thank you these things foreign daughter this is a meeting this is a regular meeting of the committee of the whole of the Council of the District of Columbia today is Tuesday December 20th 2022 the time is 12 57 in the afternoon this meeting this is a regular meeting of the committee the whole it will be followed by an additional meeting of the legislative meeting of the council this meeting is being uh held in the council chambers room 500 of the Johnny Wilson building it's also being broadcast live uh via Channel Council Channel TV 13 the council's website and uh Zoom video conference broadcast platform the council's website is www.dccounsel.gov uh this because it's a regular meeting we have several items for markup in the committee the whole there's some measures from other committees that we have to um uh approve sort of in order for them to uh be on the legislative agenda and we have the logs uh I'll recognize Mr Cash to call the roll to see if we have a quorum chairman mendelsohn president councilmember Allen here councilmember bonds here council member Shea here council member Jay here can you not hear me customer care we can't hear you we can see you councilmember gray yeah we can hear you well in the zoom so I'm gonna have my staff council member Henderson councilmember Lewis George here councilman McDuffie here councilmember Nadeau here councilmember Pinto president councilmember Silverman president councilmember Robert White president councilmember Treyon White president Mr chairman you have a quorum uh everybody is here there's a quorum present let me check council member Che can you hear me not yours glad to hear you can you hear me can you nod your head if you can hear me okay all right we can't hear you in the room oh that's being fixed councilmember gray can you hear me yes and it comes for Tran white can you hear me yes I can hear you yes okay we're having an audio problem uh we cannot hear you in the chamber so that needs to be fixed and uh but apparently you can be heard on zoom and I'm your responses that you can hear me so let's let's give this a minute to sort this out no that's not good yes okay okay foreign if you can hear me could you speak see if we can hear you uh yes I'm speaking now excellent okay Gray would you say something yes we can hear you comes from your tran White chicks yeah there was some Reverb there but we could hear you thank you I want to ask Madam Secretary if we can hear her good afternoon all good afternoon all right I think we're ready then uh we have a committee reports the secretary's report of committee filings I'll recognize the chair Pro tem Mr McDuffie thank you chairman I'll move the way to the reading of the secretary's report I've been a motion to waive the reading of the report is there discussion and the motion the way to report all those in favor say aye are there any no votes I don't see or hear any all right the motion passes unanimously uh we have the reading of the secretary's log of introductions and referrals again I'll recognize the chairpod 10 Mr McDuffie and I will move to way of the reading of the secretary's log of introductions and referrals and a motion to waive the reading is there discussion and the emotional ways of reading all those in favor say aye aye aye aye [Music] are there any opposed uh the odds have unanimously we have a number of measures for markup in the committee as a whole the first is pr24-971 entitled the child fatality Review Committee Shalonda cothan appointment resolution of 2022. the purpose of this resolution is to appoint Miss Shalonda coffin as a member of the child fatality Review Committee Wisconsin is a ward 5 resident she currently serves as the District of Columbia ombuds person for children she assumed that role after her appointment by this Council in July of 2022. the child fatality Review Committee establishment Act of 2001 requires that the council appoint a minimum of one representative from the office of the Ombudsman ombuds person for children Miss coffin's appointment is head since she is the head of that office would satisfy the statutory requirements the child fatality Review Committee was established in 2001 it operates under the oversight of the office of the chief medical examiner it's composed of a minimum of 13 representatives from public agencies along with members from Federal Judicial and private agencies plus eight Community Representatives uh the complete list is in the committee report which was circulated yesterday this resolution was introduced by me on October 3rd 2022 the committee did not hold the hearing on this nomination however it was earlier this year that the committee held a hearing before recommending to the council that Miss coffin be appointed as the ombuds person for children so we didn't see the need for a second hearing this year I moved without objection I moved both the print and Report would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion chairman member Nadeau thank you chairman I just want to thank you and your staff for moving this resolution during such a busy time of year I've been serving on the child fatality Review Committee for more than a year now um and we'll be voting on policy recommendations in January having the ombuds person there to weigh in on those recommendations will be invaluable and going forward having the ombuds person on the cfrc will be key to the office's role of bringing agencies together to keep District children safe thank you again and I'm glad to see this move today thank you councilmember further discussion we'll we'll have a roll call vote on the print and Report with leave for staff Mr Cash councilmember bonds yes councilman bonds votes yes council member Che yes council member chave OTS council member Gray yes councilmember gray votes yes council member Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes yes council member Louis George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes council member NATO yes councilmember nadeaux votes yes council member Pinto yes councilmember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes councilmember Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilman Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon White yes that's our Tran white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash the report and print are approved unanimously but I'm general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is secretary is the record complete once the report is filed and budget director does Dimensions Glenn Peck statement comply with Council requirements yes it does the objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the next measure is for markup is pr24-1037 director of the awesome planning Anita Cozart confirmation resolution of 2022. the purpose of this resolution is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Miss Anita kozart her appointment as the Director of the Austin planning to serve at the pleasure of the mayor Miss Cozart has been serving in an acting capacity and interim capacity since November of 2018 he is has replaced will be replacing did replace Mr Andrew Trueblood uh Miss Cozart is currently a resident of Ward five she holds a master of city and Regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Pittsburgh she's co-chair of the district government's black Oma black homeownership Strike Force and a board member for smart growth America the report goes into much more detail of her qualifications he has a demonstrated commitment to service to the district or wealth of experience particularly at the office planning equips her with the tools necessary to serve as the Director of the awesome planning assuming that this is approved the committee the whole wreck believes that Ms jonesard is tomorrow is more than capable to serve as director and recommends her appointment this resolution was introduced at the request of the mayor in October 28 2022 committee the whole held a round table on November 21st 2022 and um the committee has received no comments or opposition in no comments or testimony in opposition to the nominee with our objection I moved both to print and Report would leave for staff tech support conforming and editorial changes is there discussion cash would you call the roll the vote will be on both the print Report with leave for staff council member Shea yes councilmember Che votes yes councilmember Gray yes councilmember gray votes yes council member Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes council member McDuffie yes councilman McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes council member Nadeau yes councilman Adobe votes yes council member Pinto yes councilman Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes councilmember Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes councilman Robert White votes yes council member yes councilman try on white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilman round votes yes councilmember bonds yes councilor bonds votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash the um print and reports are approved and general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretaries the record complete once the report is filed and a budget director does the measure statistical impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does without objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the next item for markup is pr24-1038 historic preservation review board Matthew Bell confirmation resolution of 2022. purpose of this resolution is to confirm the reappointment of Matthew Bell as an architect member of the historic preservation review board for a term to expire July 21st 2025. Mr Bell is award 3 resident and is a practicing architect with over 30 years of experience Mr Bell's work as an architect includes Master plans for upper George Avenue the George Washington University's Foggy Bottom campus plan Middle East right which is at reservation 13 and the MacMillan Reservoir site building projects include modernizations of Stoddard Elementary School Dunbar and Roosevelt high schools and the Cleveland Park Library current projects include Master plans and building projects for American and Catholic University several of these projects have involved modernization or additions to Landmark buildings historic sites or sites located in historic districts Mr Bell's work has won awards from the American Institute of Architects the U.S Green Building Council and the committee of 100 on the federal City Mr Bell was nominated for reappointment as an architect member of the board Mr Mr Bell Mr Bell meets the qualifications for serving on the board and has demonstrated and has demonstrated knowledge of an interest in historic preservation assuming this is approved the committee recommends Council approval of pr24-1038 the confirmation to Mr Matthew Bell for reappointment as an architect member of the historic preservation review board this legislation was introduced on October 28 2022 at the request of the mayor the committee is a hold to help the committee as a whole held a Roundtable on the measure on November 21st 2022 committees received no testimony or comments in opposition to the nomination and without objection I move both to print Report with leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion the vote will be on both the print Report with leave for staff Mr Cash would you call the roll councilmember Gray yes councilmember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilman McDuffie yes councilor McDuffie votes yes chairman medelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes councilman nadeaux votes yes council member Pinto yes councilmer Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes councilman we're still running votes yes council member Robert White yes councilman Robert White votes yes council member tray on white yes council member tray on white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes council member bonds yes councilmember bonds votes yes council member Che yes councilmember Shea votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash the uh print and Report our approved unanimously Madam general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretary's record complete once the report is filed and budget director does the measure statistical impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does our objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting if there's no objection we'll take the next two resolutions uh together in Block uh they are both to the District of Columbia State athletics Commission the let me see where do I want to start it the District of Columbia State athletics commission is an independent agency that oversees the District of Columbia State Athletic Association the association is an association of District of Columbia Public public charter and Independent Schools private and parochial the District of Columbia State athletic association participants share knowledge and best practices to enhance student athlete achievement through athletic programming and to provide quality Life Learning experiences the purpose of pr24-1050 is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Larry Carroll a reappointment to the District of Columbia State athletics commission to serve a four-year term ending November 16 2026. Mr Carroll has over 25 years of Health wellness and educational Fitness experience throughout Mr Carroll's career he has designed numerous instructional fitness programs and cardio kickboxing Wellness nutritional counseling and strengths training to address the needs of his clients Mr Carroll currently works as the program manager of Larry's world of fitness and Chaos gym and athletic Training Center he also serves as a member of the District of Columbia State athletic Commission and she's being nominated for reappointments he um the the uh let me go to the second one and I'll give the chronology uh the purpose of pr24-1051 is to confirm the mayor's nomination of Sarah Navarro for appointment to the District of Columbia State athletics commission to serve a four-year term ending November 16 2026. this Navarro is the senior Deputy Chief of secondary schools at DCPS in this role she leads to District's Public School System to provide educational opportunities for all secondary students she also oversees various educational programs including School counseling academic scheduling support ninth grade academies student engagement Athletics graduation and career in college preparation prior to joining DCPS Miss Navarro was the principal of the Maya Angelou Adult Learning Center and founding board chair of the Sojourner Truth Montessori Public Charter School um in case it seems stringent an employee of DCPS would be uh appointed uh the law requires that somebody from dcpsb appointed the both of these resolutions were introduced at the request to the mayor on November 10 2022 because of the short timeline and our desire to get the commission complete we just did I believe four other nominations about a month ago uh the committee the whole move forward on these nominations without a hearing foreign although I'm mistaken here we did have a hearing on December a round table on December 8th 2022. the committee has received no testimony or comments in that position to these nominations to either these nominations without objection I moved the prince and reports for both of these resolutions pr24-1050 and PR 24-1051 would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes is there discussion yeah and I misspoke when I started to say that we didn't have a hearing we did have a hearing or round table on on them uh Mr the devote will be on both the Princeton reports would lead for staff Mr Cash would you call the roll councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Hendersonville CS councilmember Lewis George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes Yes councilmember Noodle yes councilmember TS council member Pinto yes councilmember Pinto votes es council member Silverman yes councilmember Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilman Robert White votes yes council member Treyon White yes councilmember tram Lake votes yes councilmember Allen yes council member Allen votes yes council member bonds yes councilman bonds votes yes council member Shea yes councilmember Chavez yes councilmember Gray yes former gray votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses uh thank you Mr Cash the um resolutions and reports are approved unanimously I'm General counselor are these measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are I'm secretaries to record complete for each once the report and hearing records are filed Madam budget director does the measures do the measures Cisco impact statements comply with Council requirements yes they do there's no objection these measures will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the next item for markup is pr24-1083 board of directors of the Washington metropolitan area transit authority bring worth appointment resolution of 2022. the purpose of this resolution is to appoint Miss springworth as a alternate member of the LaMotta board of directors to complete a term to end June 30th 2024. Miss wertha's award for residents currently she serves as the wamada budget and policy manager for DDOT the Ramada board is comprised of eight principal directors who are voting members and eight alternate directors Ms worth is being proposed as an alternate director from the district the signatories to the compact the District of Columbia Maryland and Virginia and the federal government are required to appoint two voting members and two non-voting members to the Ramada board Miss Worth's credentials are impressive and she has a significant public transportation expertise assuming this is approved by the committee the committee is recommending the appointment of Miss Worth to serve on the wamada board of directors as an alternate member meets the requirements to serve on the board pursuant to the law um this resolution was introduced by me on November 23rd 2022 and the committee did not have a hearing because we were anxious to get this before the full Council quickly I move the print and Report would leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes should see without objection I move both to print report is there discussion uh the roll call vote will be on both the print and Report with lead for staff Mr Cash councilmember Lewis George yes councilman of those George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilman McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes councilmember nadeaux votes yes council member Pinto yes councilmember Pinto votes yes council member Silverman yes councilmember Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilmember Robert white boots yes council member rayon White yes councilmember Tran white votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember Allen votes yes council member bonds yes council member yes council member Shea yes councilmember Che votes yes council member gray yes remember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes yes councilmember Henderson votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Mr Cash the uh the the um resolution and Report the print reporter approved unanimously Madam general counsel uh the measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is Madam Secretary is the record complete once the report is filed un budget director does the measures physical impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the final item for approval is Council period 24 report of the committee as a whole as members know or at least committee chairs know our rules require the committee to have a report at the end of every Council period and so that's what I'm presenting it was circulated yesterday and the moment I'll move to um a move for its approval the um just to note some of the highlights there are a few highlights in councilbury 24 uh the community as a whole marked up 62 bills and 68 resolutions five additional reports were adopted in addition Provisions from four bills and three resolutions were included in other legislation marked up by the committee or to bring to a total 66 bills and 71 resolutions that moved through the committee eight resolutions were deemed approved without markup and six resolutions were withdrawn before the committee could act on them the committee held 58 hearings 36 roundtables two joint hearings 12 performance oversight hearings two budget briefings and 12 budget oversight hearings uh non-legislatively the committee was active with regard to oversight hearings on importance issues key to improving public education such as truancy seek student achievement in addition the committee hoped several hearings to press for improvements at what used to be known as Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs and has now been broken into the department of buildings and the department of licensing and consumer protection um the just to mention a few of the more important measures that the committee the whole approved in addition to fiscal year budgets for two fiscal years uh Bill 24-1 the comprehensive plan Amendment Act of 2021 uh Bill 24-113 medical cannabis Amendment act which is for final reading today Bill 24-301 business and enter entrepreneurship support to thrive Amendment Act of 2022 which I refer to as the best Act and which uh restructures our licensing uh permitting in fact I'm looking down today so I see councilmember Pinto who had authored it um to um make the licensing structure a little cheaper and also easier to navigate for businesses Bill 24-357 protecting consumers from unjust debt collection practices which got very little attention but actually substantially rewrote our debt collection law and brought it into the 20th century and 22nd century well I'd like to say it's the 22nd century even if that's not correct uh Bill 24-429 Metro for DC Amendment Act of 2022 originally authored by councilmember Allen it's a final reading today and would provide Carefree bus service beginning next July Bill 24-570 schools first in budgeting Amendment act which um uh restructures the way schools will get budgeted not DCPS but the individual schools and and the annual budget crisis that schools seem to go through those are some of the highlights there's a lot of statistical detail in the report I moved the report would leave for staff to make technical confirming and editorial changes discussion on the motion I think we can do this by Voice vote uh the vote is on the report Council period 24 report of the committee of the whole uh would leave for staff all those in favor say aye aye aye are there any opposed I don't see or hear any no votes uh the motion the report is approved unanimously and I don't believe I have to do the clearance because it's not going to the legislative meeting will turn now to consideration to measure some other committees there are two measures from the community on business and economic development shared by council member Kenya McDuffie the first is pr24-1046 director of The Office of nightlife and culture salaz khari confirmation resolution of 2022 Mr mcduffin thank you chairman this proposed Revolution was introduced on November 10th 2022 by you chairman of the senator request that the mayor referred to the committee on business and economic development on November 15 2022 the committee held a public hearing loans measure on December 7th of this year in a markup on December 13th the measure will confirm the appointment of the mayor's nominee salaz espari to the position of director of the mayor's office of nightlife and culture Mr spy was appointed as interim director of The Office of nightlife and culture on November 10 2022 following the resignation of his predecessor this is spy previously served as the Director of strategic engagement it's actually the director of the Strategic engagement office at Metropolitan Police Department and as a special assistant to the chief of police award one resident Mr espari earned a batch of Arts from California University of Pennsylvania and has completed postgraduate classes at Georgetown University Law Center George Washington University and the Naval Postgraduate School but that I moved the measure and asked did it be placed on the agenda for the legislative meeting to follow thank you Mr McDuffie are there questions are in order I have three Madam general counsel to measure legal and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm secretary's record complete yes it is and budget director does the measures fiscal impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does the objection dispension will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the next measure is pr24-1047 Public Service Commission Ted tribute Jr confirmation resolution of 2022. councilman McDuffie thank you this measure was introduced on November 10th 2022 by chairman Mendelson at the request of the mayor and referred to the committee on business and economic development on November 5th 2022 in the committee held a public hearing on the measure on December 7th and a markup on December 13th 2022. the proposed resolution would confirm the appointment of the mayor's nominee Ted tribute Jr as a member of the Public Service Commission for a term to end on June 30th 2026. Mr tribute has over 30 years of experience in public affairs coordinating legislative activities and community outreach to meet the needs of his clients most recently Mr tribe you serve as the managing director of the DC sustainable energy utilities where he led the agency's execution of its economic environmental and job creation goals proudest tenure at dcseu Mr trabu served as District as a at large council member allies member and president of the D.C State Board of Education he's also previously served as executive director of the green builders council of DC and regional vice president for Pepco Mr trivia and The Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Dartmouth College and a Jewish doctor from Howard University's law school he is a war for residence but that I ask that this be moved to the agenda for the legislative meeting to follow thank you Mr McDuffie are there questions from members Madam general counsel is to measure legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes it is I'm Secretary of the record complete yes it is and a budget director does the measures physical impact statement comply with Council requirements yes it does the objection this measure will be placed on the consent agenda for today's additional legislative meeting the next two measures are from the committee on Judiciary and Public Safety chaired by council member Charles Allen both are before us only if we approve a waiver of council Committee of the whole rule 403 b uh notice requirements since they reports were not filed I believe it's last Wednesday but we filed were filed on Thursday which qualifies for this rule waiver there's no objection I'll ask councilmember Allen if he wants to move the waiver uh for the two that is waverman plus so movements chair sir discussion the vote is on the waiver all those in favor of waving committee the whole rule 403 b say aye aye are there any no votes uh the emotions approve if there's no objection we'll consider both measures since they both are appointments to the Board of Elections Pier 24-996 District of Columbia Board of Elections James Caleb Boggs the third confirmation resolution 2022 NPR 24-1056 District of Columbia Board of Elections Karen Greenfield confirmation resolution of 2022. councilmember Allen thank you Mr chairman here 24-996 the District of Columbia Board of Elections James Caleb Boggs the third confirmation resolution 2022 was introduced on October 21st 2022 by you at the request of the mayor resolution would confirm the appointment of James Caleb Boggs as a member of the Board of Elections to serve the remainder of an unexpired term that would end in July 7th 2023. Mr Boggs is currently a partner at King and Spalding where he's the co-lead of the firm's fintech blockchain cryptocurrency and State's Attorney General practices he represents a broad range of companies trade associations and nonprofits before policy makers at all levels of government he assists clients with issues relating to fintech and cryptocurrency regulation data privacy and Security National Security and technological innovation prior to his time in private practice Mr Boggs worked as counsel to the U.S Senate government Affairs committee where he helped draft Landmark legislation including the lobbying disclosure acts of 1995. he also advised the committee members on campaign and election law as well as constitutional and government ethics matters Mr Boggs began his legal career as a law clerk to Vice Chancellor Karen Berger of the Delaware Chancery Court he worked for two U.S senators William V Roth Jr as well as Joseph Biden Mr Boggs also previously served as the general counsel to the D.C Republican party providing legal advice on campaign finance and election matters on a pro bono basis a role he no longer holds Mr Boggs is a seasoned attorney with experience in a variety of legal Regulatory and public policy matters he will bring his expertise in data privacy National Security and technological innovation issues that are critically relevant to keeping the district's election safe and secure his experience on the senate committee on governmental Affairs working on campaign finance and election law will also serve him well he received a JD from Catholic University an MBA from Georgetown University and a ba from the University of Richmond the native Washingtonian in a ward 3 resident since I'm moving this in Block let me quickly read and introduce pr24-1056 the D.C Board of Elections care in Greenfield confirmation resolution of 2022 that was introduced on November 14 2022 by you at the request of the mayor that resolution would confirm the reappointment of care in Greenfield as a member of the board for a term to end July 7 2025. this Greenfield is an experience for professional in the field of federal state and local government Commercial International contracts and procurement since 2012 she has served as the Director of contracts at Northrop Grumman where she leads a team of more than 60 employees she brings more than two decades of experience interpreting implementing and ensuring compliance with various government procurement and financial regulations and laws her experience has allowed her to hone her ability to collaborate effectively and quickly interpret and adapt to new regulations and laws throughout her career she has developed a reputation for being ethical hard-working independent-minded and dedicated to working with Integrity the Greenfield served in the Board of Elections since the beginning of 2022 or sorry 2020 and has been there for two primary two general and one special elections all during the pandemic which presented unprecedented challenges for the board over the last two and a half years she has gained a strong understanding of the operations and responsibilities of the board as well as the two agencies over which the board governs she holds a BS in management sciences and accounting and a JD from Duke University and she is a ward 4 Resident with that Mr chairman I I guess move and ask that both measures be placed on the consent agenda for the legislative meeting to follow thank you councilmember Allen are there questions from members councilman McDuffie I I got a chance to see part of uh the Chairman's press briefing yesterday and there were a number of questions that you actually fielded about uh these two nominees to the Board of Elections primarily raised uh by Dorothy Brazil and Janelle roseberos about the fact that they were placed on the agenda for vote without having had a hearing um they raised some of the issues that have come up in the most recent election on November 8th uh and uh question you know why they wouldn't be a hearing for them to answer questions one is a new nomination the other is a renomination and so I wanted to give you an opportunity just to respond to that because I think the concerns about not having a hearing uh on these two um we're some valid concerns through the chair through the chairman absolutely uh I appreciate that um as we just voted moments ago on a nominee to the wamada board who did not have a hearing as well um I guess we'll ask a question about these but not that one um these as you as I just said were introduced on November 14th 2022 uh which was only a couple of weeks ago we are at the end of the year in the council period so there is just literally not the time to be able to hold that uh Mr Boggs is filling six months of a uh unexpired term so certainly next year there would be the opportunity to be able to hold a hearing should he be renominated uh Miss Greenfield has had a hearing previously and has appeared before the committee numerous times uh in terms of that and this is a renomination of her appointment but we certainly would be able to hold a hearing next year should Mr Boggs be renominated since he only has six months on that term uh each of the candidates however uh did all the work that we do as the committee in advance of of any hearing I've met with each one of those and I wouldn't be putting them forward today if I wasn't comfortable and confident that they could do the job and the Board of Elections needs their seats filled so that they can continue to do their job as they wind down the election we just went through and then prepare already for the next one to come from McDuffie I'd ask it to be placed on Augustine both of them yes all right are there further questions from members does that include the wamada nominee or is that just these that's the two that I asked about okay um yeah actually I heard no other questions uh Madam general counsel are these two measures legally and technically sufficient for our consideration yes they are um secretaries the record complete for each yes and a budget directors do the measures physical impact statements comply with console requirements yes they do uh these measures will be placed on the non-consentive gender things will be taken off of consent uh for today's legislative meeting uh that's going to conclude the business for two days committee the whole meeting the agenda states that the next uh says the next legislative meeting will be Tuesday January 3rd of course we have the additional legislative meeting today uh we will probably take uh five minutes Madam Secretary or Mr assistant secretary and then set up for the legislative meeting yes please can we get five minutes to allow cable TV to swap out um what they need for the broadcast space uh all right we will try to reconvene at 145. it's 139 and this meeting's adjourned problems yes we're about to start the meeting I'm calling daughter this meeting this is an additional legislative meeting of the Council of the District of Columbia I'm Phil Mendelson chairman of the council today is Tuesday December 20th 2022 the time is 207 in the afternoon this is the 41st legislative meeting of council period 24. this meeting is being conducted in the council chambers room 500 of the Johnny Wilson building although it is also what we call a hybrid meeting there are several members who are participating virtually and the public is able to watch this hearing either being in the this meeting either being in the chamber or being broadcast live on Council Channel 13 also available on the zoom video conference broadcast platform and the council's website www.dccouncil.gov um we always begin our legislative meetings with the moment of silence and often before we have a moment of silence I make a few remarks about something sometimes not always very well something maybe we could think about a little bit so I was reflecting this is probably the last legislative meeting of council period 24. don't worry colleagues I'm not planning another legislative meeting um and so just reflecting back on the last year or two um I from time to time we've talked about some of the violence that's occurred in the district and whether we're doing enough to combat that violence and something to reflect on when we have a moment of silence but also was uh maybe eight months ago ten months ago when I started wearing usually a my sort of yellow tie with a blue shirt and the building is lit up and blue and yellow at night um in in support of the folks in Ukraine and what's going on there um we started this Council period two years ago uh in the midst of the pandemic December of 2021 excuse me it would be January 20 yes January of 2021 and um the virus the um the vaccine for the virus was just about to become available we were still doing with dealing with schools that were closed and uh still not completely out of the pandemic but part of this Council period uh there's a lot that we've accomplished in the council period I'm not going to go through all of that but um there's a lot to reflect on so if we could have a moment of silence and then I will ask the secretary to call the roll Madam Secretary would you call the roll council member Allen here most memorable bonds here I see you councilmember Che okay but I hope I'm not having trouble with my no I can hear you now okay thank you councilmember Gray here councilman Henderson here councilmember Lewis George here councilman McDuffie here Cameron mendelsohn president here was Robert Pinto councilmember Pinto councilmember Silverman present councilmember Robert White president councilmember betray on Mike president Mr chairman you have a quorum thank you Madam Secretary we have the consent agenda before us um members will remember the committee the whole Mr short while ago councilman McDuffie asked who we have two Board of Elections nominations placed on non-consent uh my understanding now is that he's he is um foreign he's fine with it being on the consent agenda so unless anybody else wants to on non-consent they will be on the consent agenda are there any other are there any changes to the consent agenda so let me be clear everything that's on the consent agenda as printed uh remains on the consent agenda including the um those resolutions for the Board of Elections uh we