East of the River | April 2008

Ward 7 & 8 News

by: Sylvia Brown

Redesigned Safeway Lifestyle Store Arrives
Upgrades and Changes Enthusiastically Welcomed
The District of Columbia’s Safeways are often better known by their colorful nicknames rather than their geographic locations. The “UnSafeway” is usually ascribed to Capitol Hill. Soviet Safeway’s moniker is attributed to Columbia Heights. Social Safeway can be found in Georgetown. Secret Safeway is given to any store difficult to find or on an infrequently-travelled street.

Over the last few years the Safeway chain, which is North America's third largest supermarket chain, has been rolling out redesigned and modern stores called Lifestyle Stores. The Alabama Avenue SE Safeway was recently upgraded, and now the Safeway in downtown Ward 7 in the East River Shopping Center can be added to the list. The lifestyle format has inviting decor with warm ambiance and subdued lighting, heavy redesign of store layout, and the addition of in-store Starbucks kiosks.

Patrons shopping during the grand reopening of the 40th Street NE store greeted the change as welcome and much deserving. Deborah Bryant, who lives in the neighborhood, commented, “The store is beautiful! The previous look of the store prompted me to shop in Maryland.”

Store Manager Mark Morrison proudly pointed out the gleaming floors, greeted customers and shared his enthusiasm for working with the community. Morrison, a store manager for two years and a Safeway employee for 20, has become a community fixture. As he walked the aisles, customers waited patiently for his attention to ask a question or throw a compliment his way.

Morrison came to the 40th Street NE store in August 2007 and almost immediately began attending advisory neighborhood commission meetings. He wanted to know firsthand how neighbors felt about the store and its offerings. Residents didn’t hold back when they expressed disappointment in the store’s appearance and the minimally stocked shelves. Ready to listen and act, Morrison took it in and asked the community to give him time.

With the aisles and parking lot full, residents gave him and the store time. Iola Green, a resident living on East Capitol Street, gushed about Morrison and the store.

Morrison’s goal now is to reintroduce the store and “win my customers back.” When asked to give the part of the store of which he is most proud, he didn’t list the wood floors and crates in the vegetable and fruit department or the new floral department or even the bakery. Instead Morrison’s spark is “seeing the attitudes of the customers change.”

The East River Park Shopping Center Safeway will have its grand reopening for the next three weeks. Morrison, who has an open door policy for employees and customers, will usually be found walking the store aisles. Store hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Saturday.

School’s Out…
Education Mayor Hosts School Reuse Meetings
With the restructuring of the District of Columbia public school system comes the question of what to do with schools that will no longer be in use. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education has held community listening sessions to give residents the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas about how local school buildings should be reused.
Ward 7 schools on the closure list are Merritt Middle School at 50th and Hayes streets NE and Benning Elementary School at 41st and Ames streets NE. In Ward 8 the schools are Patricia R. Harris Educational Center on Livingston Road SE and Douglass Transition Academy on Douglass Road SE.

Shortly before the school reuse meetings were announced, the influential Washington Interfaith Network held an emergency community meeting to engage the mayor and DC Council on the matter. Traditionally the group has been active on preserving and creating more affordable housing opportunities. At the meeting – held at one of WIN’s member churches, First Rock Baptist Church – the mayor, followed by DC Council Economic Development Committee Chairman Kwame Brown (At Large) and Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander pledged to listen to residents and not sell the buildings. According to Coleman Milling, community organizer for WIN, the organization is working to “rally ANCs and community members to use Benning as a community cultural center.” A similar purpose is wanted for Merritt and is being led by community members including Dennis Chestnut and Wanda Aikens, executive director Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, both residents of the Hillbrook neighborhood.

Ward 8 leaders are on record not supporting using the schools as condominiums and expect the Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry to uphold this expectation.

