us on radio asy people do not counil ising the counil your hbson thank you deep voice person with a funky BackBeat indeed this is not a council hearing this is hearing the council you can't have a government without a council so you can't have a government radio station without a council show this is it I'm Josh Gibson director of communications for the council you may also know me as our voice on social media at Council of DC uh and we are back again today with at large council member Christine Henderson who has been uh very kind and been with us several times in the past so um thank you very much for being with us today council member thanks for having me again Josh good to see you oh no worries no worries um so I wanted to touch base um on one thing that I had uh a couple episodes ago we had done a very uh broad um dive into a topic which started very broad we come in very narrow and I was focused on Twitter um and part of my broader point was that you have the Twitter handle at C Henderson which is amazing which means you were a very early adopter and somehow in weaving that web I forgot to come back to you and ask how did you get such a um how are you in so early how did you get such a good Twitter handle um so uh it's actually kind of a disappointing story a little bit because C Henderson was not my first Twitter handle um C Henderson came about later when I was about to run for office and um I actually had a friend who worked at Twitter at the time and I said you know I need a different handle let's take a look um or I think that there is a somebody had this handle but it had been completely inactive oh and at the time um Twitter uh at the time was sort of doing some cleanup on uh handles where somebody had claimed a handle but they had never used it never logged into it and so they were releasing some of those and so that is how I got see Henderson so it is not a very exciting story although I mean I think I I joined Twitter in in 2009 2010 so I was in there in that like first year but yeah that was not my first handle gotcha that is early and funny I mean a lot of people don't realize actually the council's Twitter handle has a similar origin story in the sense that someone beat us to D this is before my time someone beat us to DC Council um and started using it as a not particularly good spoof uh account um so uh we needed to get in after the fact and for whatever reason whoever picked it picked at Council of DC um one of the first things I did was to get the old defunct DC Council Twitter handle uh uh removed from the system because no one was using it and people confused by it um but you know everyone's used that council at DC so in any case here we are so those are our Twitter origin stories yes um one uh thing uh in a previous episode also we had talked about your work on um reducing uh death um OPI opiates death um just the the um Scourge that we're dealing with in DC and the folks that are affected by uh this pandemic and um there actually was some good news or at least less bad news released in recent days um so I was hoping you could talk about that yeah uh so recent report showed that um deaths this year the first six months of this year um were about 25% less than the first six months of last year which is great news last year I think was a record year in terms of the number of deaths and so um the fact that we're seeing a 25% drop is great um right now we're trying to better understand well first one we want to make sure that we are able to maintain this um continuous drop but then too trying to understand what exactly has led to the cause um because uh what we're seeing around the country around the country they're also seeing a reduced number in terms of opioid deaths um but DC looks a little bit different because while there are parts of the country that are seeing a reduction in terms of the presence of fentanyl um DC is not seeing that uh so we still have about 98% of our drug Supply is fentanyl and which is highly potent um and highly deadly so I think there's still some more analysis for us to try to figure out what led to this Decline and if we're going to continue to see that Trend downward and I know this has been a priority of your uh committee on the counts of the committee committee of Health yes it has been um you know when I when I first became chair DC was like number one in the country for overdoses and people didn't know that there were more people who were dying of uh drug rated overdoses than were dying for homicides homicides were like you know everything that you sort of saw on the front page of the paper and I felt like we needed to address this from a public health emergency that it is especially because um I think what we were seeing on the public health side of things were certainly impacting what we were seeing on the crime side of things um and ter and you know when you looked at a map a heat map of where overdoses were happening in the district and then you looked at a heat map of crime in the district there was no surprise to anyone that there were definitely overlaps that were were occurring and so as we were having larger conversations about Public Safety one of the things that I would talk to the mayor and to the chief about was like we can't talk about Public Safety if you're not going to also talk about the O opioids and substance use um epidemic that's currently happening in our streets because I think they are related and so we have invested millions of dollars into the work that we're doing um we have a new stabilization Center that's open I just recently visited um that has had you know over nearly 5,000 visits in one year 5,000 visits in one year and they've had a number of success stories of getting individuals to to head into treatment um and so we just need to keep working keep pushing there there's nothing about the new reporting numbers that suggest to me that we need to slow down um especially because no one can sort of pinpoint why and um so we just got to keep working on it right and as we discussed in the prior interview it seems like the one of the reasons the media have missed out on this story is the demographic of who's affected yes um older folks older African-American folks in particular um so um very very good news those numbers are coming down and curious to hear what um what we find lies behind this uh another issue uh that your health committee was working on that um one of the one of the values