebrate its Centennial Jubilee to honor a legacy of style substance scholarship and service I am grateful that this symbolic freeway designation is able to side with this historic celebration of excellence and service to black women seniors families and children the struggle is ongoing Yet the woman of zaiomega and Alpha Kappa Alpha have never run away from a righteous cause I look forward to the chapter and it's Ward 4 home creating many more years of creating positive and lasting impact in the district thank you chairman for moving this thank you councilmember councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I um councilmember Lewis George the the joys of going first um basically said much of what I was going to say so I do want to identify myself with her comments um I do also want to express my appreciation for us moving it as we did as councilmember George said in June um the chapter will be hosting it's Jubilee and Centennial Jubilee um where they'll be awarding over a hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to District students and we have the ability to also um celebrate uh the naming of the street at the same time as well so thank you thank you councilmember is there any further discussion we will have a roll call vote on the motion which is to approve both the print and Report with lead for staff Mr Cash would you call the roll councilmember Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes council member Treyon white yes councilmember Trey on white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes council member bonds yes councilmember bonds votes yes council member Freeman yes councilmember Freeman votes yes council member gray is absent council member Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes council member noodle yes councilmember nadeaux votes yes council member Parker yes councilmember Parker votes yes council member Pinto yes councilman Pinto votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent uh thank you Mr Cash the motion uh to approve the print report would leave for staff is approved unanimously Madam general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our considerations yes it is Madam Secretary is the record complete once the Republican and budget detector does the measure it's just glimpact statement comply with counseling requirements yes it does uh objection the special will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting uh the next item on the agenda is Bill 25-203 the fiscal year 2024 local budget Act of 2023 of course did not write out remarks so I'm going to have to speak X temporaneously here uh yesterday I circulated the proposed committee print um and I think for the first time in the history of home rule the print was actually circulated uh in accordance with the rules um early thank you to the budget director and the budget staff um I want to remind members that when we received the proposed budget on March 22nd generally there was a feeling that although we recognize that this budget would be an austere budget compared to previous years that there were still a lot of cuts being proposed by the mayor in the budget that were extensive and undesirable there were a number of projects or initiatives that the council had adopted over the previous several years that were struck and there were also a number of programs that were severely cut for example and this is in no particular order with regard to importance funding for emergency rental assistance program which we have seen as an important program to help with those who are on the margins of falling into homelessness was cut by I believe it's close to 80 percent from 43 million dollars in the current year budget to 8 million dollars in the proposed budget access to Justice initiative which actually provides civil legal services to individuals low-income residents of the District of Columbia who are struggling to get benefits or are struggling to avoid eviction and would if they had a lawyer avoid eviction or get those benefits that that program was cut severely from something like 31.6 million dollars to something closer to around 10 million dollars uh there was no funding in the budget proposed by the mayor for additional vouchers to help those that were placing into housing affordability or who we are um transitioning out of homelessness no money in the budget for additional vouchers those are just some examples the council adopted a program several years ago that has a very long-term strategy to change the challenge of wealth for those who are born into poverty typically you're commonly called the baby bonds program the mayor eliminated that last fall the council adopted legislation with a lot of attention to actually help with regard to public transit and to um perhaps reduce some congestion in the city and actually be the first large city in the country that would have Fair free buses Struck from the proposed budget the criminal code revision commission a small budget item uh proposed to be repealed in the proposed budget the Lesser programs like safe Shores which works with um kids who are subject to abuse eliminated to funding eliminated uh this is the budget that we received the council committees held hearings over the next month and made recommendations at the end of April which the council reviewed council members reviewed on an informal basis at a work session on March on May 3rd where we identified programs that we wanted to see funded where there were recommendations by committees that hopefully uh this committee the committee as a whole could add to so let me start with housing affordability um and actually let me say this first and that is the context in which we received the budget was not encouraged and I think every member expected that although we would make some improvements that we would be very limited in what we would be able to do the due to the work of Staff in the budget office uh we were able to make substantial progress and I think that what I circulated yesterday and proposing for consideration today is quite remarkable in the area of housing affordability we were able to to budget that we have before us would increase funding for emergency rental assistance to the 43 million dollar level it's the current year budget which we recognize is uh probably not adequate uh or as much as will be needed but it is substantial it's at least what we had this year and hopefully additional resources will be found next year as this year the mayor for example has obtained from the federal government in additional I think it's 30 million dollars well we added money to the access to Justice initiative to restore to the 31.6 million dollar level in the current year uh we added vouchers uh working with the housing committee and I want to thank councilmember Robert White uh we identified 40 million dollars over the financial plan for 230 additional permanent Supportive Housing or psh vouchers uh some smaller items for example this came to my attention very late a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to a non-profit A Wider Circle to help with Distributing Furniture to Apartments of people who can't afford furnished apartments um in my view these housing affordability initiatives are important I would even say critical but they're also mostly short-term in their effect but it has a longer term effect in my view is what we can do with regard to public education now the mayor in her proposed budget did not propose cutting education in fact she proposed increasing the UPS FF the funding formula I'll buy five percent um and the budget that we have before us would not change that but we what we do have before us is that almost 24 million dollars on an annual basis has been added to individual schools that I think will be a game changer and that we will see schools beginning to grow rather than struggling just to keep you even because year after year they're confronted with budget cuts no more 24 million dollars added to individual schools in addition because we recognize the importance of equity or the importance that there need to be additional resources for children who are born in poverty who under in the law we call at risk um there is the council last year established as at rate at risk concentration weight for schools that have 40 or more of its students at risk or 70 or more at risk and we uh with this budget have 11.2 million dollars in additions and Corrections for this at-risk concentration funding that's uh for both sectors tcps and the charter schools this budget adds 15 million dollars to the Charter sector for educator pay it identifies 3.9 million dollars for a flexible scheduling and in the area of Education it adds eight and a half million dollars to the annual subsidy for the University of the District of Columbia including a new uh program a degree program for social workers um as I said I think that what we can do for education is a an investment in long-term benefits to our residents the um in the area of Public Safety the budget that we have before us leaves the MPD budget as the mayor proposed it restores significant cuts that were taken uh in the office of victim services and Justice grants Administration for victim services and domestic violence programs this proposed the budget we have before us would restore roughly 10 million dollars it was cut in the current fiscal year and 27 over 27 million dollars over the financial plan that's 2024 through 2027. and although we don't think of inspectors at the department of buildings necessarily in the realm of Public Safety uh decent rental housing is important to our residents and preventing illegal construction dealing with vacant properties that does correlate to Public Safety and with this budget we're restoring 26 inspectors that the mayor proposed to cut from the Department of buildings and I'm hopeful that with the new director who's been nominated that we will see that this agency really this new Department of buildings really takes off uh we recognize that downtown recovery is important there are different strategies for helping downtown some of them are long-term I think what's important are quick benefits so I included in this category the money that's in this budget this proposed budget before us today for overnight bus service which will help both residents who have night jobs and also businesses that are open late like our restaurants so this will help both residents and businesses this overnight buses been a fair amount of attention to this this has been supported by wamada and this would begin in January the um the committee on Judiciary marked up included in its markup uh safe corridors for Public Safety focused on downtown that's in this budget before us uh there is a new large cap grant program in the commission on Arts which should help the larger Arts venues which also includes museums there's in this proposed budget a retail grant program I believe it's in uh demped or three million dollars for downtown retail grants to help recover that sector the three circulator routes that the mayor proposed to eliminate are restored with this budget for one year I want to emphasize for one year and then of course there are other strategies such as the subtitle that the mayor proposed to help with downtown office to residential conversions and um Redevelopment downtown uh this budget that's before us does not ignore concerns about Equity helping those who have the least to have an opportunity for more I already mentioned baby bonds the overnight buses uh will help uh many individuals and uh what we're doing with education and in particular getting more re-stabilizing schools that are getting cut year after year and then getting additional dollars to schools all of these should help in our struggle to change the equity equation in our city the um that is the budget before us I do have to say as I move the local budget Act that um I'm moving it with this correction not an amendment because it's a correction the councilwide BSA print struck the subtitle the transferred crime scene services from the Department of forensic science to MPD the local budget act circulation did not reflect the budget transfer back to the Department of forensic science the following updates will be made before filing in the report on page 28 this is the report for the local budget act to correct the fiscal year from 2025 to 2024 and the local budget act charts reversed a committee recommendation of the budget neutral transfer of crime scene services a division from MPD to DFS beginning in 25 reduce 10 million 87 000 from MPD beginning in FY 24 to transfer crime scene search uh crime scene services and 82 ftes from MPD back to the Department of forensic science enhanced Department of forensic science by 10 million 87 000 to recognize this transfer and then in the LBA print local budget act print which is before us to update the appropriation amounts for both Department of forensic science and the Metropolitan Police Department so there will be that correction which was stated and partially reflected in the documents and this will make sure that it's correctly reflected in all of the documents I do want to note that the um with crime scene Services remaining at the department of forensic science it will look like we are cutting from the MPD budget but we're not what the mayor proposed uh with regard to MPD and what we think of as MPD is unchanged uh the um but the MPD will not get these additional dollars and ftes which were related to Crime Scene services uh so it's not a cut it's just putting back or keeping at DFS what is already at DFS uh with that I move Bill 20 the committee print for build 25-203 with the correction and would leave for staff to make Technical and conforming changes and there probably will be some before the bill is engrossed is there discussion customer could us be recognized councilmanado thank you chairman chairman I agree that when we compare this budget to what it looked like in March we're in a remarkably better place the budget office and all of our staff deserve an immense amount of credit and congratulations for what we've been able to accomplish here and I hope everyone can get some rest soon I think my first public comments on the mayor's budget back in March were about emergency rental assistance so I want to start my remarks there right now I'm proud to be a member of this Council that I feel presented a united front to increase funding for erap by a substantial amount as we saw just recently in the point of time count there have been increases in residents and families experiencing homelessness across the board after many years of significant process progress this budget's funding for e-wrap is going to be critical to catch more people before they enter that free fall into the cycle of homelessness the Chairman's edition of over 200 new permanent supportive housing vouchers will also help to lift individuals and families out of homelessness the council has funded new psh vouchers every year now for the past six years and I'm proud we can continue that streak I'm deeply concerned by the mayor's sudden increase in the use of the word entitlement as a negative term when talking about programs like erap or baby bonds to me framing our social safety net as a pejorative does not reflect our DC values this budget from Council does an incredible amount to restore cuts that would be harmful to D.C residents especially those most in need still it pains me not to see anything here to restore funding for excluded workers 20 million dollars that really should have been in the hands of those workers by now between now and May 30th I will continue to seek ways to deliver on that promise this is likely our last chance to do so I'm happy to see that this budget includes a major shift of funding from DCPS central office budget to our schools and classrooms this has resulted in restoration of funds in schools across the district including seven schools in Ward one I'm also pleased to see funds in place to a pilot a flexible schedule of district schools it's my hope that investments in this pilot as well as reinvestment in classrooms by the council will send a clear message to our Educators that we want them to succeed and we value their well-being I also want to thank the chairman for finding Capital dollars in the budget to establish a child care center at Roosevelt stay which is housed at Garnet Patterson to serve students and community members this will be a game changer for one of our most vibrant parts of Ward one I'm glad this budget restores lines cut from the circulator including Woodley Park Adams Morgan the future of the circulator Beyond fy24 is a major concern but I'm glad we have the opportunity to put more work into thinking through the entirety of our Transit Network thank you for retaining for higher vehicle surcharge in the BSA we have advanced a meaningful conversation about using congestion pricing to shape the city in downtown we want to be an idea that Uber and Lyft have publicly supported the budget before us also directs the mayor to release the long-awaited congestion pricing study by this time next year allowing us to have an informed policy discussion on that issue thank you council member Allen for adding that provision I'm glad the revenue from that will go toward establishing a 24-hour bus Network starting in 2024 which is what we approved at the public works and operations committee's markup Mr chairman if I may I'm almost finished without objection in all hours Transit Network forms a critical backbone of our transportation infrastructure and will be invaluable to many of our essential workers in our nightlife industry I'd like to highlight a number of important pieces of legislation that are funded in this budget the street vendor advancement Amendment act thank you to council member Henderson chairman Mendelson and and colleagues on my committee for funding that program the domestic worker employment rights legislation is fully funded thanks to collaboration with council members Lewis George and Robert White the local resident Voting Rights Act is funded thanks to council member Bonds in the labor committee I was also proud to be able to identify funding for the pocket act which will be transformative in improving the lives of children in our care giving them a more financially stable start as they transition out of foster care all right thank you chairman Mendelson for supporting all of the Investments the Department of Public Work the Committee on Public Works and operations says invested in and I look forward to supporting the fiscal year 2024 local budget Act thank you councilmanado I don't have a lineup so let me start one council member Pinto then frumin then Parker did I just say I'm gonna try to do left and right yes I have councilmember Pinto then councilmember Truman and council member oops bonds and then councilmember Robert white and I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody this side is keeping quiet that side uh Louis George and Henderson comes from repinto not a good game plan thank you very much Mr chairman and to all of my colleagues for their tremendous work to move forward a thoughtful Equitable and Resident focused budget this was a very difficult year and we were called on to make difficult choices but I believe the budget proposal before us today makes clear that the district prioritizes Public Safety the long-term economic resilience of our city and housing stability for district residents as chair of the committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety I want to begin by discussing the incredible Investments this budget makes in public safety and an equitable Criminal Justice System first I want to thank you Mr chairman for finishing the work started by my committee to reverse the mayor's significant cuts to access to Justice victim services and the criminal code Reform Commission and thank you all so very much to council member Alan bonds and Henderson for your efforts for those vital Services I want to take a moment to highlight the importance of funding access to just us atj grants support critical civil Legal Aid Services for underserved District residents helping those residents avoid eviction unemployment and other potentially lifelong harms one public witness shared that for every dollar invested in civil legal aid we see a return investment of five to nine dollars the 18.1 million dollar cut to this program would not have only meant a significant reduction in these services but a loss of many of the attorneys doing this work and I'm proud to see the work that this body did to reverse this reduction ensuring these attorneys can continue to do critical work on behalf of our underserved residents I'm also pleased to see that this budget print retains critical funding that the committee passed for Recruitment and Retention at MPD as members are well aware MPD is facing significant Staffing shortages and challenges in hiring and retention Chief Conte has said it could take a decade for MPD Staffing to recover but we must begin that work today these Staffing and hiring difficulties are coming at a time when we see a rise in gun violence and other crimes in our city this budget gives Chief Conti all of the funding he says is needed in fiscal year 2024 to bring in high quality recruits and retain our current officers I want to note however that MPD is not the only Public Safety agency struggling with hiring retention shortages that are also due to Nationwide staffing issues and we must continue to address these Staffing challenges also at Doc OUC Femmes dbh and DHS like at MPD these shortages have a direct impact on public safety and cannot be ignored I intend to work with other members the mayor the attorney general and others to thoughtfully devise and move forward a plan to comprehensively address these staffing issues I also want to highlight the Investments we made in this budget to ensure the long-term recovery of our downtown the economic engine of the district and our city as a whole through this budget the council is funding the blueprint for my bill The Recovery Act I have some more time without objection thank you through this budget the council is funding the blueprint for my bill The Recovery Act or downtown to create a resilient vibrant and Safe Community First resiliency one of the biggest lessons that we learned during the pandemic was that our most resilient neighborhoods were home to a variety of uses housing restaurants retail entertainment and office through this budget we will make our downtown more resilient by converting vacant Office Buildings to market rate and affordable housing this budget moves us closer to ensuring that individuals and families who work downtown can afford to live downtown these conversions are also critical to ensure that our downtown continues to generate tax revenue to fund all of our other city-wide priorities currently there are 322 Office Buildings downtown alone that make up 7.5 percent of all of our City's Revenue and these conversions will help us adapt to the changing needs of our city and secure this Revenue base second Vibrance through this budget we will help fill long vacant ground level retail spaces but the new kinds of amenities residents need downtown like grocery stores child care and Urgent Care Centers dry cleaners restaurants and other retail and we place Equity at the center of this investment by designated a portion of those funds for small businesses owned by D.C residents who are women and people of color and third safety we need our downtown to be safe for all residents workers and visitors which is why I'm proud that we've invested over 1.2 million dollars in the safe commercial corridors program to provide trusted Community organizations with the resources that they need to invest in increased Street lighting Public Safety patrols violence Interruption efforts and other proven Public Safety initiatives the ability to easily get downtown into other neighborhoods across the city is a critical part of our recovery which is why I'm so excited the council was able to fund 24 7 service on some of our busiest bus routes which may which move people in and out of our downtown this is an especially important Equity issue for residents who work early mornings or late nights including in the hospitality restaurant and medical Industries I'm also thrilled the council is able to restore all of the circulator routes the mayor proposed cutting including the DuPont Roslyn Dupont Georgetown Roslyn and Woodley Park McPherson square roots I appreciate that the fee for Rideshare is not only going to be uh charged against those who are coming to or going to downtown I am disappointed that the K Street Transit way construction has been delayed by a year I continue to believe that now is the time to invest in our downtown and ensure that residence workers and visitors can get to where they need to go safely and efficiently the transitway is an important part of the entire bus Network and future plans for Ramada but I am optimistic that the dialogues we've had over the last several weeks have only reinvigorated our efforts to ensure that this project is truly transformational and I appreciate you chairman maintaining eight million dollars to support this project which will start with a new redesign furthering our goals of reimagining downtown for the future of the district with the beautiful green and multimodal Avenue I look forward to continuing that work with you councilmember Allen DDOT other stakeholders and our colleagues to ensure that that's ready to move forward and I see you there just finally I'm very proud that this budget will make substantial Investments to support housing stability for our residents including eight million dollars for psh vouchers to ensure we continue our efforts to provide housing to all who need it 43 million dollars e-wrap to ensure families who have qualified on a rent can stay in their homes and access to Justice there are many additional Investments that we're very excited about continue to work with you and want to thank you and your staff and that of the budget office for all of your hard work as well as my team in the personal office and the committee office thank you thank you councilmember uh so I hate interrupting folks we have three minutes each if somebody asks for some additional time I'm going to Grant it unless there's objection but can we still be mindful of the clock please members uh next is councilmember Freeman and the pressures on thank you very much chairman Mendelson uh when the cfo's budget estimate Revenue estimate came out we all knew we were going to face a real Challenge and when the mayor's budget came out um that that challenge only got harder given all of the Damage Done to the social safety net in that budget I think many of us at our working session talked about different priorities I I think there was a clear consensus that strengthening e-wrap providing for some vouchers access to Justice all very high priorities for many of us on the council uh chairman Mendelson very grateful to you that you heard that and that in the budget that you've come forward with you've addressed those issues in a meaningful way and there's there's still a lot to do in all of these areas um but you did make meaningful moves and and I'm grateful for that yeah the whole discussion about the K Street Transit way Fair free buses the circulator uh I I want to get to a place where we have a great K Street Transit way that will support downtown and where we have Fair free buses I think the right time to do that and move in that direction is next year when we're rethinking our whole bus Network and I hope that we can all rally around those goals in the in the coming year in the meantime I'm very grateful