have the consent agenda before us Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilmember Henderson yes I'm from Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes from Louis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman noodle yes I'm going to do votes yes councilmember Pinto yes councilman Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes I'm former Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes I'm Robert White votes yes councilman Tran white yes customer Tran white votes yes customer Allen yes remember Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes customer bonds votes yes councilmember Shea yes Council Chef OCS and councilmember gray yes 100 gray votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the consent agendas approved unanimously uh we will turn to the non-consent agenda um I'm going to ask that if there's no objection that we take one measure out of order that's on the non-consent agenda and that would be uh on the last page the District of Columbia Housing Authority of stabilization and reform emergency declaration resolution 2022 and the underlying Bill build 24-1144. so that we could take this up now um so that hearing no objection that matters before us uh pr24-1107 the District of Columbia Housing Authority stabilization and reform emergency declaration resolution 2022 the um resolution was uh introduced at the request of the mayor and is being moved by myself together with councilmember bonds together with councilmember bonds uh the purpose of the resolution is to enable us the declaration is to enable us to get to the underlying bill the District of Columbia Housing Authority stabilization reform emergency Amendment Act of 2022 an amendment nature of a substitute was circulated by myself together with council members Robert White and Anita bonds uh and so that's what we will take up when we get to that assuming that the Declaration is approved so I move the Declaration and I'll turn to my colleague councilmember bonds if you have any remarks on the Declaration thank you um chairman and my remarks are as follows I am happy that we are moving forward to um write the situation that we all feel is an egregious situation with our Housing Authority we know that the Housing Authority is critical to the effective running of housing for some of our most vulnerable residents those that live on the properties um we don't in my opinion need to regurgitate all of that that we the findings have been presented to us but we do need to make a clear statement that this plan that is being presented today is designed to actually move the authority forward and to move it forward with the input from those who live on the properties and those that are in housing throughout the city that have benefited through the voucher program and so I I think I'll conclude with that and there are many hopes that we are putting forth by changing the governance structure by changing the process by which individuals will see benefits it has to be done we can't leave it as it is and so that's what this um proposal is about today thank you council members there further discussion on the Declaration councilmember Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman um when the HUD report came out a couple months ago I think none of us were surprised with the findings we have watched the condition of public housing deteriorate more and more more and more units come offline in the time that all of us have been on the council and I think uh it is uh no surprise or unique conclusion that we have to do something and we have to do something urgently we have to reform the board we have to reform the agency and we have to perform oversight from the council the these are the three pillars here these are the three legs of the stool and we can't choose just one we can't choose just two we have to do all three the reform board uh in this bill is a board that consists of experts subject matter experts responsive to the issues at HUD uh identified in this report and residents uh in the amended Bill we've reduced the time frame from three years to two years we've added oversight tools for the board that beyond what they even have today oversight tools for the council be beyond what we have even today and tools uh to give meaningful input to the residents through the resident Advisory Board beyond what they even have today uh the members of this board uh are sharp and I believe can shine a light on issues in the agency I think we also have to recognize that given separation of powers in the home rule act the council cannot completely control who's on this board so we can't run the table on this there's no way around working with the mayor there's no way around that but what we have done by pushing the mayor and and working with with the mayor with colleagues with the chairman let's get this bill in a position where it's not just better it's good uh this is a board that can move the agency in the right direction and the last thing I would suggest Mr chairman there's so much going on with this agency and it's easy to get to get lost in the weeds and I think what we have to do to Center ourselves is find a North star for me the North Star is what is going to make public housing better and my question is to myself can the current board even if I like some of the members can the current board make public housing better the answer is no because if they could have they would have done it already the question can this new board can this reform board make public housing better the answer is yes and so is this bill perfect does it meet everybody's you know a wish list no it doesn't but does this hit at the central point of making public housing better and stabilizing an agency that needs stabilizing I think the answer is yes so I'm in strong support of this measure thank you chairman thank you councilmember white further on the Declaration council member is that Lewis George thank you chairman uh it must be uh today for the public to tune into a debate on whether or not the Troubles of dcha married an emergency situation uh let's be clear troubles abound there is no doubt that the D.C Housing Authority is in bad shape let's also be clear that the troubles have existed for years and long predate the long list of failings the October Hood report laid out public housing residents residents supported have been speaking out for years to warn city leaders that dcha is struggling and leaving a huge share of our public housing units vacant neglected and disprepared or unsafe depriving our city of thousands of deeply affordable units that we desperately need and this is not the first time dcha has made front page news for struggling with Federal compliance mismanaged contracts internal scandals and policy decisions that have led to displacements yes the HUD report gave us deeper insights into the severity of these issues but alarm Bells have been sounding for years now tenants of public housing voucher holders and landlords who work with the housing Choice program have all spoken out in frustration so I guess the question is why now is this an emergency moment and why when we we've long-known troubles abound would we move an emergency without any input or buy-in from the tenants most directly impacted by and hopefully helped by reforms to DC Housing Authority even if the legislation before us was perfect the process leading up to it has done nothing but undermine public trusts the initial bill was withheld from public and council deliberations at a hearing held less than 24 hours before its announcement the initial bill proposed the structure that I would have locked out voices of directly impacted tenants people tenants people and would have withheld Public Notices and records and the initial bill overtly removed dissenting voices who have called to question government policies or actions they disagree with fixing dcha is urgent and yet it cannot be so urgent that we do bring we do we do bring tenant voices into sending voices into the process to guide decision making that we don't bring tenant voices into sending voices into Pro into the process to guide decision making process matters it matters to public trust it matters to Ultimate outcomes of improvements we are trying to get to and that's why I'm grateful for council member Silverman and Pinto who have introduced permanent legislation that to get better at both the route and the breadth of problems we see at the agency a permanent Bill drafted with input from tenants that allows for public deliberations on the merits is a true measure of how serious we take the troubles as dcha and the true test of how hard we will work to fix the situation and rebuild trust Integrity in our housing structures at this time I do not believe it is prudent or Equitable to complete completely overhauled dcha leadership through emergency legislation that is I will be voting no on the Declaration today though if the Declaration path advances 10 more seconds without protection I am prepared to vote for amendments uh that make necessary improvements to the version of the board overall proposed to the mayor and I encourage my colleagues to join me in voting no on the Declaration to reject the council's complicity in any action that we that would be perceived as retaliatory or undemocratic um and I thank you for your time and I thank my colleagues who have worked very hard on making amendments and making this a better um emergency thank you thank you councilmember thank you councilmember further on the bill councilmember Che wishes to be recognized uh council member Shea and then councilmember Silverman well thank you very much Mr chairman um I've gotten a number of emails suggesting that this is just an elaborate plan to remove one person uh from the board maybe two um who have been critical uh but despite the narrative that's being offered I don't think that that's what this is all about at all it's about showing forward progress to our residents and to HUD in dealing with their housing prices it's about um Forward Motion uh doing and doing so with a trimmed down Board of experts and representatives from housing clients themselves and representatives of of housing uh interests and keep in mind this is an interim two-year board whose main function is to come back to the council and offer suggestions for what a meaningful structure will look like going forward the changes that have been made in the period between two weeks ago and now are important and meaningful and they make the difference for me especially in light of all that's at stake here and so I will be voting yes thank you councilmember councilmer Silverman thank you Mr chairman so colleagues I on Earth this of packing up my office August 16 1994 Washington Post story yesterday titled DC housing agency hustles to avoid receivership orders let me read a paragraph to you that might sound familiar it's repaired units rampant crime continue to erode living conditions for the 30 000 residents of our public housing developments about one-fifth of the public housing dwellings in the district are vacant and in need of significant repairs and what does this story say the mayor in this story argues about forward motion important to meeting full reforms and here we are 30 years later same situation now look there has been a lot of focus about who's rung the alarm Bells whether they're in or apart or not part of this reform plan but I have to say that you know we have known about the deplorable housing conditions and dcha dysfunction for decades for decades the alarm has been on at least to my mind since 1994 but we tune it out except when the Press amplifies it and then we do the same thing again and again we make some quick fixes time and again such as in this article it is pointed out that a problem is having a board in the hands of the mayor dcha has a specific mission to house our lowest income residents and it needs an independent board focused on that mission this plan is designed to move the authority out of the board's hands and squarely into the mayors that's what time and again we keep saying you know we keep writing the same story and it keeps saying that it's wrong to do that so why do we keep making the same mistake again and again now look I'm grateful that HUD came however that happened because the alarm about dcha needed a much higher decibel level this is not just about property management or sound financial procurement practices it is about providing safe sanitary dignified housing for people in our city who really need it ech8 and there's no argument that dcha's Board of Commissioners need to have subject matter expertise and the ANS that we'll be considering if this declaration passes I hope it doesn't Mr chairman can I have like one more minute without objections so let me just point out that the ANS circulated adds reports to the council adds listening sessions with residents monthly board reviews of of the HUD assessment but here's the it the problem that is basically what the board has to do according to HUD and according to the October emergency bill that this body unanimously voted for and actually let me point out the HUD report says the board should be getting weekly reports not just monthly reports the Amendments you know are are worthy and that it takes a flawed idea that we've tried again and again and again that's failed and makes it a little bit better that's not the same as reforming this agency and doing good so let me just put it this way let's not cross our fingers and Hope that this is going to make the changes we need this time every person an organization that has been closely following dcha says to vote no on this emergency every one of them Consortium of legal service providers Attorney General's office many many dcha residents who are impacted every day by this agency there is an alternative council member room Pinto council member pinto and I have introduced a major overhaul and so the choice let me just say this is the choice vote Yes council member 20 more seconds I appreciate it so you know here is the choice vote Yes turn down the alarm decibel and I guarantee you we are going to see this story again and again and again so I asked colleagues my my one final ask vote no let the alarm ringer stay on the board let the HUD report and the council's accountability requirements actually push dcha toward rapid corrective actions and let the council dcha experts and the public especially D.C Housing Authority residents that's the ideas about longer lasting dcha reform I'll be voting no on the Declaration because I just do not want to read this story again thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember Pinto thank you Mr chairman you know I don't like to bring up my age very often but as I hear councilmember Silverman talk about this news article I can't be I can't help but be very troubled that these problems have been going on the entirety of my lifespan the failures of the D.C Housing Authority to provide decent safe and secure housing for many district residents are disturbing and widespread the decade-long waiting list and worst in the country vacancy rates underscore these failures and we know these problems have existed for many years we continue to hear about them by our residents folks on the waiting list and by housing Advocates I'll never forget a conversation I had with the resident of one of our public housing facilities who shared with me the deplorable conditions of his unit the mold the rats but worse perhaps not worse to him but depleting for me was to hear him talk about how he believed nobody cared that nothing would change even if he reported it would make any difference and even if it did make a difference in his one case numerous other problems would persist for him and his neighbors the reason had a report served not only for musicians but to provide a detailed outline of the depth and breadth of these challenges that we face in our attempts to address these failures we need broad long-term reforms to ensure that current residents are healthy and safe in their homes and to expeditiously house eligible residents on our waiting list and enhance Council oversight I'm very hopeful that through a lot of these conversations that all of us on the council and the mayor and the Attorney General seem to be on the same page that change is necessary this is a good thing a desire to do something is a good thing but we need to make sure that what we are doing will enable the type of change and long-term Improvement that we actually need and I'm very committed to not just voting no on this today and and turning the other way we will work on this next Council period to reform the D.C Housing Authority and ensure that we are enabling it to succeed the Housing Authority needs structural reforms to improve these outcomes for habitability for fairness and transparency and Contracting and development decisions and efficacy of operations to make more units available for our waitlist applications some of our colleagues feel uneasy about today's vote there's a reason that we all feel this urge to make changes but the bottom line is at the end of the day trying to make improvements around the edges to make this reform on emergency is not right it's nothing against these public servants who are willing to commit their time and their talents to this board and I understand the concern about voting no today without another solution today and I've heard colleagues talk about demonstrating forward motion and collaboration we will continue to do this we do not have to settle for a proposal that is before us today Mr chairman may have 30 more seconds without objection we can deliver what our residents deserve through consideration of the permanent legislation that my colleague council member Silverman and I introduced just last week we can and we should move on that bill with urgency at the beginning of the new Council period and provide comprehensive reforms that will truly allow us to turn around our Housing Authority through a transparent and public process not just to make make it public for a stamp of approval to make it better by public collaboration so I urge my colleagues to join me in voting no today a no vote says we know we can do better a no vote says to our residents our constituents that we're making a sustained and deliberate commitment to deliver the kinds of broad substantive reforms we need that we will do it in a thorough comprehensive way with the voices of all people who live in public housing and who do the work of advocating for current and eligible residents so let's vote no today so we can say yes to comprehensive reform in the new year thank you thank you councilmember our customer Nadeau thank you chairman today I'm voting in favor of this resolution and the underlying bill um uh contingent on the passage of the ANS um anyone who has had conversations with me over the last several weeks knows that my decision was not an easy one I have appreciated each of those conversations with my colleagues constituents and advocates it hardly needs to be said at this point considering it's risen to the level of national news but the status quo with the D.C Housing Authority is untenable and not acceptable my position on the mayor's initial proposal was not favorable improving dcha is not just about bricks and mortar but about people representation and Trust it's also critical to bolster not only the council's oversight of the Housing Authority but the balance of power between the branches of government this emergency is initially introduced clearly failed to do either and in my opinion was poorly rolled out why was there no mention of intent to move this bill in the oversight hearing before the house housing Committee just days before I believe the ANS before us today is a significant way off from that initial proposal I think we've transformed this into a proposal that is more the councils than the mayors I do understand the concern and perception that this bill constitutes a tilting of power toward the mayor however I would counter that the somewhat unprecedented move of naming pre-approved nominees as we do here means the council has significantly more say and the makeup of makeup of this body than we normally do for any other appointment process where we only get up or down decisions usually up and nominees in isolation here we're getting to determine the body as a whole with an eye toward their specific charge I want to thank council member Robert White and his staff for doing a significant deal of the work and negotiation to get us there as well as the chairman for incorporating input from a number of colleagues into the ANS the new draft includes two recommendations I made to further improve oversight one that requires a quorum of the board to appear before the council whenever requested and a second Clause holding the authority to more specific timelines and addressing the HUD report and their transparency to council and the public in doing so I've paid close attention to the Housing Authority for my entire time on the council including several Bill introductions that I've LED on and have shared oversight of and I've had shared oversight of dcha under my committee for the past two years to that end I'm glad that the ANS more strongly considers the voices and needs of voucher holders as well as that of the current ich director ensuring that ending homelessness is retained as a part of this board's mission with my historical perspective on this I can say that the bill represents the tightest leash we've had on the authority to hold them to their mission of housing our low-income residents and this also cannot be a one and done action from the council I strongly support following this up with permanent legislation that enhances these goals even further council member Silverman and Pinto's Bill proposes a full-scale overhaul of the dcha section of the code and I think that's in order I believe the bill as amended before us today represents a proportional and timely response to the crisis at hand not just because of the expertise and streamlining of the stabilization board but because of the council's assertion of authority when it comes to strict reporting and oversight resident input on the new permanent director and the direction of the housing authority and stabilization reform board to focus on just that reform rather than the rapid slide toward mismanagement and privatization of our assets that has been the mo of dcha leadership in the past thank you chairman thank you councilman though further on the bill or on the Declaration I'm going to make a couple of remarks I'm going to begin this way councilmember Pinto you should not be discouraged or depressed that the problems with the board go back as long as you've been alive uh because act the actual history the correct history is that when you were born the um agency reformed there was a receivership appointed so I will thank you for that um there was a receivership it ended in 2000 the agency improved so that's merely a correction of History the um uh there is as councilman Indo just noted there is a legislation that's been recently introduced and there is value in our looking at that but this speaks to why the emergency is necessary and that is that there's some urgency there is something we can do now which is this legislation and something that will take longer and that is to look more comprehensively at the agency it we could choose the latter route but then that ignores or avoids the fact that the current board is not operating well I don't know a single member of the board that's not correct one member of the board told me that things are working well everybody else and hot and members of the board have said that the board is not working well and I'm not talking about the mayor's nominees I'm talking about other nominees including some who've been mentioned implicitly today say that the board is not working well so we have an agency that's troubled that doesn't have a functioning governing board and we can fix that today the 13-member board nine of the members would be replaced we could fix that today or we could wait and take the months that it takes for legislation to go through that's why the emergency is necessary that's why the urgency is today there was some reference by uh one of the speakers who spoke in opposition to this about we haven't done enough to include residents we've doubled what the mayor proposed um in fact at this point because of the way the amendment nature of the substitute is written there will be more resident participation today than with this legislation than there is today with the current law so it's just not correct to say that residents are being left out here um there was also suggesting that this is being rushed uh well yes it is emergency legislation but the reality is what's before us today has been very much in the public debate for the last two weeks and has actually been discussed for longer than that um so there is a need I I guess I want to mention one other point and that is so there are some who say well the reason why the agency is so horrible is because the Mayors had control with her appointments but as councilmember white pointed out that's the structure of our government and in fact the appointments with this emergency if we act today the appointments with this emergency are appointments that have been negotiated by the council they include Ray Skinner who was the council's appointee and several changes to what the mayor proposed I'll just be another 20 seconds and uh so um there is the structure of the the home rule structure of of our government which precludes complete Independence which some folks want um but there has been quite a bit of changes and this bill uh the underlying bill reflects uh very much the council's input so I urge that members vote for the Declaration Is there further discussion yes Mr chairman uh second round councilmember Sylvan well I guess I would just ask Mr chairman then how do we assess or what it what is the assessment that this board is effective uh let's try how do we assess it it's not effective everybody says no no the board that that is being voted on in the emergency how will the Council determine whether this is an improvement or not uh I what I know of some of the appointees that are being appointed as part of this legislation what I know of some of them and what I know knowing some of them they are good members and there's every reason to believe that bringing a new board into place that the board will not have the dysfunction that has grown over the years with the current board okay well I'll just point out and Mr chairman since um for history that you made the point that there was a receivership yes and the point of this story is that there were quick fixes made to try to make improvements to the Housing Authority which didn't actually do anything and yes the authority went into receivership so I I you know again I would just urge colleagues to take the it's not time it is take the approach that will truly lead to a better functioning Housing Authority that will lead to properties that are in safe and sanitary condition uh Contracting practices that follow the law and a Housing Authority that will be true to its mission of providing housing for our lowest income residents again I I urge colleagues to vote know and work on the bill that council member pinto and I have introduced in the in the new year thank you councilmember if there's no further discussion uh the secretary will call the roll the vote is on pr24-1107 the dcha stabilization and reform emergency declaration resolution councilman Lewis George no councilmember Lewis George votes no councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelton yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman Adele yes councilmember Nadeau votes yes councilmember Pinto no councilmember Pinto votes no council member Silverman no councilmember Silverman votes to know councilmember Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon white no councilman betray on white folks to know councilmember Allen yes councilmember Alan votes yes council member bonds yes councilmember Barnes vote CS councilmember Shea yes I'm from but she votes yes how's Robert Gray yes remember great votes yes comes from Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes yes Mr chairman sorry Mr chairman there are nine yeses and four no's uh thank you Madam Secretary the Declaration is approved we have the underlying bill before us that's built 24-1144. I'm going to say so moved um and I'm going to move the amendment nature of a substitute which actually I'm moving with councilman response and Robert White uh I think I may speak to it but I'm going to recognize councilmember Robert White first if that's okay uh thank you Mr chairman um the the uh the board that we're putting in place only for two years at this point is one that as I said earlier has the expertise to to move our agency forward uh to concerns raised raised earlier we also require um a report quarterly from the board to the council uh we require that same report to go from the board to the resident advisory Council um we require reports from the agency to the board so we're trying to add a lot of sunlight here and even powers that don't currently exist uh beyond that we have added meaningful Improvement for residents through the resident Advisory Board training for the for those members opportunities for those members um to to be heard and we require the board to hold at least one meeting with residents in each quadrant of the city there are many other Provisions that that we have worked hard to get into this bill but the end result is is really one that we can be proud of um and two my colleagues is recommendation yes we do have to make significant changes permanent changes to the agency and I would suggest that this is not instead of that this is in addition to that and if we do those changes inside the agency correctly we do the changes to the board correctly and we do the right amount of oversight we do have the recipe for an improved public housing stock and the public housing authority and that's where we all want to be even if we don't all agree uh on on the path there so I do think that's the chairman that we are on a path uh to finally making meaningful improvements in public housing but we have got to keep our foot on the gas here we can't let up after this vote uh I think I encourage members to vote in support of the AMS thank you chairman thank you councilmember uh I should back up for just a second there's several amendments that I'm aware of what I propose is that we dispose of the amendment nature of a substitute and then we'd take amendments uh to the bill as amended uh on the ANS councilmember pinto and then once the bill determined what it is going to be going to be if they're amended will there be another vote on the final package yes uh further on the amendment nature of a substitute councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I just wanted to very quickly um take the opportunity to uh Express appreciation to to you and councilmember white um for taking um some of the feedback from other members in terms of improving the legislation um which was um in part how I got to a yes vote myself um in particular the um shortening of the time frame of this board it was originally conceived as having this temporary board in place for three years um it is now two years um the other thing that was also important for me as well is that we had a deadline by which um this new board will be required to submit recommendations um to the council in terms of um what is the next structure for the board of directors and the original legislation did not have a date certain and this one does include one um which is a recommendation I had in particular so thank you thank you further on the amendment nature of a substitute council members bonds house number bonds thank you very thank you very much chairman I just wanted to point out that part of the newness of the ANS is that we will have input from the city-wide resident Advisory Board and have been put from the advantage of on a quarterly basis that they will actually design the agenda that the stabilization governing body will review and respond to and so I have an amendment to this at some point I guess once we get the A and S through all right so I just want everyone to understand that this is where we're putting more emphasis on the residents themselves having input as you know the chair of the Citywide resident council is a member actually a resident of the body and represents what you would consider the chair of chairs committee represents all of the properties and to have that that body have to commandeer to some degree the agenda on a quarterly basis I think is very significant and assures us that we will have input from the residents themselves in a very broad manner thank you chairman thank you councilman Barnes further on the amendment nation was substitute and then we'll take up the resolutions councilmember Silverman and then Allen uh thank you Mr chairman uh I agree uh that that the amendment and the nature of a substitute uh is an improvement upon the mayor's proposal I am concerned though that it it um does not do some of the or it has some troubling elements for example let me ask you Mr chairman about the independence of the board under the ANS I see in the ANS in line 232 that subsection C is amended by striking the phrase Direction and supervision to let the board would actually supervise and direct the authority and the executive director of the authority and says ins instead inserts the phrase oversight what is the purpose of that Mr chairman so is that saying that the board doesn't really have no it doesn't responsibility like fiduciary responsibility anymore the standards or the uh supervision authority of the executive director excuse me the statute elsewhere still vests the board with quote the duty to govern all the Affairs of the authority and shall have all powers necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this chapter unquote in the authority to appoint and remove the executive director set the terms and conditions of employment of the executive director established performance standards for the executive director and assign the executive director other duties that they deem necessary that's DC code section 6-213 okay so if the board can still do all those things and they absolutely can even with this emergency bill in place uh the board's Authority is not diminished and in fact the language that you cited is replaced to the language oversight which as you know can be very Broad Mr chairman um then why are we striking that provision I believe the language has been here since the bill was introduced uh and it uh I think it makes it uh clear what the board's role is uh helped me uh since this is very near and dear to my heart Mr chairman help me understand then when the ANS is put into place what is the board's role my understanding of striking that uh Clause is that it will no longer have supervisory uh and executive functions over the Executive Director it will merely have a role of oversight well I wouldn't say merely since the council one of our primary functions is oversight and uh analog by analogy uh we know that that can be quite extensive but I repeat what I said the uh the statute still says all the duty to govern all the Affairs of the authority all the powers necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of the ACT uh to uh appoint and remove the executive director to set the terms and conditions of employment of an executive director it's quite extensive it's Authority I'll note your time if well Mr chairman you give bring up the example of the council we do not have the authority um to fire an executive a agency director that's correct but that's that's oversight right so the words oversight have the mean have a meaning similar to what we exercise the other words which are still in the statute the duty to govern all the Affairs that's still in the statute the other language in the statute to a point and remove the executive director that's still in the statute read all of the uh read all of them okay I guess my um office is understanding is that we're repealing DC code 6-211a which says the powers of the authority shall be vested in the board are you saying that that is not correct yes uh I don't have that in front of me so I can't basically do that I get my concern is that we are repealing such powers of the board it's being pointed out to me that there is identical language remaining elsewhere in the code the duty to govern all the Affairs of the authority okay thank you Mr chairman thank you council members uh further on the amendment nature of a substitute councilmember Allen I'm sorry that's okay thank you um I appreciate it I might be echoing some comments that I think I've heard from some of my colleagues already um but I do want to thank the hard work that's gone in uh from yourself Mr chair my colleague Robert White my colleague Anita bonds um and working with the mayor's office the the reform board is introduced is not something I could support um and it's only for this ANS that I am there um and what it does is it increases the number of individuals uh from what was proposed it adds resonant voices it creates more mechanisms and Pathways for Resident voice um I do believe it will create as well greater reporting and transparency which I think is absolutely needed um and there will be amendments coming up shortly all of which I support as well that will ensure even more resident voices uh that'll be included ensure the board has resources and tools it needs to do its job that we are asking and expecting it to do um and and those are our amendments that I hope this Council will pass because they will also help strengthen this to the space that it needs to be um there is no shortage of work that is in front of us of this board of the mayor to get this right and I do not believe and I will refuse to allow this legislation to be seen in any way as saying we're going to turn down the decibel level of the crisis here um I do believe however not taking action is is just not an option and I do