Other District agencies involved in the school reuse team are the Office of Property Management, which will provide leasing expertise, the ability to track agency space needs and building maintenance; the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; the Department of Transportation; the Department of Housing and Community Development; and the Department of Parks and Recreation, each providing subject specific expertise and general support.

Overall the deputy mayor for education wants to “redefine the school sites as community hubs.” Guiding principles for reusing school buildings include encouraging co-located uses, coordinating suggested uses with the policy objectives of the Comprehensive Plan and retaining buildings for public ownership and possible reuse as a public education source.

If you have questions about the school reuse process or plan, contact Claudia Lujan, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, via e-mail at claudia.lujan@dc.gov or by telephone at 202-727-0696.

Ward 8 Adopts Convention Resolution
Voter Apathy and Voter Participation Targets
At its monthly meeting, the Ward 8 Democrats voted to offer a resolution at the District of Columbia Democratic State Party’s Convention encouraging mail-in voting as an option for District voters. The party hopes to have 100 delegates from each ward participate in the May 3 convention, which aims to educate, energize and motivate activists in preparation for the Democratic National Convention in August and the general election in November.

The resolution was proposed by longtime activist Philip Pannell. Pannell’s reasoning for the mail-in option aims to give Ward 8 residents no excuse for not voting. Historically Ward 8 has a low-voter turnout, but when they do vote, voting generally occurs in the evening after work. For the Potomac Presidential Primary on Feb. 12, Ward 8 turnout numbers were extremely low. It is believed that the bad winter weather that night deterred voters already reluctant to vote, and many headed home instead of to the polls. Pannell pointed out that if voting by mail had been in place, voters could have dropped off their ballots days ahead of time in the mail or at specially selected sites.

District IV School Board Member William Lockridge was an initial opponent to the resolution, noting the empowering feeling and camaraderie voters get by actually going to a polling place. Lockridge countered the mail-in balloting by noting, “I would hate to have my vote in the hands of the postman.”

The Ward 8 resolution would not be the first attempt at pushing voting by mail in DC. In 2000 the DC Council considered the Mail Ballot Feasibility Study Amendment Act of 1999, Bill 13-489. This legislation was a follow-up to a Board of Elections and Ethics study of the same name that explored the impact of voting by mail on voter turnout and voter fraud among other issues.

Some attendees questioned the necessity of the resolution pointing out there is already an option to request an absentee ballot. However, as Pannell pointed out, the burden is on the voter to request a ballot. Additionally, DC requires a person to either be ill or out of town to vote by absentee.

Ultimately, the resolution was approved. However, residents were clear to note that to increase voter participation and turnout, voter education was a key component along with an aggressive grassroots effort that actually touched people and listened to them.

To become a delegate for the Ward 8 Democrats contact Chairperson Sandra Allen at 202-563-5312 or allenprpl@aol.com. Ward 7 residents interested in representing Ward 7 Democrats can contact Chairperson Lee Wilson at 202-558-8101 or lwilson77@hotmail.com. For information about the DC Democratic State Party (www.dcdsc.org), contact David Meadows at 202-347-7260 or meadowsdavid@dnc.org. The convention will be held at the University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW.

The District’s Republican Party will be holding a series of community meetings in April and May to shape its platform for the Republican Convention in September. For information about these meetings and the GOP, contact spokesman Paul Craney, 202-289-8005 or info@dcgop.com.

DDOT Launches Safe Routes to School “Pilot School Program”
Eight Schools Will Receive Improvements
To make it safer, more convenient and more fun for students to get to school by bike or on foot, the District Department of Transportation has issued a call for applications to District public, private and charter schools with grades kindergarten through eight to apply for the Safe Routes to School program. Safe Routes to School is a program in the federal transportation law designed to improve the conditions and quality of opportunities to bicycling and walking to school.