again that you have reinstated the circulator for a year that's going to be very important to a number of different communities one of the big things in this budget is downtown um I I take to heart the concern about where downtown's going to go and believe we need to make very meaningful Investments to save downtown for the long-term future of the city I'm grateful for the things that have been included in this budget that will help us to achieve that I see I have a minute and so I'll I'll check through more quickly again um a different area that is a shared area of focus for you and I is UDC and I'm very grateful to see the Investments that you made in UDC that are directly responsive to the requests from that uh from the leadership of that institution this budget does big things for seniors for the main streets I was heartened to see the inclusion of money for a friendship place for job training for wider circles for the delivery of furniture Etc um I also want to take my last 20 seconds to say how grateful I am for your leadership on schools issues I think the steps that you've taken that will lead to more stability in school budgets are super important and very much welcomed all around the city I do wonder whether there are ways that we can find a path to ensure that Central DCPS Central is not harmed and that we we can all rally around a path forward here that that um that brings us and the executive together on education issues in the next two couple of weeks and I also continue to have reservations about the increase in Charter pay I think the number that you've chosen is correct I am going to want to focus on the guard rails around that to make sure that if the way in which that is done is fair to everyone so thank you very much Mr chairman and thank you to you and your staff for your work on this budget thank you councilmember Freeman councilmember bonds thank you very much Mr chairman um first I'd like to thank the mayor and the chairman and all my Council colleagues for the hard work that's gone into this budget as we all know the district's fiscal year 24 proposed budget reflects millions in lost American Rescue plan uh Federal funding as a result many of our district agencies are returning to pre-pandemic spending levels that we had before the influx of the funds we're also facing very serious threats to our ability to generate local Revenue as well my focus is on making sure that our most impactful programming especially that which benefits our most vulnerable populations remains as close to M Tech as possible while understanding that those systems generating revenue must also be attended to and maintained as much as possible through the agencies in my committee we are supporting investments in jobs programs such as project empowerment and the Summer Youth Employment Program Investments that exceed their pre-pandemic budgets with this funding our residents will be prepared to fill high paying and skilled jobs in the district and the region we're also investing in a department on aging and community living with enhancements that will provide iPads for seniors facing isolation maintain support for individuals with Alzheimer's and Dementia this funding will protect our seniors by ensuring that they have access to services and supports necessary for living well and aging in place additionally my committee was able to fund some of the most impactful legislation this Council passed this last year including the local resident Voting Act the domestic workers employment Rights Act the condo warranty claims clarification Act and the elimination of discrimination against women act we also supported the office of victim services and Justice grants by providing funding for domestic violence victims services at this time I will not repeat the public safety repairs made in this budget that my colleagues have already reminded us of they are significant and I support them now we know that Financial outlook for our city is a little hazy in addition to High Cost of Living that D.C faces daily the ocfo has already projected that our revenues will decrease over the next several years and bring things will become maybe worse if we don't make the right decisions in today's budget Mr chairman may I have one minute more without objection thank you I think that this local budget act as the devoted to balancing many of our interests and I'm glad that it proposes 10.5 million dollars to victim and domestic services in the FY 24 budget for a total of 27.4 million 35 million towards one-time emergency rental assistance funding making our total investment the 43 million reinstates 26 new inspectors at the department of buildings and restores the circulator board on bus routes for another year we're also investing in the vibrancy of our city by funding the safe commercial corridors Grant and 3 million in the retail grants for downtown restaurants and we're also opposing to reinstate the festival fund to support events that promote neighborhood vibrancy and there are also development projects that have received funding one in particular is the capital funding for the vacant Fletcher Johnson site in Ward 7 Marshall Heights and Benco neighbors have been waiting for this development for decades and this gets it closer to being a reality I'm also grateful that this Council found additional Investments for the public schools such as increasing the unified student of funding formula to support at-risk students doing our recovery from the pandemic it is critically important that we give our youth the education mentorship and support that they need to succeed Applause again to Washington teachers union for the final release of the new contract that included much needed and anticipated pay increases and equity for our teachers moreover I look forward to Charter Schools finally providing some financials for review prior to their receipt of pay Equity Funds that's also included in today's budget but despite these Investments we still have some outstanding budget priorities I realize my time is way over and I will not go through them we all know who they and what they are but I think it is my belief that the time is now to invest in our Workforce Development programs like some of Youth Employment the DC infrastructure Academy and project empowerment and the apprenticeships administered by the office of apprenticeship information and training they are very critical Tools in our effort to uplift our entire Community give more households hope skill sets and opportunity to earn a living with good wages and healthy safe work environments so let's continue to invest in our Workforce and prepare them for the careers of the future and thank you Mr chairman to you and your staff and I want to thank my staff as well and the staffs of all of my colleagues as we toil endlessly to reach this conclusion thank you Mr chairman thank you uh so you um if members again I want to remind members to try to stay within the time um I did want to I just wanted to make this clear because there was a comment about this our revenues are not dropping it's that they're not increasing as had been previously projected and that's an important point so we talk about how we our revenues have dropped what we really mean is we have less revenues than we thought we would have comes from Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman I want to thank you your staff in the Council budget office for your work on this year's budget every year Council staff work long hours to make sure the district has a balanced and transparent budget that works for D.C residents this year the council received a budget that was unlike any we've seen in recent years we're still recovering from the pandemic Federal covet resources are coming to an end and our future revenues are not growing at the same Pace they have over the last decade the proposal the council started with was not the blueprint that would set the district up or its residence for a comeback so many social safety net programs built to keep people from falling were cut partially or completely this was most apparent in the housing and Human Services spaces my biggest concern here is that if we aren't attending to basic needs like housing and education our city has no chance of rebounding because there will be too many people struggling in the gap between the Haves and have-nots will just keep growing in this context my goal for the fiscal year 24 budget was to prevent the immediate harms of residents falling into homelessness or being displaced and to invest in the future of our city in ways that interrupt cycles of violence and poverty with a 240 million dollar shift in Housing Programs approximately 75 million dollars a year dedicated in funds for public housing maintenance and Rehabilitation starting in 2028 millions of dollars more going to schools and the creation of a free Master's in social work and Masters in counseling program at the University of the District of Columbia I believe we have developed a budget that is good for the city today while also investing and making sure a stronger future is ahead of us I'm proud of the work that we've done together specifically the housing committee made a lot of progress by restructuring the mayor's budget to focus on key Investments necessary to prevent and respond to homelessness and to ensure our residents don't fall through the cracks I want to thank you Mr chairman for working closely with me over the last couple of weeks to identify significant additional funding to address the most critical remaining gaps in the housing and Human Services budgets as a result this budget goes even further to address our shared priorities this budget raises the emergency rental assistance program or erap back up to 43 million dollars for fiscal year 24 with a big thanks to you Mr chairman and council members Nado Allen Lewis George and Henderson we've also worked to add an additional 33 million dollars to e-wrap in the current fiscal year thank you this funding is going to help thousands of District residents stay in their homes and off the street to ensure residents have legal assistance my committee restored funding for the office of the tenant Advocate expanding both their staff and their ability to go after slumlords your proposed budget Builds on that investment by restoring 31.6 million dollars to the access to Justice initiative those legal resources collectively will make a huge difference for tenants facing evictions or poor housing conditions for residents experiencing homelessness the budget before us Builds on the vouchers our committee funded for returning citizens with an additional 230 more permanent supportive housing vouchers helping to ensure that DHS has enough vouchers to move people off the street and into housing through fiscal year 2024. because the need for vouchers remains greater than the capacity of our agencies to use them we also focused in this Budget on fixing the system and accelerating the use of housing vouchers part of that effort was funding our new free drug program degree program at UDC for district residents to become social workers a key need to get people into housing more quickly this is a long-term investment in the future of our Housing Programs programs that support mental health and prevent violence and it's an investment in residents who want to be part of helping their community in this budget Mr chairman you have also funded an additional 16 staff at DHS targeted specifically to accelerate the flow of housing vouchers and ensure we are maximizing Medicaid reimbursements at the same time on public housing the proposed budget includes legislation my committee drafted to maximize transparency and accountability at dcha as we continue our reform effort in partnership with the reform board and the Inspector General Mr chairman I want to thank you for agreeing to back those reforms up with a long-term commitment to dedicate tax revenue of nearly 75 million dollars a year starting in 2028 to address the maintenance and Construction backlogs in public housing this dedicated Revenue sends a clear signal that the council is committed to the long-term welfare of dcha and our public housing residents and of course you found smaller ways to enhance the housing budget by helping fund additional study of the attendant opportunity to Purchase Act and funding for furniture for residents exiting homelessness in addition to the funding my committee identified to maintain Workforce programs for our lgbtq residents to restore funding for people with disabilities to strengthen condos and to support victims of domestic violence we have together put forward a compassionate and supportive vision for residents in poverty even in this austere budget season additionally this budget investment in Residence and the district's future Prosperity by make making significant changes to our education system and heavily investing in students teachers and schools in addition to the work you did to fully fund School budgets you also made new Investments that support our teachers the district can be proud of increases to compensation made possible through wtu's bargaining agreement with DCPS but beyond the compensation we know that teachers want to stay in the classroom can only stay if we give them more supports so thank you for working with me to include pieces of my educator retention for Student Success Amendment act and for funding flexible scheduling for our teachers these programs combined will strengthen our schools strengthen our housing and our safety net programs and sets the city up for a comeback that residents can be a part of thank you Mr chairman oh thank you customer White comes from Lewis George ah thank you chairman I want to thank you your team my colleagues and there's their staff and the brilliant team in the Council budget office for your diligent work on the budget before us today uh in March we were confronted with the proposed budget that decimated funding for emergency rental assistance housing vouchers to end homelessness legal aid support for survivors of domestic violence violence prevention programs Traffic Safety public transit and so many other programs that DC residents rely on every week my office Fields dozens of calls from people facing evictions struggling to put food on the table looking for housing they can afford calling for safer streets in our communities to be safe fully funding schools in well-maintained school buildings and government services that work well and that uphold the Dignity of each person in our city so many of these priorities were put at risk by the severe budget cuts that were proposed I am relieved that even in a tough budget year we work together with Community to reverse many of the harmful cuts and make new Investments that will prevent displacement help struggling families improve safety support Crime Victims help our students Excel and strengthen our infrastructure I'm proud of the Investments my committee the committee on facilities and Family Service was able to to fund at the committee stage last month including a 7 million increase to dgs's facilities operations budget to support maintenance of our schools parks and other Municipal spaces within this figure we're improving our preventative maintenance budget dedicating funds towards work order reduction efforts Citywide and investing in securing our school buildings we also funded subtitles to integrate more vgs services into 3-1-1 platform require dgs to complete a security check at all of our DCPS buildings thank you to my colleague Robert White and we fully funded The Greener government buildings Amendment which we passed last year and will now require the district to build to Net Zero standards moving forward I'm also proud of my committee's role in strengthening cfsa's prevention programs to increase funding for home visiting new resources for Skin Care Connections and restoring safe Shores I'm also excited that the Attorney General will have greater capacity to support cfsa and preliminary family assessments and that grandparents serving as Guardians can get more financial support as they care for our children these programs don't get enough don't get a lot of headlines but they make a huge impact we know that when what happens in the home is critical for ensuring kids can excel in school find rewarding careers and grow up to be engaged citizens who contribute to their Community getting the right matters for our entire city getting that right matters for our entire city I am proud and grateful to the chairman for leaving our budget and subtitle recommendations and intact for this budget circulation our budget rightfully mobilizes our government to address people's immediate needs to pay rent feed their families and walk our streets safely but we also know that lasting change requires making transformative Investments also in our neighborhoods chairman can I have an additional minute please without objection growing up on Kennedy Street I saw my community pass up for reset resources that so many other neighborhoods have now all these years later this systemic disinvestment is reflected in the struggles that Kennedy Street faces from gun violence to empty storefronts and blighted buildings with the liquor store on every block it is easier to buy a beer than it is to get a book on Kennedy Street where families need to walk more than a mile to reach a public library this budget is Monumental because it lays the foundation for a long awaited change on Kennedy Street by setting aside funding to acquire land and build a new Public Library this Library which can be paired with other public resources can provide services and programs that are addresses our community's full needs it will be transformative for many young children low-income families single-parent households immigrants and senior citizens who live in the Brightwood Park in Manor Park community and at the same time we are keeping Juanita ether and Shepherd Park Library open and honoring its important history so it can continue serving six surrounding neighborhoods thank you to councilmember Treyon white chairman Mendelson and all of my colleagues for listening to our communities and supporting this vision for Kennedy Street my committee was also proud to fund part of the domestic workers Bill of Rights Act I want to be clear that BC cannot Thrive if its workers do not Thrive especially domestic workers who have faced exploitation have been denied basic rights for decades in our city that begins to change with the budget that recognizes that domestic workers are a priority uh when we talk to the mayor about this in a prior hearing she said the budget is now with the council figure it out and I'm proud that me and my colleagues figured it out so thank you to councilman Robert White Nadeau and bonds for working together to get this done for our workers determined to do our part to confront DC's housing crisis my committee was able to restore more than 6 million in funding for homeless prevention programs and together with councilmember Allen we took a huge step towards improving Traffic Safety around our schools by restoring funding for the safe routes to school act after it was swept by the mayor thank you for your leadership councilmember Allen Mr chairman I want to especially thank you though for refocusing our budget on the most pressing human needs in our city e-wrap is an emergency rental system is not a moral hazard is a moral necessity and by reversing the cuts to this program we will prevent displacement in homeless homelessness from any working class black and brown DC residents in a year where DC is facing a 12 increase in homelessness the new housing vouchers will be incredibly important in ensuring our neighbors are housed whether you're facing eviction or your business being taken away fully funded legal aid is vital for supporting DC residents during one of the worst periods of their lives and increase funding for our organizations on the front lines of serving survivors of domestic violence is a necessity when when the stakes are so high for life-saving intervisions I'm also proud that this budget puts schools first and prevents the harmful budget cuts at so many schools in Ward 4 and across DC were facing housing code violations and illegal construction is a huge issue in our community so I'm relieved that this budget restores funding for inspectors of the Department of buildings we keep talking about the needing a budget that will drive DC's comeback but DC comeback needs to be be about more than Office Buildings downtown it needs to be felt inside people's living rooms in our neighborhoods and in schools across our city from Uptown to Southeast and every community in between I know our work is not done and we will keep at it until the final vote is cast to make this budget stronger and meet our more of our City's needs I have been working with my colleagues around making sure we have the opportunity to fully fun snap but I am proud of the progress we made today and I thank you chairman colleagues and staff and community members who helped get us this far thank you thank you councilmember our councilmember Allen thank you Mr chairman um this weekend I was realizing this is actually my 20th budget three years as an advocate sitting on that side eight years as Council staff sitting back there and nine years now sitting at this seat and I think out of all of those budgets out of 20 budgets this one this one has actually been from the proposed budget to what we have in front of us the largest difference between competing Visions in our city and I'm very proud of the budget that we have in front of us now and the way that we've addressed this and I appreciate the hard work Mr chairman you and your staff have put into that at the beginning of this process I talked about going into a tough budget and having gone through them before the discipline is saying no to a good idea and Leadership is saying yes to the right ones and I think that the budget that we have in front of us says yes to a lot of the right ideas the budget that was sent to us facing an increase in homelessness in our city sought to decimate emergency rental assistance programs and legal aid supports to keep people in their homes at a time when we're trying to get people back to work and get people downtown the budget that came to us eliminated bus routes and circulator routes downtown literally getting people to work at a time when we're seeing Road Safety challenges be greater than ever we saw a budget that swept and took the funding that this Council had tried to dedicate towards improving safety on our streets in the face of rising climate crisis budget didn't include anything so focus our efforts around our climate change our climate action and resiliency when it came to racial economic Justice and the importance and necessity there this budget struck an investment this Council made in baby bonds time and time again this budget had very Stark differences what is this Council done and what do we have in front of us we have been able to restore the funding for emergency rental assistance and for access to Legal Aid to keep people in their homes when it comes to getting people around our city we have been able to restore all of our circulator routes and on top of that add now 13 24 hour a day routes serving our city and our workers when it comes to road safety we've been able to restore some of this we have made Monumental Investments as councilor Lewis George just mentioned our safe Safe Streets for students as well as numerous projects specifically in Wards in every ward of our city and when it comes to climate action this legislation this budget in front of us makes historic investments in job training and job creation in our Green Bank that helps Finance hard to reach projects in creating and supporting our affordable housing retrofit accelerator in helping fund residential conversions in creating in Ward 7 a two million dollar pilot program for residents in River Terrace and Deanwood to be able to move to electrification this is a budget I think we can be incredibly proud of incredibly proud of now I know that time is running out so I wanted to the phone over there talking um but I do want to talk briefly about uh K Street I appreciate that the funding that we've identified um that Mr Middleton the the budget we have in front of us supports where when we had to Pivot and I'm frustrated to think we all are with a wamada board stepping back from the commitments that we were making that as we had to make that change uh the recommendations I made about investing in transit is one that you've included here investing in e-wrap and atj or access to Justice are included in here the bus routes I mentioned are included in here I think that's an investment that we can all be very proud of I am committed to making sure that we see a K Street Transit way for the downtown of our future but it's in crucially important that we think about this as what is the K Street that we need for the future not the past what is the K Street we need for 2050 not 1950. and a freeway running downtown is not the vision of what our downtown is going to look like imagine every neighborhood in our city that is thriving close your eyes and imagine the ways in which people are moving about that neighborhood imagine the way that people are connecting to their jobs to their schools raising families meeting friends for dinner going to the park imagine what that downtown Cannon should be that's the neighborhood that downtown has to be and that's the vision that we have to be able to deliver on the K Street that came to the council even with a whole bunch of 11th Hour changes was for a stale vision of what it is that we have to build I'm committed to working with my colleagues with the mayor with DDOT with my colleague councilor Pinto with the chairman on helping reimagine what our case streets got to be to serve our City's future not our past I appreciate that we've got substantial funds to continue the planning and design work and I look forward to working to make sure that we get pastry delivered in the way in which it's got to be for the future of our downtown so Mr chairman I again want to applaud you and your team uh for the budget office for all the hard work that's gone into this and I think this is a budget that we can all be incredibly proud of that represents our vision of where DC has got to go for our residents for our businesses and for our city thank you thank you councilmember I just want to remind everybody supposedly we're on a three-minute clock um I would like to treat everybody equally so we've been a little laxer but try to be mindful of the time council member Parker you are next thank you Mr chairman and as has been mentioned I want to thank your team for all the work that went into putting together this draft budget as well as Jim budoff and and Phelps from the budget office and their teams for their working miracles uh to get us to this point um I want to celebrate some of the Investments that uh were made following the mayor's proposed budget as has been mentioned the 18.6 million to access to Justice initiative the nearly 10 million in housing vouchers um and roughly 11 million um to the victim and domestic violence Services all of which will support residents in need I also want to tout the replacement of the festival fund so thank you chairman and your team for that and maintaining critical investments in Ward five and throughout the city like the million dollar investment on South Dakota Avenue that said I have asked a question and I'll reiterate the question uh who is the district's comeback for it is not by happen chance that we see concentrated poverty in parts of the city generation after generation and it is not by happenstance