Kathy Patterson:
Making government work for you.

Accomplishments

• Budget cuts in FY 95 and FY 96; balanced budgets in FY 97 and FY 98
• Reducing the accumulated deficit cutting half half FY 99 and cut to zero in FY 2000
• Agency performance reviews made part of Council budget oversight in 1998
• Procurement reform legislation in 1996
• Government Operations Committee oversight of procurement reform implementation in 1997 and 1998
• Member of control board “management reform” teams on procurement, personnel, and Employment Services.
• Comprehensive personnel reform in 1998
• Oversight of job training ended local funding for ineffective programs, led to Department of Labor investigation and corrective action plan. Committee investigation followed by department head’s resignation
• Advocacy for academically successful schools in 1997 kept open four well-run elementary schools in Wards 3, 6, 7 and 8.
• Co-chair of Council Special Committee investigating management and personnel policies in the Metropolitan Police Department.

Goals

• Reforms at D.C. Public Schools: resources in classrooms, accountability from administrators, support for principals and teachers, academic success for children.
• Community policing: more officers present and accounted for in neighborhoods and an end to mismanagement at headquarters.
• Job training that works for residents who need skills training and employers who need job-ready workers.
• Effective implementation of personnel reform
• Continuing balanced budgets and an annual fund balance
• Comprehensive tax reform to broaden and stabilize the tax base and secure selected tax cuts
• A government that works: an effective executive branch, a legislature committed to oversight, partnership with the control board and Congress.

One question Kathy often hears in her first term rtn as the Ward 3 Councilmember is, “did you really know what you were getting into?” The answer is yes. And no. It was the city’s financial collapse that prompted her to run in the first place, so the depth of the fiscal mess was no surprise. It took wrestling with the District’s bureaucracy, and the utter lack of accountability that permitted the fiscal crisis to develop to fully understand the depth and reach of the management challenges facing the District .

Kathy has taken seriously the need to reform the government. With strong staff support, she hasn't shied away from looking under the institutional rocks and into the bureaucratic crevices. She’s found waste, mismanagement, and gross inefficiency, and has worked hard to root them out. She has also met a lot of dedicated, committed District workers not equipped with the tools they need to do their jobs, including adequate training and capable managers.

In her leadership role since January 1997 as chair of the Government Operations Committee she has focused on key areas to make government work more efficiently and more effectively for you. She’s taken on how government does business, how it is organized, and how it spends your money.

Putting the fiscal house in order. During her first campaign, Kathy was a vocal critic of how elected officials were handling the city’s long-term financial problems. While never pretending that Washington’s fiscal rehabilitation could happen overnight, Kathy kept her promise and spent her first term pressing for — and finally getting — greater discipline in the budget process. After spending reductions in FY 95 and FY 96 and significant government downsizing, the District saw its first balanced budget in FY 97. The budget proposed for FY 99 includes a surplus to he applied to the- accumulated deficit — and that deficit will be eliminated entirely in FY 2000.

The tip of the tax iceberg. In 1996 the Ward 3 Council office was deluged with calls from homeowners about what appeared to be serious errors in residential property assessments. Pursuing those complaints gave Kathy the data necessary to challenge the Department of Finance and Revenue’s faulty assessments and alert the city’s chief financial officer (CFO) to the need for a review of the District's assessment process. Property tax assessments were just one symptom that prompted the CFO to begin a wholesale review of department operations, appoint new leadership in the Division of Real Property, and restructure the Department of Finance and Revenue from top to bottom.

Wasteful job training contracts. Government Operations Committee oversight pressured the Department of Employment Services (DOES) to renegotiate job training contracts to require performance before public dollars are spent. DOES had been paying $11,000 per job placement for unemployed residents — far too much — while reallocating funds for local job training to other purposes without reducing staff assigned to that function. With Kathy’s leadership, the Council cut local job training until the Department improves performance, and reallocated funds to meet critical needs including school nurses and additional child care slots.

How and what we buy — and for how much. Today city-wide procurement reform is centralizing and professionalizing procurement based on the Council- enacted 1996 procurement reform law. Government Operations Committee oversight is assuring that the law is implemented and that goods and services are purchased in a sensible, cost-effective manner.

Workers working better. In the face of complaints about job performance by front-line workers and District managers, Kathy introduced comprehensive personnel reform legislation. After hearings and a collaborative drafting process with all the stakeholders - including management and labor Kathy moved the landmark legislation through the committee and the Council. Taking effect this year is a new personnel system designed to hold managers accountable, streamline discipline procedures, and link pay increases to performance.

Labor-management partnership. Another direct result of hearings on personnel reform is the D.C. Labor Management Partnershp Council, bringing together government managers and labor unions with technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. A pilot labor-management partnership council at Fleet Management Services in Public Works has already made major strides in improving productivity and staff morale and reducing costs.

Rx for school nurse dilemma. One of Kathy's contributions in the FY 98 budget debate was a Government Operations Committee package that included $9.6 million in carefully targeted cuts. Some of those funds were reallocated to high-pric>rity services, including the school nurse program. Under threat of severe cuts, this critical preventive health program for District school children was protected and maintained.