Government leaders talk about using energy efficient light bulbs, building green roofs, and incorporating other environmentally sensitive changes to reduce their impact, often noting that the changes will be the equivalent to removing a certain amount of vehicles from roadways. Alternatively, bicycling advocates and bicycle enthusiasts counter why not just remove the vehicles from the roads. One way to achieve this goal is to encourage and support bicycling use and safety, particularly among schoolchildren.

Walking and bicycling to school mean healthier children, reduced air pollution and less traffic congestion. Fewer than 15 percent of children in grades kindergarten through eight walk or bike to school; this represents a 30-year decline in the numbers of children walking to school. DDOT Director Emeke Moneme said, “Thirty-five percent of DC households do not own a car, and since 2000, commuting by bike to work in the city has increased among residents and non-residents.” The Safe Routes to School program is another step to strengthening healthy behaviors and environmental principles in youth to ensure healthy behaviors as adults.

Applications for the Safe Routes to School “Pilot School Program” became available March 3 and are due May 1 by 4:30 p.m. DDOT will select eight schools, one in each ward, to receive assistance in a number of areas including, safety education, fixing infrastructure safety problems, planning walking and bicycling events and contests and working with police to enforce traffic laws. Final decisions will be announced in early June 2008. Applications can be downloaded at www.ddot.dc.gov/saferoutes.

For questions or more information about DDOT’s Safe Routes to School “Pilot School Program,” contact Jennifer Hefferan, Safe Routes to School coordinator, at 202-671-2227 or jennifer.hefferan@dc.gov.

Health Focus Group Participants Sought
Give Opinions on East of the River Health Delivery
In 2007, the Community Access to Health Care Omnibus Amendment Act (L16-0288) became effective. The law’s main objective is to decide on how to spend the District’s share of the 1998 multi-state tobacco settlement monies, which is $245 million. A critical part of the law provided a grant to the RAND Corporation to perform three tasks: conduct an assessment of the District’s emergency and primary health care systems; conduct an assessment of the health care needs in Wards 7 and 8; and make policy recommendations to address the identified health care needs in those wards.

The policy recommendations will inform the council’s decision on spending “up to $116 million for construction of health care facilities.” The RAND Corporation’s work was a compromise when the plans for a new hospital, the National Capital Medical Center, proposed to be built on the grounds of DC General Hospital were dropped.

The corporation’s data analysis sources included claims from Medicaid and DC hospitals and interviews with emergency medical personnel and hospital administrators. The report can be downloaded from www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR534/, or call Dave Chandra, Health and Human Services Program Analyst, in the City Administrator’s Office at 202-442-5829.

In addition to the data investigation, RAND is convening focus groups, one focused on child health and the other focused on adult health, in Wards 1, 4, 7 and 8. Participants will discuss their experiences with the city’s primary and emergency health systems and offer their suggestions on implementing policy and procedure changes.

In addition to the study a provision requiring a community advisory group was included in the law. The advisory group consists of five members – two mayoral appointees, three council appointees. The mayoral appointees are: Mohammad Akhter MD, MPH, executive director of the National Medical Association; and Maria Gomez, RN, MPH, president/chief executive of Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc. The council appointees are Sylvia C. Brown, public policy consultant and Ward 7 resident; Victor Freeman, MD, former head of the District of Columbia Medical Association; and Virgil McDonald, chairman Nexus Health and Ward 7 resident.

The advisory group is scheduled to meet April 9, 1 p.m., at the Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Suite 527. Agenda items include RAND researchers providing an overview of their findings, next steps and timelines for their next report. Additionally there will be discussions about plans for a community meeting and further opportunities for input.

For more information about the RAND study, contact Anita Chandra at 703-413-1100 x5323 or chandra@rand.org.

Council Oversight on Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners
Finances and Community Outreach Discussed
The District Council’s Committee on the Whole questioned the chairpersons and treasurers of the city’s advisory neighborhood commissions. The oversight for Ward 7 ANCs was on March 10. Ward 8 ANCs were under the microscope on March 13.