that we see concentrated wealth in pockets of the city generation after generation it is not by happenstance that my ward 8 colleague has critical concerns about the budget it as does my award seven colleague as do I and I would also mention my ward 4 colleague as those are the awards that are typically at the top of every bad list and at the bottom unfortunately of every good list and while we certainly make critical Investments and move the needle I reject the premise that we don't have enough money in a city with a nearly 20 billion dollar budget I reject the premise that we must accept as Norm uh that certain communities have to do without while we have nice to haves and amenities and others uh so with that said chairman I've already been in conversation with you and your team I do plan to move several amendments today uh with recognition that while we have made critical Investments we can do a lot better uh in the name of equity and in the name of a more just DC one of those amendments will push to extend the deed and Recreation fee and I note that I'm calling it a fee uh this was first moved uh by the mayor and approved by eight members of this current Council in 2019 and by moving that this fee it would allow us to fund snap increases or the give a snap raise Amendment act that was unanimously passed by this Council it would also allow us to fund the no senior hungry Omnibus act which was unanimously passed by this Council but more importantly will mean a material difference in the lives of district and washingtonians across this city we would be able to expand the the Summer Youth Employment Program we would be able to provide a district child tax credit for parents that are and chairman I'm out of time but can I uh have another minute uh without objection uh we would be able to provide a child tax credit uh for families with up to three children um we would be able to fund The Early Childhood Educators pay Equity Fund and so much more uh we would be able to add more to e-wrap we would be able to expand housing vouchers to the mayor's office of lgbtq Affairs and I would note uh there is still a waiting list at the lgbtq Affairs office of more than 30 individuals that are waiting for housing um again we should be proud of what we have done but there is more that we can do and I call on my colleagues to stand with colleagues in Wards four five seven and eight who are calling and advocating for our constituencies I also have expressed concern about the proposed cuts to DCPS um central office I agree with the premise of School's First budgeting I have concerns that a blunt approach to cutting central office will impact kids I have talked to and am committed to working with chairman uh Mendelson and his staff between now and the second vote to try to reach consensus between DCPS and the council and I take the chairman in good faith and know and trust that you have the best of intentions here and I just want to make sure chairman uh that our colleagues are just fully uh grasping the impact of the proposed cuts and the last thing I would say I'm planning to prepare our motion an amendment um for the school safety enhancement act that was legislation I proposed earlier this year I am pulling out the task force component of that we've also been in touch and talks about that chairman um and the goal here is to address the serious need around school safety uh we have all heard from school leaders we have heard from parents uh this task force will work and be championed by the deputy mayor of Education the chairman will be able to appoint members and they would work over the next year to reflect think through uh what might school safety directors do how would we enhance school safety protocols and they will issue a report in March of next year and so in closing uh I want to thank again chairman your team the Council budget office and our colleagues for all of their great work getting us to this point but there is much more that we can do to make sure that we have a just budget for more just DC thank you thank you councilmember Parker council member Henderson um thank you Mr chairman uh three minutes to talk about a 19 billion dollar budget oh I don't exactly know where to begin um but given my short uh time I will focus my comments today on investments within the health committee's purview um first I want to thank the committee of the whole for maintaining critical Investments proposed by the committee on health and our budget report including 2 million to restore the Children's School Services Grant um to address High vacancy rates for School nurses 1.3 million to provide scholarships and supports to health care workers by funding the high Health need Health Care scholarship and high and health professional loan repayment program Amendment Act of 2022 that was introduced by councilmember Gray almost a million dollars to expand access to infertility uh treatment and diagnosis by funding the expanding access to fertility treatment Bill we add additional ftes at DC Health to streamline the health professional licensing application process and to fund the DC Health portion of the street vendor bill um we added an additional six hundred thousand dollars to Pilot targeted Outreach and support for individuals in need of substance abuse and Behavioral Health Services at three locations in Wards one five and seven um which um have been the hardest hit in terms of opioid or overdoses in the district and as well as 325 000 to fund um a new health uh school-based Behavioral Health student peer educator program which will support at least 100 peer Educators in high schools with schools specifically preference and Wards five seven and eight um second I want to thank the chairman for several additional critical investments in the health space um two million to provide a carve out for the non-profit pediatric acute care hospital from the mayor's BSA subtitle requiring a cap on MCO Hospital reimbursement rates with your help Mr chairman we fully restored the funding that was cut to the healthy schools fund which goes to help for healthy School meals and nutritional education programs and also added four ftes to establish an office of opioid abatement at the Department of Behavioral Health which will be responsible for allocating the opioid litigation settlement funds that are owed to the district over the next few years I do want to voice a couple of concerns um first the committee of the whole's decision to sweep an additional 3.6 million from the mayor's proposed 24 million dollar increase to the behavioral health Rehabilitation local match at dbh the committee strongly supports a rate increase for Behavioral Health Providers how after however after many conversations with agencies and Advocates the committee recommended only a three million reduction because the executive could not articulate how they calculated the proposed increase the mayor's Errata letter confirmed the committee's concerns by requesting a 6.7 million reduction at the same to the same line the committee will closely monitor the release of the behavioral health rate study um just one more minute Mr chairman without a rejection the committee will closely monitor the release of the behavioral health rate study and carbon of Behavioral Health Services to the MCO contracts we are committed to ensuring that our providers have the adequate funding to deliver critical Behavioral Health Services to the residents in the district um finally chairman I want to um note a couple of things in terms of Ward 7 I don't believe that my ward 7 colleague is here but I want to make sure that the residents of Ward 7 are heard um we this budget does make several um moves and shifts in terms of the capital budget for Ward seven uh it pushes back the streetcar extension um you zered out funding for the Winston development project that is also in Ward seven and while there is a 42 million dollar investment in the CIP for the Fletcher Johnson project we've heard several concerns from community members um that that award was done in 2020 and that it should be rebid however since then the government has pitched in to do some Demolition and site preparation and the community has concerns that the project may not deliver on the mixed use and the amenities that they deeply uh want and desperately deserve so Mr chairman I'm hoping we can have some conversations about this site as well as some other Capital project concerns regarding Ward 7 um between first and second reading but I look forward to the rest of the discussion today thank you thank you councilmember our council member thank you chairman and thank you to my colleagues um the budget cycle is always uh extraordinarily busy time for the council and each year brings its own set of unique challenges this year we're faced with our toughest budget season in well over a decade at least as long as I've been I remember the Council of the Disco Colombia the reduction in federal pandemic assistance coupled with an uncertain economic outlook for the commercial real estate market meant fewer resources were available for worthwhile priorities for the council and despite those challenges this Council managed to advance a budget that invests in District residents small businesses and our downtown recovery within my committee on business sneak on development working with my colleagues or members we restored the baby bonds program and working with the chairman and committed a whole we're able to do so um at 54 million dollars over for a financial plan providing a generation of families with the opportunity to fund their education or buy a home or start a small business we allocated six million dollars to the commercial acquisition fund to expand opportunities for small business owners who rent to be able to acquire their commercial property and hopefully keep their businesses located within the District of Columbia's borders for generations to come we invested one million dollars to continue pilot efforts to provide unrestricted cast assistance directly to individuals or households experience in economic hardship a crucial step forward uh toward guaranteed basic income which many economists say would eliminate poverty we invested in our youth and innovative ways by allocating funding to the DC Combat Sports commission and the D.C State athletic association to support middle school sports clinics coach mentorship and conflict resolution and we laid the groundwork to continue downtown's recovery by revisiting the incentives for office to residential Redevelopment to align with the district's current economic Outlook at the council's budget work session and in a follow-up letter to the chairman I asked for the council to identify funding to support several additional priorities which they committed a whole has now funded thankfully they include support for the emergency emergency rental assistance program access to Justice initiatives survivors of domestic violence retail recovery grants and the Noma Metro pedestrian tunnel as well as the festival fund and all the great events including Capital Property that access Grant funds to support their events I want to once again thank all the folks who helped to make this uh happen including um Kay Westcott and the members of the general counsel's office uh just a minute Mr John objection the office of the secretary uh under leadership analysis Smith and her a great team for all the support that they provided both in person and over Zoom uh during this budget session also I want to thank the budget office June budoff and her incredible team and we you know typically thank all these folks every budget session and we mean it when we say it this budget in particular though uh given the austere financial times that the district finds itself uh and was particularly um helpful and beneficial to the residents of District of Columbia so I mean a special thanks to all these folks uh including Sam Hodges and Phelps and Joe wolf uh we really leaned on on you all this budget cycle I wanted to mention those names I also want to thank my team for all their hard work this budget season um and all that we're able to do recognizing all that we were not able to do during these tough times I do have oh Mr chairman a question that I wanted to ask about um the subtitle that um since they modified the congestion tax whenever is appropriate time to do that I haven't been asked a single question yet so I don't know if I can handle it but otherwise go ahead oh great um I wanted to ask about the subtitle in particular that lovies the 25 cent on tax on all trips originated in the district and how exactly and whether or not this is still designed to address congestion in downtown uh I would say that it has much broader applicability and therefore uh avoids the concerns I even say controversy that's uh had had begun to arise with regard to whether it would impede the recovery of downtown so it has a broader applicability um did you all consider alternatives that could achieve the same goals without instituting a new uh fee uh as you phrased it no okay um I I'm gonna have some more questions about this and I do worry that um in implementing this type of fee understanding how it's going to affect traditional taxi service or other for hired vehicles not booked through a digital platform and so I'd love to hear your thoughts now or at some point over the course of this meeting or the last meeting uh explaining that yes um I'm not I wasn't paying close attention but this does not have an effect on traditional cabs and I'm happy of course to uh sit down and discuss it with you more fully between now and second reading the last thing I'll ask that we could discuss between now and second reading is to better understand the racial Equity impacts of this measure um passing this new uh tax in the BSA we just really haven't had the opportunity to flesh out what those impacts are and if you have that information I'd love to get it if you can get it from the companies or the individuals the drivers Riders who would be impacted I would love to have that as well yes I don't I don't think we have any data on that um but we can we can talk more about it thank you thank you councilmember I don't believe there's anybody else in the lineup oh councilmember Tran White my apologies oh thank you chairman um this afternoon we are a step closer to how we spend a 19.7 billion dollars uh in the district um in my experience uh we've had uh surpluses of over 300 million dollars every year since I've been on the council in fact this 19.7 billion dollars is the highest budget I've ever seen in DC history um so we know that this budget is a prioritizing document to show residents what our values and where our priorities lie um and I think that when we got the budget from the mayor it was disheartening to me that the safety nets for working class poor brown and black people were ripped out of our DC budget um I know that all of my colleagues uh have been childishly working to address some of those holes and some of our priorities are different but I think we all mean well it is my hope that we land a plane the residents of the district feel like this is their DC when I talk to people in various communities from various backgrounds education backgrounds various ethnicities people don't feel like this is a DC that's working for them quite frankly they don't feel like this is the largest budget we ever had in DC history uh as noted in my previous comments we are in a housing crisis but we've seen 2700 evictions happen in three months so you multiplies that times four and you do the math the people in the district are afraid of where they're going to get their next meal if they can get a job they can they can afford to live and grow here in the district of the price of living keep skyrocketing each and every year and affordability for food that's even gone up this again is a moral document and we have to ensure that we be inclusive and Equitable in our budget decisions um I am I do want to highlight a few things that I feel that we are moving in the right direction some of my colleagues have echoed some of these sentiments uh the violence in DC has been disheartening alarming and any other adjective to say that we are in a crime-ridden city we like to say everything is good whenever they people feel like everything is going downhill and the way we get to our addressing solution is to a first it's to First address the problem and there are many and we can't solve all this in one day and we have to do it together I'm happy that we addressing uh the drop in funding for our for our schools as noted six percent of Ward 8 schools should make I have some more time without a rejection thank you six percent of Ward a schools we got the budget from the mayor were underfunded which will be devastating for our school communities I want to thank you chairman and my other colleagues for restoring this funding um I do want to note that uh some great decisions and challenges have already been corrected to the mayor's proposal I want to thank you chairman and other members especially Robert White for fighting for e-wrap I know we got eight million restored to 43 million but I think we still have to dig a Little Deeper because we we spent that money historically in three months um housing and security is a huge issue in the city and we know these uh programs will address the need for some of the most vulnerable vulnerable residents in the district I want to note that uh the water investment fund has been restored I want to thank my Council colleagues for that I think that we have to empower our small businesses who uh hire from our communities and small operations that we hope to grow to large operations in our community um we still have more work to do I want to note that we have a stored uh 1.7 million I think it's 1.6 1.2 or 1.7 uh million to the capital Riverfront to ensure we can have programming there um and I looked to do more I have some amendments today chairman that I would like to offer to ensure that we can have a more Equity DC there's a narrative uh that I've heard from my colleagues about uh why are we spending this amount of money in Ward 8 the reason we are is because historically Warwick has been neglected forgotten about and passed over a year after year after year and everyone who can't afford to live anywhere in DC anymore because the price and living have gone up so far I navigating east of the Anacostia River so we are piling on the same problems issues and social uh Dynamics on top of each other East Anacostia River and the safety nets are breaking so I want to thank you uh chairman I look forward to introducing my amendments and hope to get support of my colleagues as we fight for more Equity Washington D.C thank you thank you councilmember I don't believe there are any other members in the lineup uh we have the bill before us uh when I moved to Bill it included that correction that I noted that I've now misplaced um we will the vote will be on the print again with leave for staff it will do a roll call and then we'll then I'll move the report uh Mr Cash would you call the roll councilmember Tran White yes those are Tran white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes council member bonds yes councilmember bonds votes yes councilmember Freeman yes councilmember Freeman votes yes councilmember gray is absent councilmember Henderson yes elsewhere Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes George votes yes councilman McDuffie yes councilman McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes councilmanado votes yes councilmember Parker yes councilor Parker votes yes councilmember Pinto I'm sorry Mr chairman just a question we're voting on the budget but not on the Amendments yet uh there are no um we're voting on The Print which is the budget the local budget Act yes counselor Pinto votes yes councilmember Robert White yes councilman Robert White votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses the print has approved unanimously I moved the report with leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion on the report I think we can do this by a Voice vote uh the the vote is on the report all those in favor say aye opposed uh the eyes have it unanimously Madam general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretaries the record complete one of clarity just a moment yes it is Mr chairman uh Madam budget director does the measure Cisco impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this message will be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting somebody has to be recognized yes Sam a point of clarity uh is now the appropriate time to introduce my amendments uh these were the amendments to the capital budget yes uh yeah um we'll have to move to reconsider the uh the local budget act so that you can move the amendments there's no objection uh since I think there probably was some misunderstandings there's no objection we will reconsider uh the local budget act uh for the opportunity for councilmember white to make amendments hearing no objection and customer white so the the print is back before us no we're not going to have another round of speeches but I believe that councilmember white has circulated some amendments uh yes thank you chairman uh these amendments uh are several um Counting five but one will be pulled um so I'll start with the first one this the first one Amendment provides renovation to Johnson Middle School football field the field need light so they can practice after dust uh as noted in previous conversations there has been several violent incidents outside of Johnson Middle School uh whose football team has won the state championship for the last three years um but have to continuously practice in the dark trying to compete against other schools um and so this amendment is redirecting one million dollars from DDOT budget um from several trails and please note that we are only taking money from the trails uh in Ward 8. I mean the Anacostia River Trail and Susan Parkway Trail and Oxford run trail um Amendment two what this amendment will provide an allocation for the from the District of Columbia Public Schools um to renovate Eastern Senior High School Eastern Senior High School is home of what we know it's a turkey Bowl the championship while uh students uh play the state championship in football this stadium has been in deplorable conditions for years when we go to the game it's disgraceful that we are using this as the Hallmark Stadium to uh display our students Talent well you can't you can't hear the uh the microphone the scoreboard is it's old it's just unacceptable um we are redirecting five million dollars from DDOT um from Department of transportation's budget from these Trailways all our witch and water Anacostia Trailways student Parkway Trail Oxen run trail um amendment 3 will require Department of parks and recs to allocate funds to the Fort gravel Recreation Center oh this number three I'm pulling chairman um I spoke to council member Brianna doe and we have not we just got the clarification from DDOT through the budget office uh about the the line items for this budget and so we are trying to introduce this at the next uh mock-up because it's unclear on this line item so the next one is the amendment will require Department of parks and wrecks to renovate Marvin Gaye Recreation Center in war 7. the renovations will modernize the playground the surrounding space for the center providing children with vital location for physical activities and Falls Northeast area World War seven this amendment is provided uh by Department of Department of Transportation budget trails and Acosta River Trail student Parkway Trail Oxford run trail um and we have not gotten the budget uh documents for the bar High School Recreation Center so I would take that one out as well thank you councilmember um excuse me Tim I've been asked for some clarification here the um I think what I'm going to do council member white is suggest that you not move these today that you do some additional work on them and come back at second reading so let me say a little bit more uh as I understand it the Johnson Middle School would pull from a Trails Master project the Eastern High School would pull from the same Trails Master project and the Marvin Gaye would pull from the same Master Trails part project which means there would be a total of nine million taken from that project I do not know and I have reason to believe that none of us know what the impact would be on that Trails Master project and it would be helpful for all of us to know that in addition I heard you say councilmember white that you intended to come specifically from some Ward 8 trails and I don't know that that's clear from this amendment so that would need to be clarified in the documentation uh in addition [Music] um I have reason to believe that these projects have not been costed with I believe it would be dgs because I've received some preliminary information at least one of the projects would cost more than what you're proposing to budget and there's also some clear some lack of clarity with regard to What specifically is intended uh so there needs to be that further detail and I would recommend that you um work that you work on that between now and second reading uh so that what then when you come back that um the um it's clear exactly what is the scope is of the intended work and it's also clear what the impact is or what exactly is being taken out of this master Trails project um when you and I spoke the other day I believed that you had you were asking for about 200 million dollars worth of changes these three add up to nine million which I think is doable meaning that I think that working on the clarifying the use and the source being clearer on the scope that the 9 million is doable but there needs to be more um it just needs to be more information more clarity around this um and I don't want to speak for other members but I suspect that it would be helpful to them as well so thank you for that chairman I will um pull this for second reading but I did have a question uh do you say dgs told you that one of the projects will pause more which project is that channel Johnson and there was also a question whether it was the full field or half a field uh and the um I think there's going to be some feedback on Eastern High School it's clear to me in talking uh to another member who's a fan of the Turkey Bowl that Eastern is in need of Renovations the field uh so there's definitely value to what you're seeking to do here but again the scope and the cost need to be clarified Mr chairman councilman Parker uh I would just offer two things one I would uh affirm that when the mayor released her budget I heard councilmember white black uh Capital investments in Ward 8 as a priority um and I'm hearing him offer that up today and so uh I am listening and I'm hoping that as a body we can show up for wardate I would also offer that in the amendment that I am looking forward to advancing there is a way that we can include these Ward 8 Investments up to 10 million dollars should anyone be inclined to support it um and I'm happy to talk about it but we can embed those 10 million up to 10 million dollars of Investments by extending the deed and Recreation fee thank you I'm picking up a theme from you today Mr Parker um and I think we we all like the great eight uh Is there further on this also council member White so it comes another word what's that yeah okay and councilman McDuffie just briefly I had the opportunity to meet and chat with councilmember Treyon white obviously want to be supportive of your efforts to address these critical needs in Ward 8 um and specifically I know one of them I've I've raised with the chairman and it came