• a bail-reform bill that would make it easier for the courts to hold without bond suspects in homicide cases and other violent crimes
• a parole reform bill [co-introduced by the late John Wilson, then Chairman of the Council] that required life without parole for persons convicted of first degree murder
• the Parking Relief Act, which would have made the parking enforcement division both more productive and more palatable by
  • rolling back fines to the pre-l990 level establishing a night time moratorium for minor violations in residential areas [such as, Adams Morgan, Georgetown and Capitol Hill]
  • providing more and better training for parking enforcement personnel
  • making the agency “user friendly” by holding night and Saturday court
• Retaining four East of the River precincts in Ward 6
• Retaining NBW (later Riggs) in an economically depressed neighborhood

Harold Brazil was an early (and sometime only) proponent for true budget reform

• In December 1994, he backed the concept that the council could no longer appropriate funds to satisfy the appetite of every city program and service. He attempted to identify those basic programs and services that the city ought to provide
• In April 1995 Brazil told the city that the Administration “was spending more and not paying bills on time to mask overspending”
• In August of that year, Brazil offered an alternative to the City’s bloated budget, one that was true, pragmatic and balanced that called for the elimination of more than 2,000 city positions [banning “backfill” at the same time]
• When Brazil voted for a tax cut in 1995, the Administration countered that it would pull police officers out of his Ward and focused constituent and union pressure in an attempt to reverse the action
• In 1995 Brazil commissioned a Council of Agencies/Board of Trade Task Force that found the city with only minimal adherence to procurement laws and that the Department of Administrative Services had largely ignored the DC Procurement Practices Act of 1985
• In 1996, Brazil introduced legislation that would centralize all procurement in DAS and insulate the director from political pressure by allowing the mayor to dismiss the director only for cause and then by the consent of the council
• That same year Brazil said the city could save as much as $10 million if we had a single procurement
• Brazil has fought long and hard for the Office of Campaign Finance to publicly disclose the outcome of all investigations and increase penalties for violations, stating that both measures would deter candidates from breaking laws
• To cut down on juvenile crime and victimization, Brazil, introduced and saw passed the 1995 Juvenile Curfew Act only to see it suspended by Judge Sullivan
• In 1997, Brazil, standing virtually alone, told his council colleagues that they must select the best possible arrangement, not for themselves as elected officials but for the city and its future during the Memorandum of Understanding on the White House Plan
• When Brazil voted against the bloated FY1995 budgets, he warned his colleagues that DC was heading toward a Federal take over
• Brazil recently won passage of his Business Regulatory Reform Act, a bill designed to make the District “user friendly”
• Brazil fought for passage of a DC Residence Requirement for new hires, only to see it overturned by his colleagues with pressure from Congress
• Brazil proposed repealing the most restrictive Environmental Policy Act and implementing an “environmental effects report” conforming to practices in Maryland and Virginia as well as most other states
• In an effort to come up with satisfactory solutions to problems plaguing housing providers and tenants alike, Brazil has had an ongoing dialogue with tenants groups across the city
• The Washington Post has long held Brazil as one of the strongest elected officials in speaking up for the hard but necessary budget cuts and against old fashioned cronyism that infests too many of the District’s fiscal decisions
• Brazil wrote the Victim’s Rights Establishment Act of 1997 that would bring the District’s laws into conformity with the rest of the nation. It has sat in the Judiciary Committee and the Chairman, Councilmember Jack Evans has yet to move on it
• Of all the Mayoral candidates, Brazil alone has issued a written six point white paper on Excellence in Public Education

Paid for by Brazil ’98 Committee. John J. Mahoney, Treasurer