believe that the efforts here the collective efforts are going to allow us to take that alarm and turn it into action and we appropriately from my colleagues have the warnings of what happens if that doesn't happen um and I think we are all accountable to the residents of DC Housing Authority of the tenants to be able to say that this action and these efforts today will have to yield a result there is no other option here and we must be held accountable for that um so I I appreciate the work that's gone into this ANS um the the changes that you have made here to what had initially been proposed I think are significant and reflective and again I know there'll be a few amendments coming up after this ANS and I hope my colleagues will support that as well because I think those will continue to strengthen the efforts that are underway here thank you Mr chair thank you councilmember Allen uh the council member Louis George um I want to thank my colleagues for working diligently over the past week to come up with an amendment in the nature of a substitute um that I genuinely believe aims to uplift tenant voices has the potential to improve dcha board operations and tempers the perception of retaliation from the emergency Bill we initially received from the executive I want to thank chairman mendelsohn councilmember Robert White and councilman bonds for your work here uh taken together I think the ANS and the Amendments from council member trayon white and Anita bonds that are coming do move us in a better more accountable more collaborative more tenant-centered Direction and I'm grateful that the council is leading the way here um I will be voting yes on these amendments to ensure that the final bill today passed today is one that I can have more confidence will yield better outcomes for dcha's daily operations and we'll better serve our tenants living in public housing stock um because I but I still do believe uh the full Democratic process or larger context of how we got here um still uh remains it remains an issue um I do not um and I want to thank I think the council has really stepped up in a very real way to make improvements here and so I look forward to the amendment from my colleagues today uh that will make us make this a better uh positioned uh bill that will will be passed today thank you thank you if there is no further discussion on the amendment nature of a substitute after assuming we approved the nature of substitute then there will be amendments that will take up uh so the vote is on the amendment issue of a substitute we can do this by a Voice vote all those in favor of the amendment nature we substitute say aye aye aye please record me as voting now you should call me as voting no Madam Secretary did you hear that yes Mr chairman uh all right so the um Amendment nature of a substitute is approved whippers uh being recorded as voting no uh we now have I'm aware of three amendments um it's the order in which I haven't written down councilmember Allen you have an amendment I do do you want me to go first yes okay thank you Mr chairman um we this has been circulated previously um this amendment is aimed at trying to ensure that as we look at the individuals that are serving on this board that they have more resources and tools available to do the job that is expected of them currently uh there is one administrative staff position uh that is able to send out meeting minutes and attachments um many of us have served on boards many of us currently serve on boards and to do so effectively we know that it it takes time and resources um fortunately for all of us we have the privilege of an entire staff that help us get our job done um in highly successful boards we also see professional staff that are available to help make sure that members are able to understand what's in front of them be able to ask certain questions be able to do different research so the intent behind this amendment um and I've spoken with the DC Housing Authority director about this um is that we are able to have at a minimum two staff members that are available to the board members to help provide legal and policy research to the resources to our board members to help them in effect be what we want and need them to be many of our board members are they have other full-time jobs they have families they have other commitments and so making sure that all of our members have the tools necessary to be able to get the job done I think goes a long way to ensuring that as we look at this reform and this governing board they have more resources available to do that so Mr chairman that is the the goal and the intent I have been told by the DC Housing Authority director uh that they will be able to make the positions available within the language we also speak to ensuring that uh while they are certainly part of DCH staff they are uh it's very clear that they are able to work with board members answer questions in a way that is confidential uh so they can be trusted members to be able to uh to get that work done so uh Mr chairman with that I'll move the amendment oh thank you council member Alan is there discussion on the amendment I don't hear any discussion I'll ask if there's any objection to the amendment if I don't hear any objection I'll consider that it's acceptable Mr chairman I'm sorry um councilmember Allen I appreciate your Amendment and I agree with you that the Board needs to be professionalized uh and have as many resources as possible to make the right decisions I'm concerned though that um this the these staff members might be treated similarly to what we have been reading about with the internal auditor so how will we make sure that these staff members uh do not have any interference from the executive director in terms of access to meetings and information I think it's a great question and I will probably say that there there is no foolproof way to to do everything but I can say what the intent is and what I would expect our role as from an oversight perspective um we try within the amendment to very clearly line out while certainly they are dcha employees I think to be able to have the type of confidence for board members to be able to reach out to these individuals as the resources we want them to be that they have a an ability to be confidential to that member um I think that we will have to exercise our oversight in these quarterly reports and in hearings to make sure that it is in effect working that way um I know one of the Commissioners for example who will remain on here is a ward 6 ANC commissioner and elected housing representative and that's somebody I reach out to frequently to get their advice about what are they hearing and experiencing on the board so I think you the um the question is absolutely grounded in the right place I think part of our responsibility will be to make sure that we're doing our oversight to make sure that it's it's affected the way in which it's intended thank you councilmember Allen I I just want to put it on the record and I am going to be supportive of your Amendment but I just want to give in the issues we've been reading about at the authority I just want to make it clear that that um that these uh staff members are for the board uh and um I would be concerned if there is interference to prevent them from accessing information or documents and so forth thank you thank you councilmember uh so again if if I don't hear any objection then the amendment will be accepted without objection the amendment is accepted um password circulated an amendment yes um thank you um chairman and this amendment those two um section 11 b c 3 which is page eight line 187 188 and it's designed to strike of concerns that phrase and to actually expand on it and say of concerns and responds to the concerns of the Citywide residents Advisory Board in writing no later than 45 days following the quarterly meeting and it's really designed to make sure that the Citywide residents advisory committee has documentation that they can distribute to their members uh is there discussion by members if there's no discussion and I don't hear any objection this will be accepted I don't hear any objections so this is accepted the third amendment is by council member trayon White yes chairman um first I want to thank everyone who's been working on this very diligently um from Executives to the council members to The Advocates um because I think that we all can agree that DC Housing Authority uh needs something different to happen instruction and in practice um not just the board but in the operation the day-to-day um I have received countless calls emails uh on social media and just spoke to Residents about visiting these Housing Authority properties about just the dilapidated environments our residents are forced to live in in fact I did the sleep in in Potomac Gardens um and another property a few months ago I'm just trying to empathize on what residents I've seen and experiencing every day and it's scary and it's it's illegal um um for progress and for restructuring however um I've been unable to hear how this restructuring board will actually have operation in place to actually fix some of the problems um um one of this this proposal today is to uh amend the emergency legislation to preserve the tenure of current members who have been elected um and I know you know that there's some discrepancies between members and personalities but the end of the day these members are elected um and I think they should finish out their tenure um because it you know any Democratic process we just can't simply remove what we can because that's what's happening today but it's not Democratic to remove people because about differences um and my hope is that we're able to find a happy medium with the new members and current members to move uh our Housing Authority alone because right now we are in a critical state where we are forced to do something um there's a waiting list for detail Housing Authority has been closed off for over a decade I guess um I haven't heard more about personality differences which may be valid and less about uh what we gonna do to push the DC housing authority to make communities uh cleaner safer and more more livable um and so it's my hope that this process establishes a new board and can be streamlined without disrupting the operation of currently appointed Commissioners who have can competently executed their duties on DC housing authorities as far as oversight um I cannot support the legislation as it is um because I feel like we should be taking a community you know Housing Authority is based off funding going towards some of the most poorest uh residents in the District of Columbia they don't feel like they have a voice an amount of concern and and conversation advocacies I've heard not just from the board members or Advocates but from residents overall beyond the board they feel like we as a government aren't doing enough to uh address their needs and it's my hope that we continue to have a focus on that is our um Central Focus so I hope that you all will vote in favor of this amendment um and I know it's I think it's two years left and hopefully we can move this ball forward with some continuity and some real focus and solutions thank you uh thank you thank you councilmember white I'm not going to be supporting this amendment I want to note this first if I do the math correctly I believe it increases the board to 11 and the goal here was to have a smaller board and this is just getting right back to the current uh the current size of the board and the way I get at 2 is that I believe one of the um resident Commissioners on the board today is in the list of nine that we're appointing and your Amendment would it speaks to three and actually because of the way it's drafted would be a little contradictory but it speaks to three one's on so that would mean an increase of two getting the board back up to 11. the second reason why I don't support this is that it would result in five members being um residents or clients of the agency now HUD has a requirement of one and what we have had in practice for the last number of years is three but this would result in five which is almost half the board and uh that's way outsized and importantly the legislation that we have has incorporated in it many other mechanisms to give input to Residents and clients we're requiring reports written responses to resident Council concerns um uh public uh public comment section for residents at every or at least once a month board meetings and there are many other Provisions to give voice to the residents so this is not necessary to give him a voice increases the board almost back to the size that we were trying to get away from and results in a significant proportion of the members being residents I'll turn to my colleagues see if they have any comments if not we have the amendment before us uh and we'll do a Voice vote on the amendment uh this is the amendment by councilman Tran white all those in favor of the amendment say aye aye aye it comes from where tram white to do us for a roll call yes please all right Madam Secretary would you call the roll foreign McDuffie uh it comes from McDuffie stepped away from the Deus aye chairman Mendelson no Cameron Middleton votes no councilmember Nadeau no councilmember Nadeau votes now councilmember Pinto no councilmember Pinto vote snow councilmember Silverman yes councilmember Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White no council member Robert Whitefield snow councilman betray on white yes from betray on white folks yes councilmember Allen yes that's remember Alan votes yes councilmember bonds no council member bonds Phillip snow councilmember Che no husband but she votes No councilmember Gray no councilman McCray votes to know councilmember Henderson no sorry my microwave was going off councilmember Henderson votes no councilmember Lewis George yes comes from Louis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie back I am back that's Norma McDuffie no how's remember McDuffie votes know Mr chairman there are four yeses and nine nose thank you Madam Secretary the amendment fails are there any other amendments to this bill um any further discussion on this bill we have the amendment nature of a substitute as no we have the bill which was the nature of a substitute as amended uh there being no further discussion or amendments uh the vote will be on the bill as amended Madam Secretary would you call the roll Cameron Mendelson yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman benedo yes councilmanovo CS councilman Pinto no councilmember pencil votes no councilmember Silverman no councilmember Silverman votes no councilmember Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes no councilman betray on right uh I've got a yes you know I marked yes I said no that's my morava white votes yes that's probably on white no that's from betray on white votes no councilmember Allen yes councilmember Alan votes yes councilmember Barnes yes that's remember bonds votes yes councilmember Che yes I'm from betrayed votes yes councilmember Gray yes comes from the gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George no I was remember Lewis George votes no Mr chairman there are nine yeses and four no's the bill as amended was approved give me just a moment uh the bills approved the uh we will go back to the regular order um I'm on page six of the agenda safe speeds for students Amendment act for 2022 bill 24-66 so moved there was an amendment that uh I was circulated earlier today as in probably around 11 o'clock this morning I moved that Amendment uh the amendment does if I'm counting correctly five things provide specific hours during which the school's own speed limit applies because daytime the word daytime is not precise the amendment changes the word measurably to materially in order to clarify the desire for DDOT to determine if additional infrastructure will actually increase safety for students it strikes the conclusion date for The Safe Streets pilot program since the committee print changed the start date to be 18 months after the Bill's applicability it uh verifies that only Public Schools May submit requests for crossing guards there was concerned from DDOT that private schools could read themselves into it and the amendment strikes private the word private to clarify that a subsection which I don't have in front of me applies to Public Schools uh so I moved that Amendment it was circulated uh I think what I'll do is I'll say if there's no objection you remember will be accepted Mr chairman councilmember Trey I just had a question I thought we were and maybe I missed it in your explanation just now but I thought we were saying that um it says that you know DDOT she'll adopt standards in the master plan to require installation of the following traffic safety infrastructure as part of an action plan unless the agency determines and explains in writing how such installation would would not Based on data collected by DDOT material increased safety instead of would not actually did that language get changed yes on the sheet that I circulated it's amendment number two okay the word measurably to materially no uh okay fine fine thank you um is there further on the amendment and if I don't hear anything then I'm going to ask if there's no objection it will be um accepted I'm not hearing any objection the amendment is accepted we have the bill as amended Madam Secretary would you call the role the vote is on Bill 24-66 as amended yes votes yes council member Silverman yes I'm former Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes remember Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon White yes from a tree on white votes yes councilman by Allen yes yes councilmember bonds yes councilmember Che yes that's one but Jay votes yes customer McRae yes remember great votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron mendels and votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses the bill is uh amended as a proof final reading the second measure is Bill 24-570 schools first in budgeting Amendment Act of 2022 so moved and I move in the nature of a substitute the amendment nature of substitute was circulated yesterday before noon uh very quickly it does some reorganizing that's why it's an amendment nature of a substitute it creates a new Section 105 and the new section 106. and it also restores some language it uh was of concern to folks that was in the current law regarding um supplementing versus supplanting and also at least 90 percent of address dollars go to schools and I think I mentioned that there are some reporting requirements that are um some that were in the bill on first reading that had been moved to a new section 106 and then reinserting uh from current law a reporting requirement from the chancellor I moved the amendment from a substitute is there discussion Mr chairs councilmember Allen thank you Mr chair um at our first reading I raised some significant concerns about the impact on the at-risk funding to this and I want to thank you and your staff uh for working hard with myself uh working with a lot of our school communities as well uh and being willing to make changes so thank you for doing that um the changes that are included in this ANS um will go a long way I think to ensuring that the goals that you set out of how to create a better school budgeting process moves forward and at the same time we're also ensuring the type of transparency that our parents our school communities expect and want to help understand how the money in their schools uh how they're set to receive why and what they're going to be spent on um I think that this goes a long way to helping make sure that funding for students to find us at risk is going to be used to improve Equitable outcomes and the DCPS will have to ensure that risk funding goes to students as real supplement to the Baseline needs of our schools um I think that that is just crucial to what's taking place here and this ANS reflects that I very much appreciate that one I guess clarifying question I just want to make sure everyone's on the record to address when the at-risk funding for individual students is allocated that is the funding that's calculated as an additional weight to the per student funding formula that will continue to be allocated to the schools based on the proportion of at-risk students at the school that's my understanding I just want to make sure that's correct we're not changing the law in that regard and in fact we put back the language about the 90 right so I think that that's important just to clarify that that is still there so I appreciate it um I again uh just think I want to thank the school leaders and parent leaders uh that had reached out to me about their concerns here and again Mr chairman um I strongly support what you've put forward here and appreciate the willingness to work to get us to this place so thank you thank you councilmember is there further on the we have the nature of a substitute before us uh we'll we'll do this by Voice vote uh on the amendment nature we substitute all those in favor say aye aye aye are there any opposed uh the amendment is approved unanimously we have the bill as amended uh comes from Ray Allen your comments reminded me I didn't really say much about the merits of the bill and how we try to refrain from going too much into it but members know that every March when it's budget time that we hear from schools that are being told that every school is being fully funded that they're getting the same amount of money as they I guess requested their submitted last year and then we find out that 30 schools were caught 40 schools were cut depending upon the year you can look back historically the auditor did a report on some elementary schools about five years ago and commented in to report how every year schools are cut uh this bill is meant to end that by creating stability and coupled with what we did earlier this year when the budget with the new at-risk concentration rate which should actually start seeing in schools with high at risk concentration of students will um be getting additional resources and that's what we need is um to be getting resources to schools where they're the greatest needs and improving educational outcomes I do want to thank my staff and also staff in the budget office for working on this legislation so that we get it right which I believe we have done and we will see because there's an emergency bill later today that we will see how this um um we'll see this with the forthcoming Budget on March 22nd I believe doesn't really matter in March when we get the budget from the mayor um so we have the uh the bill before us I'm going to ask the secretary to call the roll on Bill 24-570. yes I remember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes Governor Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes councilmember Trey on away yes remember Tryon white votes yes councilmember Allen yes from Allen votes yes councilmember bondsman yes yes the mache votes yes councilmember gray yes I'm from a gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes remember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes comes from Bill Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes I remember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman Joe enthusiastically yes councilmember Nadeau votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses uh thank you Madam Secretary uh the bill is approved you on Final reading unanimously the next measure is Bill 24-120 emergency rental assistance reform and career Mobility action plan program establishment Amendment Act of 2022. councilmember Nintendo thank you chairman families receiving rapid re-housing subsidies are chosen to participate in the Department of Human Services career map pilot program by a lottery when they start participating in career map they give up participating in the rapid rehousing subsidy program frsp and start receiving a subsidy from career map the current version of this legislation however affords families the hearing procedures that people receiving public benefits like Snap and TANF get not the procedures people receiving housing subsidies get the amendment I'm moving today corrects that discrepancy making sure families carry over their due process protections when they move from frsp to Career map the amendment also clarifies that any program eligibility criteria not explicitly included in the text of the statute must be promulgated by the mayor pursuant to the mayor's rulemaking Authority finally the amendment requires that notice of termination from career map must be conveyed by mail and email to ensure the participants receive actual notice these small technical fixes can make a big difference when families ability to access safe secure housing is on the line with that chairman I moved the amendment and ask have you had any cantaloupe today have I had any what never mind sir I moved the amendments we have the amendment before us is there discussion if I don't hear any discussion I'll ask if there's any objection and if I don't hear any objection then the amendment will be accepted is there any objection to the amendment I don't hear any objections so the amendment is accepted we have a second Amendment which I circulated is also linked on the agenda it does a couple of things it uh um it adds some words about or into the court registry um I'm not going to explain to all of this because it was circulated and it um also um addresses an eviction where an e-wrap application is pending move the amendment is her discussion I don't hear any discussion I'll ask if there's any objection there's no objection then it will be accepted uh the amendment is accepted we have the bill as amended is there discussion and Madam Secretary would you call the role the vote is on Bill 24-120 as amended councilman Silverman yes I'm hungry Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes councilman Robert White votes yes councilman betrayal right yes betray on white votes yes councilmember Allen yes council member Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes from the bonds votes yes customer Che yes I'm from portray votes yes councilmember Gray yes that's from the gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes it's over Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes I'm from the Louis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes customer McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes so I'm gonna know votes yes council member Pinto yes remember Pinto votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses uh the bill is approved unanimously so apparently there's an effort by staff to get members to say either cantaloupe Mongoose wildebeest philores or parchesis so now they've all been said we can move on and I need to ask the secretary a question which I will do by text uh the next bill is Bill 24-113 medical cannabis Amendment Act of 2022. I'm going to move the bill I was discuss quite a bit at the last meeting and there is an amendment the nature of a substitute uh that I'm going to move at this time uh the amendments uh contains a number of uh items in it uh but some of them were worked out closely with councilmember McDuffie and so he's co-introducing it with me and uh there are many parts to this and many rationales stated so I'm not going to read all of them but this was linked in the agenda uh discussion on the amendment in the the amendment it's not a member nature of substitute just an amendment councilmember Allen thank you Mr chairman just to make sure I'm tracking this the right way we're on you and Mr mcduffie's Amendment correct okay um I'll I'll start a course by recognizing uh the amendment reflects a lot of compromise and so I appreciate both of you uh as the legislations move through the respective committees trying to to work out and kind of land in a space that represents all the compromise from everybody so thank you for doing that um the one space that I I will admit that I have some concerns but perhaps can benefit from some clarity has to do with enforcement around our unlicensed establishments if I understand correctly because Abra on the ABC Board are asking for the 180 days that is what's prompting that the enforcement against unlicensed establishments can't begin until 315 days from the effective date of this which of course once we pass this and still go through Congressional review we're really talking about more than a year from now I I would be concerned if what this council is saying is that there can be no enforcement of any unlicensed establishment for more than a year now perhaps what this is focusing on is related to enforcement around the license but other uh other issues that that warrant enforcement can still be enforced so Mr chairman if I could ask you to help outline um what is intended in this with the 315 days of what is supposed to be enforced and then should this amendment pass which I believe it will what are the what things can still be enforced or should be enforced separate from that delay uh well there are a lot of things that can be enforced now like a business license [Music] um a lack of a certificate of occupancy uh that's not a complete list by any means and the bill doesn't speak to that at all um councilman McDuffie and I spent a lot of time talking through all of this and we actually had to talk about a shorter time period And I got back to my office on Friday and had a letter from the board EBC board which will soon be renamed and they said that they wanted 180 days to allow the ABC Board to issue rules and that they wanted to sync that up with the application period which is that the application period would follow well that gets you to 270 days and then um because it's a 90-day application period and then the applications require notice to ANC so that's another 45 days which costs you to 315 days so that's why we have 215. anybody who's listening to me in the past year um I'm I'm very frustrated with how how long this has taken so if that's underlying your question I share that concern but the board did ask us to sync up the open application period with the issuance of the rules they said they wanted 180 days uh to do that and that's why we pushed back the time the way the bill is written the enforcement grace period is really focused it's a safe harbor for those who applaud if you don't apply you don't have a safe harbor uh I hope that answers your question yeah thank you I know we're slightly over time so if I can just have about 30 more seconds if there's no objection so what I want to do is make sure it's clear to the public as well as just kind of a common set of expectations because what I want to make sure that we understand the 315 days the uh delayed enforcement is specific to the license status because we are creating a mechanism for a license to be applied for a review an ANC notice process and that is what our delay of enforcement is around is when the licensure if an entity should be operating without a business license without a certificate of occupancy other violations our expectation is that enforcement would take place for those violations and without applying he said without one thing without a second thing and I'm saying and without applying for a license so what we're doing here is we're creating a what some people have called an on-ramp for existing businesses which don't have a license to get a license I want the on-ramp and I think we all share and we're creating a safe harbor for that on-ramp but are you saying that an entity that has no license no CFO no business I mean it otherwise has nothing and is not trying to get a license but if you apply for a license but you still have no CFO that there will be no enforcement for that CFO and business license is still enforceable thank you that's what I want to make sure is clear for the record yes okay and I think there may be more than CFO and business license but it you know kind of depends on what's going on got it that that's the clarity I want to make sure both amongst us and to the public is clear about what it is we are saying appropriately creates the on-ramp and the delay of enforcement and that's around the licensure but there are other elements where enforcement action can take place yes okay thank you council member I didn't mean to provoke a bunch of hands going up councilman Lewis Forge and then bonds and then I think I saw councilmember Henderson um I want to commend my colleagues chairman mendelsohn and councilman McDuffie and your staffs for taking on important necessary revisions to this long-awaited bill at the last meeting I raised practically practicability concerns over the on grant for currently unlicensed cannabis businesses a rushed or unrealistic timeline to get into compli compliance Causes Chaos favors well-funded and well uh well funded and well-connected multi-state cannabis operators and locks native washingtonians out of this Market rather than empowering empowering entrepreneurship I was grateful to receive abra's letter last week sharing similar concerns and recommending a differently structure applications period uh and enforcement timeline the 180 days to set forth rules before application opens the 90-day window to apply in a 350 day enforcement transition period are just some of the significant improvements in this amendment sheet that I'm excited to support today we all agree operating businesses in a gray unregulated Market is not what initiative 71 had in mind nor should unlices businesses be tolerated in any industry we also know the promulgation of unlicensed shops has placed a severe burden on our medical dispensaries dispensaries who are operating above board and very literally paying a cost for it leveling the playing field today helps these valued small businesses in our community serve and grow their patient base and I'm excited this bill will allow our trusted medical cultivators and sellers to more easily expand their operations into other sectors of the Cannabis industry it will be great that our medical dispensaries could also soon sell online for delivery or open their own cultivation sites I'm also excited today to be removing barriers to formal business operations for our many gifting stores these are our small businesses that have been disproportionate have a disproportionate share of black workers workers and are also uniquely able to create restorative justice opportunities for black and realm residents targeted by the so-called War on Drugs it's long past time we figured out how to bring cannabis use out of the Shadows similarly all customers and patients deserve to walk into the shop of their choosing that they most trust and purchase local cannabis products they trust without gimmicks gimmicks stigmatize the safe and safe and medicinally beneficial reality of cannabis and perpetuate the harms of a War on Drugs that has locked up demon eyes and torn apart black families for decades the amendment today makes clear that we are moving the district away from a flawed and divided system to an integrated and Equitable one we are setting we are setting up all cannabis businesses both licensed and unlicensed for success and for a thoughtful transition to a market where everyone has a meaningful opportunity to thrive by playing by the same rules so I want to thank you again chairman Mendelson and councilman McGuffey for all your work on these Monumental legislation for this Monumental legislation I look forward to our City's implementation of these necessary changes thank you uh thank you councilmember council member buys um thank you very much um chairman um I have two questions one I want to know if Clean Hands uh Clean Hands approval is a consideration for enforcement uh well clean hands as you know is a prerequisite to getting licenses yeah and so we would still apply we didn't okay I just wanted it on the record that that is still something that we have to have also I'm just wondering if increasing cultivation opportunities can be considered at this time because by removing barriers to small businesses engaged in gifting Etc we are assuring we want to assure that there would be safe products I just wonder if consideration has been given to that because we're going to have more opportunities for people to partake of the product and because we're going to have more taking of the product we want to make sure that the product is safe oh consumption I absolutely agree with you um let me be clear the Congressional writer prohibits us from regulating recreational Cannabis uh but that uh writer didn't speak to the medical cannabis and the medical cannabis has been regulated uh for since roughly 2010. uh so these new licenses would be within the medical cannabis sphere and the medical cannabis sphere does require quality um I've said this before that My Hope Is that the writer will be lifted so that we can regulate the recreational side of cannabis use because right now we have in my view of Public Safety problem and uh and once that Rider is lifted and we're able to regulate that there still will be a need for the medical cannabis businesses for several reasons one of which is that the product will be different folks who have a medical need are maybe looking for a different I'll say form of cannabis than folks who are simply interested in a recreational use so variety will be different and secondly there is a greater need for Quality maybe I shouldn't say a greater need but there will be a need for equality on the medical side and that's important I've had this argument with several folks that what we have seen in the unregulated sphere is that uh there is a shockingly high incidence of product that is not what is advertised or product that has Trace elements that can be hazardous to human health just as an example and this is not cannabis but folks will remember a couple years ago in the news about vaping and people who are getting very very sick and uh that's the kind of thing we want to avoid so quality is very is very much on my mind and will be a result with this legislation I'm provoking more hands Alexander Smith Mr chairman if I could just follow up on um your your perspective foreign I'm