up on the budget work session around Eastern High School in the field and the state of the field during last uh years Turkey Bowl championship we obviously want to avoid uh having our youth and our visitors um have to attend what is supposed to be a championship game that recognizes some of the top talent uh in DCPS Sports having them play on the field that quite frankly is worth more of an investment on the part of the city I think it's a it's a basic ass frankly um it's a floor not necessarily the ceiling on on how we should support our scholar athletes um and the other projects that you mentioned that we talked about yesterday I want to be supportive of as well uh and so um I look forward to working with you and the chairman and others uh to to try to make that a reality between uh first and second vote so um we will work on its amendments one two and four for second reading I believe that was the only issue with regard to the local budget Act uh since we already approved the local budget act by a roll call vote we will and it's now before us as a reconsideration we will dispense with this as a Voice vote all those in favor of the local budget act that's bill 25-203 I'll say aye opposed I'll see or hear any no votes are the odds have it unanimously I had earlier that I did the council the officer's clearances so I'm not going to do that again and I had stated without objection this will be on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting so we will move now to the budgeted support act give me just a minute Mr chairman give me a second purchase that's where Lewis Church did you ask be recognized somebody did customer Henderson did you ask me right nice yes um Mr chairman can you uh move the um LBA off of the knock of off of consent agenda please all right Sean nankinson thank you uh I do not have uh remarks to present the budget support act I probably should the budget support Act is a substantial and wide ranging piece of legislation it will have a significant impact on existing law includes Eight titles and 75 individual subtitles uh which are briefly summarized in the committee report most of these subtitles the goal is all but I'll say most uh directly relate to implementation of the local budget act which is why it's called the budget support Act um so this legislation is necessary in order for the local budget act to be balanced and also to be carried out as intended uh the the budget support act moves on a slightly different schedule today uh we have the committee markup first reading at the legislative meeting the second reading will be in June ideally in early June a little bit more time will be needed to um make sure that the drafting is correct and reflects as well the local budget Act is adopted on Final reading um the budget support act as with all the other budget measures was introduced at the request of the mayor on March 22nd the committees as I noted before held hearings on different aspects of the budget and that would have included the opportunity for testimony on relevant portions of the budget support act the committee the whole held a hearing on the budget support act and other measures on April 14th that was testimony with regard to the entirety of the budget support act or whatever anybody wished to testify about that hearing was on April 14th I will not say that as I usually say that the committee heard no testimony or comments in opposition because there were critical comments to various aspects of the mayor's proposals uh but the budget support act reflects a lot of work uh done by the committee staffs as well as the committee the whole staff and the budget office um and that's what I am uh presenting before us as I've indicated individual members but I'll say here for the benefit of the public there were subtitles the mayor proposed and there were subtitles some of the Committees proposed that were not necessary to the budget and therefore are not included in the committee print that I'm about to move um where there is a measure that let's say a bill that was introduced and it would be easy enough to just slip it into the budget support act uh where I could I excluded that because there really ought to be a public hearing on that measure as well as um the full deliberation by the committee if you look at the report on the budget support Act as lengthy as it is it really does not say a whole lot with regard to the individual subtitles and a freestanding bill with an accompanying committee report does say much more about background and need as well as counsel intent and that is a value to the legislative process so those subtitles were excluded with that let me move Bill 25-202 the fiscal year 2024 budget of support Act of 2023 We Believe first have to make technical conforming for the print Technical and conforming uh changes is there discussion on the budget support Act chairman council member I would I would like to offer a number of amendments is now the best time to do that okay so I'm gonna do these one at a time and I'm going to move Parker amendment 2 which is the establishment of the school safety enhancement committee uh all members should have received this I have paper copies if you would rather look at it that way but this amendment uh would establish the school safety enhancement committee to assist the deputy mayor of education and issuing a report on the roles functions and responsibilities that unarmed non-law enforcement Personnel could assume in local Education Agency schools the committee would include relevant stakeholders including representatives of key education agencies parents students and the council establishing this committee would lay the groundwork for the establishment of a new school safety personnel that's contemplated in the school safety enhancement Act of 23 that I introduced earlier this year the committee would be responsible for issuing a report to the mayor the deputy mayor and the council via the chair uh by March 1st 2024 and a deadline that would allow the committee's work to help inform the council's deliberations for the fiscal year 25 budget in discussions with the chairman um I think it's fair to say that he enthusiastically accepts this uh Amendment um as long as he's able to make some uh changes namely to maybe the size of the commission and uh the date that the report would be due and so thank you Congress member so uh when it comes to the budget and the uh 56 days that we've had so far the word enthusiasm is not one that comes to mind uh but I did indicate to you I appreciate that you uh discussed this with me uh that's always very useful um not just with me but with the relevant committee chair uh and I did indicate that um there I will work with you between now and second reading to um if I see some places where there could be some um refinements that I would work with you on that uh I have no objection to this but uh it's a function of whether the members are okay with this I see a hand um I want to thank councilmember Parker and his team for their leadership on this um for moving this amendment today and being responsive to the very real safety concerns we have for our students in our schools um the reality is that a majority of our Securities concerns in schools uh do not raise to the level of MPD involvement and we have to be serious about how we're going to actually work with our students and our families and our schools and I think this is a step forward in that direction um and so I would ask for my colleagues to support this amendment thank you a further discussion councilmember Pinto um thanks Mr chairman um I just wanted to confirm my support for this amendment and thank councilman Parker for continuing to think outside the box and move us forward in keeping our students safe I think as we've had a continued discussion this year about school resource officers one of the things that is very important is that we keep moving forward in a direction that builds up the backup and builds up the safety of our students and invests in their support in a holistic way and I continue to believe it's too premature to remove um sros before that is done and so I think councilmember Parker for uh pushing us to study the issue further and figure out other follow-ups so I just wanted to clarify that I do support this amendment in this task force thank you thank you council member Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman I look forward to voting in support of this amendment and I want to thank my colleague councilmember Parker for his thoughtful approach we have as a council heard from a number of school professionals teachers uh and principals uh who have asked for more sros uh but I think at the end of the day the ultimate goal is never police in schools that's not an end goal the end goal is safer schools schools that have the information they need to protect their students mentors for students council member Parker's amendment gives us a path to working with school professionals to understand what the needs are to to keep our schools safe to make sure teachers and principals feel safe and that students have the things that they need before re removing the things Sr Rose um that that I think don't make school safer but that make many of our school professionals feel safe so I think this puts us on the path uh to a better safety standards for our schools and I look forward to supporting it thank you Mr chairman uh thank you councilmember white customer bonds I thank you chairman and I want to thank councilmember Parker for this um it's it's a wonderful idea uh time um has come for us to involve the entire community in the safety measures that are needed within our schools so I wanted to praise you for that and hopefully um let's keep this task group on point so that there'll be no delays frequently when these bodies are put in place you know it takes a long time you know can't get everyone to the table so I think we want to stick with this deadline hard and fast because we really do want to implement the provisions that they um decide on as quickly as possible for the safety of our schools and the faculty and the students and our community so thank you thank you councilmember is there any further discussion on this councilmember fruit thank you chairman Mendelson um I I too want to speak out in support of this amendment I I think um there's a big debate about school resource officers and what role they may play but regardless of your view about whether or not police should be in our schools I don't think there's anyone out there who thinks that police in our schools is a complete answer so looking for the other things that we can do that can either complement or someday replace uh sros I think is a very important initiative and I commend councilmember Parker for coming forward with this amendment for coming forward with his legislation I also commend you chairman Mendelson and chairman Pinto for your support for this um we can walk in chew gum we can look at different solutions and we should be doing that together with as broad of input as possible thank you councilmember further discussion on this Mr councilman McDuffie um just briefly I appreciate uh councilman Parker moving this amendment and I plan to support it today I do want to note though that we we still have two bills pending um in the committee to the whole and I'd love to know you know if you intend on holding hearings on those because I think we uh I think that this amendment will likely get the support it needs to pass day I appreciate the work that you and your team did um and the budget on this but I think we still need to have a conversation that reconciles what the council did a few years ago what where we are today um and hopefully have a thoughtful conversation that includes Nuance I know Nuance doesn't always fit into uh the 240 characters is it that you need for a tweet but this is a extraordinarily important issue that tends to devolve into um the binary choice about whether you support police in schools period uh or not rather than a question about what school safety and Community safety Mobility actually looks like I think it's been left out of much of the debate the debate that that's happened in public and that we could do more to Define what principles and other school leaders are saying students included uh they need in the absence of sros to address safety inside of schools I don't think it's police in schools uh on a full-time basis but I also don't think that's what sros will ever uh design uh or the program was ever intended to do I think part of the conversation has it uh also include what safety looks like in our recreation centers and other public facilities where people congregate uh you know and so I think those early introductions with youth and law enforcement can go a long way to more meaningful relationships and help build the sort of Community Trust that is needed for any law enforcement to be effective and so I'm hoping that those hearings will occur Mr chairman at some point soon despite what looks to be support for this amendment today thank you councilmember any further on this if there's no objection we will treat this as being accepted without objection and hearing no objection is accepted uh further on the budget support Act yes uh Mr chairman I was about to call for the vote It's News you lose yes um I um I do have another another amendment um and that would be Amendment Three Parker Amendment Three and again I have copies if people need them here uh but it is uh extending the deed and Recreation B uh to raise revenue to uh fund critical programs and I would say a few things and I'm just I I spoke to some of this earlier um but earlier today councilmember white at a press conference and Ward 8 ANC Jamila white shared on the steps something that resonated um and it echoes what I said just moments ago that we shouldn't shouldn't see Generations long trends of concentrated property in certain parts of our city and as I mentioned we should all be proud of the steps we've taken uh but I believe we can build a more just um budget a few things I would highlight about where these funds would go and then I want to just address some of the concerns that have been Advanced so the funds that would be raised through extending the deed and Recreation fee that again I would offer that the mayor put forth in 2019 uh would allow us to fully fund give snap a raise raising uh District residents SNAP benefits at a time when Federal relief is being pulled back it would allow us to fully fund uh no senior Hungary which would allow us to provide nutritious food to our seniors among other resources it would make critical short and long-term investments in District children through a DC Tax Credit Early Childhood Educators pay fund uh expanding the Summer Youth Employment Program and making sure that we restore and expand home visits for at-risk children uh we would be able to support District residents and ensuring they avoid displacement by adding even more money to the e-wrap program I want to again uh commend the council for uh restoring the 43 million but we know that that wasn't enough last fiscal year um and so by raising this Revenue we can add an additional 20 million uh to e-wrap at at the same time we can put nearly 60 million to the housing production trust fund uh and expand uh housing vouchers more housing vouchers we can restore funding for the excluded workers that councilman doe uh mentioned earlier and we could provide housing support for returning citizens I I do want to note that there are valid concerns about uh extending this thief and its impact on the revitalization of our downtown area among other things and I just want to uh highlight three things and address them um on one uh the the concern that extending this fee might hinder the work that we're doing downtown my team has done the work to exempt commercial to residential conversion city-wide from this proposal so no proposed no conversion downtown or anywhere else in the city would be impacted by this proposal chairman yes but I'm going to watch the clock yes one more minute no objection thank you um all commercial to residential convergence would be exempt there's also been a lot of talk about record inflation rates uh it is worth noting that the FED Reserve is suggesting um that DC is expected to have about three percent uh interest rates in 25 and over time we should return to 2.5 percent or lower interest rates in uh the near future and I would just highlight that this is not a new tax we're not raising the tax it is essentially extending the sunset of this uh um fee in order to provide critical investments in District residents I would end by just highlighting the concerns that have been shared by council members white uh council members gray council member Louis George and myself and I asked my colleagues to stand with us too thank you could build a more just budget thank you chairman I will speak briefly in that position and recognize other Members First let's be clear this is a tax if it Walks Like A Dog Duck and cracks like a duck it's a duck the deed tax has always been called a deed taxed or Recreation tax has always been called a recordation tax also looking at the text of what you circulated does not exempt conversions be that as it may the premise here is that we need to do more and I would say we can always do more and we can tax our way to doing that that doesn't mean that that is prudent policy there is a tax revision commission that is looking at all of our taxes that's what ought to happen we made a promise four years ago when we raised the tax on a temporary basis that it would Sunset we made a promise we send a message to the community whoever the community is when we don't honor our promise and that can have adverse consequences but I would add this will hurt our tax base and one can say it won't and they can say it won't until the cows come home but it will hurt our tax base and I'll just say this what I have heard for several years from business Community is that foreign investment foreign investment meeting just investors from outside the district from elsewhere in the United States or other countries that that investment is drying up it has dried up dramatically there is I never knew this until many months ago but this year there is a index the a fire International investor survey that found that DC was one of the top four cities in America that no this is future I mean present DC is one of the top four cities in America that foreign investors plan to decrease their exposure and DC no longer ranks in the top 10 of attractive cities for foreign investment a first in years if we don't get investors we don't get Redevelopment downtown we don't get the conversions we don't get anything in downtown except maybe uh foreclosures that the banks will hold because on a downtown property that doesn't cost two million dollars it probably costs a hundred million dollars or 200 million dollars we're talking about a 2 million or four million dollar tax and that absolutely discourages investment are there others who wish to speak to this council member McDuffie I think councilmember Pinto asked to be recognized chairman who said chairman Nadal okay council member Pinto McDuffie Nadeau there'll be more well thank you very much Mr chairman um and I want to thank councilmember Parker for highlighting the very important outstanding needs that we have in the city and it strikes me um as mayor Bowser is today testifying on the hill that here in the district we can have disagreements on the best path forward and do so respectfully um so I recommend the colleagues oppose this amendment today um and I want to explain why height and deed and Recreation taxes are the taxes that are paid when a building is sold or bought or refinanced and they're scheduled to sunset on September 30th of this year and if we delay this Sunset which a lot of these Building Sales are relying on many of them are waiting until the September date to move forward we risk preventing future sales and compromising these current plan sales there are 322 Office Buildings downtown that alone make up for 7.5 percent of all of our local Revenue so when we're talking about the impact that this has you know it's one thing to talk about these specific deals but I really want to make the point clearly that these deals going down are not about any particularized investor interest they undermine all of our goals as a city if we have such reductions in our tax base about one-third of our buildings downtown are currently underwater meaning that the building is worth less than the building owner owes to the bank which really should concern all of us because if these Building Sales don't go through what's going to happen practically is that many institutionalized banks will take over those loans and take ownership over the building and because those banks are not used to managing properties their first goal will be to clear out the properties which means that we will have buildings sitting vacant downtown which will be harmful to our goals about a vibrant downtown and Public Safety challenges downtown but perhaps more importantly over the long term it means that we don't generate productive tax revenue from those buildings so all of the things next year and the year after that that we're all fighting to fund very real human needs that we need to fund we will have lost our ability in great part to do so if we move forward in this way the hollowing out of our downtown core will lead to a precipitously declining tax base for the city and a tidal wave effect for program and service Cuts in all of our neighborhoods and I believe that it's tempting to make decisions today that serve these very real immediate needs especially when those needs are so great but I think we cannot ignore the long-term effects of these decisions if we pursue these Avenues of increasing Revenue at the expense of downtown we're charting a path that will result in even more significant Cuts in our revenue in years to come we have 30 more seconds yes but I'm going to pay attention to the clock sure and I believe that as our City's leaders we have a real obligation here to think about the immediate needs and to think about the long-term challenges of our city and not make choices that we may regret in one five or ten years so I urge my colleagues not to support this tax increase today and remain open-minded to other avenues to fund a bunch of these very needed services but I do not think that this is the path forward for the student recordation tax thank you thank you councilmember councilmember McDuffie thank you chairman um I am also going to oppose uh this particular Amendment and as a chair of the committee on business and economic development I really want to convey uh that this is going to negatively impact the district's revenues uh leave more commercial buildings in distress and empty uh and in turn exacerbate the public safety risk we know I come from vacant on a unoccupied spaces in our downtown and other commercial corridors all right to be clear it's not 2019 anymore we passed the deed and liquidation tax in a different environment before the pandemic before the district's economic activity cratered and started its recovery before work from home impacted our commercial office occupancy rates before interest rates doubled or when Capital became scarce all that has changed since 2019 uh is relevant as we consider extending today the higher tax higher tax that is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year in 2019 given the strong economic growth in the commercial real property sector that attracted broader investor interest from all over the world the higher deed and we're going to tax was a way to generate additional revenue from outside the district to support investment in more affordable housing but in this current environment where outside capital is scarce extending and imposing the tax on a weak commercial Market uh will come with much greater costs and I think that should be clear to everybody apply to a declining commercial property Market it will cause unintended problems for properties and foreclosure as well as those properties in default already the higher deed and recognition tax in the market today will also disproportionately impact our local business owners including potentially those looking to tap into the commercial property acquisition fund and most local investors decide when to re-enter the market as many building owners look to exit simply put as the volume of transactions with outside buyers drops so does the unique advantage of this particular tax and I appreciate I really do that this amendment does acknowledge as valid the concern about undermining the revitalization of downtown but exempting commercial to residential conversions from this tax uh won't work and I'm not sure that the language as submitted actually does that uh even if it does it would slow and lengthen the recovery of downtown so uh while office of residential conversions are part of downtown's revitalization that we favor because it both reduces excess office space and creates needed housing in every project only a small fraction of the buildings will be suitable for conversion uh and that's hard lesson everyone municipality is actually learning another minute Mr chairman without objection for our downtown to become what I think we all I wanted to be we will need many more properties to be repurposed into other uses some properties be raised and rebuilt and others to be transformed into open spaces and this amendment impedes progress on all those necessary changes as well developers often cannot know for certain at the time of sale whether it is suitable for conversion and without certainty an exemption for conversions won't induce investment in the past month our committee has evaluated multiple office to residential conversion projects that have stalled some developers have decided the project won't work without demolishing the structure and starting over others on the verge of walking away all together and this is a delicate area in which to legislate I was tough for my team and I owned a business meeting I'm development committee as I imagine it was tough for the housing committee to try and strike the appropriate balance on this and I think we are at a good place with what we are what we ended up with in this budget and I want to thank the committee on the whole for that but finally extending the expiring tax is going to cause more damage than we fully appreciate so thank you it's going to come at a cost of a slower economic recovery and I would advise my colleagues to the council member oppose this as well I just remember um comes from Renato thank you councilmember Parker for moving this amendment while I think the council has gone a long way to make things whole many things that we're missing for the budget we know there is more that we can do to protect our most vulnerable residents we were faced with a more challenging budget this year than we've had in some time as I said at the beginning of this process scarcity reveals a lot of preferences for what we deem important we've been told we all have to sacrifice in a lean year but DC's comeback plan turns out to be carried on the backs of our neighborhoods and our neighbors rather than seeing Social Services as a budgetary drain we should view them as investments in Residence enabling them to fully participate in our economy there's a lot of sensitivity around anything that touches investment in commercial property I understand that repositioning commercial real estate especially downtown can run on very small margins we've barely scratched the surface of what we can do to encourage mixed-use growth within business districts much of which does not need to be