I see of this U podcast is that there are things that are difficult to get Main media to focus on or focus on in depth um and a topic that I think merits uh attention but maybe didn't get the attention um is the certified nurse aid Amendment act oh yes Council just passed and I think that is really something that'll make a difference um but I just want to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about what it was and why you think it matters thanks Josh I really appreciate you bringing that up because we worked really hard on this so the certified nurse Amendment Act was originally called the direct care worker Amendment act um and for those who are listening who don't know what a direct care worker is a direct care worker are individuals who work with either seniors or persons with disabilities um in sort of daily interactions so it could be a home health aid so that's somebody who comes to your house to help you get dressed to help you um you know eat and take your medicine um just sort of daily life care and then it could also be um a certified nurse assistant who is somebody who either works in a nursing home or Works in a Skilled Nursing Facility um so a skilled nursing facility is something like if you had a major surgery um and you need a place to recover but you don't need the the level of acute care of a hospital you might go to a skill Nursing Facility so these are again folks who um it's backbreaking work um in my opinion because you're dealing with folks who may not be able to use the restroom for themselves and so you're having to lift and move folks to a shower and and those kinds of things and anyway what we had saw post pandemic is that that the number of home health aids and certified nursing assistants that we had licensed here in the district had declined um which was a problem because at the same time our number in ter of seniors who uh wanted to age in place in the district was also increasing and you know I have seniors who want to age in place but they might need somebody who to come in and and help them you know a few times a week or for certain hours of the day um and so we decided to sort of unpack this and look at this further um especially in sort of the Care economy space where you have individuals who are making hourly uh wages um some of the minimum wage but they are doing this very big work of like essentially taking care of people um the parallel to that conversation would be what we did a couple of years ago with early childcare workers uh who again were making minimum wage um but yet had this very incredible responsibility of taking care of kids in their most vulnerable times um as well as when their brains were forting and so it's a very important time that we got quality folks who are in there um so the the certified nurse Bill does a couple of things so the biggest is it raises the minimum wage uh for for folks in in the um professions which I think is super important and then the other big thing that it does is streamline the licensing requirements um for becoming a CNA or becoming a home health haid here in the district and it also makes it I think easier for someone who might be licensed in one of these professions in Maryland and Virginia to be able to serve clients here in the district without additional uh paperwork and like a long arduous process for us to be able to do that so um we got to fund it always gotta find funding um y I'm glad that we were able to move it along another thing that we did um in um the health occupations bill that we did earlier this year that was included the original CNA or the original direct care worker bill was to lower the age for certification for uh CNA um to 16 because we actually had a number of leas here in the district who wanted to offer certified nursing assistant um coursework um that would enable somebody to be able to graduate fully licensed which I think is fantastic to be able um and you know we have plenty of stories where um someone has uh entered the nursing profession as a CNA and have grown um through that process in that career ladder in fact um the former director of Health um her first job was as a CNA and um and then you know she was leading Public Health in the nation's capital um you know right after Co so um it it really is I think a GameChanger so we were able to pass that earlier and and I'm excited to see what graduate what the graduates um from those efforts yeah and I know uh you know the those of us in the uh the sandwich uh generation you know that are have children and elders and all of whom were responsible for caring for there is no one that you love and respect more than um child care workers on one end and then on the other end the home health aids right um I mean they really are the glue that keeps uh keeps everything together and there I mean they're not like you said not always glorious jobs in the the dayto day in the minutia but in the in terms of importance you can't over exaggerate the the role that plays yeah I mean it um I think the white house for a little bit was talking about the care economy um in terms of that Workforce but I think you you picked it up perfectly Josh right like the sandwich generation for which is growing the number of individuals who have both kids uh of of schoolage children and then also um parents who are aging or or are experiencing some sort of ailment um in difficulty and right like there are not enough um assisted living facilities or nursing homes for everyone who wants a spot they're just not um and even then they're very expensive and so um we need these workers but also I need these workers to be making a dignified wage such that they are also able ble to take care of their families um and choose to stay in the profession long enough to like for it to truly become a career ladder for them but you know I think anytime we get into a situation where somebody can make more at Starbucks we got to evaluate right if you could make more as a barista than you can providing care service then we got to really evaluate how much do we value quality care right and and while I mean like you said we have to fund there is a cost um it's significantly less than the alter than the alternative you know in the sense that if there's quality daycare parents can work parents can support themselves parents will rely potentially Less on government programs and ditto home health aids that the longer you can keep a a senior or someone