Phil Mendelson
Announcement Speech
June 13, 1998

ANNOUNCEMENT SPEECH
JUNE 13, 1998 (1st & M Streets, NE)

We are here today because we care deeply about our city and because we want change. Nothing has been more disappointing than watching the demise of our local government. Our elected leaders have squandered the limited home rule that we have had. I want to reverse that.

I come to this campaign, as most of you know, with over 20 years experience as a community activist. But I have also served on the other side — as an activist in City Hall — first with Jim Nathanson, then in the Budget Office for the late Dave Clarke.

The breadth of experience that I can bring to the Council is based on a track record that shows I know how to get results. Real results.

What we need in our government are leaders who have an honest commitment to fight for reform. Real reform. Like overhauling our regulatory process. No one likes the long lines and waste of time that it takes to get licenses and permits of any kind from our government. Our bureaucracy is a disservice to residents and businesses alike. But I fought the bill that came out of the Council last fall because it was hollow. and because there was virtually no public input. The Council was racing to beat the Control Board. The nitty gritty problems were overlooked. As a result, the Control Board has just issued some 171 orders to do what the Council did not.

Too many people, for too long, have talked “reform” without meaning it.

I cut my teeth as a civic activist over the rental housing fights in the 1970s. McLean Gardens. where I was a tenant leader, was at the forefront of expanding tenants’ rights. We were one of the first — and the largest ever — tenant purchases and conversions in this city.

I was a leader in the fight against overdevelopment of Wisconsin Avenue in the 1980s. It made no sense that the city was permitting new large-scale projects in that area when so much of the rest of the city was crying for economic development. Our efforts forced numerous reforms in citywide policies over land use.

In that fight I learned the value of commitment and strategy, which we seldom see in our elected officials.. Developers wanted to build a road through the entrance to Glover-Archibold Park. We, of course, opposed that. We went to our Councilmembers, who sympathized but didn’t help. We went to the courts, and lost. We ran a write-in campaign against the Mayor. Some of us even got arrested. The road got built. But we were persistent, which ultimately paid off. That road got hauled away in a dump truck, and the park was restored. An alternative road was built instead.

I stand on this site today because it is my belief that the same fate will come to the convention center proposal for Mount Vernon Square.

More recently I have been at the forefront of tax reform. My lawsuit over a loophole enabling developers to avoid taxes on buildings with “incomplete” roofs brought 1/2 million dollars to the city and closed the loophole. I was the creator behind legislation establishing the Tax Revision Commission. which just this month presented its report to the Council. I also was co-chair of Initiative 51, adopted by 80% of the voters in 1996, to open up the real property assessment appeal process.

This is why my campaign slogan says: “Real Reform. Real Results.”

We need to look comprehensively at our two-dozen taxes with an eye toward restructuring them. It’s not right that under the current code a family earning $20.000 a year is in the same tax bracket as a millionaire. It's not efficient that there are overlapping circuit breakers and credits. I want to broaden the base. lower the rates, and, above all, make the tax code fair to all — both residents and businesses.

Judge a candidate not just by what he says, but by what he has done. I know how to find solutions, build coalitions, work the system, and strategize to win.

Four years ago I worked both sides of the system to keep requirements in place for more downtown housing. In the years since, the business community has come to agree that a “living downtown” is much better than one full of office that go dark after 5 pm. I will continue to work for more downtown housing. I will also support an initiative being developed by the Committee of 100 that could see up to 3500 new residential units along Maryland Avenue, SW.

The two most important concerns among the residents of this city are public safety and public education. During the last two years I have participated in the police district's Citizens Advisory Committee and worked to make the Patrol Service Areas (PSA) more effective. Even though crime statistics are down, both residents and businesses remain unsatisfied. I don't blame them. Crime, including the fear of crime, is an impediment to business activity as well as quality of life. Solutions include real “community policing,” improving closure rates, and zero tolerance for petty crimes. These are my priorities. Until everyone feels safe. the fear of crime hangs like a millstone, a drag on the pride we should have in our city.

Public education should be our greatest priority. Two years ago the appointed school trustees tried to close Hearst School in my district. Hearst is one of the most integrated, and most successful, elementary schools in the city. I learned then how awful our school system has become. There was no academic plan or long range facilities plan to guide the decisionmaking. There was little interest in whether any of the threatened schools was actually good.

If we want to build our residential base, we will have to improve public education. If we want to attract jobs, we will have to improve the educational level of our work force. But most important, if we want everyone — especially those children born into the poorest and most difficult homes — to have any chance at the American dream, then we must provide the best educational opportunity.

We must restructure the governance of schools to restore accountability. The current system is crazy. Who is responsible: the Control Board? The appointed Trustees? Congress? The Council or Mayor? What about the elected school board?

We must reach out and elicit recommendations from parent advocacy groups such as Parents United and the 21st Century School Fund. We must insist that the school system have meaningful academic and facilities plans, and that there are effective programs to help children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.

We must use the oversight tools available to the City Council. The public hearing process is a means to expose problems, focus public attention, and organize a response. Instead, over the past two years the Council has stood on the sidelines while schools opened late, roof repairs were mismanaged, good schools were threatened with closure, valuable facilities were disposed of without any long-range planning, and so forth.

Finally, I want to say something about style. Some people have suggested that I am not aggressive enough, that I don't stand on the stump breathing fire and kicking butt. Such style may be exciting, but it doesn't build winning coalitions. My style is to be inclusive. By that I mean to reach out to the different stakeholders on any given issue: labor and business; neighbors and developers; teachers and parents.

Encouraging public participation is critical to good government. It is also good for democracy. Our elected officials have done little to encourage this. If we want to regain Home Rule we must have an active citizenry.

I chose this site to announce my candidacy because it says many things. In the distance you can see the barrel-shaped roof of the U-Line Arena, where the Beatles once played, and which is now a neighborhood nuisance as a trash transfer station. To the south of us is Union Station, a revitalized jewel, while to the north is New York Avenue, a neglected corridor with tremendous potential. This city does nothing to recruit businesses and the jobs that come with them.

Right here, we stand on 27 acres of largely vacant land. The new convention center could be here -cheaper, quicker, and better than at the other, smaller site. The other site can't expand. The environmental impact statement for the other site admits that this site is “viable,” “well located,” and “eligible.”

This site symbolizes the difference between the old paradigm and the new. This site is about spending public dollars wisely. It is about looking at proposals, and their alternatives, fully and honestly. And it is about thinking creatively. Imagine what a new convention center — the largest public works project in the city's history — could do as an economic engine for this area.

There are opportunities before us, and I know how to achieve them. I ask for your support as I declare my candidacy today for an At-Large seat on the City Council.