throwing money at the issue by any means necessary as I've said a lot during this budget process there's a clear need to revitalize parts of the district that have seen downturns post pandemic but we need to embrace this moment as an opportunity to articulate what kind of city and what kind of government we want to be I don't believe that economic growth and caring for people are mutually exclusive we've heard about austerity and fiscal cliffs but we need to acknowledge that we're also facing an inequality cliff I thank councilmember Parker for his thoughtful approach in funding a number of priorities for our Council his Amendment today is the only measure before the council that would attempt to fund the the dollars swept by mayor Bowser that are intended for excluded workers the only measure I plan to support this amendment and I hope my colleagues will join me thank you Mr chairman thank you Council fernandoah council member Henderson I believe thank you Mr chairman um I first want to start by expressing my appreciation that this amendment attempts to fund one of my priorities legislation my office drafted which is gift Snapper raise however it does also put me in a bit of an awkward position today funding this bill continues to be a priority of mine and while I was hopeful that the mayor would fun snap increase in this budget when we saw the revenue estimates back in February and knew that that would be a challenge we tried throughout this budget process we even got estimates to see if we could do a partial increase instead of the full 10 that was contemplated in the legislation and while I am supportive of giving snap a raise and I do hope we will get there I do not believe that this Revenue source is the one to do so for several reasons first as colleagues have mentioned there is a real need to revitalize and support downtown when this tax was implemented the agreement was to sunset in September of this year going back on that now will have negative impact for the investment in the future um not just in downtown but across the city yesterday I spent some time looking at the real property tax database and if you look up almost any commercial address downtown you can see the Staggering value declines since 2018. which we should be helping to reverse we need a strong downtown to fund all of our priorities whether it be Capital investments in schools or roads recreation centers and bridges along with all of the other programs that we love and support libraries summer camps senior centers without a strong downtown we can't really do much of these without those Revenue additionally this is not just impact commercial properties downtown we have commercial properties across the District of Columbia that are valued at 2 million or more in DC 2 million is a low threshold these business owners are often not that far from they're not often part of the wealthy Elite but just trying to keep their businesses open in the face of rising inflation shifting labor markets and ongoing supply chain disruptions these folks were also promised the sunset and I believe that we should probably deliver I think it's also important for us to allow the tax revision commission that the council created to complete its mandate and provide its recommendations before we make any additional changes to our tax policy and finally in terms of why I'll be not supporting this amendment today I do think we need to consider the fact that it is not a stable Revenue source for an expansion of an entitlement such as snap in fiscal year 2020 when we passed or when the council originally passed this increase the fifths was nearly 445 million dollars the fist this year that we have received from the ocfo is for 74 million dollars that's 17 less than what it was in 2019. real estate sales especially commercial properties is highly volatile last week I was reading a article in the Washington Business Journal about 1776 K Street which has just announced that it was going on to the market a part of the article that stood out to me quote the office of tax the office of Tax and Revenue shows a 2024 assessed value of 99 million or 1776 K Street down from 141 million in 2021. while they may seem like a big pot of money relying on it to fund critical priorities opens the door for challenges in the Years coming if the fist proves to be overestimating revenue or is if eliminating this provision hinders future Investments we may be forced to make critical decisions in the years ahead about whether to keep funding these programs at this current level or to make more drastic cuts again I appreciate this effort I know that other colleagues plan to continue working on this and I won't steal their Thunder or shine on that but I will not be supporting Mr Parker's Amendment today thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember Anderson uh if there's no further discussion customer bands um thank you very much um chairman and um thanks to my esteemed colleague councilmember Parker when we talked a few days ago I was very enthusiastically behind the idea that we had found a way to lessen the pain throughout the community and I say less in the pain it's a pain that um is affecting many segments of our population but at the same time I have to remember that the business Community is also a part of our ecosystem and as such when I think about I've said many times that in the District of Columbia we do not grow corn we do not have any um particular industry that we export we are the source of our revenue and we includes our business sector and I know for a fact from the information that has been provided the documents that we have trouble in our business uh quarter and so when I think about that and I think about more e-wrap needs and all of those things that we say are so vital to making sure that we keep the people of the District of Columbia in the District of Columbia it's very um disheartening but I have to be practical I think that the voters of this city said um they want to be here to look at all of the data and not just part of the data and not just vote with my heart so I'm trying to vote today with my head and my head says that this is a tough situation nation that we are faced with and somehow we as a community have to start living within our means and that means that we cannot tax our way out of this dilemma because when we tax we're going to hurt a a part of our community so um as councilmember Parker knows and I mentioned this to you yesterday I cannot support your Amendment at this time so thank you very much again for for being one of our newbies and pushing very hard I admire you for that but um this is not a practical approach to addressing our issue today thank you thank you councilmember bonds councilmember Freeman thank you very much chairman medicine and and I really want to express my thanks for to councilmember Parker for coming forward with this proposal uh it is a really important proposal and a really difficult proposal I think it's the one place where we internally are having to Grapple with challenging issues we have the mayor out there and we can hold ourselves up in juxtaposition to the mayor but here internally we are talking about values we are talking about practicality and this raises a hard question that needs to be discussed and by you coming forward with this we're having this discussion everything on your list I want I I badly want all of the things on your list and on the other side of the Ledger as chairman Mendelson was talking about in in one sense we have these Anonymous International investors whose capital we need to attractive we're going to invest in this get the kind of investment we need to to revitalize downtown and have a successful economy going forward and it is hard to say well you know we need to do all of these different things or we can't take certain steps if we're going to attract that investment but I think it's true that we have to be very careful at this juncture that we be able to attract that kind of investment and here what we have is a promise that was made about a Sunset and we would not follow through on that promise on the sunset we also have a situation where the tax review commission is about to come and there have been people who have said we did a tax increase before the the tax review commission did its work we're not going to do another one beforehand I do think it is important that we send a message of constancy I think the place that we do this is maybe it's not specifically through the tax review commission but when the tax review commission comes back with its recommendations we are seriously going to have to Grapple with all of these kinds of issues and I hope that when we remake our tax code through the tax review commission process we make it more Progressive and we make it raise more Revenue than we have today so we can fill the needs that we need to fill but I don't think this is the way to do it as much as I would love to be able to fund these things as much as dear dear friends have reached out to me and urged that I support this I think that the the Practical thing to do is to try to do everything we can to encourage investment to bring downtown and our city back Mr chairman oh just a moment if there's nobody else oh it comes from Alan I'm sorry it would be a second customer Parker did I see another hand up comes from Rhode Island thank you very much I'll try to be brief since I think a lot has been said already um let me first start by my thanks to councilman Parker for introducing this amendment and raising this issue I do appreciate it um I don't believe that this amendment is the right approach to take today but uh by no means do I I question the intent here of what's trying to be accomplished with it I also am aware there's some conversation taking place about um what we could be looking at for second reading to try to achieve some of the same goals and perhaps finding some different um different sources there so I look forward to that conversation kind of evolving over the next couple of weeks um but I I'll associate myself and I think some of the comments of my colleagues that I do believe that one of my concerns is around unintended consequences of changing tax policy in this form and I think that having our tax policy revision commission be able to complete its work be able to help evaluate that I think is the more appropriate way for us to decide if if this is a source that we should be looking to um I I have heard and I do believe that we have a lot of properties not just downtown but across the district that have made and are seeking predictability in making business decisions that could adversely impact our overall budget and economic recovery uh without this so for those Reasons I'm not going to be supporting the amendment today but again I do appreciate it being put forward and I appreciate that it's going to prompt a bigger debate I think as well and so thank you thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember councilmember Lewis George uh I'm just gonna let my colleague all right councilmember Parker second round two minutes uh thank you Mr chairman I am going to move to withdraw uh the amendment based on some of the concerns here uh and I would just say a couple of things um and end on a note of thanks uh one is uh as I mentioned before there are some real concerns that have been expressed by accounts members in seven and eight in particular I have concerns and I'm truly hopeful that we can address some of those concerns by second reading it seems like there's a genuine interest to do so um and then second uh as a body and over time I'm hoping that we can find more systematic ways to invest in people uh versus it being on a council Council or committee by committee basis and I believe uh we can also get there but uh the points have been well uh made and taken I had a conversation with councilmember pinto yesterday um and I know the concerns around revitalizing our downtown are um very important and I uh share those concerns and so with that chairman I want to remove this amendment and I will end on a note of thanks and uh I can just share the council member Louis George is looking at um a way to find gift snapperies and I would just she can share the details but if we can make that happen this year I think it will make a world of a difference for hundreds of thousands of washingtonians thank you oh thank you so the Amendments withdrawn are there any further amendments with regard to the budget support Act uh we have the budget support act before us according to my notes a long time ago we had one amendment that was accepted regarding the school safety issue uh so we have the print the emotion with that Amendment before us so we'll have a roll call vote on on the bill Mr Cash would you call the rule councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes customer bonds votes yes councilmember Freeman yes councilmember rumin votes yes councilmember gray is absent councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes councilman Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilman McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes council member Nadeau yes councilman votes yes council member Parker yes council member Parker votes yes councilmember Pinto yes councilmember Pinto votes yes council member Robert White yes council member Robert white boots yes council member Trion white yes customer Tran white votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absence uh the um the print is approved unanimously I'll move the report would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion on the report uh by Voice vote all those in favor of the report let me pause for a second um all those in favor of the report would leave for staff say aye aye opposed the uh I just have it unanimously uh Madam general counsel is to measure legally and Technical sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretaries for record complete once the report is filed and budget director does the measures physical impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does uh without objection in this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for the today's additional legislative meeting uh councilmember Henderson you had with the local budget act has to be a non-consent um that's no longer necessary Mr chairman all right uh if there's no objection I'm talking about the local budget Act uh that will be on consent as well hearing no objection uh before we move on I want to take this moment to thank a number of individuals um Eric Kennedy Stacy white and their team in this cfo's office of budget and planning who worked with our budget team on every adjustment we've proposed it's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes there's an awful lot of communication between our budget office and the cfo's office on budget and planning Eric Kennedy is the head of that office and uh his team his work is very much appreciated Deborah freeze and her team in the cfo's office of Revenue analysis who scored each subtitle in the budget support Act so I want to thank them as well I want to remind members where we started with this uh proposed budget and where we are today is remarkably different in that is because of the work of Staff of the council my staff Evan calf Blaine stump Lakeisha Jordan Raleigh Lancaster Bijan Berlin and Christian Washington Who provided support as we developed this council-wide budget also the staff in the office of the general counsel who reviewed all the committee subtitles and all the other subtitles and I want to give a special thanks or shout out to Lauren mendonsa and Dan golden who worked so closely with the budget council with our budget Council throughout the entire process and last but not least our budget director Jen budoff and her team Andy eisenlar Joe wolf Avril Caraway Errol Spence Sutherland Sam Hodges Kyra Smith and Ann Phelps we all thank staff but truly where we are with this I would not have been positive Applause is in order so thank you to everyone too late all right back to business we have a number of measures that were in uh reported out of other committees uh the first is from the Committee on Public Works and operations chaired by council member Brian Nadeau pr25-71 director of the Department of Public Works Timothy Spriggs confirmation resolution 2023 and should note these will all be on the legislative agenda so this is uh the opportunity to ask questions oh I would like to take uh Colleen green off the consent I know but we haven't gotten there yet but duly noted uh PR 25-71 counselor noodle thank you Mr chairman the proposed measure would confirm the appointment of Timothy Spriggs as director of the Department of Public Works director of the Department of Public Works is responsible for overseeing the agency that's charged with administering some of the district's most important Municipal services having worked at DPW for over four years now and within District government for over 14 years Mr Spriggs is very familiar with these responsibilities he comes to this position with over 10 years of experience leading strategic government operations leveraging cross-agency Partnerships and supporting Emergency Management efforts prior to being appointed interim director of the agency Mr Spriggs oversaw 30 DPW facilities and over 1300 employees responsible for storm water management snow coordination and removal and other essential Services during his tenure with DPW he earned the district a top rating on its stormwater pollution prevention plan environmental scorecard prior to joining DPW Spriggs delivered the first government-wide cyber identity smart card program to allow seamless access across the entire Federal Emergency Management agency's Enterprise Network and deploy the transportation and Warehouse Network to distribute pandemic related supplies Mr Spriggs received a bachelor of Art in sociology from University of Richmond a master of science in Security Management from Webster University Joint Base Anacostia bowling Air Force base and a master of science in human resource management and leadership development from National Lewis University Mr Spriggs has demonstrated a commitment to dpw's Mission of providing environmentally healthy Municipal services that are both ecologically sound and cost effective his operational expertise combined with his demonstrated openness to learning collaborating ensuring the agency is hiring the right people being held to account are attributes that should be transformative to the agency on April 26 the Committee on Public Works and operations voted unanimously in favor of recommending the council confirmed the appointment of Timothy Spriggs as director of the Department of Public Works this resolution will be deemed approved on May 18th without Council action with that I moved the measure to be placed on the consent agenda for the legislative meeting to follow thank you are there questions from members no general counsel is to measure legally and geometrically sufficient yes councilmember Parker I don't have a question but I wanted to make a comment or comments not allowed no not we don't debate stuff in uh okay consideration from other committees uh can you ask chair uh council member Nadeau if it's possible to share the vision statements um that were pretty impressive from Mr Spriggs to the members about leaf collection as well as uh booting and towing and his vision to how for how to scale those up oh it comes from an adult I don't know if you heard any of that but apparently uh the nominee said some things that were uh worth sharing could you yes um I concur that the nominee did send a vision statement that was quite inspiring and I'd be happy to share it with my colleagues all right so today we have Inspire and enthusiastic uh Madam general counsel it's a measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is Secretary's record complete yes it is and budget director does the measures physical impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this message will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the next measure is pr25-72 reported out of the committee on housing director of the Department of Housing Community Development Colleen green confirmation resolution of 2023. councilmember Robert White thank you chairman proposed resolution 25-72 would confirm Colleen Greene to the position of director of the Department of Housing and Community Development for dhcd under District law this nominating resolution would be automatically deemed approved this Thursday May 18th without counsel of action dhcd is one of the district's leading agencies on housing matters and the steward of the district's housing production trust fund Colleen Greene has worked with dhcd Twice first as chief of staff from 2007 to 2009 and Now is acting director starting in January of this year in addition to her work for the agency Ms Green has held various roles throughout development processes her past responsibilities include overseeing construction lending transactions at the Bank of America and Key Bank managing a 60 million dollar portfolio to develop housing along the east coast serving as an advisor to small businesses on real estate transactions through her own company and working on short-term housing projects like shelters and halfway houses while with core Services Group the committing one on housing which I chair held a public Roundtable on this Green's nomination in March and a markup last Wednesday May 10th during the Roundtable Witnesses who have worked directly with Ms Green highlighted her work ethic and shared the belief that Miss green will tackle the current challenging environment head on with determination and creativity after the record closed the committee received additional support letters from her nominee for her nomination from from clergy and Faith leaders from my own conversations with Ms Green since her tenure as acting director I have been encouraged by her straightforward approach and willingness to share her knowledge of affordable housing Finance with the committee not all of the comments on the proposed confirmation have been positive during the public Roundtable the committee heard from Witnesses concerned with the nomination based on experiences they have had with dhcd for years several residents from the Northeast boundary Civic uh boundary neighborhood in Ward 7 cited issues with the agency's responsiveness and lack of inclusion of communities when making development decisions upon my request acting director green and I met with the Northeast boundary residents following the hearing to work towards Solutions the committee has also heard complaints from residents about dhcds and adequate administration of its programs like the homeowner assistance fund and the council is well aware of datv's lack of compliance with hpgf spending and with the administration's unwillingness to absorb a minimal cost associated with lowering the allowable rent increases on rent controlled units during this current period of high inflation our committee on housing members and staff take each of these concerns seriously it is imperative that we evaluate mayoral appointees with a critical lens to make sure they have the skill set demonstrated record and collaborative approach necessary to serve residents needs most of the concerns that the committee heard predate Ms Green's tenure as acting director and another minute please chairman without objection and unfortunately for the city are not new issues what we're hearing highlights the need for broader fixes within dhcd fixes that the committee believes can be addressed with Ms Green's knowledge and desire to solve problems the council and dhcd will undoubtedly have moments of disagreement whether those disagreements are directly with Miss Greene or with the broader Administration but I have appreciated Miss Green's collaborative nature thus far she has been more responsive than most agencies more collaborative than most agencies and I think genuinely intent on solving some of the most difficult problems not around the council but by working with the council in the committee the committee voted favorably in support of Ms Green's nomination and I encourage the pool Council to do the same thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember white are there questions from members question customer Lewis George uh councilmember White um have we received a commitment from dhcd to work with the council to alleviate record high rent increases now that the funding has been set aside for this task um in the budget and I know earlier this year you and councilman Parker have worked to try to do something about those rent increases in um were stopped from us being able to take action uh what was Miss what was Mrs Green's take on or decision on that and what is the commitment moving forward regarding uh ways to alleviate record high rank increases uh thank you councilmember Lewis George we are going to uh go around the administration to address the record high rent increases and we'll be doing that in the supplemental budget um I believe that the decision not to absorb the cost uh for addressing rent control several weeks ago uh was above the head of director green uh so while we worked I think uh hard to hold Ms greenski to the fire during a recent hearing I don't think she could have said anything different than she did I would though Express that there are places where I needed information from the administration multiple uh places that I've asked Miss green to collect uh pretty complicated uh sets of information and I've had no issues getting that information from director green it's been frankly markedly different than working with most other agency directors okay thank you thank you council member further questions General counsels measure legally and Technical Institution for our consideration yes it is Madam Secretary is directly complete yes it is Madam budget director does the measures physical impact same and comply with Council requirements yes it does I have chocolate in my mouth I'm sorry not my fault with our objection we were asking to be I'm asking for a few places I'm not concerned all right measurable non-consent for today's traditional legislative meeting the next two measures are from the committee on traditional and Public Safety carried by council member Brook Pinto the first is PR 25-76 deputy mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsay confirmation resolution of 2026 House member Pinto Mr chairman 26 the deputy mayor for Public Safety and justice Lindsay a Pia confirmation resolution of 2023 would confirm Lindsay appiaz deputy mayor for Public Safety and Justice the resolution was introduced by chairman Mendelson at the request of the mayor on January 25th 2023 and the committee held a public Roundtable in the resolution on March 15 2023. the deputy mayor for Public Safety and Justice plays a pivotal role in coordinating between our local Federal and neighboring jurisdiction Public Safety agencies to effectuate The District's Public Safety goals the deputy mayor also plays a key role in providing Direction guidance and support to the public safety agencies under its purview this includes ensuring agency accountability as it relates to the delivery of services to Residents as well as strengthening agencies data collection sharing and Analysis and providing support for the district and community-based violence Interruption programs the nomination of misopia to serve as deputy mayor for Public Safety and Justice comes at a really critical time for The District in both 2021 and 2022 the district experienced more than 200 homicides higher than any year since 2003. the new Deputy Mayor must be prepared to take immediate and decisive action to reverse these