concerned because we are saying many different things um in Washington DC today we're saying that we have Recreation and we have that as one package we're also saying we have uh medical use we we also um um indicated that if you want or need the product you do not have to have a prescription so you can you can go and you can get this product um rather readily apparently and so I'm just wondering in the real world are we at a point where we recognize that the cultivation issue is tantamount to keeping our community safe and so I'm I'm just trying to understand and if you were to tell me that it's a big deal and that you want to expand cultivation my question then would be how do we do that where do we put the cultivation centers more cultivation centers in other words I'm just saying we just can't have a piece of it we have to have a package of it so that's just a thought yes and I might have misunderstood your question so the bill not the amendment but the bill does lift some of the restrictions on cultivation as in there's been a cap on the number of cultivation licenses that could be issued there have been restrictions on where they can be located uh and we relax a whole slew of restrictions around that uh with the idea that um now that we've had experience we're seeing that it's not such a horrible thing in communities and second of all that um there needs to be more product thank you yes yes it does and I was I was asking if if we have given thought to it we have obviously given thought to it so that is a version of an amendment that will probably be forthcoming into the future thank you chairman okay um councilmember Henderson and then uh councilmember Pinto um thank you Mr chairman um I want to thank you and councilmember McDuffie um Alan um as well as the staff who work diligently on the significant and complex bill um overall this legislation is a critical step forward in creating a regulated medical cannabis Market in the district and will benefit our city and so many of our residents um I support the changes that are being proposed in this amendment I want to thank you chairman Mendelson for being willing to work with colleagues such as myself on elements before us hearing concerns raised by I-71 shop owners and employees about timeline restrictions and the inability to get into compliance timely I reached out to the ABC Board to see how those can be addressed and then subsequently followed up with you one change that is in the amendment before us that I specifically want to highlight is the change of dates from April 5th 2022 to December 31st 2022 in which an unlicensed business must have operations in certain documentations in place like a business license in order to qualify for a conditional license with the ABC Board next year I recommended this change because I believe it's important to those business to give the those businesses more time to have the opportunity to come into compliance and to be a licensed part of the medical cannabis Market in our city I would also be remiss if I did not acknowledge that this bill and sort of the backwards nature that we're having to work here serves as a stark reminder of how the Congressional budget writer continues to hamstring our autonomy and remind us of our lack of statehood more generally there's still more time for Congress to remove the writer and so I'll put that plug in here but again I want to thank the three committees for their work on this and I look forward to supporting the amendment today thank you thank you councilmember Henderson councilmember Pinto followed by council member Robert White thank you chairman Mendelson um I want to thank you and councilman McDuffie and councilmember Allen for your leadership and collaboration on this multi-year process um I'll echo my colleagues sentiments about the frustrations that we are unable to move forward with a completely legalized adult use recreational Marketplace as would be beneficial for our City's residents for entrepreneurship for our tax base for our safety concerns as councilmember bonds mentioned um and is still a place we need to go but in the meantime I wanted to ask you chairman I know you had some dialogue with council member Allen about what happens in the event a business does not follow the process to transition can you articulate how this amendment treats existing businesses seeking to transition into the medical space foreign the amendment and this has actually been the intent uh since uh the the markup is to create a safe harbor for those businesses that want to go legitimate that's the simple way of putting it it creates a safe harbor for those who want to apply creates a a process for them to apply to get a medical get a medical cannabis license whether we're talking about cultivator or dispensary or um manufactured and can you just highlight a little bit about how that Safe Harbor will work in practice go from um you know the application perspective but also if there are any errors in the application well um the the bill leaves it to the ABC Board which is being renamed so we won't in the future be able to call it the ABC Board um to promulgate rules and the rules uh May address that level of detail uh I can say that it's my intent that we don't want businesses to get hung up with an application process where they apply they think they've submitted all the documents and and they didn't put their zip zip code down and then they get thrown out or they left something else out and they got thrown out that's not the goal here the goal is that uh the application process should be straightforward and uh at um paid forward businesses can apply if they make a mistake they can fix the mistake and it all gets processed okay well thank you very much and we certainly hope that's the case for all of our businesses in Washington DC yes thank you thank you councilmember Robert White oh thank you Mr chairman I I really want to uh thank and applaud uh you councilmember McDuffie and all the members uh who work to to get this over the uh Finish Line is this bill has come a long way um what what we are doing here is is really giving a path uh to sort of you know full business recognition for many of our I-71 shops who uh to their credit found a loophole and the law and and jumped on it as many have in many different Industries over time um but it is left them in a legal limbo and and I think what we have seen in the expansion of I-71 shops is one uh how prevalent uh sort of use and purchase of marijuana is in our city but it is also improved it seems um yeah the quality and safety of what people are purchasing from not very long ago when most people were purchasing from whomever Wherever by adding this regulation we further push uh these shops in this industry uh to challenge each other and so with respect to uh product safety and product quality with a fully legitimate path to full legalization for these businesses uh they are now fully in the free market and competing and pushing each other and I think folks whose products uh have as was mentioned earlier Trace elements they're going to fall off because there's a lot of competition so we're moving in the right way we're giving opportunity uh to folks who have been in the past incarcerated uh for for use of a substance that people are now making billions of dollars off of in in this country and so I don't want to prolong this but I did want to uh to add those comments to to this debate and I really appreciate how how much work you all have done in the past two weeks on this thank you councilmember um I don't see anybody else wanting to be recognized I look this way I don't see anybody else wanting to be recognized councilman McDuffie thank you chairman um and thank you to you and your team uh and my team and Donnie Crawford in particular uh councilman Allen and his team it has been a lot of work that's gone into uh this bill and I appreciate what we have landed uh despite how long an extensive this bill is um I don't think everybody got what they wanted and and usually not always but usually that's a sign of uh the process playing out uh in a way that gets you somewhere uh in the middle and in this case I think it benefits the city um as I said at the last legislative meeting I think it's crucial that we in bed racial equity and economic equity uh in this bill from the very start and that would be aligned with the realities of our actual cannabis Market uh as it stands today and this amendment does that and specifically I want to point out that it provides unlicensed establishments with a real Pathway to enter the market without having to face immediate threat of enforcement which I know has been highlighted by folks on the Deus and and there's been some serious concerns uh with certain unlicensed establishments um but I I hesitate to to highlight that as the focus of this bill because I think enforcement should not be the focus of this bill in fact I think the focus of the bill should be the pathway that it creates for people to operate legitimately in the District of Columbia I think the focus if anything should also be honest some of you all have stated the fact that Congress has a right of that prohibits us from taxes and regulating adult use Market in the District of Columbia Spike the overwhelming support uh with District Columbia residents and so I think there are a lot of great things that we can highlight including the fact that it establishes a meaningful timeline at least 315 days to ramp up the supply of cannabis before licenses are issued and enforcement started so that we can set new businesses up for success all right let's not lose sight that if we start issuing licenses and we don't ramp up production then you will be setting up businesses for success and so I want to thank you chairman on your team for uh including that and working with us on that provision it also allows existing medical cannabis businesses to become vertically integrated and unlicensed establishments to apply for cultivation Center licenses requires a 50 social Equity set aside also apply to cultivation centers among other things and I wanted to point those things up and also emphasize that the social Equity uh definition and the set-asides included in this bill will help returning citizens and their families who are interested in this industry uh finally become owners of licensed medical cannabis businesses in the District of Columbia not in fact is something that we should all really celebrate given our history in this city and across the country uh with the integrated drug laws and and mass incarceration and impact that it's had on communities of color across the United States and in the District of Columbia so uh uh if I could just another moment uh Mr chairman without objection um it is uh for years we've worked on this uh and and I've worked tirelessly with Advocates to try to design a cannabis industry that centers social Equity uh and black and brown communities in DC who have been most harmed by our laws and it's my hope that with all these changes to the bill is introduced uh ones that I know have come after a long conversation with multiple members of this Council who've all added something of value I think to this bill including three hours he spent on a train recently Mr chairman uh that we thank the folks who also helped who are not members of this Council including a generation Equity movement the I-71 committee D.C caucus for returning citizens and licensed medical cannabis businesses as well so again I want to thank you all for your support and thank uh playing stump Donnie Crawford chairman and others who've helped make this build at this point Thank you thank you councilmember there's no further discussion I don't think we voted on the nature of a substitute yet um so the vote will be on the amendment nature of a substitute and then we'll do the bill as amended all those in favor of the ANS say aye aye aye opposed uh the nature of substitutes approved unanimously we have the bill as amended is there any further discussion Madam Secretary would you call the role councilmember Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes councilmember betray on white yes councilmember Allen yes that's remember Allen votes yes comes from the bonds yes that's remember bonds votes yes council member Shea yes that's number two votes yes councilmember Gray yes cucumber gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes I don't believe it was George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes I remember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes councilman Adele votes yes councilmember Pinto yes remember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes I'm Number Silverman votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bill is approved on Final reading as amended uh if there's no objection we're going to take a recess until 4 15. I had kind of hoped we'd be farther along so um I'm gonna try very hard to reconvene at 4 15. we are in recess we're gonna get started in just a minute first I'm calling back to order this legislative meeting of the Council of the District of Columbia the time is 4 36. and we are at the next item on the agenda Madam Secretary do you see a need to uh see whether we have a quorum I can tell you that there are two four six seven seven or eight members here on the dance and I see three online no Mr chairman all right we have the next bill which is Bill 24-989 educator background check streamlining Amendment Act of 2022 uh this bill came out of the committee the whole approved on first reading on December 6th I believe that there may not have been unanimous a vote for it which is why it would be on non-consent I moved the bill the bill is um strongly supported by the exact the education agencies uh in the district and um I think especially important and relevant to this is that the director of Child and Family Services Agency testified at the public Hearing in strong support of what this legislation is doing so I moved the bill and is there discussion Mr chairman councilmember Pinto thank you so much um and thank you for your work on this bill I'm going to be voting no on on this bill again today I really understand the need to expedite the teacher background check process but I don't feel comfortable with eliminating the child protection register check I am supportive of some of the expungement pieces of this legislation to ensure that the CPR only reflects parents and Guardians who have endangered children and does not unintentionally harm low-income parents and people of color but while I'll be voting against this bill today I do want to thank councilmember Henderson as well for her hard work to support teachers students and Families thank you thank you councilmember Pinto for the discussion on the bill it comes from Louis George thank you chairman um I uh also had some Reserve with this legislation and so I wanted to ask councilman Henderson just a couple of questions to get them on the record um to clear up some of those concerns um through you chairman um does a criminal background check for within this new uh legislation include arrests as well as cases where there have been charges filed or convictions yes um some of that would show up in in a local police search and then other matters would show up in the FBI background search that is also required okay perfect um does a criminal background check include a review of other jurisdictions like Maryland and Virginia yes any jurisdiction in which applicant has lived or worked would have the local police databases reviewed and then the FBI background check would capture um uh criminal arrests or charges Nationwide okay and um it's MPD that investigates allegations of child abuse in school settings uh am I correct yes that's correct in a couple settings okay and so with a record of those even show up in the child protective registry um so yes MPD would investigate allegations of sexual or physical abuse of a child by a non-guardian but cfsa would not investigate such allegations so they wouldn't necessarily show up in a child protective registry because those are only um dealing with if a child has a relationship with the uh perpetrator okay um but if someone called into the cfsa hotline describing that type of incident it would also be referred to MPD as well okay okay and I know there's been some uh anxiety that eliminating the child protective energy as the check leaves us vulnerable to potential future abuse can you just elaborate um on what protections and checks are still in place to keep our children safe yes so priority here is of course keeping our students safe and not just our students but anyone who is working um inside our schools so applicants still have to pass the drug tests they would submit to a local police record search um again for any jurisdiction of which they have lived or worked and then the FBI and background Church FBI background search which captures everything Nationwide their past employers must be interviewed by a potential new employer and then this bill also adds a requirement that leas uh check the national sex offender registry um in the background check process as well so yeah thank you thank you chairman well thank you further on the bill I want to reiterate a couple of things the um child protective registry which is maintained by childhood and Family Services Agency has a name that in my view or a label that in my view is a little misleading the child protective registry only has those incidents that cfsa has looked at and if it rises to the level of criminal cfsa probably hasn't looked at it and so it wouldn't be in the child protective registry and the child protective registry is limited to uh custodial relationships so if there's some uh some incident that an adult has perpetrated or alleged to perpetrate that would not show up in a um in the child protective registry the child protective Regency also includes unsubstantiated uh reports um it does that because that's just what the registry is it's the cfsa puts in the registry substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations um so it it um it's and its purpose is to assist cfsa and decisions regarding custodial relationships which is very different than a relationship between a teacher and their classroom for example um what we're interested in is captured through the police check and the the criminal record check and the FBI check what this bill does is not only fix the problem with the CPR by taking that out of the process since it's largely irrelevant but it adds to the background check requirements a check of the national sex offender registry which I would have thought would have been included in the bill Excuse excuse me included in the law we adopted four years ago but it wasn't so we add the top National Child Protection ready the national sex offender registry we add that um so I think there's been some misunderstanding around the bill but um the uh the experts on this which in my view includes child and Family Services Agency was unequivocal about this thank you there's nothing further the vote will be on Bill 24-99 educator background check streamlining Amendment Act Madam Secretary councilman betray on white yes Johnson white votes yes councilmember Allen yes I'm from violin votes yes councilmember bonds yes councilmember Chang yes number Chapel CS councilmember gray yes I've remember great votes yes councilmember Henderson yes remember Henderson votes yes comes from Lewis George yes that's remember Louis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron mendelsohn votes yes councilman Bernadette yes votes yes councilmember Pinto no council member Pinto votes to know councilmember Silverman yes I remember Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes that's remember Robert White votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one no thank you ma'am Secretary of the Bill's approved final reading the next measure is build 24-466 Saint Elizabeth's East parcel 13 Surplus declaration and disposition approval Act of 2022. can we uh if you don't mind Sherman skip that for the moment if there's no objection I'll put that off hearing no objection we'll go to um bill 24-977 let me be clear Saint Elizabeth's I'll um bring that up after Fair meals delivery item 18. uh Hill East phase two bundle one Surplus declaration and disposition approval Act of 2022 bill 24-997 council member um Robert White thank you Mr chairman this bill is one of two on today's agenda that would allow major housing construction and other development work on the Anacostia rivers west Waterfront as I mentioned at first reading I have some serious reservations regarding our current real property Surplus and disposition laws in general I also have more minor concerns about how if this particular bill passes and the proposed development goes forward we'll have to pay close attention to make sure certain key government services are fully available nearby but on balance I believe the two hillies proposals on the agenda reflect positive steps for the neighborhood and I intend to vote Yes on both because of the housing and amenities they will provide in furtherance of long-standing planning for this area thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember uh Is there further discussion on this councilmember Silverman yes um Mr chairman um Mr chairman I made similar remarks uh at the last uh legislative session uh there are a number of bills that we're considering today that just reinforce a perception that I I think with the passage of these bills one can argue as a reality that DC government gives away valuable land to real estate developers with strong ties to this building without asking enough in return and what we need in return is affordable housing and including deeply affordable housing that we just desperately need this is the Hill East phase two uh bundle two Mr chairman is that correct we're on bundle two I'm sorry Council are you asking me a question this is bundle two that we're discussing [Music] okay so there are two two hillies um giveaways here okay so just you know I know where the votes are but just uh for taxpayers to know here's what we're doing with Hill ease phase two bundle one so this bill involves over five acres of land along the Anacostia River in the prime development known as reservation 13. four Parcels of land will be leased for 99 years at one dollar per year and a fifth parcel will be sold for one dollar more um I think most residents would love to get this kind of real estate deal um donatelli development and blue sky development stand to profit almost 24 million dollars from this deal according to the deputy mayor for planning and economic developments appraisal and this development will be very large with 25 000 square feet of retail and over 1 000 housing units one-third of the units will be affordable but they're just meeting the statutory minimum of 30 percent and Mr chairman you know I have to say this just isn't enough affordability to get my vote so I will be voting now for sure thank you Council Harbor Silverman councilmember McDuffie thank you um uh councilman had a joint unit on this measure I think he mentioned that in a statement and I mentioned it on first reading I don't disagree with anybody who who believes that we are an affordability crisis and it is for Colombia however I think we have to be smart about how we address and tackle that extraordinarily important issue we talk a lot about housing affordability and not having enough deeply affordable I agree with that we talk about the need for additional larger family size units I agree with that and frankly I think we agree on more things than we disagree about affordable housing in this body but when we when when we talk about a project has 30 affordable and it's the statutory minimum what we made that statute all right we set that standard and we can we can change the law and set a higher standard uh you know if a majority of members agree and and I think we have to acknowledge that I I wrote the law with the support of this Council that required that 30 percent uh statutory minimum we also have to understand the costs associated with constructing more affordable housing and and we have to make the commitment to put the resources for I mean you look at what we're doing with the house production trust fund and and we're we are doing significantly more then most cities around the country obviously still not enough but I I hope that we will also have as a part of the context of the conversation that we're having thinking about where we're doing these projects and where we want to see more affordable and where we want to see more larger family units the idea should not be to concentrate deeply affordable housing in the same communities where we've built it for decades right that that that model of of concentrating poverty and then criminalizing it does not work for me and in many cases it doesn't work for the folks who we're trying to help when we're we're doing these projects um I I appreciate the conversation that we're having today I just I do encourage people to come to the hearings and make this a part of the conversation while we are hashing these things out um because some of these projects do enjoy the support of the advisory neighborhood commissions in this case this one does um and multiple people across the community and this is how we get to that point right there are hearings that have their hearings and meetings that happen in these neighborhoods people are providing feedback they're working on community benefits agreements and so I just I get nervous about unraveling things or or making statements that might undermine a concerted effort to get us to this point so I just wanted to put that on the record I appreciate everybody's feedback thank you councilmember councilmember uh Robert White second round uh thank you uh Mr chairman um I I think we all agree I'm really glad we're having this uh this conversation and this debate about the level of of affordability I think we should always try to build more deeply affordable housing than the current statute uh requires and I believe it's critical for dimpad and the administration to engage with the better with the communities that they impact and that's why I've introduced a bill that would increase the required affordability levels create new requirements to build three bedroom units and improve the process for deciding whether we even want to give out specific government Parcels in the first place so early next Council period I'm going to reintroduce the Common Ground Amendment act which I introduced several weeks ago to hopefully improve uh our property Surplus process and uh and I appreciate council member Silverman Lewis George and the doe bonds and pintos for co-sponsoring the bill last month something I also know that some folks have called for additional appraisals for these property Surplus decisions and I understand that suggestion in fact I did just that on an earlier Surplus to double check the administration's work and we took a deep dive into the appraisal process through a council funded appraisal and we discussed appraisals in detail in a hearing and I'll be the first to note that the top line numbers on some of these appraisals the administration uh procures are hard to parse through and are not transparent but what I found through my review of the numbers is that it typically isn't the appraisals they are factually accurate it's that they are written with a lot of costs profits and expectations built into them and that you have to dig into those details to understand how they work well I don't disagree on principle with more appraisals or getting more affordability I think more appraisals would really get would not get to the underlying issue here whether developers could afford more affordability in exchange for the land value and whether the district does a good job evaluating whether we should be disposing of land at all 30 seconds Mr chairman without objection thank you if I thought the process worked perfectly I wouldn't have introduced the legislation to completely overhaul it the bill before us and the other surpluses on the agenda are here as outcomes of the process that we currently have on balance I think the district achieves a lot of good with these proposals in terms of housing employment and public amenities and a disapproval on these May well lead these properties vacant for a long period of time and so the questions are if we don't do this what do we do when do we do it and for everyone saying I would love to buy a property for a dollar I think we should give it to you if you can build affordable housing on it and that's the key issue here um so I don't want to characterize these as giveaways do I think the process can be better it can be better but that's something we have to change in law not hold people to a standard that's different than what the statute requires today uh thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember white councilman Lewis George thank you um I wasn't planning to you know speak to this again but I just think it's important that we um set something something straight that this is not about rejecting mixed income or affordable housing in certain neighborhoods it's about making sure that every deal that we are getting the best possible return on investment and prioritizing in every deal the most vulnerable and most any residents and those are are our very lowest income families eighty percent plus mfi units are not what we need to be subsidizing period in the climate that we're in or at least not in the high numbers or proportions that we do it so we're not you know like when I when I speak on this it means that we need to we're using taxpayers dollars and we're making a deal and we need to make sure it's the best deal that we're getting and where every single one of these and I agree with you councilman Duffy we need to show we you know show up at the hearings and I and I will because in reading and looking through these I was really excited about the Malcolm X disposition deal because I was like oh this is a good disposition 100 affordable units 20 22 percent of the units will be three bedrooms a Child Care Health grocery store option will be constructed on the ground floor I was like this is a good deal I'm prepared to vote for it but then when I saw the Hill East bundle I was like okay well it looks like from what I'm reading they're building 37 they'll be three bit 37 three-bar univer three bedroom units are affordable at least uh at less than 50 mfi earner rents and that's 37 out of 2100 units across the developer project that's 1.7 percent of units that will be affordable families and I just don't think that's right and so I think you know there is space for all you know for this conversation and how we move forward I just think that we all should be paying attention to these and making sure we're getting the best bang for our literal Buck on behalf of District residents um and I think there there's a balance there that we can absolutely draw um in making these better but I do think it's something we do have to pay better attention to and I look forward to supporting councilman Robert's white legislation um in the new year thank you thank you councilmember if there's no further discussion the vote will be on Bill 24-997 Hill East phase two bundle one Surplus declaration and disposition Madam Secretary councilmember Allen yes answer Allen votes yes councilmember bonds definite yes councilmember bonds held CS councilmember yes councilmember tree votes yes councilmember gray yes I remember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes yes comes from Lewis George no councilmber Lewis George vote snow councilmember McDuffie yes McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman Bernardo yes that's what I'm going to do votes yes councilmember Pinto yes remember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman no councilmember Silverman votes no council member Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran white president comes from patreon White will be recorded as present Mr chairman there are 10 yeses two no's and one present the bill is approved final reading next measure is Bill 24-1033 Middle East phase two bundle 2 Surplus declaration and disposition approval Act of 2022 council member Robert White uh so movement Mr chairman discussion Mr chairman councilmember Silverman so this deal um well let me just actually address the issue I appreciate the award for Council member's remarks the issue is not whether we should build that affordable housing here it's whether we're getting the best deal for our dollar uh and whether the um whether there can be there can be a push for more affordability um I I do um appreciate um that argument and that is the argument with Hilly's phase two bundle too so this bundle is even bigger than uh bundle one it's six acres of land uh on reservation 13 which is on the Anacostia River Prime real estate uh adjacent to Capitol Hill uh this bill gives all of the land to developers through a 99-year lease at two dollars per year this development includes a 150 room Hotel 60 000 square feet of retail and 1200 housing units one third of which will be affordable so again the point is not not to build it here the point is can we build more affordability here can we make more is this land so valuable that there can be more affordability here and this development plan is interesting because it relies on a 35 million dollar allocation from the housing production trust fund um the developer profit will be 30 million dollars um nearly as large as our commitment from the trust fund and I imagine the trust fund dollars is as a because if we put uh zero to thirty percent Ami we need a subsidy for that operational subsidy for that um but still I think the question is can we get more affordability out of this property uh get more bang for our buck um and I think we can so I will be voting now thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember councilman um thank you very much um I I'm you know a couple of weeks ago I began this discussion in our breakfast meeting to just sort of say to my colleagues we have to be concerned about how we're handling the land that is government owned and what will be the benefits that are derived from that but in making that statement and beginning the dialogue which we had handsomely last couple weeks ago I think one of the ingredients that's missing is having the opportunity on the dice to have the financials so that we can understand that we may very well be getting the best deal that we can get without additional public subsidy and so I hope that in the future whether it's required or not that we would make an effort to have that financial information available because when we talk about we want to make sure we're getting the most affordability that we can um unless we are Financial landless I don't know how we can make that determination without looking at some figures and having the opportunity to examine those figures and see if those figures make sense based on what we've done in the past and where we think we're going into the future so I just wanted to put that on the record um Mr chairman thank you councilman Revenge further discussion council members that councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I am I want to associate myself with the comments of councilmember Robert White and that he made earlier in terms of the need for us to um turn this process overall on its head um I attended this hearing um with councilmember Robert white as well as councilman McDuffie um there were several public Witnesses who Justified and provided testimony we also had the opportunity to sort of question um dimped in terms of how this was put together and it's it it came across as though the ability to make any changes in that moment um or at any moment at that point in the process was almost impossible because agreements have been made financing was in place and all of this is contingent in terms of us moving forward and so I I definitely hear my colleagues um councilmember Lewis George and councilmember Silverman in terms of you know can we get more affordability out of these and I feel like um we have to change the process in order for us to be able to um truly push the envelope in terms of um what we're able to get out of these dispositions that being said at the hearing um the public the neighbors were in favor of this um ANC Commissioners testified in favor um folks from the neighborhood adjacent I would say uh that is not even in that um ANC um also did Saint Coletta's which is going to be a neighbor of this project in sort of a school um that that serves a special population of students that will actually be basically in a construction zone for the next few years on this and so um I'm gonna support this moving forward um but councilmember white count me among those who is open to change here thank you oh thank you councilmember councilmember Robert White uh thank you very much uh chair president uh a perfect setup uh council member Henderson and thank you I just want to urge my colleagues uh in the new year there's gonna be a lot going on and this bill May sort of not be the the coolest thing happening but but I think we're really seeing the importance of it uh I'm I never thought that uh this issue would get this much air time so I'm I'm actually really excited um but I think we have a real opportunity and I I want to thank you members for for honing in on this um right now and I've struggled with this as well I I'm I'm not holding um projects to the standard I hope to have in the future I'm holding them to the standards that are in the law now uh but hoping to change that law as we go forward so uh I'll be voting in favor but but hope uh colleagues will continue to work with us to reform this uh 10801 process thank you Mr chairman Mr chairman let me let me see uh councilmember White that I look forward to being on the other side of this diocese and testifying on your bill we need to change the process chairman Mendelson said it two weeks ago that we need to change the appraisal process you said that or we need to have an independent appraisal process we need to analyze the factors involved as