Visible, reliable police protection. After a Government Operations hearing with police department whistleblowers in September 1997, the Council created a Special Committee on Police Misconduct and Personnel Management, co-chaired by Kathy and Councilmember Evans. Through the spring and into the summer the investigative committee, assisted by a special counsel and team of lawyers, has used Council subpoena power and the public hearing process to take a hard look at retaliation, recruiting and training, mismanagement in Internal Affairs, and long-simmering problems with off-duty employment and department procurement. Recapturing the respect and confidence of District residents is the ultimate goal of the Council’s tough oversight. Look for the panel’s hard-hitting final report in the fall.

The Council Itself. An effective District government requires a strong and professional legislature. Kathy is working to make the Council a strong partner to the executive branch — a partner as often as possible and a critic as often as necessary. Council oversight as she defines it, means questioning the government processes that have “always been done that way”' and finding creative solutions to new and ongoing problems. Holding Council office means using that office to uncover problems and get them corrected. Kathy’s leadership on the Government Operations Committee and the Special Committee on Police Misconduct and Personnel Management sets a new standard for Council oversight.

In the budget debate this year the Council adopted Kathy's proposal to require performance reviews when agencies defend their annual budget requests before the Council. The Council asked directors to justify their requests for new money but also required them to defend their expenditures in FY 97 and FY 98. And at her recommendation, the Council brought in the National Conference of State Legislatures to review Council operations, with recommendations expected before the end of the year.

School reform: For and about children. Improving D.C. Public Schools was the goal that led Kathy into the political arena, and that commitment continues. Using the Council’s role in approving the school system’s budget, Kathy has protected funding for high-priority expenditures including pre-kindergarten, kindergarten aides, and smaller class sizes, and has advocated directing more resources to the classroom. When the school system recommended closing 18 schools in 1997, Kathy issued a briefing paper that urged officials to make academic success a criterion in school closing decisions. Her widely circulated analysis and advocacy resulted in four academically successful schools — including Hearst in Ward 3 remaining open.

After schools opened late in 1997, Kathy worked quietly behind the scenes with Corporation Counsel John Ferren to negotiate a settlement of the Parents United lawsuit, a bittersweet outcome that left many school construction safety issues unresolved. She continues to press the school system to improve facilities in a comprehensive, cost-effective manner.

In testimony this year before two Congressional committees, Kathy outlined the issues and the goals of education reform. “In my view,” she told the House Committee on Government Operations, “we will be successful if, by the year 2000, we have a strong academic plan with high standards, a curriculum aligned to those standards, textbooks and materials that support the curriculum and — most importantly — we have all of our teachers trained and teaching, effectively, to those high standards.”

“Ms. Patterson is doing exactly what she said she would do during the campaign. . . . Besides working on policy and legislation, she recognizes she must serve as an ombudsman. Unlike all to many politicians, she is sticking by her work.” Northwest Current Editorial, May 31, 1998

“Without the fanfare that accompanies most major developments in the District, local leaders have quietly put together legislation that dramatically overhauls the city’s inefficient personnel system. . . . Residents can credit Ward 3 council member Kathy Patterson for producing such a far-reaching measure. This bill, if implemented as planned, will supply an ingredient long missing from the District government: employee accountability.” Washington Post Editorial, Feb. 3, 1998

“In these times of appointed leadership, we are thrilled to be represented by someone so knowledgeable, talented and hard working.” Cathy Reilly, former PTA president

“By aggressively and publicly calling on (DOES acting director) Mrs. Roberson to account for contracts that could be regarded as questionable, if not wasteful, Mrs. Patterson is looking out for the city’s best interests, and those of the voters who sent her to the council. Would that more council emmbers showed such regard for their role as legislators.” Washington Post editorial, Nov. 11, 1998

“You have emerged as a Socratic voice of reason on the Council. Just goes to show what happens when a journalist becomes a politician.” John Finney, Palisades

“I am aware of the cooperation and interest shown by you and your staff to our development team during the development process. Your generous support was important to our decision to acquire and develop the site.” John Hechinger, Sr.

“Whenever I call Kathy”s office to get help on neighborhood issues, her staff is always courteous and helpful.” Jeffrey Norman, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner

Kathy Patterson

In 1994, Kathy Patterson won the Democratic nomination for the Ward 3 Council seat over a two-term incumbent. On the Council, she quickly established a reputation as a tough-minded, independent voice advocating fiscal responsibility, stronger public schools, and accountability from District officials. In January 1997 she became chair of the Government Operations Committee with jurisdiction over procurement, personnel, c election ctic>n law, Employment Services and other critical government functions. A 22-year resident of the District, she was communications director of the American Public Weltare Association prior to joining the Council and previously worked as a national correspondent for The Kansas City Star. She and her husband, Dale Leibach, and their children, Patrick, 14, and Gillian, 11, live in Chevy Chase, D.C.

Questions or Comments?
Contact the campaign by phone (202/537-5037)
or E-Mail (Internet: kpattDC3@AOL.com)

Paid for by the Kathy Patterson for Council Committee, David G Shaw, Treasurer