with a disability at home the less time they're in a nursing home the less costly that is to the government and also the higher quality of life the the individual has um so it's really a straightup win-win win and if all we have to do to get that to happen is to pay the hardworking folks a dignified wage it's a no-brainer that's right that's right you know so so Kudos on that um and we'll keep our eyes peeled for the next budget cycle um the other topic I wanted to turn to is um legislation I know you had a role in which was the recently past uh steer act um that the district has been dealing with uh what again I'll use the word a pandemic of of um dangerous drivers with unpaid tickets that are on our streets that are um hurting and killing people and the we took an important first step with the recent passage of steer act so can you uh speak to that more broadly um and then speak a bit to your uh contributions to the bills cont yeah so s was Omnibus legislation around Traffic Safety um you know I think it's important for folks to remember the region a number of years ago made this Vision zero commitment right we have zero deaths and fatalities as relates to Traffic Safety or traffic violence and we have basically been hustling backwards ever since we did that um our our vision zero numbers are going in the opposite direction particularly post pandemic where you have a lot more people who are driving um we also have a lot more people who I feel like are just impatient uh when they're on the roads and are making some very dangerous decisions without thinking about um pedestrians or a cyclists um or just you know Neighbors in in their area and in their Community around things and so the steer act uh I several different bills that were put together um you know one deals with um providing the Office of the Attorney General with some more enforcement teeth uh particularly for Maryland of Virginia drivers who don't have reciprocity with us but treat our streets as though they are our Highway um now this enables the Attorney General to you know go to court for these folks and again at least for me it's not about the money but if it is money for which will encourage you to slow down Fine by all means right at at the end of the day I don't want people to have millions of dollars worth of tickets or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unpaid tickets I want you to slow down um um and um you know another part of the bill uh which didn't go into effect on October 1 because it needs some additional funding with around a point system so I think we have to have a conversation in the district if automated traffic enforcement is going to be our main focus or our main form of traffic enforcement um how do you add more teeth to that system Beyond just a ticket um so if you are s if you are speeding for instance and you are pulled over by by law enforcement not only do you get a ticket but depending on how fast you are going you also get points on your license and um I think most people know right as you accumulate points that definitely impacts one your insurance and two um it could lead to you losing your driver's license um being suspended or or otherwise for things um there is a Arizona um Phoenix they have they use automated traffic enforcement and they've added points to their at system so has Chicago and so this bill contemplates doing that for the egregious um speeding violations that occur here um in the district and let me just also say this because I had a friend who told me this yesterday right you don't get a you don't get at tickets in DC for going one over the speed limit right that's always a tall tale I was only going one over nope you are actually going 11 over because that is when uh uh that's our trigger when you're going 11 over the speed limit that is when you get triggered as a ticket for automated traffic enforcement camera so when someone's like I was only going two over and I got a $100 ticket you really weren't going to you were going more than that you just didn't know it um so uh we're GNA see what happens um with this sort of um with the in the the implementation of this bill I'm encouraged by it but I don't think it's going to solve everything one of the other things that I've really been pushing for around Traffic Safety is that we got to change the infrastructure um you know if if the psychology of a ticket is no longer nudging you to slow down then I need to physically build something that will require you to slow down or you'll bust up your vehicle um and so we we already did legislation on this the um in part the Safe Streets around schools bill um to require you know raise crosswalks and and and speed humps in school zones which I hopefully will get folks to slow down there although um you know we've already had some stories at the beginning of the school year of kids getting hit um in the crosswalk uh by cars you know sort of driving recklessly um and yeah I'm going to keep focusing on it I'm going to keep focusing on it you know why because when I look at the traffic fatalities it's folks um it it is mainly in Wards seven and8 and it is black folks who are dying we got slow down we got to pay attention to our surroundings and and I think it's incumbent upon us on the on the DC government side um the streets which are being treated as highways we have a responsibility to give those those streets Road diets um to make it safer for folks right it's just such a complex issue um you know in particularly I think in America where like driving a car is seen as a right and privilege kind of sim simultaneously and we're sort of right at the intersection of that and I think you know when they ask folks like oh how do you how do you think you are as a driver I think everyone thinks they're like a slightly better than average driver like average are slightly better than average and you know everyone else wants everyone else ticketed because they're causing hazards uh you know and endangering life but oh that time I was doing it it's that one road that's kind of weird and I was in a like we got to break through that you know and we got to understand that there's real impacts to these small what seem like small decisions that's the thing um you know one of the things we talked about um with the health department because um in other jurisdictions around the country their Vision zero work is actually out of their public health department and so um I think