you said councilmember white including prophets but you know it is just I think it's hard for the you know certainly neighbors I think there's a hotel in retail that is part of this project and so certainly neighbors are in favor of not only the affordability but the amenities that are coming along with it um but the question again is this is valuable property that the district owns uh and that can be leveraged for what we need we need to be sharp negotiators at the table um so I in all seriousness councilmember white I look forward to testifying on a process that truly gives the district the bang for its buck and the affordability that we need for these valuable pieces of land thank you thank you if there's no further discussion the vote will be on bill 24-1033 um secretary would you call the roll council member bonds yes that's under bonds votes yes councilman yes councilmember gray yes on the gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes remember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George no councilmember Lewis George votes no councilmember McDuffie yes Duffy votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman Bernadette yes councilman Bernardo votes yes councilmember Pinto yes councilmember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman no I remember Silverman votes no councilmember Robert White yes Captain Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran like president somebody found white will be recorded as president council member Allen yes welcome to Allen votes yes Mr chairman there are 10 yeses two no's and one present uh the bill is approved final reading the next measure is Bill 24-950 local solar expansion Amendment Act of 2022 council member Che F sorry about that um one moment I'm trying to do 16 things at one time um we're talking about Bill 24950 yes okay um thank you uh I'm moving an amendment to to this bill which is the local solar expansion amendment of 2022 now when we took this up uh on first reading there was an overwhelming vote in favor of it but nevertheless there were some questions and I wanted to take the opportunity between first reading and second uh to talk to some of some of the folks who had issues so I have a couple of tweaks so this is an amendment uh to the bill that makes a couple of you know changes minor but but I think uh important and beneficial first of all it clarifies Doe's authority to determine how to allocate funds raised by the bill between solar for oil and the newly authorized funding that we have in the bill for utility assistance for low-income residents and that's under under the bill but what it does do is it's going to fund both of these programs out of the renewable energy development uh fund redf it was historically that fund was historically primarily a vehicle for solar for all uh program the solar for all program and the bill makes a shift uh to something closer to a dual purpose fund investing in both solar for oil and low income rate payer relief programs and the amendment um does not change anything but it clarifies the intent that Doe can confidently now with the change set up the programming based upon this modified vision of the redf second the amendment expands the scope of the triennial study of solar policies that the the bill directs The People's Council the also the people's Council to commission the amendment as a requirement that the study look at the need for in the cost of system upgrades and programs related to the district's solar energy policies it also adds a requirement that OPC submit to the council in addition to the results of its study the recommendations regarding legislative and Regulatory changes to ensure that rate payers are not unduly uh impacted by the district solar energy policies and then finally the amendment adds an applicability date for the Bill of March 1st 2023 or the effective date of the bill whichever is later and this was asked for by uh certain you know interests here because they wanted to have uh electricity suppliers and customers uh given additional certainty will also give effective parties time to fully understand the bill before it goes into effect so with those changes I would move these amendments to the bill thank you councilman Richard we have the amendment before us uh let me ask if there's discussion on the amendment if there is not discussion I'll ask if there is objection there's no objection and the amendment will be accepted I'm not seeing or hearing any objection the amendment is accepted we have the bill is amended is there discussion uh the vote will be on Bill 24-950 Madam Secretary would you call the roll number chain yes votes yes councilmember gray yes gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes remember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George no handsome blue is George votes no councilmember McDuffie yes that's remember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron mendelsohn votes yes councilman Bernardo yes votes yes council member Pinto yes Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes I'm from the Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes welcome to Robert White votes yes councilman patreon White yes I'm from betrayal white votes yes councilmember Allen yes I remember Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes customer bonds votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one no the bill is approved on the final reading has amended Bill 24-942 consent for the vaccination of minors Amendment Act of 2022 councilmember Gray comes from where gray do you want to move the bill so move Mr chairman thank you uh we have the bill before us is there discussion the vote will be on 24-942 Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilmember Gray yes councilmember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes from Henderson votes yes councilman below storage yes sorry Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes I remember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilman Bernardo yes Juan Bennett votes yes council member Pinto yes Robert Pinto votes yes customer Silverman yes remember Silverman votes yes council member Robert White because I'm Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran white no that's number Tran white vote snow councilmember Allen yes I'm talking about Allen votes yes council member bonds yes customer but she yes republics yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one no thank you Madam Secretary the bills approved final reading the next measure is Bill 24-320 comprehensive policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 council member Allen thank you very much Mr chairman uh I'm not going to summarize the underlying bill again but speaking broadly the comprehensive policing and Justice Amendment Act of 2022 is a package of reforms addressing police practices promoting transparency Over law enforcement agencies and removing barriers to a more effective system of accountability for cases of police misconduct since the bill passed first reading my office has incorporated feedback from a variety of stakeholders and Community groups including the American civil liberties Union of DC the D.C Justice lab as well as the office of Attorney General MPD and the office of deputy mayor for Education as well as some of my colleagues into an amendment to the nature of a substitute let me quickly go through what the ANS includes so the ANS would amend the underlying Bill to Grant the executive director of The Office of police complaints unfettered access to any Metropolitan Police Department D.C Housing Authority police department or office of Inspector General records required by the police complaints board to complete its duties but allow OPC to accept complaints in any format that OPC determines will provide it with sufficient information to begin an investigation it would clarify that opc's executive director May select a designee to serve on the use of force Review Board in their place to further expand mpd's mandatory continuing education to include instruction on the Constitutional requirements for conducting searches and seizures but remove an applicability provision related to the restriction on negotiating discipline and collective bargaining agreements that is no longer necessary it would require that MPD publish a schedule of adverse action hearings in cases where the proposed discipline is termination address a potential loophole for when restrictions on policing at public assemblies applies we limit reporting requirements on the quantity or amount of less lethal weapons acquired by law enforcement agencies to avoid security vulnerabilities it would provide a definition of vehicular Pursuit it would ensure reporting on school-related arrests does not reveal students identities and better aligns mpd's data collection practices who clarify that foia requests for law enforcement disciplinary records cannot be categorically denied it would require an Advisory Group on public disclosure of disciplinary records considered standards for determining when foia records should be provided at no or reduced cost because the request is in the public interest and it would revise the applicability provision to better align with the fiscal tax statement taken together these changes will help the bill achieve its goals of improving the transparency with which police operate and the accountability they face if they misuse their extraordinary powers before moving the ANS itself I do need to make one uh move one set of oral amendments to the ANS to clarify one issue that was raised by the mayor and her letter to the council related to the restrictions on policing at public Gatherings including First Amendment assemblies and riots as mentioned earlier the ANS addresses a potential loophole for when restrictions on policing at public assemblies apply by expanding the scope of those restrictions from First Amendment assemblies and riots to quote other assemblies but again these restrictions are intended to apply to public Gatherings and not for instance a social Gathering within one's home or property so to make the scope of these restrictions Crystal Clear I'd like to amend lines 1048 1071 and 1100 of the ANS by striking the phrase quote other assembly end quote and insert the phrase quote other public assembly end quote in its place so if I can move that oral Amendment first Mr chair and then I'd like to move the ANS after that what are the lines again lines 1048 1071 and 1100 and it's striking the phrase quote other assembly into quote in inserting the phrase quote other public assembly end quote Madam general counsel do you have that Amendment yes I do Mr chairman thank you all right the rule around oral amendments is that the general counsel has to be able to repeat it back well not necessarily it has to be able to feed it back not that she has to repeat it back um let's see um why don't we make your oral Amendment part of the NSM the oral amendment is amending the ANS so as long let me do this is there any objection today guess what do you all amendment is part of the United States um is there discussion on the imagination with substitute counselor Lewis charge uh councilmember Pinto thank you so much um so in the reading the ANS language I have some concerns about the changes to assemblies and so I want to just make clear councilor Allen that I have a clear sense of what this change does um in a lot of our discussions about how we're going to handle first amendments and riots we've got a lot of conversations about the reality on the ground that police are often responding to emergency situations and sometimes those situations require emergent responses and dispersals when Public Safety requires and it's my understanding that under the ANS if police want to disperse a public assembly then they will need to request a prior authorization from a lieutenant is that accurate and what is the process of requesting an authorization from a lieutenant how long does that typically take and does that kind of undermine the expediency of a high pressure situation um I'll do my best to make sure I understand exactly what the question is when within the language uh that we moved at first reading and that we had worked on we spoke to the authorization that MPD would need um police are already required to get that authorization for a custodial arrest so the idea is that you want to have a lieutenant which we have many lieutenants to be able to have a high enough rank that gives that type of authorization and they're able to get that from any Lieutenant so it is uh we have this within many of the directives is that you have to be able to reach a high enough ranking to be able to make that type of determination decision so you use the example of arrest um that uh prior authorization from a lieutenant would be required but in a just use an example let's say there are people who have assembled um let's say it's really late at night it's not a first amend a First Assembly First Amendment assembly they haven't received a prior permit but it's not yet a riot um but a responding officer comes to the scene and they have made a determination not that they're going to make any arrests but that they think that the crowd should be dispersed why is that decision point of equal kind of command structure as making an arrest well if you are if you're making the determination that that is now a public assembly that is that would be different than uh I mean well if you're giving dispersal orders first off you're giving a dispersal order for public space so that that obviously is more serious but then you are reading I'm trying to think through the hypothetical you're giving the in the hypothetical you're giving you're saying that your this group that is gathered is now formed a public assembly correct did I hear your hypothetical correctly well I'm trying to use the designations as I understand them in this AMF so it seems like there's you know the three categories the First Amendment assemblies the public assemblies and a riot and so I'm talking about this middle category that doesn't neatly fall into a First Amendment assembly or a riot but still requires Sometimes some subjectivity and a quick response from the responding officer correct but if if you and I were standing on a sidewalk that's not a public assembly yet if enough people have gathered in public space however the determination is that I need to give a dispersal order to that group and I'm determining it to be a public assembly you want to have a lieutenant you want to have somebody in the command structure who is there that can provide that authorization but what if somebody of a lieutenant rank is not there that's what I'm trying to understand of like practically will this Lieutenant doesn't have to be physically on site you are able we have a lot of lieutenants and a lot of lieutenants are always on duty so you are able to reach a lieutenant you can call them uh over the radio you can you can call them but the idea is you've got to have somebody of a command stature to be able to help make that authorization but to your point they do not have to be physically standing there you can have that officer describe the situation ask for the authorization and then then lieutenancy will do that but we have a lot of lieutenants who are always on shift okay I don't I just have 30 more seconds I should have one more question on this um I get what problem is this solving in the this ANS version that is not able to be solved through the underlying bill well that that would take um it's definitely more than 30 seconds um the conversations that we had since first reading with groups like the ACLU and the DC Justice lab leaders like the Office of the Attorney General the Metropolitan department and the chief The Office Depot for Education each I outlined each one of the distinct changes each one of those distinct changes comes from conversations from those different stakeholder groups includes some of our colleagues here on the diocese I I it would take a if you're asking to walk through the rationales behind each one that's not in the written uh ANS that was circulated I guess it would take some time if there's something more specific I'm more than happy to try to help answer that question and sorry about that I'm not I don't mean the rationale for the entirety of the ANS I'm just talking about this one piece of designation of a public assembly and what seems to me like adding more steps in for approval to disperse a crowd um that's the piece I'm trying to understand what what additional problem that is solving um in working with different I'm going to do my best to your council member and working with a variety of stakeholders including uh our government partners experience has shown us that MPD will argue that restrictions on policing at First Amendment assemblies don't apply if they determine the assembly as a riot so when you're you have tried to talk through your three different buckets right earlier so trying to outline clearly what are the expectations and then what are the authorizations per each bucket and in which action and police powers that map with those is the UN is the underlying rationale to have each one clearly defined got you okay well thank you so much um I appreciate you walking me through some of that I guess I I still am just a little bit concerned with um the very different high pressure high tense situations that are presented every day um and the layers of approvals that are sometimes included in some of these decisions and kind of if that would present a a risk in certain limited environments but thank you I pretty I do want to make sure it's clear so you don't leave the conversation feeling there's not this space the bill allows MPD to take more immediate actions when there is a risk of violence so in the hypotheticals you gave a a group of individuals that are on a sidewalk if if the decision is that's just a public assembly and I want to disperse that there's no risk of violence it's just a group of people then that's why you have the standards set at having a lieutenant be able to authorize that the law very clearly states though that if there's a that same group of people and then now the determination is that there is a risk of violence MPD is able to take much more immediate actions right away not have to wait for some type of chain of uh command structure when there's a risk of violence so I don't want you to be left from this conversation feeling that when there's a risk of violence somehow there there's not action that's able to be taken we need to move on uh Is there further council member Henderson and then Lewis George um thank you Mr chairman I um I have a question uh councilmember Allen about your verbal amendment in in terms of what is the difference between a First Amendment assembly and any other public assembly I'm just curious in terms of why that distinction needed to be made in working with uh law enforcement and working with all the different stakeholders here we want to within the law clearly Define what a riot is clearly Define what a First Amendment assembly is and then Define what is a public assembly other other assembly essentially um and the oral amendment is trying to get at what um was raised of it I what I think is probably an extreme hypothetical but trying to make sure that we're very we provide Crystal Clarity that when we say other assembly we couldn't somehow interpret uh if all of us were hanging out in your living room that that somehow could be qualified inside your home as an other assembly but it's got to be in other public assembly and so that's why the oral Amendment adds in the word public is to make sure it's very clear we're not talking about private space okay I think it's a pretty extreme hypothetical but understand we want we're talking about people's Liberty so we want to be very clear and that's why the oral Amendment tries to get at that Crystal Clarity of adding the word public to make sure um us gathering in your living room could not be considered an other assembly that NPD could somehow come in to disperse okay um I appreciate that clarification I I will say because I have the minute here and that we're talking about Riot and I know you said we have a clear definition of riot I don't think it's actually still clear um but I understand how we got to where we are in terms of I brought this up I guess when this bill came up for first reading or in the committee of the whole I can't even remember whenever that was it was probably two weeks ago but hard to say um is that um I believe um the criminal code provision commission as you know you know made it made a recommendation to do a different definition we didn't take that and so um I I hope that is something that we can perhaps consider separately in a conversation in the next Council period thank you Mr chairman thank you councilmember Henderson comes from Lewis George and then councilmember bonds my hand wasn't enough I was just moving my way okay councilmember bonds thank you chairman um and to uh my colleague I'm I wanted to know exactly what you were saying First Amendment assembly and what it is so you've given us a definition of that but there is I see a larger issue when we talk about assemblies on sidewalks um in community where you end up with a group of 30 people or thereabouts to the neighborhood it looks like and a simile that could turn into more more noise um taking away the opportunity to walk on the sidewalk and so I'm just wondering how do you see that is that something that leads to a First Assembly right or is it just other until something happens and an individual who is not in the assembly tries to walk by and maybe they're pushed or shoved sure um try my best here okay let me know let me know if I don't think I get that question every now and then so DC code defines a First Amendment assembly as a demonstration rally parade March picket line or other similar Gathering conducted for the purpose of persons expressing their political social or religious views so when we take a step back a First Amendment assembly and a riot sit on two ends of the spectrum when it comes to public gatherings First Amendment assemblies are Gatherings that are going to have some type of social literary artistic political value that transformed them into something deserving that constitutional protection that we want to create riots are going to be Gatherings that involve some type of public lawlessness that do not deserve that special protection what we want to be careful of is this category that falls somewhere in between those two Gatherings which are the public gatherings and that's where we want to make sure there's there is Clarity because we don't want to do is have a situation when MPD says well that was neither a First Amendment assembly nor was it a riot and so therefore there are no restrictions uh to what their engagement can be so we TR so that is why the law is trying to make sure that it is very clear based on where you are in the spectrum that there is clarity for the public then there's Clarity for MPD about what are the the restrictions the authorizations and then the actions that can be taken as well as what are the rights that have to be protected for that type of gathering and so you your what you're describing is a situation the other public gathering is the situation where the officers must check in with a lieutenant someone at a higher level and give that individual a description of what they are seeing or witnessing or a part of and therefore receive back instruction as to how to handle it uh if they are going to be giving a dispersal order so in other words they are breaking up what is otherwise a group of people that are in a public assembly we take that seriously because we want to be able to protect your rights to be able to gather in a public setting so I don't want the rookie officer that's been on the ground for six six months to be able to make that decision about dispersing a public assembly you want to have a lieutenant who can help make sure that they're they've gone through more training they've got more experience and they can help make that authorization is is the root of um of why that language is there okay and so when a neighbor in that Community calls the police and they say I'm I'm fearful I've tried to walk through and I don't think they're going to let me through how do we handle that so in in again we're dealing with hypotheticals so yeah try to make sure I understand the hypothetical but in that hypothetical what I believe what you're describing is actually in commoding the sidewalk okay we have a group of people who are blocking the sidewalk it's 30 people though it's a huge crowd well the if there's 30 people that are incoming a sidewalk or 10 people encoding a sidewalk they're in commoding a sidewalk and that can be a crime it would be a misdemeanor if they choose to charge that but it is difficult to go through every hypothetical you know because obviously the facts on the ground on the on each Case by case are going to be a little bit different but if an officer were to Res to come up on the on 30 people on a sidewalk um they could absolutely if they believe that that is a public gathering they could then check with and they'd need to check with a lieutenant and offer a dispersal order and then take the steps necessary before they ever got to any type of action of saying we now are going to move towards a misdemeanor criminal charge of implementing a sidewalk and that's probably the way you'd want it to work out right is that an officer would give if that determination got made would be able to give a dispersal order rather than go straight to um yeah creating criminal interactions yeah I just want the public to hear that and understand um the constraints that we're under thank you thank you thank you I've allowed folks to go a little bit over because the importance of the legislative record is there anything further on this bill what's that don't forget don't don't I'm calling you I'm afraid to call on you um all right we have the bill before us I think we have the amendment nature of substitute before us a Voice vote on the amendment nature of a substitute all those in favor say aye aye are there any opposed please record me as voting no Mr chairman yes um and the imagination of a substitute uh it's approved with council member Pinto no voting no we have the bill is amended before us uh let me remind folks for two amendments there's the nature substitute which was just approved and then the oral Amendment to uh three lines in the bill is there discussion on the bill House member Lewis strike uh thank you I want to thank my colleague councilmember Allen and the staff of the Judiciary Committee for their diligent work on this bill over the past two and a half years I also want to thank the police Reform Commission The Advocates and all the community members who have been leading the way on structural change that will build two two-way streams or trust with law enforcement um and it's only through trust that we can achieve true Community safety uh public trust comes in many forms and is demonstrated in many ways the bill before us today helps create necessary safeguards of the district police operations and hold accountable officers who break protocol or otherwise fracture the public Trust last year on the heels of of the violent Collision that claimed the life of Ward 4 Resident Quran Hilton Brown I introduced a bill to prohibit MPD from engaging in the kinds of vehicular Pursuits that led to this unnecessary death vehicular Pursuits are far more likely to end in death and destruction than apprehension which is why M why mpd's current policy has long prohibited them except in rare and extreme circumstances and yet a clear pattern remains wrongful chases occur every year in our city as evidence by our government repeatedly settling for millions in Damages even in the best case scenarios when lives are not lost as my ward braces forward verdict in the Quran Hilton case this week I am relieved to know that a small part of the trust and accountability that our community needs to see from MVD will be formally codified today as we vote to make it easier to hold offices accountable for serious and deadly use of force involving vehicular Pursuit tactics and passing this legislation we are doing our part to save the lives of District residents and MPD officers and prevent the hardship grief and communal trauma that follow dangerous and unnecessary vehicular Pursuits I am also particularly grateful that the committee chose to include in this Omnibus package the MPD bias assessment legislations for myself and council member Robert White I wish these measures didn't need to exist but white supremacy in the district police force appears to be book ending this Council period we started Council period 24 with an Insurrection at the Capitol and during our marathon meeting the other week yet another shocking and embarrassing story broke of members publicly heckling their fellow officer as he received a gold star for his historic service at the Capitol there is no room for our police force for office who are hateful and bigoted ideologies let alone who act on them I think our force will be better off for confronting the uncomfortable and our city will be safer too uh there is also far too much far too much else in this bill to lift up and praise and I'm already getting close to time but I also need to know there are also Provisions where I think we could have gone farther to honor more of the recommendations of the police Reform Commission and advice that should be heated from the Judiciary on balance however uh 30 more seconds please chairman without objection on balance however I support where this bill ended but as with all legislation I think we should keep an open mind about further revisions as we see the policies take effect in real time our Focus must always remain on weather and how trust and safety are Advanced by Provisions in the legislation and if changes become necessary to better achieve these goals then I look forward to working on them with my colleagues and with Community stakeholders thank you again councilmember Allen for your leadership today over this Council period to move our city forward and create a safe trusted and impactful MPD and thank you again to your amazing committee staff thank you thank you councilmember Lewis George further on the bill uh we have the bill as amended before us this is Bill 24-320 Madam Secretary would you call the roll please councilmember Henderson yes that's number Henderson votes yes customer believes George yes I'm from Lewis George folks yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes councilman Adele votes yes councilmember Pinto yes remember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes I'm Robert Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes remember Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran White yes councilmember Allen yes that's remember Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes remember bonds votes yes council member Shea yes number Shea votes yes councilmember gray yes I remember gray votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bill has approved unanimously we will turn to build 24-830 protecting health professionals providing reproductive Health Care Amendment Act of 2022 this was reported on command health so it councilmember gray if you would move the bill and then there's an amendment by you and councilmember Robert White so move Mr chairman and uh who's moving the amendment I believe I um Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman I was proud to introduce this legislation as part of the district government's Collective push to ensure that the Nationwide Crackdown on abortion rights has this few negative consequences as possible for the people of the district the Supreme Court's dot decision raised the concerning possibility that other states might start revoking health professional licenses simply because licensees provide a type of care that we recognize as valid and vital under current law if someone with a license from another state also has a DC license our local boards have to treat a foreign disciplinary action as possible grounds for additional disciplinary action in DC we don't want that for abortion I appreciate councilmember gray and his team for holding a hearing on this legislation and making some great changes at markup as we were getting ready for the first reading we noticed that one of the changes DC health recommended didn't fully reflect the intent of the bill so councilmember gray and I prepared an amendment reverting that change and ensuring all the behavior is protected that we intended uh I circulated and filed the amendment yesterday and I moved that Amendment now Mr chairman thank you councilmember white uh we have the amendment before us is there discussion there's no discussion I will ask if there's any objection there's no objection the new member is approved and I don't hear any objection the amendment is approved uh we have the bill as amended before us is there discussion uh the vote will be on Bill 24-830 as amended Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilman Lewis George yes yes councilman believes George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman mendelsohn yes Cameron mendels and votes yes councilman Adele yes I'm corbinado votes yes councilmember Pinto yes remember Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes customer Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes council member Treyon white yes from betray on white votes yes councilmember Allen yes I'm from Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes Alhambra bonds votes yes councilmember Che yes amate votes yes councilmember Gray yes remember gray votes yes council member Henderson yes that's remember Henderson votes yes Mr chairman they are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bills approved unanimously the next item is Bill 24-63 the second chance Amendment Act of 2022. councilmember Allen thank you very much Mr chairman um I'm not going to speak to the underlying bill again but to the amendment in the nature of a substitute that I circulated yesterday the ANS makes four main changes in addition to a number of more minor drafting changes the ANS first creates a process for the government to ensure that individuals are actually automatic expungement at the Office of the Attorney General's request second it streamlines the court processes and sets a timeline for orders to expunge or seal to be issued within 180 days at several stakeholders request third it includes additional sex offenses for which automatic ceiling is unavailable in alignment with the perspectives of the government and several victims Advocates who testify to the committee's hearing and fourth it allows the courts to consider the government's position if any in by motion ceiling at the request of the U.S attorney I think these are all reasonable amendments that improve upon the committee print substantially and in terms of process I believe that we have an amendment uh momentarily from councilor Henderson that I'll accept is friendly but otherwise let me move the ANS at this time thank you councilmember uh we have the Amendment nature of a substitute before us councilmember Henderson do you want to be recognized um yes Mr chairman but my amendment is to the amendment and the nature of a substitute so should we move the ANS first and then I offer my Amendment after that uh we could do that all right so is there discussion on the amendment nature of a substitute uh we'll do a Voice vote on this on the amendment of substitute all those in favor say aye aye aye aye opposed uh the amendment nature of substitute is approved unanimously councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman um I have an amendment that was circulated at 2 25 pm today um the amendment would clarify that the expungement eligibility for individuals convicted of simple um marijuana possession offenses this change ensures that the intent of the bill the automatic expungement of any criminal records of simple possession of marijuana prior to the enactment of um initiative 71 is achieved um the original drafting of the bills specifically mentioned quantities of marijuana so you know I think for everyone who's been paying attention when we passed initiative 71 we decriminalized possession of two ounces or less of marijuana the issue that was raised um by D.C Justice lab as well as the courts is that many records held by the courts do not contain the information about the quantity of cannabis and so the court in litigants cannot tell from the record itself whether or not it would qualify as decriminalized conduct and therefore eligible for expungement so um by a small tweak in the language we ensure that um the court and litigants can better implement this law um which was the overall goal in terms of streamlining the ability for people to um either seal or expunge their records so moved on this amendment or hopefully it's friendly uh councilmember Anderson you indicated that it was circulated around 225. I have a version circulated 1226. um the uh full packet was circulated at 225 to include the fists and legal sufficiency okay so what I have is not correct the text did not change okay um is there discussion on the amendment I think I said it before but uh just make it clear to my colleagues uh except this is friendly appreciate councilman Henderson working with me today on this so let me ask if there is uh any objection to the amendment there's no objection and it will be uh accepted and I don't hear any objections so it's accepted thank you so we have uh the bill as amended by councilmember Henderson and by the amendment nature of a substitute Is there further discussion um Mr chairman yes councilmember Henderson just further overall um I I want to thank um councilmember Allen and his staff in particular Kate Mitchell who worked on this legislation um I introduced another bill the restore act that um was also aligned with this in terms of wanting to streamline the process for record-sealing expungement to make it simple for folks as opposed to the