According to the council agenda, ANC chairs and treasurers answered a standard set of questions related to outreach, financing and operations. Additionally, the council wanted suggestions about improving the ANCs interaction with legislation, the council and with city agency heads. The oversight hearings can be viewed on Channel 13 or online at http://octt.dc.gov/main. Call Council Committee Clerk Christopher Murray at 202-724-8196 for more information about your experience with ANCs.

ANCs are a mystery to many residents. The public is unsure of what ANCs do and ultimately their purpose. Created in 1974 as a result of Home Rule, advisory neighborhood commissioners serve as a go-between the government body, linking residents and civic organizations and the District government. Washingtonians voted for the first ANCs in February 1976.

Ward-based and divided into single member districts (SMDs), individual commissioners generally represent 2,000 people. City law gives ANCs “great weight” on decisions ranging from developers’ zoning and construction applications to legislative proposals offered by the councilmembers. The ANCs also have the authority to provide grants to community-serving groups.

Each quarter ANCs receive a monetary allotment from the city based on a formula according to the number of residents in each SMD. Over the years, though, ANCs have not operated efficiently or effectively, experiencing financial misappropriations and convening without a fully elected body let alone a broad representation of residents at meetings.

Ward 8 is working to increase the stature and understanding of the ANC. “Ward 8 has always had the dubious distinction of having the most vacant single member districts in the city and never has had all SMD's represented since ANCs first started,” reported Philip Pannell, executive director of the Anacostia Coordinating Council. The ward has 35 SMDs and six vacancies, which means that 17 percent of the SMDs are vacant, leaving approximately 12,000 Ward 8 residents without ANC representation and no link to the District government.

Pannell is developing a strategic plan to address the Ward 8 ANC issue by correlating the lack of full ANC representation with the District of Columbia fight for voting representation in the US Congress.

To learn more about your ANC and SMD, go to the DC Guide website at http://citizenatlas.dc.gov/atlasapps/reporthometab.aspx, the ANC website at www.anc.dc.gov, or call the Board of Elections and Ethics at 202-727-2525.