that's kind of interesting because ours is in um the Department of Transportation and I'm not saying that's incorrect what I'm what I'm suggesting is um when other jurisdictions are doing marketing around Vision zero they are really um doing some interesting and Innovative work to show people what the impacts of going 30 miles an hour can do to a body right and a body of different sizes right because what 30 miles an hour can do to uh a 36 year-old perfect health or good health person is very different than what going 35 miles an hour can do to a nine-year-old body um and I don't think a lot of people realize some of that and of course I get pushed back where people say well you're focusing on the cars but what about the bikes that you know aren't following the traffic laws and and things like that and I don't think that people all have a full understanding of what actual traffic law looks like for bikes which is very different from Cars um but nonetheless uh I've never heard of somebody losing their life because they were hit by a bike I'm sure the stories are out there but in DC um if you are hit by bike or somebody runs into you from you know uh a a bike it is very different than a 200,000 pound or like a 20,000 pound vehicle hitting you at a certain speed um in terms of what it does and I also just kind of feel like that's a deflection right like right and I mean it does make sense that if we're increasingly treating gun violence and crime as public health concerns that we would treat uh vehicle uh uh violence the same the same way you it's a legitimate health issue and it's a legitimate to your point about how how uh it's being communicated it's an education issue yeah education like in schools but it people need to understand why it matters that it's not just the government's dinging you to get some cash that's exactly right that's exactly right I think it's the understanding of why it matters and I don't feel like we've done a very good job um as a district or as a region for that matter I chair the regional transportation planning board and and this is an issue that I've been talking a lot in terms of traffic safety I don't think we've talked a lot about why it matters and that also thinking about it from a neighbor and common good perspective like your need to get to that meeting even though you're running late should should not outweigh my right to cross the street without fear that you're going to run that light and hit me because you're late right we have to sort of do those like plays around higher order of the common good and just in general what do we want our community to kind of be um and you know every time we hear a story about like it's walk to school day and you know a kid in their dad got hit in the crosswalk on walk to school day because somebody was not paying attention and um it it is those types of things where I I want folks to hold on to this outrage because I feel like sometimes just in general we have so much coming at us that um I always laugh when I'm reading like the comments on Wasing Tony and problems I know you shouldn't read the comments but I do read the comments but I'm reading the comments on Wasington and problems where on one day you know you hear about a kid and their dad being hit and everybody's like that guy shouldn't be on the streets and you know we got to do something about this and folks need to slow down like you know everybody's outraged and then the next week when there's an article about uh unpaid uh speeding tickets everybody's like um oh DC y'all are just greedy yeah I mean what nobody's connecting the two at all right uh there's just this disconnect that occurs um on that and and that's the challenge of public service is that you know if you go to one group of Advocates and you think you solve one problem you may but then you're on the flip side you're creating another uh problem you know and uh you know uh traffic cameras are technically race blind which certainly traffic stops are not race blind so like that's solved a problem you know but then obviously creates a ton of other problems um that's the joy and the struggle of writing policy you know is that you you it's you can't keep everyone happy all the time and it's just Perpetual balance and you move the move the uh you know the goals forward on one thing but then oh geez that had an unintended impact that moved them backwards on another thing so you're constantly iterating and trying to get where you need to be I mean I know one of the challenges is that vehicles are ticketed by cameras drivers are not ticketed vehicles are ticketed because you technically don't know who is driving the car when it happens that's true but I also think that um if you are lending out your vehicle you should be perhaps using a bit more discernment um in terms of who you're giving to now that's lending right and another thing that the steer act does take care of is um you know we'd heard from constituents who um their vehicle might have been stolen and accumulated a bunch of tickets um and so there was no mechanism for those tickets to be forgiven or to be wiped from their record and so this essentially says like if your vehicle is stolen um you are not responsible for um you know the speeding and all of the things that occurred um while it was not in your possession right right that makes sense um there is also um and and the the C is the c substantial the cost of implementing the point the new point system related to the cameras do do we think that's something that probably will get um funded in the next budget potentially or is it a big lift um it's not as big as some of the other things that I've fored on um so I I think that we can get there it's just also like there also has to be alignment in terms of implementation um and I just always hate that when we talk about Traffic Safety um and the need for more mindfulness on our roads people automatically are saying oh you're just anti-d driver no I drive I drive I bike I scoot right I you I walk I do all of the various modes of Transit I'm not anti-d driver I'm anti- death and fatalities um and um yeah I think so much of this job is around like constantly trying to nudge people to do the things that we want them to do and for them to think that it was their idea in the first place right and I mean every right has limits and you know that's part of the American Joy of American democracy is how far you know if it's the right you