convoluted laws that we had in place which I think um you know colleagues would say it was a bit convoluted in that we just rewrote all of our criminal code as well um everything that everyone wanted wasn't achieved and I think someone said earlier today that might mean that you know well not only that compromises were made but that also um this is a strong bill um that I do think that is going to impact the lives of a lot of District residents um once it's implemented I do want to acknowledge um the concerns raised by the courts um and I recognize that we have this very interesting relationship that very many jurisdictions don't have with our court system and that um you know they're federally funded and and those kinds of things and so we can't even add the additional supports necessary to help in terms of implementation but um I think councilmember Allen mentioned in terms of when this is implemented we have a we have a little bit of a Runway here and so I hope that we can continue to work with the courts to work out some of the implementation challenges um that are um here that being said we also recognize that sometimes there might be some ideological differences in terms of um automatic ceiling versus automatic expungement Etc but overall um I'm very proud to support this legislation today and I'm glad that we got here um in terms of moving this product forward so thank you chairman Allen um and to your staff who worked on this especially Kate thank you thank you um I can't remember where we are so we're on second second chance any further discussion uh the vote will be on build 24-63 Madam Secretary would you call the roll I also remember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron mendelton votes yes councilmember Bernardo yes remember nadeaux votes yes councilmember Pinto yes former Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes councilman Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran white yes remember Treyon white votes yes councilmember Allen yes remember Allen votes yes councilmember bondsman yes remember bonds votes yes councilmember Shea yes amateur votes yes councilmember Gray yes I remember great votes yes councilmember Henderson yes council member Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes Dr Lewis George votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bill is approved unanimously on Final reading Bill 24-760 Omnibus firearm and ghost gun clarification Amendment Act of 2022 councilmember Allen thank you very much Mr chairman Bill 24-760 clarifies and strengthens the district's Firearms laws including our ban on ghost guns and the restrictions for when off-duty Law Enforcement Officers can carry firearms I'm moving an amendment in the nature of a substitute that my staff developed in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General ANS is largely clarifying in nature it removes duplicative or unnecessary provisions and ensures a language within the bill is more internally consistent the bill makes one substantive change with respect to which types of law enforcement officers are generally exempt from the district's firearm laws to include state law enforcement officers from another jurisdiction who enter the district government in Hot Pursuit of a fleeing suspect the bill also repeals a pending temporary Bill to avoid a potential conflict once the permanent Bill takes effect thank you very much Mr chairman and with that I move the ANS thank you we have the amendment nature of a substitute before us is there discussion uh by a Voice vote on the amendment nature to substitute all those in favor say aye aye aye aye are there any no votes uh the amendment is approved we have the bill as amended before us as a discussion the vote will be on Bill 24-760 Madam Secretary would you call the role chairman Mendelson yes chairman mendelton votes yes councilman Bernadette yes I'm from Benito votes yes councilmember Pinto customer Pinto vote snow councilmember Silverman yes I'm from the Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes customer Robert White votes yes councilman betray on right yes I'm from patreon White votes yes councilmember Allen yes I'm talking about Alan votes yes councilmember bonds yes yes I'm from Jay votes yes councilmember Gray yes that's one of the great votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilman McDuffie votes yes Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one now thank you Madam Secretary the bill was approved on Final reading Bill 24-1089 Howard University property tax exemption clarification Amendment Act of 2022 council member McDuffie thank you Mr chairman um know the building would also like to speak to an amendment uh that I like to move at this time please uh the amendment that has been circulated um creates Clarity and Conformity with the language elsewhere in the legislation regarding the permitted uses of the property to be exempt from taxation uh it's also will require the refunding of transfer and liquidation taxes as well as real property taxes paid prior to the effective date of this legislation so with that I moved the BLS amended uh well we'll take the amendment first if there's no objection to the amendment is there or any discussion about the amendment there's no no objection and the amendment is accepted it is accepted uh we have the bill as amended is there discussion the Volvo BM Bill 24-1089 Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilman Adele yes councilman beneduel votes yes councilmember Pinter yes former Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes council member Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes remember Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran white yes councilman by Alan yes welcome Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes Obama bonds votes yes councilmember Shea yes I remember Chef votes yes councilmember Gray yes one of the gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes remember Henderson votes yes comes from Lewis George yes I can't believe it's George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bills approved unanimously on Final reading the next measure is Bill 24-838 restoring trust and credibility to forensic Sciences Amendment Act of 2022 council member Allen thank you very much Mr chair uh I have two amendments I could move them both in block or one at a time which would you prefer I'd prefer that you first move the bill well I can move the bill so moved and then would you like me to move the amendments in block or one at a time um in Block unless there's objection fantastic let's do it amendment number one would require the laboratory to post all internal validation studies and all data generated during the studies in the Laboratories website internal validation studies our internal tests run by a laboratory to ensure that data interpretation methods perform as expected basically it's a dry run to see if the methodology arrives at the right answer according to the National Institute of Standards and technology in the U.S Department of Commerce there is not enough publicly available data to perform external and independent assessments the degree of reliability of DNA mixture interpretation practices nist recommended a forensic Laboratories make their underlying validation data publicly available so that the validity of the data methods can be properly evaluated requiring the release of internal validation studies and underlying data will further promote transparency in the Laboratories forensic Sciences services and ensure the laboratory's data interpretation methods perform as expected to address concerns over the release of personal identifying information being associated with the DNA or other biometric profiles the laboratory will be able to conceal the names of the individuals who submitted samples for use in the studies I want to thank interim director Christino and the public defender service for their assistance in moving this amendment forward in amendment number two would require the laboratory to design Implement and maintain an electronic system that would facilitate access to records pertaining to a criminal prosecution the bill currently requires that both the prosecution and the defense have equal access to Laboratories records at the Bill's hearing we heard about the importance of Discovery parity with one witness in particular the head of the Houston forensic Sciences Forensic Science Center emphasizing that it is one of several key factors that shape the lab's success it's my understanding that DFS is already considering setting up an external user system but this amendment would require DFS to set it up as a mechanism to ensure that both the prosecution and defense have equal access to records this amendment also requires a laboratory to issue rules that address access to the electronic system by both the prosecution and defense this future rulemaking will provide a a robust opportunity for the agency's stakeholders and customers to come forward and work with the agency to address potential issues like the mechanics of accessing the system and potential redactions any future rulemaking would be required to undergo a 45-day period of review by the council as well thank you Mr chairman and I move both amendments and block thank you a customer Allen this is our discussion on the amendments uh Mr Allen I have a question for you on amendment number two on the second page the last line of the amendment it says shall issue rules pro-scribing access to records should that be prescribing if I'm hearing an oral Amendment uh of striking the word prescribing to replace with prescribing that's that is acceptable to me sure uh well it's not an oral it's just a clarification so um General counselor you got it to the language is prescribing um discussion from others if there's no objection the two amendments will be accepted not hearing any objections so the two amendments are accepted uh we have the bill as amended before us discussions uh the vote will be on Bill 24-838 as amended uh Madam Secretary would you call the rule councilmember Pinto yes former pencil votes yes councilmember Silverman yes councilmember Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes councilmember Tran white yes President White votes yes councilmember Allen yes councilmember bonds yes council member Shea yes yes councilmember Gray yes remember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes that's remember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes Cameron mendelsohn yes Emma Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadal yes and so I'm going to do a votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses thank you Madam Secretary the bill is amended as approved unanimously on Final reading the next item is Bill 24-924 protecting adjacent and adjoining property owners from construction damage Amendment Act of 2022 so moved I have an amendment the amendment was circulated um the amendment to remind myself the amendment does several things uh and I'm actually going to orally revise the amendment so let me read the rationale the amendment does three things first it clarifies that the insurance requirements will only apply to permits issued 30 days or more after publication of final rule second it adds definitions for the terms adjacent property and adjoining property to provide greater Clarity to permit applicants reviewers and insurance companies provide greater Clarity to permanent applicants reviewers and insurance companies third it requires the mayor to consider standard construction rates I.E coverage from at least six insurance providers licensed and registered in the district during rulemaking this should ensure that the rates established pursuant to rulemaking are not inconsistent with current practices in the construction industry and when I say rates I think that means the same as coverage we're not talking about the premiums themselves the oral amendment that I'm making which actually has already been sure that general counsel is uh as circulated it said shall only apply to permits issued 90 days or more and this says uh shall be apply only to permits issued 30 days after and then also inserting the words the adoption of emergency or final rules issued by the mayor um this this oral amendment is a result of the conversation with the director direct Department director earlier today we expressed concern to waiting for the final rulemaking uh could be quite time consuming and there's anxiousness in the department to have this effective as quickly as possible we did not want the um new insurance requirements to apply to existing projects for which which are already underway um and so to provide some certainty we have 30 days now not 90 days but after the adoption of emergency or final rules so that um the mayor or the department can act quickly but there's still some certainty to um any the community that might be uh seeking permits so if there's no objection the oral will be accepted and if there's no objection then the written as amended by the aura will be accepted I'm not hearing any objection uh so that's all accepted is there a discussion on the bill is amended vote will be on Bill 24-924 Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilmember Silverman yes that's remember Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes councilmember Trey on white yes that's what I'm betray on my boats yes councilmember Allen yes welcome to Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes husband yes councilmember yes councilmember Gray yes Robert gray votes yes council member Henderson yes okay Henderson votes yes comes from Lewis George yes that's from Lewis George votes yes council member McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron mendels and votes yes council member in the jail yes votes yes Transformer Pinto councilmember Pinto councilmember Pinto will be recorded as absent Mr chairman there are 12 yeses and one absent uh the bills approved unanimously and final reading the next measure is built 24-228 Fair meals delivery Act of 2022 councilmember McDuffie so moved I believe we have an amendment from councilmember Che I'll recognize councilmember J I'm not sure what amendment you're referring to run Fair meals delivery no as I mentioned I was I was true that Amendment there were two parts to it but you said I should speak to councilmember McDuffie about the first part and about whether it was actually covered by the language of the bill um and it's sufficiently covered so um I I've withdrawn the amendment and um but actually this gives me the opportunity to say that these delivery services should should understand that this drip pricing or however it's referred to is not welcome and that they should be transparent and disclose fees as people go along and select items for purchase and delivery but I have no manage thank you I was unaware that it had been withdrawn but so there's no amendment being moved is there any further discussion regarding this bill I'm not hearing any discussion the vote will be on build 24-228 uh Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilmember Robert White yes councilmember Tran white yes awesome but Tran white votes yes councilmember Allen yes that's remember Allen both yes council member bonds yes councilmember Barnes votes yes councilmember Shea yes that's one but she votes yes councilmember Gray yes councilmember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes I'm from Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes comes from Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes that's right McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron Mendelson votes yes councilmanado yes councilmember Pinto yes and so votes yes that's wonderful Silverman yes Transformers Silverman votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses uh the bill uh the bill is approved unanimously on Final reading there's no objection I'm going to go back to the previous Bill Bill 24-924 move to reconsider so that there could be a vote again with all members present I'm hearing no objection it's before us uh I think Bill is this chairman what's that councilmember white a little bit like you reconsidering for a full vote we'll build is that bill 24-924 it's a bill we just finished previous to this okay and I think we could probably do a Voice vote since we uh did a roll call uh so the vote is on Bill 24-924 protecting adjacent and joining Property Owners from construction damage Amendment acts of 2022 which was amended so there's no further change here but this is just taking the vote of sector Time by a Voice vote all those in favor of the bill say aye opposed I don't see or hear any no votes the eyes have it Madam Secretary I believe all members are present yes Mr chairman uh the bills approved unanimously um we will go back to item before we go to the temporary legislation we will go back to item six Elizabeth's East parcel 13 Surplus declaration and disposition approval Act of 2022. um this is Bill 24-466 it was reported out of the committee on facility operations and Facilities chaired by Robert White and the committee on business and economic development shared by council member Kenya McDuffie whom I recognizing to move the bill don't all speak up at once so moved Natasha's moved the bill discussion yes chairman yes councilmember uh command line thank you uh so today I want to speak on Apostle 13 um this position at the Saint Elizabeth campus where the government is selling this possible for one dollar for 99 years uh we are essentially using taxpayers dollars and we have to be responsible we must make sure that we are using the using the best interest and being getting a bang for our buck for our residents not just been in Ward 8 but across the city we are doing we are doing what four deals today for a dollar uh and DC has had a history of neglecting a poor and working class in our city which now we are what we call a housing crisis it has been reflected in the order that came out that shows the misuse of funds for the housing production production trust fund especially for those lower income earners in our city to continue to do this is irresponsible and creates ethics concerns uh brown and black people in DC are in a deeper housing crisis we are forced to move out and we know that laws one bedrooms and two bedrooms are simply not enough we're getting calls every day in my office about people needing three bedrooms four bedrooms and just not just not able to get it even with a voucher um and so we it's this these type of housing programs are not working for everybody in our city on this particular project I was hopeful to work with the developer um they said they would change the uh affordability levels um in which I got something yesterday where they just added three bedrooms and so thank you for that but I think uh the zero to thirty percent Ami was only was less than five and a 400 unit building in which this project got additional is getting additional 19.6 million dollars from our government that's a win-win you get a property for a dollar and then turn around say yeah but I need another 19.6 million dollars any family in this in DC can win with that type of uh leverage and money going to any bank and so I'm concerned about what we are doing and I'll be being fiscally responsible to our residence um this this type of leadership and an executive and on the council is social engineering gentrification um one of the other issues I have with this project was about the development team um which was a team that started uh in Virginia and in 1977 one company in 1986 and have merged to start a company in DC in 2018 to uh become a DC business but the last property they did in Ward 8 at St Louis property had uh air and water seeking Through the Windows the entire basement flooding in some of the buildings uh mice infestation uh the HVAC system went out several times in the building we talking about a building that hasn't been remodeled that less than five years ago so what's going to happen to the building in 15 or 20 years the same general contractor and so we have to ensure that we about it oversight that we are doing our due diligence uh with this money uh I'm concerned about this I vote I asked my colleagues to vote no until we come out to the table with something that works for all residents uh of the district and make sure we are doing uh what we supposed to that's right for our residents because if not we're selling our city out and our city is looking like we're selling at her as a cheap hoe and so we have to stop uh giving our land away and make sure we're doing in the best interest of all residents in District of Columbia so I also have an amendment chairman to this bill hope those on the diets can support the amendment today thank you uh thank you customer Tran white um are you moving the amendment at this time yes chairman all right we have the amendment before us I'm going to speak first before I turn to colleagues I just want to say this I you know my my sense sitting on this um sitting at some distance from what's been going on with this legislation is that there are objections that have been have come late to the process and that have caught the two committee chairs by surprise and that's never a good thing and I know that there is deference often given to Ward members but it's important as part of our process that we hear what concerns are early enough in the process they can be worked out rather than when the bill comes to the full Council but I would add this as well you know it sounds great to say that this is outrageous to be unloading District land for one dollar I mean that just sounds horrible but why don't we look at what the financials are in this project we don't know I don't know what the costs are I assume the Committees looked at what the costs were of building the housing and also of subsidizing the housing there is a component that is Affordable you know we would all like that every project on District government land be a hundred percent affordable we'd even like it to be 100 deeply affordable but there's a cost to that and it may be that the cost for the affordability component is in the buy down of the land value it's an equation and its equation has got to add up to a profit margin not a huge profit margin but a profit margin for the developer that is how development Works in this city is that it is a public-private partnership it is not the district government building the housing it's the district government relying on the private sector to build the housing and we don't want them to make lots of money we don't want a huge profit margin and but there has to be some so there's the cost of the lenders the cost of the construction there's the cost of buying the affordability for whatever length of time there is for the project and I don't know offhand what that is but I do know that that's in a pro forma and the performer is what I assume the committee's looked at to see whether it was reasonable the profitability so it is great rhetoric to talk about how outrageous it is to buy it down for a dollar but let's look at the rest of the equation first and whether in fact this is reasonable from an economic perspective uh council member just another councilmember white you've you've spoken uh others are in order council member Robert White uh thank you Mr chairman uh I want to thank councilmember white for his uh amendment I do want to uh just take some um I want to clear the air a little bit about this this notion of the council engaging in Social Engineering uh as this bill and other dispositions come through my committee which councilmember white sits on um we have a law uh in place that the council pass that dictates the amount of affordable housing we make sure every bill goes through that we challenge every single development project in relation to the law and when I don't like the outcome if it complies with the law I work to create legislation to address it which I have introduced uh now there is a reason that we uh lease out property for a dollar a year in order to build affordable housing and members May sometimes not like the amount of affordable housing and our support members and their Awards trying to working to get more affordable housing but I don't want to be party to to this notion of engaging in Social Engineering we do evaluate these projects we do look at the appraisals there are independent appraisals for these projects and we have the committee has run its own appraisals so I support what council member Tran white is is is working to do here that do not support the notion that my committee is participating in any social engineering thank you chairman thank you councilman Roy councilman Lindo thank you chairman um I know this is an issue that people are very passionate about um and I just I I think when my colleague uh councilmember Trey and white was making his remarks he may have accidentally used a phrase that was derogatory towards women I think we could just ask that that be stricken from the record oh there's no nothing related to women I know where you get that from okay well then maybe we misheard you and we can keep it moving yes I think we'll keep it moving but thank you for noting that and the record will reflect that uh concern about the Quorum customer McDuffie yeah I want to just add you know to the extent um there's a goal of constructing more affordable housing in the District of Columbia particularly with an emphasis on deeply affordable housing on supported um and I don't know I don't want to get lost in this conversation about this project the fact that there aren't any allegations that people didn't comply with with the law here um the the law lays out what's required when these rfps are let and the responses should comply with the law and I you know when it comes to the committee on business thinking on development and specifically the disposition of public land we are asking those questions about compliance with the law and the level of Engagement was fairly robust here um I look at the the record in in the testimony and think about the number of meetings that occurred and the opportunities to to raise these issues and then uh to hear the hearing that their support are generally for it it leads to a decision as a committee chair to to move these measures out of committee when you when you get that type of support both from the ward council member and uh folks throughout the community uh I regret that we're at this point today uh because I my understanding and my feeling is that we have been both sensitive and thoughtful to any input that we've gotten as a committee uh from people in the community as well as you know ANC Commissioners Civic leadership and and council members and the reason that I'm comfortable supporting this that is not because it hits on every single goal that we should have as a city to preserve existing affordable housing or to build more affordable housing but we did follow a process that provided I think sufficient opportunity for people to uh contribute feedback that may have informed the process and yet here we are today and and this project does have the 30 affordable well other people like the the formula uh and the makeup of the the unit sizes or how affordable it is it is 30 affordable between all the units that are affordable 126 of them between zero and fifty percent 32 at 30 percent mfi and 94 at 50 MI5 out of a total of 421 units and there was a meeting on March 28 2018 June 29 2019 May 12 2020 June 3rd 2020 July 15 2020 October 7 2020 December 20th 2020 March 4th 2021 October 29 2021 December 6 2021 December 6 2021 two different meetings with two council members Robert White and Trail right and then December 11 2021 on January 11th of this year there was a meeting with me in my office and my staff and then updates at ANC 8C on January 20th 2022 before we got to you know where we are in terms of markup and first reading in the day and so I just wanted to make sure that people were informed by that and and in my commitment to continue to work with council member trayon white because I definitely think your goals are Audible and I do not object to what you're saying I just think that it is it is in the right uh mode to move this forward today because of everything that we've done to get to this point so I wish there was a way to work this out and obviously I think you tried I tried I think customer Rob Wright has also tried to see if we can work it out um to to make sure we had your support today and councilman um thank you thank you very much um to to all who've been involved in this discussion I I really believe that this is the time that I must say that when we think about housing and housing affordability when we think about the Committees I think we're beginning to see it's kind of scattered all over the place but when the public sees the word housing as a part of a committee they think that's where I can go and that's where I need to be the business Community understands a little differently and they go to to three different locations my point is I think as we strive for improvements um at our Council level we've got to consider how we construct our committees and how the Committees really work for the community that's utilizing our committees and so I just want to I feel strongly I need to put that on the record as someone who has chaired the housing committee concerned with housing affordability for the past eight years and I can tell you sometimes um people are very lost in this process and then we get the concerns expressed in this manner and I think once we have an opportunity to put all of uh services that are provided as it relates to housing together at least maybe we need a conference committee process I think we would get a better product and we all would understand how our dollars are really being spent thank you chairman uh thank you councilmember bonds um I want to ask a question we have the amendment before us I want to ask a question of our budget director um my understanding is that you've prepared a fiscal impact statement that this amendment doesn't have a direct cost but it might have implications it could cost a district could you explain correct I'll I'll read the paragraph from the fiscal impact statement and then I can expand if necessary the office of the budget director was unable to review the project pro forma to determine how the change in unit Nix and mfi would affect the Project's Financial feasibility these changes could create a financing Gap in the Project funding plan that would need to be resolved prior to commencement of construction however there is no impact on the district's budget and financial plan because there's no obligation on the district to cure any financing Gap that may materialize due to this amendment so basically a change of this nature um impacting the level of affordability and impacting the unit mix um which would the level of affordability would reduce the um revenue or the income stream from the building as would the change in the unit mix because there's less Revenue per square foot from larger units as opposed to smaller units I mean it's a it's it's a calculus that um is not something that can just sort of be figured out on the fly but it could create a gap that um could prohibit or prevent the project from commencing until that financing Gap is filled uh thank you madam budget director uh councilman McDuffie second round yeah man x to the second round you want to go before Mr McDuffie no you didn't cheer just make sure you know I'm here all right Mr White second round yes thank you um I won the X the budget director is it clear that she mentioned I tried to write it down that there's no impact on the district financial plan is that accurate there is no obligation for the district to fill any financing Gap that would be created um due to a change in the um unit mix um or mfi structure so yes there is no impact to the financial plan however I can't say that there wouldn't be a financial impact to the project itself yeah but that's separate from the financial plan thank you I guess I was just trying to figure out what perspective Our obligation uh anytime you change a formula for building a project to change the finances we we are aware that I think that one of the statements that was used as to what I said was blatant rhetoric and and I in that um I didn't understand where that was coming from because it seemed like to me that what was stated was a generalized statement about affordable housing a formula without any details about this specific project but I do want to State some specifics to give Clarity um originally proposed was 421 units and of that it was only 32 deeply affordable housing um and in total uh it was 126 total affordable housing of the 421 units that we are disposing for a dollar um and then turning around giving this project another 19.6 million dollars in a housing crisis where poor people need housing in the city and our working class and not just in water but all over the city um it was also said that we have a law that administered this process we also know that uh that Kathy Patterson's office issue the audit because we were not in compliance with the law and I had to rewrite the law it was passed through uh Anita bonds committee uh because we were out of compliance with affordability levels for the housing production trust fund and so if we're going to say what it is let's say what it really is across the board that these ideas that's happening and it's not in mind with all people we talking about it was no three bedrooms there originally we did get a proposal yesterday they had three bedrooms yesterday but uh it's still not enough in this area with the need and we're basically giving this land away oh thank you councilmember councilmember McDuffie second round you know Mr chairman I think I think the record is is sufficient to go to a vote and I I wanted to thank the budget director you know just for speaking about uh the the numbers associated with the amendment um you know again we can we can pay for more affordable housing and I think this council is committed to doing that um the mayor has sent down you know uh a tremendous amount of money for the house of induction trust fund the council has supported it in many cases we've actually increased the amount uh that has been going into the housing production trust fund uh not to suggest there any any issues with with hbtf but the 19 million you mentioned is likely the cost it will come from thousands of stuff and trust fund to help build the affordable that's in the current affordability and mix of programming that you just outlined council member which is you know of the 421 units 126 would be affordable um with um deeply affordable 32 units and 94 units at 50 percent mfi so I just you know I again I'm not I'm not objecting to the concerns that you're raising I just think you know everybody needs to understand you know the process that we've laid out the the way that we do hearings and the time frame in which I think it's best to try to negotiate some of these things and then simply the cost associated with constructing more affordable housing and where we are constructing this deeply affordable housing in these larger family units and and I would um suggest that we should be more thoughtful about where these things are being built so that we are Distributing the opportunities to families to live across the District of Columbia uh in quality safe affordable housing and not simply uh constructing that in the same places that we've done historically where uh governments before us long before us have concentrated uh poverty and disadvantage in certain communities which has made it difficult for them to really Thrive like thank you councilmember councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I want to ask a killer refined question um in terms of the amendment and I don't necessarily know who the appropriate person is here if it's the budget office or the general counselor or Mr McDuffie or Mr White but um because I I did in our last break get some clarity in terms of how are we adjusting bedroom sizes um in this particular disposition when in others we haven't been able to amend it it's either vote for it or don't vote for it and my understanding is that because the executive sent this over as a bill it can be amended in this way but the question that I have though is just in like do we have any understanding here of what this amendment would do in terms of whether or not the project moves forward or not I don't want anyone to have the Assumption here that we are not um in favor of apartments and homes for families three bedrooms Etc but I also am trying to be cautious of us making these the precedent setting of making changes of terms of bedroom sizes here at this stage of the game um in this process and whether or not that would um cause others who want to see projects with the district to just avoid it in the future so I guess my question is [Music] like what happens like does the project move forward does it stop does it I mean I think um miss butoff you mentioned like there would be a gap in financing but that's not really our problem because it doesn't have a I mean I'm paraphrasing you didn't say it's not our problem but like it doesn't impact our financial plan that would mean that the developer has to go figure out how to fill that before things move forward yes well a fiscal impact just looks at the impact on the district's budget and financial plan so you know this kind of change could very well change their pro forma and um you know cause a and again I haven't seen the pro forma but if it does there would be a financing Gap there's only so much project income that would support a commercial loan so you know typically it's the responsibility of the government entity to fill that Gap it looks like we are already filling that Gap I mean so we may have to provide more assistance um they may need you know I I don't know and and I think that's part of the problem is that if you change sort of the fundamentals of a project without really knowing how it's going to impact the financing plan you you don't know if this is something that would cause the project to stop they'll probably have to