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Ward 7 & 8 News

by: Sylvia Brown
Redesigned Safeway Lifestyle Store Arrives Upgrades and Changes Enthusiastically Welcomed The District of Columbia’s Safeways are often better known by their colorful nicknames rather than their geographic locations. The “UnSafeway” is usually ascribed to Capitol Hill. Soviet Safeway’s moniker is attributed to Columbia Heights. Social Safeway can be found in Georgetown. Secret Safeway is given to any store difficult to find or on an infrequently-travelled street. Over the last few years the Safeway chain, which is North America's third largest supermarket chain, has been rolling out redesigned and modern stores called Lifestyle Stores. The Alabama Avenue SE Safeway was recently upgraded, and now the Safeway in downtown Ward 7 in the East River Shopping Center can be added to the list. The lifestyle format has inviting decor with warm ambiance and subdued lighting, heavy redesign of store layout, and the addition of in-store Starbucks kiosks. Patrons shopping during the grand reopening of the 40th Street NE store greeted the change as welcome and much deserving. Deborah Bryant, who lives in the neighborhood, commented, “The store is beautiful! The previous look of the store prompted me to shop in Maryland.” Store Manager Mark Morrison proudly pointed out the gleaming floors, greeted customers and shared his enthusiasm for working with the community. Morrison, a store manager for two years and a Safeway employee for 20, has become a community fixture. As he walked the aisles, customers waited patiently for his attention to ask a question or throw a compliment his way. Morrison came to the 40th Street NE store in August 2007 and almost immediately began attending advisory neighborhood commission meetings. He wanted to know firsthand how neighbors felt about the store and its offerings. Residents didn’t hold back when they expressed disappointment in the store’s appearance and the minimally stocked shelves. Ready to listen and act, Morrison took it in and asked the community to give him time. With the aisles and parking lot full, residents gave him and the store time. Iola Green, a resident living on East Capitol Street, gushed about Morrison and the store. Morrison’s goal now is to reintroduce the store and “win my customers back.” When asked to give the part of the store of which he is most proud, he didn’t list the wood floors and crates in the vegetable and fruit department or the new floral department or even the bakery. Instead Morrison’s spark is “seeing the attitudes of the customers change.” The East River Park Shopping Center Safeway will have its grand reopening for the next three weeks. Morrison, who has an open door policy for employees and customers, will usually be found walking the store aisles. Store hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Saturday. School’s Out… Education Mayor Hosts School Reuse Meetings With the restructuring of the District of Columbia public school system comes the question of what to do with schools that will no longer be in use. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education has held community listening sessions to give residents the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas about how local school buildings should be reused. Ward 7 schools on the closure list are Merritt Middle School at 50th and Hayes streets NE and Benning Elementary School at 41st and Ames streets NE. In Ward 8 the schools are Patricia R. Harris Educational Center on Livingston Road SE and Douglass Transition Academy on Douglass Road SE. Shortly before the school reuse meetings were announced, the influential Washington Interfaith Network held an emergency community meeting to engage the mayor and DC Council on the matter. Traditionally the group has been active on preserving and creating more affordable housing opportunities. At the meeting – held at one of WIN’s member churches, First Rock Baptist Church – the mayor, followed by DC Council Economic Development Committee Chairman Kwame Brown (At Large) and Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander pledged to listen to residents and not sell the buildings. According to Coleman Milling, community organizer for WIN, the organization is working to “rally ANCs and community members to use Benning as a community cultural center.” A similar purpose is wanted for Merritt and is being led by community members including Dennis Chestnut and Wanda Aikens, executive director Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, both residents of the Hillbrook neighborhood. Ward 8 leaders are on record not supporting using the schools as condominiums and expect the Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry to uphold this expectation. Other District agencies involved in the school reuse team are the Office of Property Management, which will provide leasing expertise, the ability to track agency space needs and building maintenance; the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; the Department of Transportation; the Department of Housing and Community Development; and the Department of Parks and Recreation, each providing subject specific expertise and general support. Overall the deputy mayor for education wants to “redefine the school sites as community hubs.” Guiding principles for reusing school buildings include encouraging co-located uses, coordinating suggested uses with the policy objectives of the Comprehensive Plan and retaining buildings for public ownership and possible reuse as a public education source. If you have questions about the school reuse process or plan, contact Claudia