Trends with particular focus on reducing rates of gun violence and the proliferation of illegal firearms in the district the new Deputy Mayor faces this charge as a number of our Public Safety agencies undergo leadership changes of Their Own including the executive directors of dyrs one's ovsjg and critically Chief Conte's impending departure from MPD the nominee must be prepared to lead during this period of significant transition there have been few times in recent memory that this work was more urgent and the need for strong leadership more critical it is also crucial that our next Deputy Mayor be poised and eager to engage in regular candid conversations with the community and provide complete transparency on the operations of the agencies that fall under dmpsj's purview and I know all of the members of the Judiciary Committee and this Council know how important that coordination is I'm confident that acting Deputy Mayor Pia understands these challenges and is ready to take them on I'm also confident that Mississippi is background and experience have prepared her well to do so her 10 years of service with DRS and her previous role as Chief of Staff or dmpsj have given her extensive knowledge of Juvenile Justice agency protocols and policies and Public Safety more broadly that should enable her to identify and pursue creative and effective solutions to the most pressing and Urgent public safety concerns facing the district her experience both in the district and Beyond made clear her qualifications to serve as our Deputy Mayor and if confirmed I believe she'll approve a successful leader of our Public Safety agencies the confirmation resolution for mississippia was unanimously approved by my committee at a markup held on May 9 2023. I've asked to be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting thank you councilmember are there questions Madam general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretary is the record complete yes it is Madam budget director does admissions physical impact statement can play with Council requirements yes it does without protection dispension will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting next is pr25-115 director of The Office of unified Communications Heather mcgaffin confirmation resolution 2023 councilmember Pinto thank you Mr chairman the resolution would confirm Heather mcgaffin is director of The Office of unified Communications or OUC the resolution was introduced by chamber Mendelson at the request of the mayor on February 17 2023 and the committee held a public Roundtable on the resolution on March 15 2023. OUC is responsible for providing fast professional and cost-effective response to emergency and non-emergency calls in the district as director of OUC Ms mcapin is responsible for overseeing all 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 operations and ensuring residents receive reliable emergency and Non-Emergency Services Heather mcgaffin began her career as a 911 call taker at the Calvert control center in Calvert County Maryland and worked her way through the ranks to become the deputy director of the agency in 2013. she later joined the national Safety firm Mission critical partners and helped Emergency Operations localities and state governments across the country with organizational restructuring training development and implementation and Next Generation 911 migration and implementation Ms mcgaffin joined OUC in 2020 as the chief of Special Operations and investigations and was later promoted to deputy director of the agency during which time she was responsible for ensuring proficient delay daily operations of 911 and 3-1-1 services as well as staff training Ms mcgaffin steps into the role of OUC director but also a very critical moment for the agency OUC has struggled to provide reliable and quality service to residents for over a decade reports of agency mismanagement and struggling performance have raised concerns with the public and created a somewhat strained relationship between OUC and themes and MPD in just the last few weeks I and my committee have received several reports from residents of unacceptably long waits to be connected with call takers when calling 9-1-1 the National Standard is for 90 percent of calls to be answered within 15 seconds even during periods of high call volume OUC must ensure that callers are connected with the call taker almost immediately call takers must be able to remain professional and calm in often very traumatic and chaotic situations and work quickly to decipher the precise location of the call taker to determine the appropriate emergency response this is a tremendously demanding job especially given there is little to no room for error and OUC call takers and dispatchers are counting on the next director to act with urgency to provide staff with the training support and structure that they need to be successful I am pleased with steps that Ms mcgapin has taken so far to improve coordination with MPD and fems increase call diversion to Alternative responses expand call Taker and dispatcher training requirements formalize the quality assurance review process and work to implement the auditor's recommendations I have 30 more seconds Mr chairman without objection while I Believe Miss mcgaffin is on the right track there is a tremendous amount of work to be done to ensure residents receive reliable 9-1-1 and 311 Services my committee will continue to push Ms mcgaffin to increase transparency with the public and track the agency's progress in fully implementing the auditor's recommendations which we support that said I do believe Miss mcapin's experience dedication and deep familiarity with OUC equip her well to take on this challenge as director and if confirmed I look forward to working with Ms mcgapan to address these issues and track her and the agency's progress very closely the nominee's confirmation resolution was approved by my committee at a markup held on May 9 2023 the three members voting to support the nominee and one member voting present I've asked that it be placed on the consent agenda for today's legislative meeting thank you councilmember are there questions comments uh Treyon white and councilmember Henderson yes thank you chairman um I want to support this nomination um I had an unfortunate experience of dealing with unified Communications last week in which my car I had a call four times the last level span of three and a half hours before I was able to get the support I needed from unified Communications to get dispatched to emergency um and so that was really frustrating for me and other parties involved uh but I do want to acknowledge that director mcgaffin did call me to follow up and to ensure that she would track down the miscommunication and the drop balls during this emergency and I just want to thank God that no one was seriously hurt but um I think that everything Rises and falls on leadership and sometimes we have to be accountable and be able to address uh things when things don't go well and that's the nature of leading so I appreciate her reaching out to me and following up in hopes that we can get this how to resolve and figure out where the ball is a drop so I want to be a supporter of her confirmation today thank you councilmember councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman um thank you councilmember pincher for moving the summonation um councilmember pinto and her remarks mentioned that three members of the committee voted uh in favor and then one voted present I was the president um and I want to ask a couple of follow-up questions um uh councilmember Pinto have you received any follow-up from the agency regarding the concerns I shared during the markup would you mind re-articulating some of your concerns uh sure so in particular have you received an update from OUC regarding the incident I mentioned last week with regard to emergency responders who were dispatched to the 11th Street Bridge instead of to the Douglas bridge when there was a car reported in the water so yes and I want to commend Miss McGuffin and her staff for proactively reaching out to the committee um to share all of the mistakes that particular incident is currently undergoing an investigation and when the after-action report is finalized I'll be sure to share it with all committee members okay so when you said when she reached out to the committee it's not entirely accurate she reached out to the chairperson of the committee and um one of my concerns is that I shared some pretty specific concerns at a markup and have not heard anything from the executive office of the mayor on this that's why I voted president I like Miss mcgaffin I think she has a great vision for the agency but one of the concerns has been about OUC and continues to remain is regarding transparency and communication and proactive communication with your partners in government right I can't support you if I don't know what's going on and we are the ones who are also getting the calls from constituents around uh wrong locations it's taking too long to get through I call 9-1-1 and I am talking to somebody in Maryland right I know that's not something necessarily that OUC can um uh control and I know that there are definitely plans here um but Mr chairman I know I'm not supposed to give a statement so I'm going to ask you that you place this nomination on the non-consent agenda and perhaps if there is a break somebody might call me to address some of the concerns that I raised a week ago thank you fair enough and if I can just say um the agency and Miss McGuffin has committed to having a public dashboard which is one of the things that we've continued to urge on um but they're you know taking several months to get that up and running I will commit to you as the chair of the committee but I will work with the agency to make sure that those updates go to all committee members um because I know that everybody's hearing from residents and making sure that you're receiving those proactive Communications and I'd be happy to coordinate that directly with them uh so just to emphasize the point I'll ask a question councilmember Henderson you're asking that maybe somebody could get in touch with you between now and the vote should there be a break but my main question request is that this nomination not be on the consent agenda yes thank you yes uh there was we were borderline debate here we're supposed to be questions I was speaking I I wanted to speak in support of Miss mcgaffin and that um but I think councilmer Anderson raised a good point just with all the nominees um I did have an opportunity to meet and speak with Ms mcgaffin as well as uh DPW director Spriggs as well as Lindsay appaya unlike uh the um nominee for housing um and I think communication with the council members before nominee comes before nominations should happen with all of our council members um and and and to be able to discuss our what's happening and how they can serve it better serve uh our residents and our Awards but also across the district um and so um I do wanted to say that Ms mcgaffin actually did Reach Out we've had a few instances with OUC in Ward four that were alarming uh the responsiveness the miscommunication mislocation uh and I reached out and I said I need to hear from you immediately about what happened in these instances and her team did come to my office and explain and go through all three of the instances that were issues and explain explain what happened what went wrong and and talking about leadership also owned up to some of the mistake the things that were made and some corrective actions um and I appreciated that level of responsiveness to war for residents ancs and myself uh and also then also showed up at the ward 4 job fair uh stayed the entire time as the Director talked to candidates herself the entire time interview people and showed us seriousness about addressing the vacancy concerns at her specific agency which all the agencies had but I appreciated that level of leadership there too um so uh what I've seen thus far as far as transparency and Leadership and and from Miss mcgaffin is something um I feel comfortable moving forward in her nomination and optimistic about how she will better serve how she can take the agency which has been troubled in a better and right direction so thank thank you uh thank you we are not even borderline questions uh so councilmember bonds foreign yes ask me you just asked me a question do I want to question you all right okay all right well I I well I although let me know thank you chairman I um wanted to pose a question let's see if I can put my thoughts in the form of a question to um council member Pinto um councilmember Pinto I too had questions about the incident because it was um featured on social media and um had the occasion to speak with uh Miss mcgaffin and um and I spoke with her pretty soon after the incident it was very interesting um the comments that she gave me about how frantic the callers were and the callers um could not describe what bridge they just knew that it was in the river and so she talked about how her callers her um I guess her receptionist had actually received the information and how and what they did next which I thought was very interesting because I too was a little concerned about which bridge and um the callers apparently were saying the White Bridge the White Bridge and um the White Bridge became the flat Bridge the flat Bridge became um the 11th Street Bridge um and so it caused me to be concerned about whether or not our bridges have names so that but then of course it was in the night and so I wondered if there has been any um thought about um the demarcations that the callers um can when someone is in distress and they don't know where they are is there a way for us in the city to have some descriptions that of location that will help callers because apparently these callers were were younger folk who were kind of not really about DC visiting and they were trying to report what they saw and the um just so you know the station Master is the one who told the um caller told the receptionist where to dispatch the fire films um service so I thought that was all very interesting but it was all related to location and not really knowing all they know they're by the river they don't know the bridges and there was no signage and if there was we wouldn't necessarily see it at night so so what what are we doing about that because it just seems to me we just remember your times expired oh thank you um I imagine you were going to finish by saying it seems to you that there should be more done about the geography services and I would agree with that assessment um one of the things that I have learned in this oversight capacity with the new director is that the geography is really kind of a dual function in that there is technology that determines where the caller is calling from but it's coupled with uh awareness of the call taker of listening to what the caller is saying what uh you know streets that they're by and their own Geographic awareness and so director McGavin has increased training requirements for eight additional geography training hours for all call takers and they're updating their system as well um so that they can track when mistakes were made so if there's you know a street that's constantly being referred to as the wrong thing that'll become part of the system which will flag to the call taker so they'll know to say well instead of just trusting at you that you're on First Street do you see anything close by so hopefully those improvements will make a difference thank you very much I want to note our rules are very clear and Community the whole is for questions only if somebody wishes to speak in support or opposed or to just make comments in general that's why we have a non-consent agenda this measure is actually on the non-consent agenda because accounts member asked to be unknown consent so unless there is a question from a member of we will proceed councilmember Parker you say you have a question yes let the record show I have a question um I had an opportunity to speak with Miss mcgaffin and councilmember Pinto one of the things she mentioned when we met was that her vision is around improving training for her staff and team in order to improve efficacy for the agency one of the issues as I believe councilmember Henderson alluded to is the getting to the right directions and the right amount of time and that continues to be an issue for the agency can you just speak to what information we have or that you or we can point to around how they have improved that because when I spoke to her it was still something that she was working sure so this is similar to what I was speaking to councilor bonds about that she's increased the training requirements for eight additional hours for Geographic training for all call takers um so that folks know the city um and you know where they can direct folks to they're also increasing their location determining technology and increasing the number of quality assurance workers they have a new system called Power phone which tracks kind of errors and so they can go back and see um where there are repeat cases of differences and how they can update the system accordingly um that's helpful that's all thank you oh thank you thank you counselor um there are also more supervisors who are now rotating throughout the call Floor to oversee the call taker that's provide the real-time feedback um all right we have further questions councilmember Allen and then councilmember Robert White thank you very much it is a question um and hopefully one that's helpful um I appreciate counselor Pinto's uh work on this attention and moving uh Miss McGavin forward I I think like many people here uh I hear from constituents fairly regularly um with frankly gut-wrenching stories uh being an absolute crisis calling 9-1-1 and being on hold waiting for unacceptable amount of times um I have talked with a woman who was hiding for her life on the platform Potomac Avenue Metro uh as the shooter came down and could not get through to 9-1-1 um I've talked to uh the same woman who then had an attempted robbery and could not again get through to 9-1-1 in her moment of need um I do believe that director mcgaffin is somebody who is willing to be able to help acknowledge and say this is not working this is not right here's what I want to get done to change that and I appreciate that leadership and I appreciate the style she's going to bring to it um to make sure I'm posing it as a question here um to the chair of the committee um because we know we have we've had the auditor's actions we have the ongoing uh reviews and metrics and measurements of how they are meeting those um I'll just toss it this way do you plan on being able to use the committee for oversight to go to hold some hearings also to kind of keep measuring that progress and how we continue to work towards getting to OUC I think we all want and our residents deserve thank you very much councilman Allen and thank you for sharing those stories I think it's important to remember the very real life impacts that happen when mistakes Arise at this agency of our First Responders um yes absolutely the committee intends to engage in robust oversight to make sure that we're not just hearing yes we in theory agree with the auditor's recommendations but we are actually implementing them going forward and here's uh how we have done so and those conversations are ongoing that we continue to have with the director um until all of the recommendations have been implemented accordingly thank you comes from a rapper white uh thank you Mr chairman I was actually uh going to raise the the same incident two incidents with the the same constituent um hearing from this constituent that they were in the Potomac Avenue Metro when there was a shooting and to not be able to reach anyone when you call 9-1-1 to be the same person just uh two two months later to be the victim of uh an attempted robbery and again not to be able to reach uh anyone when you call 9-1-1 has to be incredibly scary I know this particular resident is is dealing with some traumas from those incidents uh that I believe very much were exacerbated by her experiences with 9-1-1 and the response from the agency when she called to complain were in her opinion dismissive um no no director could fix an agency in just a couple months my question to you council member Pinto is as we are looking to vote on a nominee how should I reconcile this nomination with the experiences of this resident with hopes that we have a different standard a standard of Excellence with respect to the office of unified communication in the future thanks so much councilor white I think it's a a really good question I mean I um when I hear about volume times we talked a little bit about the increase in training but another major concern is around the vacancies the agency is almost a 20 vacancy rate and so I know there's a lot of efforts that director mcgaffin is undertaking to expand the pipeline of getting folks in the door expanding their high school program and making sure that people know that if you're interested in being a first responder that can take a lot of different forms um and so we need people to apply for these jobs and we're going to continue to work on those incentives and support them that way I guess I would say to your question how you should be calculating it is the agency needs the director um and we need to partner with a director who has as much experience as director mcgaffin does and as much earnest ability and interest to be proactive about reconciling mistakes that have been made in the past and that are continuing to be made under her leadership and I believe that her intentions are there I believe that her experience is very helpful for that mission and I have been impressed that she has been so proactive with me and the committee and following up every time there is a mistake made and what they're doing about it and I will do a better job as I mentioned um to councilmember Henderson on sharing those updates with the committee and making sure that those are coming to all committee members um but ultimately I do believe this agency needs a full-time director and that director mcgaffin has demonstrated that she is equally interested in change and Improvement and I'd like us to give her that chance thank you Mr chairman I just would uh as in final seconds um if you think the director would be willing to speak to this constituent to understand their experiences which I think might help inform the director's work in the future I would be happy to ask the director um to speak to that constituent no problem thank you council members thank you for the questions councilmember if there are no further questions I'm general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretary's record complete yes it is and budget director doesn't measure fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes yes uh this measure will be placed under non-consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting um I believe that's going to complete the business for this meeting uh we will in a minute uh break we will turn this meeting and then set up for the legislative meeting which I believe will take about five minutes is that correct uh I do want to note that our next legislative meeting is an additional meeting on May 30th that will be second reading on the local budget Act it will be first reading and final reading on the uh FY 23 supplemental budget emergency act it will be first and final reading on the federal budget portion request Act final reading on the budget support act as I noted earlier will be in June as early as we can do in June I thank the number of people on my staff I thank the number of people in the budget office the general counsel's office I overlooked and we get a lot of other support and I want to just take this moment to thank them so all of us know our hearings the committee hearings to many committee hearings were televised by cable TV want to thank Maurice Reed and his team and I also want to thank in the secretary's office Larry Cooper and his team Matt Crowder bisola Walker Juan Gray Marquez Clifford Sheila West and of course niosha Smith uh I want to thank all of them a lot of folks put in a lot of work I left out I'm about to be cut off and cable television to Maine Jermaine Taylor this is why you never name names so I just want to thank everybody and with that um the time is 2 59 p.m and this meeting is adjourned um how long foreign if members could start to gather please in the chamber Madam Secretary are you ready I would say something smart Mr chairman like I was born ready uh yes I am ready now everybody heard that and we we might debate that during uh all right if we're ready Cable's ready I'm going to order this meeting this is an additional meeting of the Council of the District of Columbia I'm Phil Mendelson chairman of the council this is the seventh legislative meeting of council period 25. and uh today is Tuesday May 16 2023 the time is 3 27 in the afternoon this meeting has been being conducted in person in the council chambers room 500 the Johnny Wilson building I don't believe there are any members who are participating virtually uh this uh me at this meeting which is following the committee of the whole meeting that ended uh five minutes ago is that correct all right 25 minutes ago uh the uh we will be taking up the budget and several other measures that are on the agenda for the council to consider we always begin our legislative meetings with the moment of silence it's a moment for reflection I would ask that everyone in the chamber um respect us for a moment of silence Madam Secretary would you please call the roll bonds here councilman Freeman president house number Gray councilmember Gray's absent councilmember Henderson yeah council member Louis George here councilmember McDuffie here Cameron mendelsohn president councilmember here councilman Parker council member Parker councilmember Pinto president councilmember Robert White present that's on betray on right president Mr chairman you have a quora thank you Madam Secretary we have the consent agenda uh at the committee the whole uh there were two measures that were removed from the consent agenda on page two at the top of the page item two it's a director of the Department of Housing and Community Development Colleen green confirmation resolution an item four director of The Office of unified Communications Heather mcgaffin confirmation resolution those are removed from consent I am also removing from consent on page one to three bills for final reading the engrossments have not been the reports have not been filed and therefore the bills have not been engrossed as bill 25-21 bill 25-24 bill 25-146 so they are removed and looking at general counsel they simply won't come up today because they haven't been filed are there any other changes to the consent agenda I will note just for clarification that both the local budget Act and the budget support act are on the consent agenda hearing no change other changes in the measures I noted being removed the vote will be on the consent agenda as revised Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilmember Allen yes councilman Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes from the bonds votes yes councilmember Freeman yes councilmember gray is absent councilmember Henderson yes remember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes Louis George folks yes councilmember McDuffie yes remember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes and then Wilson votes yes councilman down yes I'm gonna go votes yes councilmember Parker yes I remember