rerun their numbers and you know and um I don't you know Amanda director you said it looks like we're already filling that Gap you meant we're already filling a gap but this likely creates a new gap for the current um project structure for the the unamended mfi in unit mix okay councilmember Henderson I mean I guess my concern here is the unknown in that there's been a lot of work that has gone into this project thus far I imagine if I remember correctly from the hearing they were expecting to move forward in 2023 on this so this sets everything back and probably would add to the additional costs the essence of your question gets to uh the level of our responsibility this came over as a bill and we are A legislature we can do whatever we want to we can change the financials completely but there are consequences and it's up to us and our sense of responsibility so if you uh think that the affordable housing component uh is inadequate and you um want the developer or the city to absorb the consequences not knowing exactly what those are then you will vote a certain way if you think that we've got the project and maybe it isn't smart to be messing around with it here on the Deus uh then you would probably vote a different way but in the end the answer to your question is on us individually and what our sense of responsibility is with regard to our duty um who else do I have customer repento thank you Mr chairman um I have a similar-ish clarifying question for Mr McDuffie so oftentimes when we provide abatements for different projects this conversation of what the appropriate financials um and math works out too is very essential to that because part of the discussion is but for this abatement this project will not proceed and if we go too high with the affordability requirements people are still not going to take us up on the project even though they're getting this abatement but with this project because it's a disposition of the land how does that calculation transfer over to your calculation of making sure that the project is still financially feasible because it seems like there should be a distinguishing line between the abatement of private property and District on land that we're disposing of but I could you elaborate on that piece so you know I think part of the context for for and hopefully this is his responses to your question councilman Pinto but when these rfps go out there are certain requirements that are baked into the rfps that should be included in the responses to the rfps and if not are likely to be deemed non-responsive which outlined antenna what I want is included when it comes to you know whether or not it's financially feasible ultimately it's a decision that the developer who's respondent has to make and if the requirements associated with the disposition are found to be too onerous or too expensive or you know being not the pencil out by a developer then either they're likely not to respond or if the things start to change after they've submitted a proposal and the amount of units of affordable housing either are requested to be increased or the unit sizes uh change the unit mix has changed then it's going to change the pro form and it's going to change the financial fundamentals and then there's got to be a decision made as to whether or not it makes Financial sense of a developer who is Seeking a profit and I think that's just this part of the process and I can't speak to whether this person is going to say I'm done within this amendment simply doesn't work I would think that they would definitely say this is what I signed up for and I'm not sure if it will given that there's already a um likely requests for 19 million um to help fill the Gap that exists if we say we're going to pass this amendment without knowing what we don't know in terms of additional costs then there's no way we can say we're actually helping to make this project work and delivering additional affordable housing for residents the District of Columbia that's all I'm saying in terms of cancer okay well thank you so much and it's very possible I missed this earlier but I'm glad that piece is on the record of the additional cost to the district that we are paying for this project um because I I've heard a lot about you know one dollar disposition is trying to figure out the distinction between our treatment of private property that we're trying to incentivize certain Behavior versus District property that we're disposing of um but thank you very much yeah and just really quickly when we talk about the one dollar it is the cost of the land as developed and associated with the government requirements right and so you look at that land and you might think it's valuable and it is valuable but we're talking about land that by law requires 30 percent affordable housing between zero and fifty percent and so you gotta you gotta bake that into uh whatever you might think the value of the land is by itself it comes with these requirements councilmember Lewis charged I just I have a question about the um has there been changes from um I only have the from the committee report last time had there been changes to the number so the previous developer proposal described as plans for 421 multi-family rental units all would be Studio one bedroom and two bear Apartments of those 126 or 30 would be affordable units for 50 Ami or below and so technically that math is about 29.92 and then the remaining 295 units will be market rate um and so if we pass as is if that's the current uh makeup um then we would be approving a plan that only creates nine two-bedroom units at 30 percent and nine of 420 units affordable for small low-income families is that like is that the correct numbers here I mean I wouldn't frame it that way but but yeah your math is right and the number the unit count is right council member I will say if I could just really briefly you know when we the community we're looking at the housing right and there's a housing committee but we're also looking at the economic development around the area you all have to remember these folks Memorial Day also want healthy food options right so they want grocery stores they want amenities that are walkable to their neighborhoods and you know when you talk about government trying to ensure those things happen we're not operating and building grocery stores as a government right and and these people who are in this private sector who are considering what we say we want even when we're trying to incent certain economic activity there's a cost associated with it if they look at these areas and see a lack of density and a lack of incomes it is likely that that they're not going to get the same sorts of things that we're seeing in other parts of the city and so we're trying to be thoughtful about this this is not the discount yeah the dire need for housing affordability that I know you all care about and I do too yeah it's just it's just really trying to create the environment where we can do more of what these communities need and want and I know the development plan is anticipated to create 381 temporary jobs and through the construction period And I think 69 permanent jobs as a result um but I guess given what we just heard about making this decision because it's a legislation and what we the unknown here um I am just throwing this out there would it be prudent for us to I so we don't move forward on this amendment and create bad results would be prudent for us to just uh withdraw it until the board a council member can work out percentages that work um just so that we're not all in position to vote on something right now where we I mean basically we we do have an unknown based on the questions from my colleagues I don't know that there's any I mean the unknown is created by the amendment and we gotta we gotta recognize you know the amount of time that's gone into the process thus far and so you know I yeah I've already been communicating with council member Chandler and I really appreciate his passion about this issue and what he's trying to do I think that I will be willing I hope that this could pass and we continue to work on it doesn't mean that we stop working on this because we passed this bill today I mean this guy Adrian Washington who's the lead on developer at NDC neighborhood development company is a lifelong District resident born and grew up in Ward eight not too far from this development here right and so you know he's not going to skip town and I would hope that we can get to the point where we could you know the council member support and that's generally how we try to operate and we've only again we only moved it because we thought we had so that's what that that's my hesitancy about supporting this member of the day we've gone through a process here where and I don't honestly councilman Robert white but we've been communicating with the developers and others and they they've not been hard to reach as far as I'm concerned and and we try to answer as many questions as possible and be as flexible as possible with the unit mix Etc um the council member white Treon white third round yes thank you um I want to thank my colleagues for their dialogue I want to thank you councilman McDuffie um one thing you mentioned was you hope that we can move this along and good faith and hopefully get back get some get something done with the developer I just want to go on public record to talk about I've been communicating um you mentioned um Adrian Washington who is developer from Ward 8. um we haven't had a comprehensive conversation about this project yet I've been communicating with the administrator the representative from the administration who assured me that we will have some healthy compromises to get this moved along uh because she told me they were facing some deadlines need to move it out Robert Weiss committee then I communicated that to Robert Weiss Community getting moved out and hope that we can land somewhere in which we never did I had a meeting with them last week in hopes that we can move it forward today and one person on the phone is saying one thing another person on the phone is saying something exactly opposite there's one person we can't do this person say we can't do it I said once you figure out what you can do come back to me before Tuesday that way we can be on the same page and that didn't happen until a conversation or something I sent yesterday which was Monday um and so it's not like no dialogue and good faith has happened it's been continuously to have continuously happening um but it hasn't landed in a place that warrants us to utilize our our legislative ability to approve a project that's not for uh not feasible for the District of Columbia's tax dollars that we're pulling into this project and it's a lot of hypotheticals going on but for me I've been working uh with the administration trying to land somewhere and we haven't landed there I'm just being honest and open about the process what's been happening thank you if there's no further discussion we have the amendment before us uh this is the amendment by councilmember Treon white um all those in favor of the amendment say aye all those opposed to you oh uh Madam Secretary would you call the role councilman betrayal right yes councilmember Tran white votes yes councilman by Alex no customer Allen votes no councilmember bonds no councilmember bonds vote snow councilmember Che no council on betray vote snow councilmember gray yes I remember gray votes yes councilmember Henderson no it's remember Henderson votes no councilman below is George Yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie no councilmember McDuffie votes no chairman Mendelson no Cameron Mendelson votes to know councilman Bernardo no that's remember nadeaux vote snow councilmember Pinto no councilmember pincher votes to know councilmember Silverman yes once remember Silverman votes yes House member Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes Mr chairman there are five yeses and eight no's the amendment fails we have the bill before us further discussion Mr chairman uh councilmember Silverman yes uh Mr chairman the hour is late and everyone is tired um so I will just make two observations about the conversation I think the emotion that is being shown shows that this is of great concern to everyone on this Deus and again councilmember uh Robert White I look forward to um more discussion and your bill next year the second thing is I think there is um concern about what exactly is baked in uh especially what kind of profit a for-profit developer needs to supposedly make a project work um and I'll just point out in this project demped's appraisal found that a developer could build this project at a profit but not enough profit to motivate a for-profit developer so another option the district could take would be to find a non-profit developer to see if a non-profit developer can make this work but instead in this project um we are leasing the land for a dollar per year and we're sweetening the deal to motivate that poor profit developer uh to ensure a 19.5 million dollar profit for neighborhood development company those are the numbers um I think what council member I appreciate what councilmember Treyon white was was doing with his Amendment which is to say we need to push I remember there was a project at 65 I Street uh where the new museum is where the developers that oh we absolutely can't put any more affordability and we kept working with that developer and they did put more affordability in so we need to negotiate uh and and sometimes take a strong stand to say no to cut and to see if they'll come back with a better deal so um again I I think this discussion on all three parts uh all three bundles today shows that there is a lot of concern about not getting enough for what we are giving to the for-profit development community uh I will be voting though on this thank you a thank you further on the bill uh we have the bill before us uh this is Bill 24-466 Madam Secretary would you call the roll councilmember Allen yes I'm talking about Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes councilmember bonds votes yes councilmember Shea yes remember Trey votes yes councilmember gray yes gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes yes councilman Brothers George no that's remember Lewis George votes no councilmember McDuffie yes I was remember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Emma mendels and both yes customer Bernadette yes that's my Bernardo votes yes councilmember Pinto yes Transformer Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman no councilmember Silverman vote snow council member Robert White nope that's not Robert White votes no house number Treyon White no betray on white folks no Mr chairman there are nine yeses and four notes are the Bills approved on the final reading I will turn now to uh back to page eight uh final reading and final vote on temporary legislation uh the first measure is Bill 24-1128 salary adjustment temporary Amendment Act of 2022. councilmember McDuffie thank you Mr chairman um this amendment so let me move the uh the measure in informal can I speak to the amendment Mr yes uh the amendment would allow the legislation remain in place upon the legislation's completion of a 30-day period of congressional review um the effect of this amendment is to make the measure permanent and it's needed because the code prohibits adjustments to the mayor's salary during emails uh mayor's terms so we couldn't do a permanent Bill next Council period a hearing on the permanent version of the bill uh was noticed for and held on December 7 2022 and the hearing record was filed with the secretary's office on December 13th of this year and with that I moved uh the measure as amended without objection um the amendment is before us if there's no objection it will be accepted hearing no objection Mr chairman can I just ask you um and perhaps Mr McDuffie so this is becoming a was a temporary bill that is now becoming a permanent bill is that correct it would be that would be the effect of the amendment okay and that's within the council rules to do this yes I mean Madam general counsel because why wouldn't we just do this all the time right I mean I I should have learned this eight years ago because then we never need to we can just take a temper and move it to a permanent and not have the full uh Council legislative process am I understanding this correctly it might be slightly different from my understanding I think there are times when we wave certain rules and and it's pretty common practice this is more of an extraordinary circumstance where um there is a bill that would not be able to be passed uh but for this step because as I mentioned in my statement uh the code prohibits adjustments to a mayor's salary doing a mayor's term and so there couldn't be a permanent Bill next Council period that would have the effect of uh given these waivers that the raises that we already approved on first reading if I'm understanding your explanation Mr McDuffie it's that we're running out of time so we're waiving the council rule to do this and you know that is a perfectly fine explanation I'll just say that this sets a precedent that I would say that council members should take note of when they need to move temporary bills permanently uh it sets a precedent for doing that I I don't I I understand the reason um which is that um the salary increase would like to be in needs to be in place this needs to happen in order for the salary increase to be in place at the beginning of the year but it seems highly irregular Council procedure so I'll I'll just vote present on it again the amendment if there's no objection the amendment is accepted hearing no objection that's accepted Is there further if the question is the amendment general counsel what the amendment actually does is it waives the 225 uh time period in the temporary there was a permanent that was introduced there was a hearing that was had um this isn't the first time that we've done that and Mr McDuffie is standing in as chair Pro Temp on this matter um so that's why he's doing it generally it's done by the chairman um I'm just answering the procedural question on the floor is the amendment if there's no objection it's accepted all right we'll have a Voice vote on the amendment uh all those in favor of the amendment say aye aye aye opposed and then I would like to be recorded as present the amendment uh is approved we have the bill as amended further discussion Madam Secretary would you call the role this voters on Bill 24-1128 as amended councilmember bonds yes councilmember barnstrals yes councilmember Shea yes I'm from the table she asked councilmember gray yes gray votes yes councilmember Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George just passed for a second councilmember McDuffie yes I remember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson please record me as president chairman Mendelson will be recorded as president councilmember yes councilman Bernardo votes yes council member Pinto yes Mr Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman public present councilmember Silverman will be recorded as president council member Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon white president council member Tran white will be recorded as president Allen yes remember Alan votes yes that's remember Lewis George yes councilman Lewis George votes yes Mr chairman there are 10 yeses and three presidents uh the bill is approved the bill as amended is approved unanimously and final reading uh the next measure is Bill 24-1137 advisory neighborhood commission boundaries temporary Amendment Act of 2022 councilmember Silverman yes Mr chairman I moved to indefinitely postpone this temporary bill um the substance of the bill is included in the waterways act a permanent bill that we approved today on the consent agenda it's a motion to postpone indefinitely yes I believe that's debatable is there any discussion on a voice photo all those in favor say aye aye aye are there any opposed uh the bill is postponed indefinitely we'll turn to emergency legislation uh the first measure is the schools first in budgeting emergency Amendment act this is identical to or should be identical to the emergency excuse me the permanent bill that was approved on a second reading earlier in this meeting um the nature of a substitute was circulated yesterday uh because this bill was introduced two weeks ago the um what I want to make clearing the record and for general counsel is that the um in the intendance at the emergency is identical except that it's an emergency to the permanent bill and I'm trusting that's clear enough for general counsel um so I moved to declaration discussion a roll call on the Declaration this is Bill uh pr24-1108 that's one Miche yes I'm from Richard votes yes councilmember Gray yes remember gray votes yes council member Henderson yes customer Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George Yes councilmember Lewis George folds yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron mendelsonville she has councilman benedo yes councilmember Pinto yes former Pinto votes yes I'm swimmer Silverman yes I'm temporary Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilmember Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon white yes Alhambra Tree on right votes yes councilmember Allen yes I'm from the island votes yes council member bonds yes from the bonds votes yes Mr chairman they have 13 yeses the declaration has approved unanimously we have to build build 24-1147 so moved um actually I spoke to the permanent when I said the nature of a substitute so let me move the nature of the substitute the to be the same as the um the permanent Bill uh by a Voice vote all those in favor of the nature of the substitute say aye aye any opposed the amendment is uh adopted unanimously you have the bill is amended is there discussion uh since the roll call vote was unanimous I think we can do a voice vote on this the vote is on Bill 24-1147 as amended all those in favor say aye aye aye are there any no votes Madam Secretary I don't see you hear any no votes you agree I agreed Mr chairman hey Bill's approved unanimously uh the next is there any objection if we do the three local rent supplement program contracts and block I'm not hearing any objection I have to remember where we are is there any objection to our doing the three lrsp contracts and block not hearing any objection uh so there would be three declarations pr24-1110 pr24-11-11 and pr24-1109 these are local rent supplement program contracts the first one is 2019-lrsp-14a the second is 2019-lrsp-10l and the third is contract number 2019-lrsp-15a I recognize council member bonds with regard to the Declarations thank you very much chairman um today we're moving or I'm moving three um lrsp contract approvals on an emergency basis these contracts are submitted to the council too late for consideration that the legislative meeting I must be moved on an emergency basis before the council enters the winter recess contract um 14a is the first one and it is was introduced by you chairman at the request of the mayor and will be deemed disapproved on the 5th of January of 2023 unless we act by emergency to approve it the legislation would authorize the housing authority to enter into a long-term subsidy contract with 737 50th Street owner LLC to support 16 permanent Supportive Housing units at the H.R Crawford Garden Apartments these units will provide long-term affordable housing for extremely low-income households making no more than 30 percent of the medium family income the Housing Authority proposes to provide a subsidy to the owner and the initial amount of 387 760 dollars annually for a multi-year term of 15 years the HR Crawford Garden Apartments are located on 50th Street at 737 Northeast and we'll construct a new six-story building in the dingwood Neighborhood Award seven it will offer a total of 76 housing units all affordable at various income levels all the 16 of the locorin supplement units will be three bedroom apartments and will help the district address our critical shortage of affordable family size units the developer will partner with the United planning organization to provide case management and Social Services for the low current supplement households I'm pleased to move this contract and the emergency declaration the second resolution would again introduced by you chairman at the request of the mayor and will be deemed disapproved on the 5th of January of 2023 unless we act by emergency today to approve it the legislation would authorize the housing authority to amend their long-term subsidy contract with Diane's house lp to support an additional three local and supplements primitive Supportive Housing units at Diane's house apartments at a cost may I continue please because you're moving all three all right at a cost of 59 784 dollars annually for the remainder of the 15-year term these units will provide long-term affordable housing for extremely low income families making up to 30 percent of the area median income Diane's house Ministries is located at 2619 Bladensburg Road Northeast in the Langdon neighborhood of Ward 5 and has provided transitional housing to homeless women for over 30 years as the ministry shifts to the Primitive Supportive Housing model this project will replace their two single-family homes with a four-story new construction the project will offer a total of 42 housing units and will include on-site case management for residents the Housing Authority originally entered into a long-term subsidy contract with Diane Ministries in 2020 to support 39 local and supplement primitive Supportive Housing units for 15 years and an initial annual cost of 662 940 dollars the remaining three units will have been made of affordable to households earning up to 50 percent medium family income with this amendment to the contract The Authority will now support all 42 units as local rent supplement permanent support of Housing and I urge my colleagues to support this emergency declaration and finally I'm moving the emergency declaration resolution and act for the contract which is 15a and again this contract was introduced by you chairman Minister Mendelson at the request of the mayor when we and will be deemed disapproved on January 14th of 2023 unless we act by emergency to approve it today the legislation would authorize the housing authority to enter into a long-term subsidy contract with Carl F West LLC to support 25 local rent supplement units at the Carl F West Apartments these units will provide long-term affordable housing for extremely low-income households making no more than 30 percent of the medium family income 18 of the units will be dedicated to permanent Supportive Housing clients The Authority proposes to provide a housing subsidy to the owner in the initial amount of 789 thousand three hundred dollars annually for a multi-year term of 15 years in 1981 the national caucus and Center for black aging was given 2.1 Acres of District land for the development of the Samuel J Simmons senior Estates located in the great Ward one community at 2801 14th Street Northwest in Columbia Heights the Carl F West Apartments project will construct a new nine-story building on the parking lot of Simmons senior Estates the project will offer 179 housing units all reserved for seniors and affordable at 30 percent 50 percent and 80 percent medium family income 36 of the units will be targeted to seniors who are the primary Caregivers for their grandchildren Mr chairman I moved the Declarations thank you thank you councilmember bonds we have the three declarations before us is there discussion to be clear the vote will be on pr24-1110 pr24-11-11 and pr24-11 9 Madam Secretary would you call the roll yes remember Henderson votes Yes councilmember Lewis George yes welcome Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes councilmember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes chairman Mendelson votes yes councilmember Nadal Silverman votes yes councilmember Robert White yes council member Robert White votes yes councilmember Treyon white yes councilmember Allen yes I remember Allen folks yes councilmember bonds yes councilmember Barnes votes yes councilman but Shea yes that's one of a chain votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses I thank you Madam Secretary the three declarations are approved unanimously we have the underlying bills bill 24-1151 pr20 excuse me Bill 24-1152 and Bill 24-1150. councilor bonds Cameron discussion is there any discussion the resolution decorations were approved unanimously so I believe we could do the Bills by a Voice vote if there is no discussion on the bills to three bills all those in favor say aye aye opposed I don't see or hear any no votes Madam Secretary do you agree agreed Mr chairman um I believe we're missing somebody online Madam Secretary you're on mute we are not missing anyone Mr chairman oh no we are councilmember Chan white is trying to connect councilmember Tran white did you uh vote on the measure the three three bills oh yes I've already Yes and and yep all right Madam Secretary you're clear I'm clear everybody was here I didn't hear any no votes do you agree agreed Mr chairman all right the three bills are approved uh unanimously we're on the last page of the agenda um pr24-1127 tourism recovery tax emergency declaration resolution councilmember McDuffie thank you chairman uh the this emergency declaration would declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to increase the tax rate on certain gross receipts revenue from which is dedicated to the Washington Convention and Sports Authority for transfer to destination DC for a specified period without support for Recovery of tourism in the District of Columbia as many of you know the district experienced a 54 loss in visitors a 54 loss in visitor spending and loss of 48 of Tourism jobs due to the pandemic further convention and visitor bureaus of competitor cities already implementing intensive recovery marketing programs budgets significantly higher than the budget of destination DC the underlying measure would allow for the expeditious implementation of marketing promotion programs administered by destination DC to Aid in the recovery of the district's hospitality industry and for the district to remain competitive with uh its competitive cities and other tourism destinations with that I move the Declaration I'm happy to there's statistical stuff to take care of Mr Pro Tem um we have the Declaration before us is there discussion Mr chairman uh oh forgive me if I don't look up I won't see somebody uh council member pinto and then councilmember Henderson thank you Mr chairman and thank you councilmember McDuffie for moving this bill um I I'm a huge supporter of the hospitality industry my professional educational background for the hospitality industry I also have a huge interest as the ward 2 council member where 66.8 percent of all of the hotels in our city are inward to so I know the 80 000 jobs that they provide for district residents and the fueling of our economy and our revenue is so important um not just to the industry but to recovery of downtown and to ensuring that we have sufficient funding in our budget to pay for everything else that we need to do um this bill will create a temporary tax on hotels to directly fund marketing to encourage increased tourism in the district and speed the recovery of this important industry that's been lagging since the pandemic this bill is one of several tools that we have to boost tourism in the district and I support these efforts however with any investment of taxpayer dollars we should be ensuring that those dollars are used effectively and that we're continuing to evaluate the efficacy of those programs um I think it'll be most useful for our shared goal of encouraging and fueling tourism in the district to make sure that we understand how these marketing dollars are being spent and how we are tracking uh that efficacy so I look forward to working with you council member McDuffie in the next couple of weeks to think about ensuring reporting to that efficacy is uh if you use the word effective too many times here but effective um and uh look forward to supporting our hospitality industry moving forward so we can get these targeted Investments right we know that they have worked in other cities with additional spends like in New Orleans and Miami and looking forward to seeing how this works for our city thank you thank you councilmember Pinto councilmember Henderson um thank you Mr chairman I I'm I'm not going to vote no I'm going to support it but I do want to be on the record and sort of expressing the same skepticism about this whole assessment situation that I did um at when this was first proposed to us um at the mayor council breakfast um often times we are told that um the room fees and costs in the district are out of whack with the rest of the region so I just want us to be incredibly clear that it is the hotel associations that are asking for this assessment that it is not us and it didn't come from us that they're asking for it and um and also I think we all need to be just very much committed to the sunset that is in this excuse me and ensuring that um the funds are used exactly as they um were intended to do so so I just wanted to be on the record on that thank you thank you councilmember uh I I you're you're coming it's reminding me that I do want to say this um this this idea came to us from destination DC and the hospitality hotel and hospitality industry in the city so this is their request and it was emphasized when it was presented to us and they've made it clear before and since then that they view this as temporary if anybody is looking at Price sensitivity in terms of attracting tourists and business travel it would be the hospitality industry uh so they think that this doesn't damage our competitiveness in the short term but it raises much needed money to be able to compete better with other domestic markets as well as to attract International Travelers so they've made the case they have said that in terms of competitive effect that um they can live with it they want this to be temporary and that this could um very much help in terms of uh recovery of our convention and hospitality industry anything further on this the Declaration is before us this is pr24-1127 Madam Secretary would you call the roll Henderson yes councilmember Henderson votes yes house remember Lewis George yes councilmember Lewis George votes yes councilmember McDuffie yes I remember McDuffie votes yes chairman Mendelson yes Cameron Middleton votes yes councilmember Nadeau yes councilman Adele votes yes councilmember Pinto yes what's number Pinto votes yes councilmember Silverman yes I'm from Silverman votes yes council member Robert White yes councilor Robert White votes yes council member Trey only yep yes I am white OS yes customer Allen yes councilman Allen votes yes councilmember bonds yes council member bonds to votes yes councilmember Shea yes customer Shea votes yes councilmember Gray yes and some degree votes yes Mr chairman there are 13 yeses uh the declaration has approved unanimously we have the underlying bill so moved that's bill 24-1160 is our discussion on the underlying bill uh since the roll call and the Declaration was unanimous 13 to nothing I think we can do a voice vote on the bill on Bill 24-11 60 all those in favor say aye aye are there any opposed Madam Secretary I don't see or hear any no votes agreed Mr chairman uh the odds have it unanimously uh we'll go to the temporary legislation the um tourism recovery tax temporary Amendment act uh this is what we just approved this would be the temporary version built 24-1161 so move discussion I think we can do Voice vote Madam Secretary I sure would appreciate it um okay all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed yeah I just have it unanimously uh the next item is uh District of Columbia Housing Authority stabilization and reform temporary Amendment Act of 2022 uh this will conform to the um um emergency bills that we have proved about eight hours ago um general counsel is that clear enough yes Mr chairman this will include all those amendments um I think we can do a voice vote on this Madam Secretary have at it Mr chairman I know it's very late um all right all those in favor uh oh this is Bill 24-1145 is amended all in favor say aye aye aye Mr chairman please record me as voting no Mr chairman please record me is voting no please record me as voting now chairman please report me is voting no please Adam secretary did you get I didn't even call for the no votes but um Madam Secretary did you get that yes councilmember Silverman Pinto Lewis George and Treyon White I recorded as no and the others are yes the uh temporary is approved on first reading um we are at the point of other business even if there isn't other business on the agenda uh what we're going to do is I would like to say a few words with regard to councilmember Che F and uh and um if other members want to say anything and then um we will step down into the well um to see uh in order to um um say kind words about councilmember Silverman so I I hesitate only because I don't want anybody to run out of the room since we know of at least one member who not only ran out of the room but apparently well I won't say that um so let me just say this I will start by saying that um you know councilmember Che is the longest serving member of the council currently other than myself she's been serving and completing her fourth term so there is uh quite a record legislative record and a record of accomplishment I would also note just because this is a little factoid that I keep in my mind that um councilmember Che has doubled the average uh her service is double what the average is for uh council members Service uh which speaks to her commitment and we all know that she has over the years stepped up to uh important assignments for the last many years she has not only worked on Transportation issues but on environment issues and I actually sort of would personally would rather focus on her work on the