Lujan, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, via e-mail at claudia.lujan@dc.gov or by telephone at 202-727-0696. Ward 8 Adopts Convention Resolution Voter Apathy and Voter Participation Targets At its monthly meeting, the Ward 8 Democrats voted to offer a resolution at the District of Columbia Democratic State Party’s Convention encouraging mail-in voting as an option for District voters. The party hopes to have 100 delegates from each ward participate in the May 3 convention, which aims to educate, energize and motivate activists in preparation for the Democratic National Convention in August and the general election in November. The resolution was proposed by longtime activist Philip Pannell. Pannell’s reasoning for the mail-in option aims to give Ward 8 residents no excuse for not voting. Historically Ward 8 has a low-voter turnout, but when they do vote, voting generally occurs in the evening after work. For the Potomac Presidential Primary on Feb. 12, Ward 8 turnout numbers were extremely low. It is believed that the bad winter weather that night deterred voters already reluctant to vote, and many headed home instead of to the polls. Pannell pointed out that if voting by mail had been in place, voters could have dropped off their ballots days ahead of time in the mail or at specially selected sites. District IV School Board Member William Lockridge was an initial opponent to the resolution, noting the empowering feeling and camaraderie voters get by actually going to a polling place. Lockridge countered the mail-in balloting by noting, “I would hate to have my vote in the hands of the postman.” The Ward 8 resolution would not be the first attempt at pushing voting by mail in DC. In 2000 the DC Council considered the Mail Ballot Feasibility Study Amendment Act of 1999, Bill 13-489. This legislation was a follow-up to a Board of Elections and Ethics study of the same name that explored the impact of voting by mail on voter turnout and voter fraud among other issues. Some attendees questioned the necessity of the resolution pointing out there is already an option to request an absentee ballot. However, as Pannell pointed out, the burden is on the voter to request a ballot. Additionally, DC requires a person to either be ill or out of town to vote by absentee. Ultimately, the resolution was approved. However, residents were clear to note that to increase voter participation and turnout, voter education was a key component along with an aggressive grassroots effort that actually touched people and listened to them. To become a delegate for the Ward 8 Democrats contact Chairperson Sandra Allen at 202-563-5312 or allenprpl@aol.com. Ward 7 residents interested in representing Ward 7 Democrats can contact Chairperson Lee Wilson at 202-558-8101 or lwilson77@hotmail.com. For information about the DC Democratic State Party (www.dcdsc.org), contact David Meadows at 202-347-7260 or meadowsdavid@dnc.org. The convention will be held at the University of the District of Columbia, 4200 Connecticut Ave. NW. The District’s Republican Party will be holding a series of community meetings in April and May to shape its platform for the Republican Convention in September. For information about these meetings and the GOP, contact spokesman Paul Craney, 202-289-8005 or info@dcgop.com. DDOT Launches Safe Routes to School “Pilot School Program” Eight Schools Will Receive Improvements To make it safer, more convenient and more fun for students to get to school by bike or on foot, the District Department of Transportation has issued a call for applications to District public, private and charter schools with grades kindergarten through eight to apply for the Safe Routes to School program. Safe Routes to School is a program in the federal transportation law designed to improve the conditions and quality of opportunities to bicycling and walking to school. Government leaders talk about using energy efficient light bulbs, building green roofs, and incorporating other environmentally sensitive changes to reduce their impact, often noting that the changes will be the equivalent to removing a certain amount of vehicles from roadways. Alternatively, bicycling advocates and bicycle enthusiasts counter why not just remove the vehicles from the roads. One way to achieve this goal is to encourage and support bicycling use and safety, particularly among schoolchildren. Walking and bicycling to school mean healthier children, reduced air pollution and less traffic congestion. Fewer than 15 percent of children in grades kindergarten through eight walk or bike to school; this represents a 30-year decline in the numbers of children walking to school. DDOT Director Emeke Moneme said, “Thirty-five percent of DC households do not own a car, and since 2000, commuting by bike to work in the city has increased among residents and non-residents.” The Safe Routes to School program is another step to strengthening healthy behaviors and environmental principles in youth to ensure healthy behaviors as adults. Applications for the Safe Routes to School “Pilot School Program” became available March 3 and are due May 1 by 4:30 p.m. DDOT will select eight schools, one in each ward, to receive assistance in a number of areas including, safety education, fixing infrastructure safety problems, planning walking and bicycling events and contests and working with police to enforce traffic laws. Final decisions will be announced in early June 2008. Applications can be downloaded at www.ddot.dc.gov/saferoutes. For questions or more information about DDOT’s Safe Routes to School “Pilot School Program,” contact Jennifer Hefferan, Safe Routes to School coordinator, at 202-671-2227 or