‘I Stand for a compassionate leadership that is dedicated to improving and protecting the quality of life for DC people.”

Our Washington is on the mend. Crime is at a ten year low. The real estate market is booming. Tourism is flourishing. Downtown life is revitalized and stronger than ever. Streets are cleaner. New housing communities are springing up in several wards. Neighborhoods are coming together. Volunteerism is strong. Churches are growing.

Our government is getting better every day. Things are improving, not only because of new Federal assistance. unprecedented powers vested in a Control Board and the growing national economy, but because all Washingtonians have joined in determining our destiny.

But we have much to do. As a cohesive group, elected representatives and citizens, we have merely scratched the surface. We have service shortages that hurt people, diminish lives. punish innocent children and cost everyone money and peace of mind. Here are my priorities for next year:

Keep Government Solvent and Competent

Our citizens must regain home rule. Our government must he self-sufficient, just like our citizens must be self-sufficient. Our current surplus must continue. We must pay off our debt and prepare for future downturns.

We are in an upturn right now. We must remain fiscally sensible so we won't have to drastically cut services if another downturn come our way.

DC government is beginning to retrain and retool itself questioning not only what it does, hilt also how it does it. Workforce training and elimination of the debt are top priorities for the future.

It is very important to do the right things now.

Children First — Education and Family Values

We must invest in prevention and early intervention strategies to create strong families, healthy children, better-educated high school graduates, and self-sufficient adults. Too many of our students fail to even finish high school at all. Many of those who graduate are not equipped for today’s high technology jobs.

Families are the foundation of our community. We must help mothers and fathers to get jobs and stay off welfare. Welfare hurts our city by expanding an under class of poverty and hopelessness. The high social costs of welfare hurt our city as much as do the economic costs to our taxpayers.

We cannot afford to cut corners with children and the families that nurture them. It hurts everyone, rich or poor. Our children are our future.

Economic Growth, Jobs and Strong, Safe Neighborhoods

The Washington area is on the verge of tremendous economic growth. The job of elected leaders is to focus job growth to nurture our communities. This means changing regulations that have chased businesses into the suburbs in the past. It means revising taxes to be lower and fairer to residents and attractive to businesses that can create jobs by their presence in the city.

Economic growth must be targeted broadly. We must retain our businesses in those parts of the city where they are currently flourishing and create development in the areas of Good Hope Road, New York Avenue; Georgia Avenue, Minnesota Avenue, Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue, H Street NE, Kennedy Street NW, East Capital Street and M Street SW.

This means matching school training to economic growth opportunities in private business and industry where 90 percent of the jobs in the area occur.

It means continuing to reduce crime in every neighborhood and on every street of the District of Columbia.

Health Care

We have successfully restructured our primary health care system and revitalized DC General Hospital under the Public Benefit Corporation. Now we must tackle substance abuse epidemic — the most costly and destructive health problem we face — and the inability of our senior citizens to remain at home and independent.

Medical and social science professionals have demonstrated how substance abuse can be treated successfully. This is a community mental health problem that must be dealt with through the family, the schools, and the community through treatment.

We need to expand HIV/AIDS, homeless intervention programs and new approaches for in-home health care as well as supportive services for senior citizens. These new approaches can change the quality of life for all DC citizens.

Building Trust in Self-Government Again

Linda Cropp’s rich career strengthens her resolve that whenever democracy falters, Americans have always believed that the answer is more democracy. This is also true in the District of Columbia. Under Linda Cropp’s leadership, the Council of the District of Columbia has become the strong, elected voice of the people it was intended to be.

Her 28-year career in DC public service began as a teacher and counselor. She practices a leadership of getting along, working together and keeping people's needs out front. That formula is working toward a new DC...for work, for families, for values.

“I am a person who will always see the glass half full,” she says. “We work under great hardship as heavily taxed residents in this nation with many strings on our ability to govern our fate. But solutions begin at home.

In these difficult times, the Council has moved beyond the politics of blame and anger over DC’s threatened home rule to take responsibility for budget and quality of life issues.

The Council hears the citizens of DC.

The Council debates and deliberates conflicting interests.

The Council builds consensus for moving forward.

The Council meets with the Control Board, the White House and the Congress to address issues affecting D.C.

The Council works toward building credibility for citizen rule through elected representatives.

That’s why DC sent to Congress a consensus budget for Fiscal Year 1999 that will bring DC debt from a high of $571 million to less than $42 million and balanced the budget for the third consecutive year.

That’s why DC Government can shift its focus from no growth in services to reforming and delivering services.

That’s why DC citizens can look forward to the end of the Control Board and the return to full home rule at the birth of the 21st Century.

“We have accomplished step one,” Cropp says. “We have stabilized the spending in our government. Now we can look at investing differently, to get more bang for the buck. We can work to fill unmet needs...to fix our streets, support our police, get excellence out of our schools, and tackle our growing health crisis.”

“Working together, we are building and implementing solutions that will produce a wonderful new future for Washington.”