environment where she's expanded the renewable portfolio standard where she uh showed leadership with regard to the 2018 energy act which uh people today still say is one of the strongest in the country uh worked hard in a variety of ways to reduce emissions not only for air quality but for climate change we had another measure today it furthers that goal on air quality on water on solid waste on all those important environmental issues councilmember Jay has led to council left out trees I should have written that down on preserving and increasing our tree canopy councilmember Shea has that the Council on those important issues are there many other issues but it's not for me to keep the record of other folks um but uh it is a long and distinguished uh legislative career that councilman Che is chosen to um uh to step away from um I will end with this comment that she is my reason for being what the heck do I mean by that some of us they're only actually a couple of us who remember that day back in June of 2012. maybe I could go back a week before that because council member Shea whom we all know is council member Che was for a week or two he um stand in chair of the council I have to enjoy all the pleasures that really those who are chair know which is among other things being hit with a million actually councilmember gray noses to get hit with a million pieces of paper a day that you have to sign and after you sign them you get some more and Madam Secretary are you hearing this and after you sign those you get hit with some more um and uh it was not an easy time for the council not only because of just challenges to public questioning our integrity but uh the just the instability of going through that transition and um so I I remember when you took the vote councilmember Chang and then as quickly as you could got up and made me move across the days thank you very much um so uh that's my um people efforts to offer some words uh it's been a pleasure serving with you councilmember Jay and um I look I hope you look forward to your retirement from the council but we will all remember your service and with that if anybody else wants to say oh I need to add that we are breaking the tradition in the sense that we're not giving you a bowl because you already got it last week the stalker Bowl and we also broke with tradition in um that uh I think for the first time in 40 or 50 years candy was put in it um I did not have any say in that or maybe there wouldn't have been candy put in it and with that let me see if any other members want to say anything council member Allen okay we can't let that silence go for too long Mary um I just I guess we'll add some uh some comments although Phil you took away part of my my talking points but I do think that in addition to all the amazing things that uh Mary Che is able to put her name next to um the shortest tenure of a council chair I think will be one that is a highlight there for the for the week in 2012. um but Mary I I have uh enjoyed deeply uh working with you and I go back the full 20 years because you and Tommy were elected in the same cycle so as I came on as Tommy's Chief of Staff I got to watch he was a freshman council member um and you were deeply impressive then and then when I was able to join the council being able to be your colleague was uh uh a lot of fun challenging um but it's just been something that's been uh inspiring to watch you work frustrating at times when we the rare occasions that we disagreed um but you have really left your fingerprints all across the district um and for for Generations we will be able to look at the work that you've done and what you've left for for the district um and it's something that I know you and your entire team and your staff are incredibly proud of you've had an incredible array of folks that have worked for you and with you as well um so I look forward to the next iteration uh maybe you will also be coming down to the council and testifying uh in front of us I hope so no I we could subpoena you and maybe that's a way we could get that to happen but um Mary all all my best and my gratitude and it has just been a a wonderful joy to to work with you all these years so thank you thank you councilman Ray Allen councilmember bonds yes um Mary I just wanted to um remind you of how I met you I actually um trailed along with Ben um mayor elect Fenty to meet you over in ward 3 and all that paper and stuff that was in that office was very intriguing then I learned um what you um what your occupation was as a professor and it kind of fit um and through that I've always admired your thoughtful comments and it was easy for me to join in frequently whenever you wanted to save the animals and when you when you took that approach I thought my goodness this is a person a very learned individual someone who knows her stuff and she also has compassion for those that can't speak for themselves so to speak to take care of them and I I just wanted you to know I admire you for that the second thing I remember the stinkly and I hope that you will carry with you is the time we try to organize the women's caucus of the council we said over at the JW Marriott and you schooled us and I'll tell you one of the things that Mary said that has stuck with me she says well you know it doesn't really matter what committee you get you know you just do it he's thrown this at me thrown that at me and you just you just do it and so I think if we all approach it that way we'll be better for the the tenure so thank you very very much um you are in my my memories um and know that please it comes from buns I wasn't invited to that meeting yeah you were not you're a dude come on yeah yeah yeah I just remember um from repento thank you chairman um I wish I was there at that Marriott meeting our uh our our women's caucus got started because we happened to be on a on an event and somebody called us the Magnificent Seven um which which was great but it has been such an honor working with you and learning from you frankly from long before um I joined the council and I just wanted to say you know in addition to all of your substantive legislative accomplishments and being such a um making the leader making the district a leader in the environment and sustainability spaces I have really respected most about you your Independence and I think there have been a number of occasions where you are not shy and being the only or one of very few votes uh for or against something because you believe it's right and I think that that is a value that will continue to be especially important in the district and really appreciate your thoroughness and making sure that all of your votes are based in reason and facts and what you believe is right and for no other reason so thank you for being such an excellent colleague and looking forward to seeing you on the other side yeah that sounded more ominous than I meant it I went through the other side the other side of the day I get a rebuttal in all of this uh I understood councilman Pinto I understood other side of the Deus um and this councilmember Allen noted that might be by subpoena but we'll get her here uh council member um Henderson um thanks Mr chairman um so Mary I first um had the opportunity to see your work as a staffer um when I came to work at the council and was just always impressed by the level of detail and thoroughness not only of you but also of the product of your staff the the individuals who you have attracted to your office over the years have been some of the most high caliber talent and the fact that they they were loyal and wanted to work for you um because of the policies that you were putting forward um and I think the standard of Excellence in terms of of the work um and yeah I just yeah I'm moving a couple of your bills to the committee on education and being just very nervous because of the number of questions you had well did you consider this and did you consider this and what about that um and then um you know later when I decided to run for office um I I don't know if I ever said this but I certainly appreciate that you were willing to stand with me when a lot of others weren't and not just in sort of name only but one of the things that sticks out to me in my mind is we were in the Palisades and people would walk by me and go talk to you and you would stop them and walk them back to talk to me and I I valued that I appreciate it so much um and so it has been an honor to serve with you I have loved being on the transportation and environment committee with you I have learned so much from you um in terms of not just the policies there but around oversight and um questioning and but also again having a high level of output um that is one you can be proud of so um I have your number and I know where you live so this is um but thank you so much for your service to the district thank you councilmember Anderson councilmember um councilman Che I just want to say I have always admired your leadership as a district resident of the BC native I remember going looking and looking at Council hearings and I always thought you were once always humorous I just always thought you were funny um and I appreciate your humor so much so that no one's mentioned this but we're gonna miss Mary's annual budget chips um they are hilarious um I hope somebody will take on the torch of creating these um with some input from councilmember Che um and also um I know you're going to miss all of us coming to your committee uh the Freshman uh doing 10-minute openings in 30 minutes but we really appreciate you we really appreciate you but no Honestly though your legacy um as it relates to strong Environmental Protections the work you've done to move major legislation around Traffic Safety in this city um the way you've been a champion for the rights of animals um is important the way you've been a champion for the nutrition and the way we think about food and for our children the way you've been a champion in education um you have really left uh an amazing Legacy and we all are so appreciative that of of that as District residents so I wish you well in your retirement and as everyone else said we can't wait to see you back here testifying on behalf for the in front of the council so thank you I think it comes from Louis George you know you remind me I'd forgotten about the animals weren't you guilty councilmember Trey of according to I think it was Ken cuccinelli that you sent all the rats to Virginia or something yeah well yeah no you would think that uh an attorney general could read uh rats were specifically excluded from that bill but what it also got me was um um Rush Limbaugh calling me a babe and not in a nice way I don't know if you will remember that one um so yes they've been very very you know the highlights of my career okay you're it's not your turn to speak yet uh councilmember Gray thank you very much Mr chairman uh Mary I just want to tell you what a total Class Act you are um you you have been a great friend uh you've been somebody that I have been able to work with carefully and closely and um I just want you to know over and over and over again and I've said it to you and in recent days that um you've you've been a wonderful wonderful friend uh to be able to work with and uh there's got to be some way we can continue to do this Mary uh and um I hope that you will find a way to work with us in some fashion okay I know that uh I know there will be opportunities that will come and um I hope you will take advantage to to recognize how much we care about you and and how much we work uh to to be around you with you and have watched you over the years uh do such a splendid job uh in in in your work so uh again I'm delighted to be able to call you a friend uh delighted to be able to just tell you somebody that tell you that you are somebody who I think the world of and that is just a fact uh you will remember uh you know coming becoming a a a a person who uh was among a number of those who were uh you know who worked together all of us uh to try to do the best we possibly could uh to serve the people of the District of Columbia and you did such a sterling job with that so I am delighted to be able to call you a friend Mary J I'm delighted to call you somebody I know and we'll look forward to continuing to work with you in whatever ways we possibly can thank you Mary thank you for who you are thank you councilmember gray uh anyone else want to speak uh councilmember Che the floor is yours well thank you uh very much um all of these kind words you know I have said this before and I repeat now that I have considered my election to office to be a great gift that was given to me and I hope I used it well uh and it changes your outlook on things in so many ways you know how you look at a problem sometimes and you say um I wish I could do something about that on the council so many times I would find out about something and I would say I'm going to do something about that and in many cases I could and you all have mentioned a lot of the big things but there have been many smaller things many smaller sort of injustices that come your way and that you can fix for example I'm thinking of a situation with the firefighters many of them after their service some years after would would develop certain cancers that were connected to their service but epidemiologically it was awfully hard to prove that and so they wouldn't get compensation for on-the-job Harms well they brought this matter to me and I passed legislation with the help of you all to say that no no in those certain kinds of cancers for firefighters if they develop them the government has to prove that they weren't related to their service that made it fair I mentioned one of them but there are many of that many of them any of you know about uh those kinds of smaller injustices that because of this gift that you're given to be on the council to be in this position there are problems that you can identify and then you can actually solve them so um I'm very proud and I'm I think I've used the gift wisely very proud of the things that I have done both in the ward and and more generally but I'm going to say this and you all know this is true too we can't do these things by ourselves okay we have to have our the people of our Ward or the district in general supporting much of what we do we have to have um our own staffs we have to have the staff of the council and then I have to have you my colleagues so I'm going to give you thanks for all of your support and I know some of the things probably when I first offered them up you probably said this is a little wacky but you know at least you were open to to the ideas and I remember Muriel when I used to sit next to her and she still says it to this day she said Mary can you sometimes give us some legislation that doesn't have to be bound by rubber bands you know these big Omnibus bills and such um but I got great support from my colleagues and for that I'll be forever grateful and um I know I'm not going to get a bowl in front of you today but as the chairman said it was delivered to my home um and I'm also grateful for that and it will have a prominent place in my living room and but I'll eat all the candy of course uh so thank you thank all of you uh for this uh opportunity to to pass legislation and to and to make things better and uh to you Mr chairman you're right I handed you the gavel you used to sit on the end and insist that you would stay there forever and you may recall this I said Mr Mendelson you've now been elected chair of the council you must come forward and sit in this chair which you then did um so it's been quite a ride I think it's a good time for me uh to leave I remain a full-time law professor and uh you know my first love really and I will continue to do that and uh again I'm just very pleased with what I've been able to do and I've only been able to do it with the support of each and every one of you so thank you thank you of course I I do think you you could you know celebrations you had three minutes um all right I'm gonna ask if members would uh step down into the well since councilmember Silverman is here uh so we can do this right as opposed to this maybe you got the bowl last week I heard that I didn't actually see photographic evidence so um we're gonna step down to the well okay there's something at the bottom of this Podium you can't look yet because it's a surprise um well we don't know until we unwrap it correct but I do want to say this so um we are also leaving losing as we know uh councilmember Silverman uh at the end of this Council period uh and I kind of want to begin on a little bit more of an intellectual note you're standing behind me so I have to like but that's okay you're welcome to do whatever you want to do um I want to start on a little bit more of an intellectual note and that is you know politics is a funny business and I like to say that politics did all of life as politics right there's family politics there's workplace politics politics is constant but we're involved in what I'm going to call Professional politics and it's a little bit different because in this in this sphere we fight we disagree we agree on the next bill we get along on the next bill and we have to learn that we have to work together that's the nature of our work and you saw it today where we are you know disagreeing on one bill and agreeing on the next one and we may be aligned on one bill and then uh it's a different alignment on the next bill and it's important that we're always remembering that in our business we have to look to the positive and how we get along and um and and because it's the future you don't know where it's going to be important on the next issue so I want to I I wanna look at um I want to State what I think are some really positive things about your service councilmember Silverman uh I can't think of anybody on the council I hope I'm not missing somebody who brings more passion to issues uh somebody on the council who on issues that are important just has a lot of commitment I would say deep commitment and there's a value to that um you know we have to remember our North Star on issues and um I would identify that with you um unafraid to speak truth to power fight for fight for what you perceived as to last The Lost and the least and I don't want to say that as if it's your reality not others I think of the fight that you and I had many times over undocumented workers during the pandemic and what we could do to help them and you never gave up and if it was five million you didn't give up if it was 10 million you'd give up if it was 30 million you didn't give up uh that's a commitment and that's a passion and it's fighting for those who need more help from the government and that's exactly the way you saw it yeah and there's there's equality there um always sincere about these about these issues I made a short list here I mentioned the undocumented workers the gig workers Universal paid leave fighting to do more with that um unemployment insurance and when the district was struggling to get the uninsured uninsured the UI payments out you did yeoman's work to step in and try to do that which does was not doing and getting those out and then coming back and saying hey you know there were folks who got paid way too late months late and trying looking for ways to help them and these are all qualities and I just want to emphasize that there was that commitment and that passion um and thank you for that thank you for your service and I wish you the best um and you don't get off as easily as Mary and saying that uh well maybe you're not going to show up we expect you but actually you did promise already that you will show up um so I want to thank you for that um I think I'm going to turn to other members and then pull out what is a surprise to me I don't know what it is and give that to you so yes we can't speak yet you're not allowed to speak yet anybody else want to say anything thank you chairman um Alyssa I councilmember Silverman so um I have had such a pleasure working with you I think it is safe to say we have had a number of issues on which we disagreed or took different votes but almost everyone uh you took the time to initiate so much conversation uh seeking to understand where we were both coming from trying to come up with a compromise thinking about non-competes thinking about the Exxon station um and there was always such a commitment to try to get to understanding even if we were on a different outcome um and most recently getting to work with you on the D.C Housing Authority reforms has been really inspirational and I think it is so true and so amazing to have watched your career and recently as well that there are people we hear from all the time on this Council that come in to to see us to lobbyists make phone calls and emails and that's all an important part of the process but I have never once doubted that your motivation is pure and who you are fighting for is pure um and I think that's a really amazing thing to see and have learned from so thank you love you and I guess I'll say too it is not less weird the second time um okay um Alyssa I have been so grateful to have you as a counterpart I feel like we have been such a natural tag team for the past eight years just has been so amazing because I feel like it's always been you know I'll work on an issue until I am beat down and then you'll pick up the ball and run with it and then we pass it back and forth until we get it done and I don't know how to do that without you so sorry guys um I just want to thank you for always being the one who knows the right thing to do um for always being the one doing dog it oversight um pushing us to make things stronger and better for the people that we serve and um just thank you so much for being a tremendous colleague and friend and I look forward to whatever you do next but we will miss you so much Alyssa I had the opportunity to go to Mary's thing in War 3 so I was able to say some things are there uh but I wanted to take this opportunity I got to know you Alyssa when we uh ran against each other eight years ago uh you mopped the floor with us um and went on to be an amazingly effective uh council member uh somebody I admire as a person and admire as a member you are a fierce Advocate uh when we have been on the opposite sides of issues I've not enjoyed it um and what I've seen of you as a council member I've watched you deliberately get better and better and I've I've seen how you approach your committee work how you approach your advocacy I've seen you work on the craft to get better so that you can better represent the people that you are fighting for and it's something I've always admired from you I've taken a page out of your book without you realizing it and I want to thank you for your service to the city and for in the time that you spent on the council making a real difference that's helping people some people won't know you won't know the work that you did but their lives benefit because of what you've done um and I'm one of those people who benefited and continue to benefit from what you've done so thank you for everything you've done and we will miss you here all right there's gonna be a long line um so Alyssa and I got elected at the same time but we actually know each other beyond that um and I think it was about 20 years ago or so um I was just a kid over at the DC Primary Care Association and I I had this crazy idea to try to be a delegate to a convention and then all of a sudden um loose lips is calling and I'm like uh there's a reporter coming I don't know what to do sorry shoot uh there's a reporter calling um and my earliest experiences with Alyssa were somebody who was trying to ask the right questions trying to find the interesting story and figure out what does it all mean um and watching you know getting having the honor to be able to get sworn at the same time with you um start our journey on this dice together um and then ultimately we became neighbors we live a block away from each other uh that was maybe helpful in the summer of 2020 when we could text each other um just to give each other a quick heads up if we couldn't hear the protest coming to know it was coming over to our house but I know you as a neighbor and a friend um somebody who's out there on Halloween giving candy to my kids and and getting them excited and making a balloon animal um to the incredible Fierce advocate and voice on this dice um you have an incredibly constant North Star um and it is something that I think we all want to learn from and be inspired by and try to hold ourselves accountable to that same North Star that you hold on to and guide so well you have touched so many people um DC residence lives are better for the eight years that you spent here they just are our city is better because the eight years you've spent here um and we are all better for it too so I am um I know that you're just a block away so I can come knock on your door uh anytime but I'm really grateful for the experience that we've been able to share and I know there's more to come on the other side or whatever we want to call it um but thank you so much Alyssa yeah that's Alyssa you know when we began together here at the council I say we began together here at the council I I saw you as a sister people don't know that and the reason being is that we were trying to make a difference together I remember you as loose lips I also remember when I ran the first time to fill the seed and you ran against me and I was successful I was thankful but I also knew that you were competitive and I want you to know that I appreciate your steadfastness your tenacity and I also appreciate that in many instances when we talked about community and working on behalf of the community we were talking about the same things and I know you're going to be fine I know that the world is the oyster out there for you 've already told us you'll be down here on a regular basis well you'll be down here you'll you you'll be down here and we'll we'll be looking forward to hearing from you because one of the things I appreciate the most about having the opportunity to work with you is your thoughtfulness and your dog it determination that what you see is what you see and you want the rest of us to see it too and so to that I say you're an outstanding individual there is no way we can have this Council and not remember you and most likely remember you fondly maybe with a little bit of acidity but we love you as you are and thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to serve with you wishing you the absolute best thank you not gonna cry I need to tell me not to cry and then Brienne cried so um Alyssa it has been an honor to serve on this council with you this year but before it was honored to serve on this council with you it was an honor for me as a DC resident to see the way you have advocated for all district residents my grandma always says judge a person about how they care about the least of these a city is judged a country is judged we are judged by how we care about the least of those and you have always centered the least of those in the work that you have done I could end this by just the fact that today December 20th is the sixth anniversary of the passage of DC family paid medical leave I could end this just on that but pass pay Family Leave which has made a difference in so many lives and so many district residents and Families it's been more than that domestic workers excluded workers the fact that you have continued to fight within making sure we have more jobs summer youth employment dedicated careers for uh careers that we needed like Health home AIDS it's been the work that you have done with those who have had unemployment your staff and you throughout the pandemic so many people lost their jobs and were waiting on unemployment checks and every step of the way you fought for those who were waiting for those checks to come your work on this Council has been amazing to watch um I remember watching you like as if you know some people watch like football and they're screaming well when I used to watch the council hearings I'd be like yes Melissa get over on this side and that's what I'm going to remember is because you always have been I think we talk about our role as oversight you have excelled in your oversight role and shown what true oversight looks like what true accountability looks like and you've never been afraid to say what needed to be said so many people have talked about your North Star and what that really means but you've held true to your values in a way that is amazing and we are better because of it I want to thank you for standing with me and supporting me when others did it you did and it made a difference it made the difference I want to thank you for the amazing staff you have brought to this Wilson building your staff has been incredible your committee staff always talented amazing brilliant experts I want to thank your staff that's here in the rooms from Sam to to will to Kelly who else is here everybody y'all are here you've done amazing work you have brought amazing staff to this building they have made a difference in the lives of District residents and that has made a true difference so I am absolutely sad to see you go I'm thankful for the mentorship the late night phone calls that I'm able to call you and say listen you know talk to you about what it really means to be in public service and to be a public servant in the toll that can take on your emotional mental physical and all those helps and you have been there so I am thankful the district residents are thankful and I love you and I'm going to miss you but I'm going to be calling you so don't worry this isn't goodbye this is see you on the see you see you on the phone foreign when you're the last person everything has been said um oh okay never mind I'm not last okay um so Alyssa again I had the opportunity to see you work as a staffer first me as a staffer and then also having the opportunity to serve with you as a council member and what I would say about the totality of my observations and my work with you is that you truly embody the understanding that if you want progress it does not happen overnight if you want change it does not happen overnight and that doesn't mean that you fail it just means that you keep going and that the moment that it happens it's that much sweeter and that the time is right so from Paid Family the first time right people think about the original original um when we were fighting for that to get that done and then you making sure that it got implemented in the middle of a pandemic and I don't think people understand how huge that was on top of the UI piece on top of all the other things the domestic workers bill that didn't happen just this year we've been talking about this for a while but we got it right on the right time and so I want to say Express appreciation for you never giving up on the things that you have felt are the big things that is important for us to do and pushing us and continuing to keep up the drum beat on that work and it's incumbent upon us to continue on that part of your work here even though you're not going to be up here with us um and I will also say I will miss the bagels since Phil doesn't provide breakfast anymore um but um you know these last I don't know 12 or so months we have often been the only ones in the building and so it's been really great to get to know you and run into you and your staff not just your staff of today but the staff of the past you also have had put together an incredible caliber um High Caliber team who's been committed to the work and so I want to say thank you to your service thank you to them for their service as well so thank you uh let me see if anybody who's online I'm not quite sure if folks are still there councilmember Treyon white or Mary Che or looks like councilmember Gray's dropped off if you want to say anything I want to note that uh since there seem to be a little protest about the bagels and breakfast uh yes thank you Council memory Silverman for feeding us many times but we can always uh come back in person and then we could do the breakfast I'll buy the first breakfast um I don't see uh the others I do want to note I because I thought of this after listening to everyone else um and just as I said that councilmember Che gave me my beginning and that June day in 2012 when she made me sit in the middle you gave me my identity since many people know of me as Mendo thank you councilman Silverman uh so we have I'm not quite sure what we have for you let me see it's from the council to you and if you want to say anything uh well the hours late um and today's meeting feels like an episode of Survivor and I just got voted off the island uh and academic I don't see the council member Shea is online but it feels like in academic fashion uh Mary got Emeritus council member um and let me just say perhaps for the recording um I decided to speak to councilmember Che because I knew I would have a chance to have the mic uh Mary if you're listening um I enjoyed sitting next to you um I learned so much from you and are somewhat loud conversations that were often chastised by the chair um and your impact let me Echo the sentiments of others that your impact on making DC a healthier place a more climate focused uh City will impact generation so thank you Mary whether you're listening or not um so the Mendo comment is apt um who would have thought way back when chairman Mendelson that you would be handing you would be handing me a crystal Bowl after serving as your at-large colleague for eight years on the D.C Council life is surprising uh and certainly my political career in DC politics was unexpected and in many ways inexplicable for example who would have predicted the October surprise of 2014. mayor for life Marion Barry endorsing me a candidate whose initial campaign chair was Kathy Patterson mind-blowing to many still um so thank you so much to colleagues um for for your incredible words um that means so much to me it's been my honor to advocate for those D.C residents and local small businesses who can't hire high-priced lobbyists to persuade sway votes in this building I know that my oversight which has been mentioned particularly of affordable housing programs ruffled some feathers but we need a government that's transparent that's accountable to taxpayers and that creates Economic Opportunity for all of us and that's why I focused on building career pipelines uh into our biggest industry sectors such as Healthcare Hospitality I.T infrastructure and I asked colleagues while you're still my colleagues um to keep funding these efforts to make nursing degrees free at UDC we need nurses in this city they are good jobs for our residents and to expand year-round employment for our young people you know it's good for in so many ways thank you to my colleagues who served on the labor committee which many have praised for its collaboration I'm very proud of that I'm very proud has been mentioned that at my last legislative meeting this Council passed a bill that will give nearly 10 000 domestic workers in this city a right to an employment contract indignity in their work it's also fitting that dcha's dysfunction was debated today um since creating a locally funded public housing repair fund and you remember this council member bonds was one of the first big budget items that my office championed and I am proud to have worked with many colleagues uh past and present and a wide Coalition of residents and small businesses to implement Paid Family Leave um and and it's just heartwarming to me to hear of the impact on families in our city and on um their workplaces as well making their more humane workplaces so I took a lot of punches here and that took a toll I fully admit working in my Council Office was not easy or without conflict and controversy I'm told some people might have signed up because of that conflict and controversy wow um but I am in awe of the people I got to work with in the Silverman Council Office and some of them are here if they're watching online you are such smart people you're so so compassionate um you're so diligent and you just have such a passion for making this city better so thank you to my uh labor committee staff passed in in those present Eric Irving Marcia Huff Margaret o'hora and Liz Weiss who served as committee director for all six years thank you to David connerty Marin Kelly Hunt Maya Brennan especially for your fabulous work on D.C Housing Authority and will singer I can't believe that you came back to D.C and work with me I especially want to thank three people who spent all eight years with me charnisa Royster Pat Joseph and the incredible magnificent Sam Rose and Amy thank you guys so much thank you to colleagues past and present um for engaging in Spirited debate with me for collaborating with me for some times telling me I'm wrong on something um I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve the residents and businesses of the District of Columbia it's eight years I'll never forget thank you and let the record note you got a standing ovation thank you councilmember Silverman uh that is going to conclude the business of the meeting the bowl is yours wherever it is and there's a box down there let me kind of quickly you want a picture okay well let's move over here for a good picture you want me to gavel out first start episode the time is 8 21 p.m and this legislative meeting of council period 24. let me just say the next meeting will be Council period 25 on January 3rd that's an organizational meeting and January 2nd will be the inauguration at the convention center at 10 A.M time we have to be there at 9 30 the public destroying in ceremony Mr chairman and members begins at 9 30 sharp on January 2nd which is a holiday Monday January 2nd on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock will be the organizational meeting and on Tuesday afternoon at 12 we'll be the first legislative meeting for Council period 25. thank you Madam Secretary I was going to be late I guess I'll be there at 9 30. uh January 3rd is the next meeting the time is 8 22 in the evening and this meeting is adjourned