jennifer.hefferan@dc.gov. Health Focus Group Participants Sought Give Opinions on East of the River Health Delivery In 2007, the Community Access to Health Care Omnibus Amendment Act (L16-0288) became effective. The law’s main objective is to decide on how to spend the District’s share of the 1998 multi-state tobacco settlement monies, which is $245 million. A critical part of the law provided a grant to the RAND Corporation to perform three tasks: conduct an assessment of the District’s emergency and primary health care systems; conduct an assessment of the health care needs in Wards 7 and 8; and make policy recommendations to address the identified health care needs in those wards. The policy recommendations will inform the council’s decision on spending “up to $116 million for construction of health care facilities.” The RAND Corporation’s work was a compromise when the plans for a new hospital, the National Capital Medical Center, proposed to be built on the grounds of DC General Hospital were dropped. The corporation’s data analysis sources included claims from Medicaid and DC hospitals and interviews with emergency medical personnel and hospital administrators. The report can be downloaded from www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR534/, or call Dave Chandra, Health and Human Services Program Analyst, in the City Administrator’s Office at 202-442-5829. In addition to the data investigation, RAND is convening focus groups, one focused on child health and the other focused on adult health, in Wards 1, 4, 7 and 8. Participants will discuss their experiences with the city’s primary and emergency health systems and offer their suggestions on implementing policy and procedure changes. In addition to the study a provision requiring a community advisory group was included in the law. The advisory group consists of five members – two mayoral appointees, three council appointees. The mayoral appointees are: Mohammad Akhter MD, MPH, executive director of the National Medical Association; and Maria Gomez, RN, MPH, president/chief executive of Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc. The council appointees are Sylvia C. Brown, public policy consultant and Ward 7 resident; Victor Freeman, MD, former head of the District of Columbia Medical Association; and Virgil McDonald, chairman Nexus Health and Ward 7 resident. The advisory group is scheduled to meet April 9, 1 p.m., at the Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Suite 527. Agenda items include RAND researchers providing an overview of their findings, next steps and timelines for their next report. Additionally there will be discussions about plans for a community meeting and further opportunities for input. For more information about the RAND study, contact Anita Chandra at 703-413-1100 x5323 or chandra@rand.org. Council Oversight on Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Finances and Community Outreach Discussed The District Council’s Committee on the Whole questioned the chairpersons and treasurers of the city’s advisory neighborhood commissions. The oversight for Ward 7 ANCs was on March 10. Ward 8 ANCs were under the microscope on March 13. According to the council agenda, ANC chairs and treasurers answered a standard set of questions related to outreach, financing and operations. Additionally, the council wanted suggestions about improving the ANCs interaction with legislation, the council and with city agency heads. The oversight hearings can be viewed on Channel 13 or online at http://octt.dc.gov/main. Call Council Committee Clerk Christopher Murray at 202-724-8196 for more information about your experience with ANCs. ANCs are a mystery to many residents. The public is unsure of what ANCs do and ultimately their purpose. Created in 1974 as a result of Home Rule, advisory neighborhood commissioners serve as a go-between the government body, linking residents and civic organizations and the District government. Washingtonians voted for the first ANCs in February 1976. Ward-based and divided into single member districts (SMDs), individual commissioners generally represent 2,000 people. City law gives ANCs “great weight” on decisions ranging from developers’ zoning and construction applications to legislative proposals offered by the councilmembers. The ANCs also have the authority to provide grants to community-serving groups. Each quarter ANCs receive a monetary allotment from the city based on a formula according to the number of residents in each SMD. Over the years, though, ANCs have not operated efficiently or effectively, experiencing financial misappropriations and convening without a fully elected body let alone a broad representation of residents at meetings. Ward 8 is working to increase the stature and understanding of the ANC. “Ward 8 has always had the dubious distinction of having the most vacant single member districts in the city and never has had all SMD's represented since ANCs first started,” reported Philip Pannell, executive director of the Anacostia Coordinating Council. The ward has 35 SMDs and six vacancies, which means that 17 percent of the SMDs are vacant, leaving approximately 12,000 Ward 8 residents without ANC representation and no link to the District government. Pannell is developing a strategic plan to address the Ward 8 ANC issue by correlating the lack of full ANC representation with the District of Columbia fight for voting representation in the US Congress. To learn more about your ANC and SMD, go to the DC Guide website at http://citizenatlas.dc.gov/atlasapps/reporthometab.aspx, the ANC website at www.anc.dc.gov, or call the Board of Elections and Ethics at 202-727-2525.