Parker votes yes councilmember Pinto yes yes member Robert White present council member Tran White is that voting present or are you saying yes I'm saying president please mock me as present so this is a vote on the consent agenda so I will Mark you as present Mr chairman there are 11 yeses one present and one absent uh the consent agenda is approved unanimously turning to the non-consent items the first is PR 25-72 director of the Department of Housing Community Development Colleen green confirmation resolution 2023 councilmember Robert White thank you chairman proposed resolution 25-72 would confirm mayoral nominee Colleen green to the position of director of the Department of Housing and Community Development or dhcd under District law this nominating resolution will be automatically deemed approved this Thursday May 18th without Council action the committee on housing voted favorably on this confirmation and for the reasons I stated during the committee of the whole meeting I encourage the full Council to support her nomination I found director green to be responsive and open to partnership with the Council on key challenges facing dhcd thank you Mr chairman I'll move pr25-7-2 uh thank you is for discussion Mr chairman councilmember Parker yes um as a member of the housing committee uh I did vote against uh this nomination for several reasons that I made clear um one is a lack of responsiveness um from Miss green to me and my office and there are three other areas that I highlighted that I just have not seen or heard a vision um or pass forward one is around the proposal to uh halt rent increases on rent control properties as you know there were proposals earlier in the year uh my office never did hear back from dhcd about those proposals although we did receive communication from the cfo's office uh it is my understanding that maybe Miss green has been in communication with councilmember white I would just liken this to the concerns of councilmember Henderson earlier where directors perhaps are reaching out to the chairs of committees versus the members especially members that Express concerns over certain issues the second is an ongoing issue with the housing production trust fund and while this is not the fault of Miss green uh I have not heard a vision for how we're going to ensure that the housing production trust fund um advances housing for residents between zero and thirty percent Ami if you look at the latest report on the status of the housing production trust fund you'll see the that that it continues to be an area that needs work on behalf of the agency in the city and then the last is the housing assistant or homeowner assistance fund or HAF as it was alluded earlier there are a number of residents throughout the city but also in Ward 5 that have repeated concerns with the agency a lack of responsiveness not getting their notifications through on time with their uh home lease vendors Etc and so these are things I would hope that as a body we would have had some type of vision statement plan to address um if that has been shared with the committee outside of my knowing I would welcome hearing and seeing that since the time of our committee vote and me voting against this nomination I still have not received any communication and I think it votes for the type of leadership we can expect for the agency and I don't think it votes well so with that I will be voting against this nomination thank you councilmember further discussion councilmember Lewis Church uh thank you chairman I won't repeat um some of what my colleague has said I think the effort that my colleagues took uh to Halt rent increases and the unreasonable response that was given to such a dire issue was um a leadership and whether it came from the top or or however I think not having our agency speak DHC and directors speak on that I I find to be very troubling um I will say that every other nominee on this list um uh director Spriggs and director apaya and director mcgaffin all did reach out uh to have individual meetings um uh to speak to their vision and how they could better serve residents both in the city and in our my War particularly and I think that should be the standard um that uh directors who are coming before nominees uh book from phenomination should at least Reach Out NSR do you have any questions do you have any concerns here's my vision that did not happen um and the rest of these uh the rest of these directors did do that and did I think present compelling um Visions for what they have for the agency while acknowledging The Faults of that agency and the things they needed to improve uh so because of that I'm not inclined to support this nominee at this time and hope that there can be improvements made in the future thank you thank you councilmember any further discussion councilman Robert White two minutes uh thank you Mr chairman and I want to thank my colleagues for uh speaking on on their concerns I think it is really important as a body that we don't rubber stamp um nominees uh with respect to to reaching out uh particularly to committee members who are not being responsive um I think it's foolish and I think the director and dhcd and any other agency needs to make sure they do that particularly when concerns are raised uh the other nominees on today's agenda I don't think any of them have reached out to me it's not my standard practice to to meet with directors um and so I I wouldn't hold that against the director that they didn't reach out to me for a meeting and maybe this is something Oakland needs to pay attention to what I will say I don't go to bat for a lot of nominees because I don't know him but um and I don't know what to expect from them but in a few months that I've been working with acting director green we have had several opportunities where we have disagreed I learned more about people in our disagreements and where we agree and what I've found is that where we disagree we've been able to work together where I've needed information I've gotten it from the agency where they've sent me information I said this isn't what I was looking for they've gone back without hassle without problems I've found them to be incredibly responsive that's not something I want to lose from a nominee that is not to say that the concerns raised by my colleagues are not serious and I think uh director green and her team if she is confirmed should reach out to council member Parker and reach out to council member uh Louis George and any other council member who wants to speak to them but what I think my colleagues will find as you uh touch base with director green is a desire to work with the the council and work with the housing committee and the desire to improve housing that includes improving the housing production trust fund we've had some debates on that including improving the HAF um so I I hope uh director green will be confirmed today and I hope that she and her team will build a good working relationship with my colleagues thank you Mr chairman thank you council members there's no further discussion uh the vote will be on PR 25-72 um you know we've uh give me just a second we have out of habit been doing roll calls but that's because the members have been split but all the members are here so Madam Secretary well councilmember bonds is speaking think about and tell me whether you think we should do a roll call councilor bonds um thank you very much um chairman I I wanted to make sure that I heard um council member Robert White did you indicate that if we do not approve The Voice code today that the nomination will be in effect because on the 18th 2018. um so it's on today's agenda at the request of the mayor if we took no action the she would be deemed approved on the 18th if we vote no I'm not sure Madam general counsel the subordinate agency has come to the council for confirmation with uh I believe it's 90 days and the 90 days are up on May 18th but this is a deemed approved yes the supporting agency heads are deemed approved after 90 days but if we voted no this would have to be a resolution of disapproval okay that's right thank you so in other words um those who want to vote know today could uh put forth a resolution of disapproval we would have to do that at the conclusion of today we would both know and then do it no um my reading of this is that a majority of the council members are going to approve this but I might be wrong uh if somebody wishes to convey that they don't support the nomination they could vote no if they actually want to disapprove and block this nominee they would anybody who wants to do that would have to move an amendment to change this to a disapproval resolution don't have to wait up to the meeting could file I could amend this resolution to be a disapproval and of course that Amendment would have to be approved by a majority all right three boats all right thank you very much Madam Secretary do you advise a roll call or a Voice vote which is what we used to do for many many years and decades a voice votes considering that there are no members on the zoom platform at this time and this is um secretary to Maine Taylor is in the room so he will actually be serving as my eyes in the room to monitor to ensure that all members are present during the role uh during the vote yes um and we did the roll calls because when their members virtual we want actually evidence that the number how do we have a majority uh and just to remind members because this is new and different for some of us um if somebody wishes to vote no not only do they vote no but then they ask to be recorded as voting now so I would also remind all members that you must be in the chamber at the time of the vote uh to be considered as voting on the prevailing side all right so the vote is on PR 25-72. if they don't they want a quarter no they have to do so before you call the vote okay so people have to pay attention in fact people should know how they're voting or what is voting on so if we're voting no we vote no and then you uh yes we could but I'm hopeful that with the uh these uh emotional closed debate I won't know um all right we have before us PR 25-72 to confirm Colleen green as the Director of dhcd if I have Voice vote all those in favor say aye all right uh no uh no votes are there no votes yes chairman please record me is nope record me as no all right I don't know if the secretary heard all that councilmember Parker and councilmember bonds will be recorded as no and council members Denise Lewis George will be recorded as present the eyes have it the um motion or rather the resolution is approved the next item is pr25-115 director of The Office of unified Communications Heather mcgaffin confirmation resolution of 2023. councilmember pinto Mr chairman I move pr25-115 director of The Office of unified Communications Heather McGuffin confirmation resolution of 2023 I spoke at length during any of the whole about my support for this nominee and ask my colleagues to vote to approve her today thank you councilmember uh discussion councilmember Henderson thank you Mr chairman um and thank you for the break because I got a phone call and I got my answers um for some of the things that we talked about um no so I I did have a good conversation with Miss mcgaffin and we talked about how um how to sort of actualize some of the promises made around transparency and communication not just with the chairperson of the committee but all of the members or any of the members who raise relevant concerns about particular incidents um and so I do want to say um that I think that Miss mcgaffin does have the background and I felt that way before um to solve some of the challenges that have been um pressing for OUC um and I think that some of her goals around increasing the call diversion rate to the nurse triage line she's launched the Junior Academy she has hired an acting public information officer which I think all of us felt was something that the agency needed a Pio and so I look forward to um continuing to work with her as we go through the coming years thank you thank you councilmember further discussion uh we have the resolution before us pr25-115 by a Voice vote all those in favor say aye aye are there any no votes uh the ads have unanimously turning to final reading and final vote on temporary legislation we have Bill 25-164 comprehensive policing and Justice Reform temporary Amendment Act of 2023. councilmember Allen thank you Mr chairman at this time I want to move to postpone this measure until the June 6th meeting in a motion to postpone this to the June 6 meeting through discussion which would be as to the date all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed that is the most anemic thought I've heard all day but I heard more eye votes than I heard no votes so the eyes have it unanimously next measure is uh reading a reading vote on proposed resolution since the Council on the restoration of Cuban American relations resolution of 2023. PR 25-113 councilmember Robert White thank you Mr chairman today I'm moving PR 25-113 the sense of the Council on the restoration of Cuban American relations resolution of 2023. this resolution expresses the district's support for ending the Embargo and other restrictions the United States government has imposed on Cuba the United States has maintained a trade and travel embargo on Cuba since the 1960s this policy has had significant impact on the lives of both Cubans and Americans while it was meant to force the Cuban government to change its political and economic systems it has had unintended consequences including significant hardship for the Cuban people under the Obama Administration U.S Cuba relationships relations thawed in 2014 President Obama announced that the United States would begin to normalize relations with Cuba and took several steps to ease the Embargo many of us saw this as a positive development toward improving relations between the two countries as these changes took place Cuban president Raul Astro began liberalizing Cuba's state-controlled economy however the Trump Administration largely reversed course in 2017 president Trump announced that he would roll back the Obama era policies these changes included tighter restrictions on travel to Cuba and limitations on the amount of money Cuban Americans could send to family members in Cuba it is now time for the United States to re-evaluate its approach to Cuba to ease these six the 61 year old restriction once again the Embargo has not achieved its intended goal of affecting political change instead it has had a detrimental effect on the Cuban people who has suffered from shortages of food medicine medical equipment and other basic necessities residents of Cuba also lack access to basic technology certain apps are blocked including Amazon and PayPal and they are unable to use bank cards to make purchases online in This Global digital economy these restrictions create very real hardships ending the Embargo would also create opportunities for residents of the United States it would allow businesses to invest in trade with Cuba which would boost the American economy it would also allow Americans to travel to Cuba more easily promoting cultural exchange and breaking down barriers between the two countries passing the sense of the council resolution will send a message to Congress and the president that it is time for the United States to re-evaluate its approach to Cuba at the most fundamental level the district will signal our stance on a humanitarian issue for Cubans but ending the abar Embargo also benefits D.C residents through free exchange with Cuba including for travel and cultural and educational purposes additionally while the district does not have a large Cuban or cuban-american population ending the Embargo would also allow those who do live in the district to connect with friends and relatives in Cuba more easily ending the Embargo would be a positive step toward improving relations between our two countries creating economic opportunities and promoting cultural exchange among our people while improving the lives of the Cuban people in our own Community with that I move pr25-113 the sense of the Council on the restoration of Cuban American relations resolution of 2023. thank you Mr chairman thank why does their discussion councilmember Pinto thank you Mr chairman um Hillsborough white I think that a lot that is written in this resolution makes a lot of sense and it would certainly be a foreign policy that I support um we are a city and we should be a state but we are a city uh with a large array of different responsibilities but one of them is not Foreign Affairs and so as I try to reconcile the substantive support for what this is saying versus is this an appropriate role for our local legislative body to be playing um just curious kind of how this how you're thinking about this um with with the fact that we are a local government I appreciate that question council member Pinto uh I'd say it's similar to our act to designate Jamal khashoggi way sometimes there are issues that happen internationally that affect us in our residents that we believe we want to send a signal of our support to move the federal government when they don't move quickly enough okay thank you I thought about the Jamal khashoggi way comparison although I'd say that's a little bit different because we had the authority to rename a street a local street that we could demonstrate our support and that actionable way um so again I'm not opposed to what this is saying I'm just concerned kind of we're not concerns the wrong word but um don't know where the line should be on these sense of the councils when it is a kind of foreign policy issue um fair enough uh we did a sense of the council in the uh Ukraine Russian war um we do these uh once in a while not frequently but but sometimes uh we will not be at all unique among local governments moving resolutions and support uh of American Cuban relations the federal government has been stuck for 60 years in one position uh and it seems like they won't move unless they get nudged by folks like us who are many times closer to uh the people so uh I believe it's an important uh and appropriate but I do understand your concern further on the resolution a councilman adult thank you chairman um and thank you councilmember white for moving this legislation um I I have constituents and contingent of constituents who've been very passionate about this issue and I think that moving this resolution today really Honors that passion and that work that they're doing at the Grassroots level to help Empower people whose Freedom has really been taken away from them um in a lot of ways by our government's actions and um I also just want to note for the record that I have two staff of Cuban American descent and I'm very happy that we can rep them today on the days too thanks very much thank you councilman Adele Uh councilmember white I have a question for you do you know of other jurisdictions that have passed a resolution similar to this uh yes Mr chairman there have been a lot I apologize I don't have a list of them but I could send that to you uh I I would I think I'm asking more for the record so what's a lot like three or um yeah I'm I believe about 80. 8-0 local jurisdictions have passed similar resolutions all right so this is not something where the district is standing out alone that's right including Boston chairman including Boston well that seals the deal a little Punchy here I'm a little punchy any further discussion uh we have the resolution before us PR 25-113 My Voice vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed I don't hear any no votes the resolution has approved unanimously all right need some more uh thank you uh the next three items are I am moving at the request to the mayor I'm not going to move them in Block I'm going to sort of speak to them initially in Block but then move them each separately each of these are contracts the first is contract number ghea which stands for DCPS ghea 2022-c-0186 with Tama LLC approval and payment authorization emergency declaration resolution 2023 um I'm just going to reference all three and then as I said move them individually contact number ghea 2022 c-0048 with security Assurance Management Inc approval and payment authorization emergency declaration resolution for 2023 and Milestone therapeutic Services Inc purchase orders approval and payment authorization emergency declaration resolution of 2023 I noticed these last week I actually noticed them I believe last Monday because I wanted to make it clear to these three vendors that the council would consider approval of payments to them for services that they have been rendering under contracts or purported contracts that have not been submitted to the council for approval um the um District of Columbia Public Schools seeks Council approval of retroactive contracts DCPS has shared a list of 36 retroactive contracts that will be submitted to the council for review the total of those 36 contracts which have not received Council approval are 269 million dollars many of these contracts are retroactive to fiscal year 2021. ecps has pleaded three of those 36 contracts face an imminent cutoff due to non-payment since DCPS is misfeasons was uncovered by the committee the whole in February the first contract was with Tama LLC for school day paraprofessional AIDS and nurses dedicated to specific students who have disabilities Tama LLC is a locally owned certified business Enterprise the contract has a base period of June 27 2022 to September 30th 2022 note this is last year with an option period from October 1st 2022 through September 30th 2023. the not to exceed amount for the base year is one million seven hundred ninety eight thousand dollars and the option period is four million five hundred fifty one thousand dollars this contract was sent by the executive to the council for its mandatory review that would be the option year 10 months after the contract was entered into it's more than 10 months if we include the base year like 22 months the second contractors with security Assurance management otherwise known as Sam for DCPS school security guards who support weapons abatement visitor entry management if there's no objection I'll continue building the building and grounds Patrol and conflict de-escalation Sam is a locally owned certified business Enterprise the contract has a base period of July 9 2022 to September 30th 2022 note again last year with an option period from October 1st 2022 through September 30th 2020 23. the not to exceed amount for the base year is 5 million 669 000 and for the option years 23 million 769 thousand dollars I believe this contract was sent to us December January after the option year um maybe not even that long ago uh but of course the base period was not sent to us the third contract and actually it's not a contract is with Milestone therapeutic services for special education services for students with individualized education programs IEPs Milestone is a locally owned certified business Enterprise the total contract value for the base and option period is 7 million four hundred ninety six thousand dollars this contract is pending transmittal by the executive it was pending transmitter when I sent this notice uh I am planning further hearings on dcps's remaining outstanding contracts but moving these three in order today although one of them is arguably not a contract uh moving them now because they have received no payments since the Chief Financial Officer learned in February that these contracts had not been approved and not even been submitted to the council and the CFO put a freeze on any voucher payments for unapproved contracts the Halton payments has produced cash flow concerns for these three vendors others as well but these three two of them I believe have actually said they're going to cut off services uh in fact I have here DCPS reports that the vendors have stated clearly that they may not make payroll in the coming weeks and services may be stopped if approval of the contracts does not occur so I'm reluctantly moving to approve these three so the vendors can be compensated for the services rendered to date I will say more with regard to Milestone when we get to it because that is arguably not even a contract so the first is uh the contract with Tama LLC it's item one under emergency request I already gave the contract number pr25-206 so I moved the emergency is there the Declaration is there discussion Mr chairman council member Parker I have more more so questions um although we don't want them to is there a reason why they are now saying they need Council approval for these contracts instead of paying them like they've been paying all these other vendors uh the law makes clear that payments cannot be made unless they are properly authorized the home rule act makes clear the contracts over a million dollars have to be approved by the council so the contracts have to be approved by the council but it's clear that they've been issuing many payments I think you said upwards of 200 million dollars uh yes that would be against the law so it is clear that DCPS has been breaking the law I guess do you have a sense of why all of a sudden with urgency they're saying we have to follow the law with these and then secondly they're not with urgency suddenly saying we have to follow the law we have said to them you are breaking the law got it um and I imagine that uh investigation of the council is perhaps making them follow what they should have been doing all along and submitting the contract yeah so the Community Hall held a hearing on February 10th because of the two food service contracts which we would proved one of them um the other one hasn't been approved yet and uh DC Central Kitchen is when we approved we approved that I believe last month um we had a hearing on those two contracts but that hearing evolved into discussing other contracts that we became aware of in fact we asked the DCPS to give us a list of contracts they gave us a list as I recall of about 10. uh we actually uh had gone into the financial management system and discovered at least one other that they didn't give us so that was a point at the hearing which is not only did why did these contracts not come to us timely but why is it that these contracts had had a previous year that never came to us that the chancellor was unaware of and then why is it that when we asked you for contracts you couldn't even give us a complete list and in fact of the list you gave us why were there inaccuracies in the list it's pretty bad it is pretty bad a follow-up question you're suggesting that the chancellor was unaware of these contracts I don't know okay well that's what you just said uh what he gave us was a list of a list that was incomplete that we knew was incompleted to hearing subsequently because I would say the hearing was embarrassing to DCPS uh they went and did a scrub and identified they've told us 36 contracts okay one last question do you all know or are you investigating who gives approval for these contract payments I recall you mentioning that it may not necessarily be the chancellor um I do not know what role the chancellor has other than that the chancellor is responsible for the agency uh there is a contract uh a procurement process and I don't know I don't think the documents are actually signed by the chancellor I think it is a lower level uh members in the DCPS who would be signing the document but let me say more um the um there's paperwork with the procurement there's paperwork that extended goes to the purchase orders there's paperwork that then goes to the office of the Chief Financial Officer for payment and um these I don't know if all 36 but this issue has been presented