care the most about you want to push it all the way to the edge you know you don't want to but you are you feel the need to defend it to the edge because it's such a a fundamental right and if you're not an advocate for that you're like limit limit limit Li limit and finding balance is is the struggle yeah um um okay well I think let me see what time it is yeah I think we want to Pivot to the the fun round okay um and we've I'm I'm running out of fun rounds that you all been very generous and have sat for a lot of interviews um so this is just kind of a classic uh dinner party ice breaker kind of thing okay um so I want to hear uh your desert island uh piics for entertainment um and you can pick any of these or all of these uh movie TV show Book song album um food you name it what what are your go-tos um I did ask some council members this back during uh covid when when everyone was stuck at home um what people were turning to but um which of those uh brings you Joy brings you Solace is is the one you would take to a desert island the one I would take to a desert island in any of those categories oh man I probably would take a book but I mean what what book what book what movie what TV show so here's the hard part right you know what I'm GNA change because I feel like if I'm stuck on a desert island I'm not going to just want one book because I will have probably finish that book within a week and therefore I then I finish it and then I'm bored and I'm not going to read it six or seven times because there's only so much you can do in terms of interpretation around those yeah but but if you get you get one of each you get one you get one of each let's say you know what are what are your go-tos I guess there's another way of phrasing that like well so um on TV I'll tell you the like the series that I actually went back and I I'm watching again which is Madam Secretary oh okay um still good it still HS up uh there's some shows where you go back and you revisit and you're like okay yeah yeah this was great in the moment but it's not um it has like the right amount of like drama politics policy nerdiness um and good acting to like keep my attention so I I would take that [Music] um or um the Gilded Age that's also okay one as well um I like period pieces and um that has the right amount of like high class shade um have you watched the Gilded Age I haven't I have oh so you you can't fully appreciate what I'm what I'm but I feel like my I feel like my wife might have so I think it's it's it's in the universe then the universe okay well I mean they're coming back so that's great okay um and then uh I would also say then the voice because it is like my favorite of the reality um music shows because they actually have good talent on The Voice unlike I cannot say the same for American Idol which is interesting because I feel like American Idol has created more recording Stars than the voice has which doesn't make a ton of sense but that's true but like in its early years like tell me the last like yeah it's been it's been a while I'm just amazed they can they keep finding folks you know because there's just undiscovered talents they're just seemingly an awful lot of undiscovered talents well new generations I mean think about when Kelly Clarkson won the very first American Idol that was like almost 20 years ago yeah so you now got a whole new crop of kids who like grew up watching her and Fantasia and Carrie under wood and you know all these others so I mean so long as the show is on they're going to have a full crop of talent because people age that's that's true that's true and I did I did appreciate I think it was America's Got Talent that a friend sent me with the uh the High School Janitor where the kids in his school encouraged him to go on oh that's interesting and he sang a song by Journey and he ended up winning the whole thing interesting I watch America's Got Talent although you know I do miss Simon on I feel like Simon got a bad rap yeah he he did he did uh yeah I I'm a sucker for the all the YouTube clips where it's someone you totally don't expect to be good and then they're really good and everyone kind of has to reexamine their biases and their prejudices you know when they see someone come out and uh expected not a ton from them and then they have this gorgeous voice and you like they're like okay maybe we can expand that lesson to the rest of where we should judge quite as readily um okay and then let's do desert island food if you could only bring one one food with you to your desert island uh I say apples really an apple day keeps the doctor away now is there a subvariety of apples because because there's a lot there's a broad range of apples oh I I am I am a equal opportunity Apple conasur um I like Pink Ladies I like Gayla I like Honey Chris um it's Fallout so this is the perfect time to like dig in on all the varying Apple varieties but I pick Apple because apples in my opinion you don't need them to always be cold so they're good for a desert food unlike say strawberries which you know they would give out after a while or bananas they would give out after a while if I'm so I feel like apples is probably like the sturdiest consistent fruit I can offer that that's true and I will I'm I live in Adams Morgan and we have our annual Adam um Apple Festival coming up and the farmers market brings rare and um quasi extinct Apple breeds so you can try these crazy apples that used to be a big deal 100 years ago oh wow I didn't know that they did that I me when do you know when that is uh yeah I'll close the loop with you offl I want to say it's uh two weeks from now oh weekend but um and I have an apple pie contest it's it's a whole thing um but uh yeah but hopefully we're we're not all going to have to move to a desert island we're going to see how things go in the next few weeks but otherwi start so all right well thank you once again council member for being generous as always with your time I'm so grateful uh whenever you all come on and do an interview so thank you very much um thanks Jos and listeners remember to subscribe to our podcast on Soundcloud or wherever you get your podcast just search under hearing the council uh thanks again for joining us uh tune in next time we're on DC radio at 96.3 on your fm hd4 dial or at dc.gov I'm Josh Gibson this is not a council hearing this is hearing the council thanks council member see you next time thanks Josh bye bye bye