to the board of help me Bradley Board of the board of review of anti-deficiency violations called Brad V Brad V has looked at this I got a letter yesterday from Brad V saying that they had referred some of this to the Inspector General good uh it would appear that at some level it was represented on the paperwork that all the necessary approvals had been have been made so that made someone's forging or misrepresenting information I get just to wrap up here getting to my point of what if we can pinpoint who is giving the final clearance or who is responsible I think that person or that team should be held accountable and this should not be a situation where we just say shame on you DCPS and we should be calling for an individual or a team of individuals to be held accountable meaning perhaps to lose their jobs uh because it's pretty egregious when we're talking about 200 plus million dollars I agree so this is what I have done uh when we realized this problem at the February 10th hearing brought into the Detention of the Chief Financial Officer actually did that a little before February 10th also brought to the attention of the Attorney General because they supposedly do legal sufficiency on these contracts um the Chief Financial Officer has I believe stopped making any further payments on any of these contracts that haven't had Council approval uh if you've been paying attention I brought one contract DC Central Kitchen to the council last month and these three today that would be four four out of the 36 the other 32 have not come to the council I have said to DCPS that they have to submit them before I'm going to move them forward they were trying oppa office of policy legislative affairs was trying to suggest that they would dribble them to us and we'd have them all by September I've said I'm not I'm not putting anything before the council until we get to 36. other than these because these are payroll problems for cves yeah there are three more that I'll probably bring up in at the June meeting but between now and the June meeting there are two hearings councilmember Nadeau is having a hearing on a bill dealing with DCPS losing its procurement Authority and I have an oversight hearing on on May 31st on the 36 contracts and as I said I Brad V has told me that the inspector General has been notified I'm actually going to separately confirm that um and I continued who uh raised this with the ocfo as recently as a couple weeks ago because we thought when we went into the financial management system the payments were still being made on these contracts apparently was last year's contracts and payments were being made so the heat is still on and there'll be a little bit more when we get to Milestone further on this declaration just briefly Sharma yes and I apologize to this side of the day is because I've had my back to you um just I appreciate you bringing these contracts forward and the reasons for what you're bringing them forward recognizing the the work you and the committee continue to do uh on these contracts and the hearing that you all plan for later this month um I would just ask that the contracts that DCS submit include valid CBE subcontracting plans or valid existing waivers um to account for um the requirements under the law to contract with small business Enterprise so last month it was DC Central Kitchen which is non-profit and therefore is not a CBE the three befores today are CBE so I don't believe they have to have subcontracting plans because our cdes um we have reason to believe that many or most or maybe all of the other 32 may not have valid subcontracting plans because this is a mess okay no I appreciate that just just want to ensure that as you are doing the work to to get the contracts that we're also making sure that the uh DCPS is adherent with the CBE subcontracting laws um along the way yes well and maybe come to the hearing the councilmember Nadeau is having when is the hearing 25th uh so we have the Declaration emergency declaration for Tama in front of us is there any further discussion uh by a Voice vote all those in favor of the a PR 25-206 say aye um opposed you guys have it unanimously I'll move the underlying measure which is Bill 25-263 again are related to Tamar LLC is there discussion by a Voice vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed oh the eyes have it unanimously uh the next contract is uh Giga 2022 c0048 with security Assurance Management Inc approval and payment authorization emergency declaration one thing I would add is I think or two or three of these I got letters but they wrote me uh late last week uh that um uh as of last week DCPS is nine million one hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars in arrears for that contract much of that debt is more than 90 days overdue so I moved the Declaration is there discussion uh by a Voice vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed of the eyes have it unanimously in the underlying bill bill 25-264 again for security Assurance management discussion I'm so move discussion I voice quote all those in favor say aye aye opposed you guys have it unanimously the next is uh PR 25-234 Milestone therapeutic Services Inc purchase orders approval and payment authorization emergency declaration resolution of 2023. now I circulated in nature and substitute to the underlying Bill circulated that yesterday and I have an amendment sheet that I um circulated yesterday around 3 P.M the um Amendment changes to the Declaration I'm going to note this first of all you may have noticed that the this measure is phrased differently this is not a contract ghea number such and such approval and payment authorization this is a purchase orders approval and payment authorization in fact I misspoke with the nature of substitute it will be the purchase orders payment authorization to Leading the word approval now what am I getting at so when the paperwork was sent over we thought we would get the contract and the paperwork was sent over there was a legal sufficiency memorandum from the attorney general that was part of the package and in the um certification again from The Office of the Attorney General there is this language it was highlighted oag is not able to provide legal sufficiency for contract number ghea 2020 C 0016 is contract based period and option years as the contract in some modifications cannot be located by DCPS or Milestone therapeutic services uh so following what we're supposed to do we of course uh are the emergency measure and we submit it to general counsel and we got this legal sufficiency notice yesterday very long the emergency measure is legally insufficient for Council considerations so we have an amendment nature of a substitute to the bill uh and the legal sufficiency says the amendment is legally and technically sufficient for Council consideration because it would amend the bill we're at the Declaration who would amend the bill to strike references to council approval and authorization of payment for purchase orders it lists of purchase orders so what we are doing with this amendment substitute is approving the payments payment by the Chief Financial Officer and as I've said in the memo that I circulated yesterday in fact I probably should have read this first the emergency Act is introduced by the mayor purported to approve a number of purchase orders in a bundle under the auspices of section 451 of Homer lack of the homework which deals with Council approval of contracts over a million dollars the executive executed a contract in November 2019 for physical and occupational therapy services for DCPS students this is kind of important physical and occupational therapy services for DCPS students however according to the documents transmitted as part of the so-called contract package the underlying contract documents could not be produced in conjunction with approving the contract under this emergency action according to the attorney general's legal sufficiency memo accompanying the package oag is not able to provide legal sufficiency for the contract as the contract and some modifications cannot be located by DCPS or Milestone therapeutic services when the issue of unapproved contracts was first discovered earlier this year the chief financial officers stopped paying against purchase orders on unapproved contracts including this contract to date Milestone has been paid under all but one purchase order since 2019. the remaining purchase order has not been paid since the CFO stopped payment the amendment nature of a substitute which I'll move when we get to the bill would amend the emergency Act to permit the CFO to make a payment on the outstanding purchase order p0687321 for services rendered and to be rendered in the amount of 1.354 million dollars without violating that is authorizing the CFO to make the payment without violating the district's anti-deficiency Act the amendment substitute is clear that this narrow exemption from the local anti-defficiency Act for the CFO to pay on the purchase order for a contract the council has not approved does not abrogate any other malfeasance on the part of DCPS as part of this procurement so we are approving rather excuse me we are authorizing the CFO to make the payment on the purchase order for about 1 million three hundred fifty four thousand dollars against a purchase order without otherwise approving or ratifying or legitimizing any other action which appears to be malfeasance on the part of DCPS or any other government official as part of the procurement just want everybody to understand what a mess it is at DCPS with its procurement and it's not by the way because they don't have enough people in their procurement office Mr chairman council member Henderson councilmember bonds um Mr chairman I appreciate you outlining um those pieces but I'm sort of sitting here in uh bewildered here so does the contract exist or can DCPS just not find it neither DCPS or the vendor can produce a signed contract so you did 2.5 million dollars worth of work without paperwork well that's uh how do I want to put this it's um what we used to call Quantum Merit contract and it used to be that the executive would come to the council for payments or there would be Quantum Merit payments uh contracts not contracts yes contracts or oral contracts whatever not written context that's I'm mostly a thing in the past but it is possible to violate the law and procure services in violation of the law without a contract and that there may have been a signed contract but nobody can produce it so so how do we know that the 2.4 million dollars is accurate if there's no contract that sets the terms of payment well I'm not going to defend this too much I know that I know what you're not going to do but I you would appear that there were purchase orders written against a contract and the payments were based on those purchase orders how is there a purchase order written against a contract that doesn't exist okay so maybe this could be a nice PSA to all the businesses out there that used to do procurement at DCPS if you don't have a contract or purchase order you have just made a donation to The District of Columbia it's government well that's nice and I'm going to translate that when we obtain when we receive Services we've received Services no contracts assuming that the services were actually provided the the um vendor would be able to go into court and argue that's the quantum meruit that they provided the services and they're entitled to payment for it for the value of the services so we could be sued and they would get paid there are many problems with that we'll start with this the annual comprehensive financial report s that there are um management controls to ensure that payments are made in accordance with the law so at a minimum I think that is a serious concern and DCPS should recognize that they are risking the government's annual financial report to have a management deficiency deficiency that's serious well can I ask a different question so you mentioned that the CFO stopped payment on certain contracts actually stop stop making payments on certain contracts after they realized that the contracts were not approved has the cfo's office changed their practice to now check prior to issuing payment whether or not said contract has been approved I have asked and I have been told yes because I I can see this potentially being issued not just with DCPS but some of the other agencies who also have independent procurement Authority as well like how do we know this is not a pattern in practice as opposed to a one-off well we know that it's been a pattern in practice with DCPS I think we just we being the different committees just have to look at uh contracts within their agencies to reason this unraveled was because they submitted the two food service contracts in January and uh six months late it actually submitted them in December like the week before the last meeting when we were all preoccupied and then resubmitted them in January and we looked why are we getting these six months late and then realized that I believe they were option years and that the base years had never come to us started to unwrap for the vendor in this particular contract are they still providing Physical Therapy Services to students and that's why it's before us today because they're owed quite a bit of money I think my note here is 1.354 million and they've threatened to cease providing services and have they DCPS and the vendor are taking steps to actually write on paper that both parties have signed a new contract yet um I I don't know I think I think actually what they're working toward is a new contract that would come to us okay thank you Mr chairman uh I'm trying to find correspondence I I have corresponded with the CFO at least twice and the CFO has said that um they're changing their practices councilmember Lewis charge um I'm sorry oh oh councilman bonds was first chairman I just had a question about the purchase order is there a signature on the purchase order anything that would lead us to where and how this came about um I don't know we can try to get you an answer but I think Brad V looked at that and um determined that the IG Inspector General would have to look I see thank you thank you very much sorry that I overlooked you councilmember Lewis George uh chairman uh because why would we pay the um 1.345 million as opposed to any other amount I think because it's uh the total of the invoices that have been submitted so there's a contract and then there are as a purchase order that's issued against contract and then their invoices are billed against the purchase order and my understanding is that the invoice is total at 1.354 million okay and can the deliverables I guess good Services be like the deliverable of that contract can we can that be found the deliverables so I'm looking at I'm looking at the uh purchase orders it's available online and lists the quantity which doesn't make sense to me because it looks like it's occupational therapy and physical therapy so that might be ours where there should be a record of that though like therapy there would be a record of of therapy uh there is a name of but probably the program the pregnant program person at DCPS which shouldn't necessarily be the um billing persons okay the hearing is uh May 20 May 31st okay yeah well I I know we're gonna have a c hearing soon I get so the bigger question is really are there any other missing contracts at DCPS well they've identified 36. um I we have not become aware of any additional ones so originally it went from two to like 10 to like 12 to like 36. okay and as far as disagree this goes where is the agreement that we will pay a certain amount for those services that have been performed according to the contractor uh there's not a signed again battle it's just a purchase order there's a unsigned uh contract I believe but it's on the sign okay turn over here thank you Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman since there's gonna be a hearing one as I've moved to close debate it's been a motion to close debate the effect of which is that anyone who has not spoken could still speak but anyone else cannot there's no objection the motion will be approved no objection I have in the lineup councilmember Parker yes I I was actually going to move to table this um until June and I would ask that we be providing more information essentially what we're being asked to do is to take someone's word for this dollar amount with no proof of services provided no contract and I think that's insufficient I know that's not your staff's fault uh but if we could have more information I think the council would be better sir to have that before voting well um the Attorney General's legal sufficiency did review documents it just said that there isn't a contract so I'm and also our staff has been in contact with the chief financial officer's office somebody there so I'm comfortable with our authorizing this Chief Financial Officer to make the payment as I said the amendment nature of substitute amends the bill so that all that we're doing is authorizing the payment and we are not approving any of anything else um somewhere in here I believe I have an email that said from Milestone that basically says they're going to cut off Services if we if they don't get paid SO waiting another three weeks uh would be problematic and services would be cut off especially one of clarity Jim yes sir uh is this the food provider that's threatening to cut the food off who's threatening not discontinued services Milestone who provides special education services oh Special Education Service yes and they all have already again pay all this time without a contract um they are owed at this point 1.3 million dollars that's the building okay so I would argue against postponing again the uh underlying Amendment instruments just the clock should be adjusted to reflect Where We Are conversation I can't speak to them all right there's a lot of noise going on here members should be uncomfortable with this however I would ask that this be approved because this is approving a payment and that is all that it is doing no the payment is a payment Mr chairman Mr chairman I'm hearing in my left ear we need order I'm hearing to write your number of members speaking simultaneously let's take this in order and there was a motion to close the page um Parker were you done yes my motion still stands I would still recommend tabling this and I think councilmember White's able to close debate you mean the postpone it to June 6th yes uh with more information being provided to members and and I appreciate that you're saying your staff has received this but members hasn't haven't I haven't been a question about the motion it's emotional postponed to June 6. okay a question about the motion to postpone but it's a question for you yes on one hand we're saying but for our action today services will be suspended correct which I think we can agree I would agree is a consequence we want to avoid but then on the other hand I'm hearing people say that we don't have any proof that Services were provided in the first place so what consequence are we trying to avoid if Services haven't already been provided I wouldn't say we have no proof there was an invoice submitted and uh there has been approval of the invoice that would suggest that there's been um a recognition maybe even an approval that the services were received in addition this has been reviewed by the Attorney General because we have that legal sufficiency determination legal insufficiency determination um and uh so I don't have a doubt that the process to verify that the services were received has taken place thank you let me just look for a second so uh based on the reviews that I understand the chief financial ocfo has been involved with this the Attorney General's office has been involved with this of course DCPS has been involved with this now that they realize and they've been begging for a month I don't doubt that the services were rendered there was an invoice submitted against a purchase order the issue before us has been narrowed radically all we are doing is authorizing I didn't even say approving authorizing payment by the Chief Financial Officer we are not in any other way in fact I think explicitly we're saying we're not excusing any conduct we're not ratifying any conduct we're not approving any conduct all we're doing is authorizing the uh writing of a check by the Chief Financial Officer based on an invoice that has not been questioned uh and uh Mr Cash tells me that the letters we've gotten have been sent to email to members uh councilmember Freeman so one of the things I'm hearing is that a reason why we should pay is because if we don't pay that eventually the contractor could take us to court and get payment through that mechanism and I hear you that all we'd be doing is authorizing but is there a way to authorize subject to a requirement that the Attorney General find that there's a legal obligation to pay in this setting because that's the reason you people have said if somebody operates without a contract aren't they at risk and I hear you saying maybe but there are legal theories under which there's an OB we would have an obligation in Here If all we're doing is authorizing the thing I think people want to have comfort on on is that the district actually has an obligation to pay and the Attorney General could answer that question I appreciate councilman fullman's uh point that he just made I guess for me what I would want to know and it might address the concerns maybe not if we're not so long as we're not in this process waiving any rights that the city has to enforce the contract we should be able to do this today with assurances that the hearing will occur and if the core if the Attorney General's office needs to address it in court they still have the ability to do that I I I'm as concerned and unsettled about where we are today um and I appreciate the points that have been raised but I think there's a way to move forward with this vote today recognizing the concerns that exist and the vagueness that exists in in the posture for this contract and others quite frankly but so long as there's still the ability of the oag to enforce the district's rights under this contract I'm comfortable proceeding with this today and hopefully maybe there's some comfort amongst other members that you know we're not waving any rights under this contract if we authorize this today chairman can you say that yes yes and I'm looking at the language and the amendment of a substitute so what the bill says is unlike any other bill it says to count the the Chief Financial Officer or his designee May approve disbursements for payment under purchase order po687321 and then not to exceed amount of three one million 354 386.30 for the goods and services received and to be received During the period from February 1st 2023 through June 30th 2023. this section shall not be construed to waive any of the requirements of chapters we have title 47 of the DC official code or on another District agency head Deputy agency had agency budget director manager or other employee with respect to penalties related to the approval or disbursement of funds without appropriate authorization so nobody's off the hook with this and it doesn't even say the CFO shall pay so the CFO still has a responsibility for verifying that the invoices correct and verifying through DCPS the services were received I have every reason to believe that the services to date have been received because there have been a lot of eyes on this part of this authorization is for the remainder of the school year but I have to emphasize this is critical because Milestone not only is a small CBE uh that uh is desperate right now to make payroll but Milestone could possibly go out of business and then there'll be no services for the rest of the school year for these special education students so I would argue against postponing it all we're doing is authorizing the payment of a check and all the rest of it meaning the rest of the issues and possible I'll say possible illegality is still very much ripe for investigation and Punishment so I think it's very serious we do not approve this um there's a possibility that the the contractor vendor will go out of business Mr chairman are there other vendors that could provide the services that Milestone therapeutic services provides I have no idea and there would have to be a procurement to do that and do we have an exact date that this provider will stop serving DCPS uh emails were sent to everybody that we received and I believe they say that they're at risk of not making payroll yes Mr Victor I was it was on the the clock for me and I know we have a motion attendant councilman Robert White wants to be recognized but I'll just say I I would caution us now we're standing Where We Are I would caution us against anything that would penalize a small CBE that is providing services to the students of DC public schools particularly if from all the information that we have the reason we find ourselves in this predicament likely lies with DCPS so so I I would hope that we would contextualize this vote with that fact this is likely an issue with DCPS and I would caution us against penalizing a small CPE especially where there are Services being rendered uh to students and what that could mean if we postpone this Vote or vote against it today comes from Robert White uh thank you Mr Jim I agree with council member I think though we've reached the point of the information we're going to get today which is why I'm glad you're having a hearing and have a motion to close debate ending Mr chairman yes and I've been disregarding that comes from perfuman yeah I'll be brief Mr chairman the way that I interpreted the language that you read uh conforms with what I was looking for so the way I understand it is we authorize payment we don't mandate payment and that payment needs to be done consistent with our procurement obligations which means the kind of review that I was hoping for would have to happen before the the check was was written so my sense from the language that you read is that we are protected that we would only be paying something that the district would be obligated to pay and would be fully protecting our rights correct uh so there was a motion to postpone is that still pending uh I'll withdraw that thank you we have the Declaration and I'd circulated in amendments the um the amendment was circulated yesterday uh I'm gonna move that with the Declaration so it's one vote on the Declaration with the amendment that I circulated yesterday foreign on the Declaration all those in favor with the amendment all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed the eyes have it unanimously on the underlying bill I move the make Amendment nature of a substitute this was circulated yesterday morning is there discussion on the amendment of a substitute by Voice vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed the eyes have it unanimously the bill as amended this is Bill 25-288 as amended any discussion by Voice vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed yeah I just have it unanimously thank you I'm sorry that this has been aggravating because it is aggravating because tcps has been a very bad agency um that is going to conclude our business give me a second um this concludes our business we have a meeting on May 30th for second reading on the budget and the supplemental budget and the federal portion request Act our next regular meeting will be June 2nd or June 6th I don't know what day it is looking at your agenda says in a second uh and with that the time is 4 444 in the afternoon and this meeting's adjourned