The League of Women Voters
MAKING OUR VOTES COUNT

Responses to Questionnaire: John Gloster 7/20/98

1. If such a person is in the nominating stage, I would point out the person's shortcomings and suggest a replacement candidate. If, on the other hand, the person is already in office, I will document the person’s (and the department’s) failures during his/her term. Again, I would propose an alternative person.

2. First of all, I would find someone who is excited about the challenge of turning around our health system. The director of any DC government agency must be someone who understands that part of the funding problem is an internal management problem. DC agencies have not always done a good job applying for funds, indicating their intended use, nor documenting actual use of federal funds, which is essential to assuring the availability of these funds. Deaths from preventable illness is intolerable, as is serious illness that results from less serious, treatable ailments. The time table for fixing this is yesterday! We must do more to utilize funds for home and community-based health services because, in the long run, it will save all involved over expensive of a hospital emergency room visits. One community-based idea we may explore is the promotion and certification of mid-wives, as true family health consultants. Much of the preventable deaths in DC results from poor pre-natal care. Women who are skeptical about doctors and hospitals may listen to mid-wives. Another thing I would do, that would take the pressure and onus off of our government-run hospitals, is to create a commission to distribute the cost of indigent, emergency room care amongst the public and private hospitals in town. This will discourage the practice of dumping indigents on public hospital emergency rooms, which drains resources from these hospitals. Additionally, changing this dynamic may encourage health caregivers to treat people more pro-actively.

3. First, this position should be filled before January 1999, when I will take office.. When I take office, however, the person holding this position will need to be an advocate for the citizenry and consumers in general. My opponents, intent on satiating the business community's desires for less and less regulation, forget that the DCRA was created as a consumer regulatory department. When we look at the results of the Business Regulatory Reform Commission it should be no surprise that its recommendations were genetically cloned by the DC Chamber of Commerce and dubbed “The Dirty Dozen”. This is not at all surprising when you know that the commission was overloaded with business representatives, and devoid of citizen activists.

To regulate responsibly means to walk the line between too much and too little regulation. To ensure that we walk this line, we must eliminate the practice of creating regulatory jobs as political patronage. Secondly, we must be able and willing to perform a cost-benefit analysis on regulations in order to determine where we are on that line. Finally, the administration of regulation must be made as simple and straight-forward as possible. If the regulation has been well crafted, a clearer understanding of the rules and penalties will increase compliance, which is the desired end result. I would perfect the concept of “one-stop shopping” at the DCRA. Too often, it is impossible for a business to complete all of the documentation needed to set up business in the District in one day at the DCRA office..

4. We could make the Department of Public Works more effective by organizing it into teams with clearly defined duties which would engage in a friendly competition with other teams of equal duties for performance standards. As in all departments, we must allow for real budget needs to be expressed, not suppressed, by the management. Only by getting realistic statistics on long-term needs will we be able to make accurate cost-benefit analysis, which includes amortized long-term costs.

5. Yes. The Charter should be revised to loosen the strangle-hold of the majority parties on District politics. The ward members of the City Council represent over 65,000 people each. The at-large members represent over a half-million. It takes big money to reach that many people with a traditional campaign. As a result, big money interests play a disproportional role in District elections. We can reform our government, and make it more responsible to the people by making the City Council conform to our state constitution. That is, we would have 34 representatives to the legislative body.

6. I will make it clear to the “powers that be” that I am the duly elected emissary of the people of the District. As such, I expect to have a say in every decision that effects the people. If those powers ask me to approve, or acquiesce to a program that would be unacceptable to the people of the District, I will stand firm. The Control Board and the Congress count on our government leaders caving in and performing their dirty work. By choosing my battles, and standing firm, I will win some of the battles we have been losing.

7. The DC Statehood Slate has a Covenant With The District which outlines twelve action items we will attend to once in power. Let me enumerate a few that we will work on immediately. First, with the help of the Slate, I will use my mandate to halt construction of the new convention center boondoggle, which will cost the city $1 billion dollars if allowed to proceed. I will, instead, invest in our education system, as described in my education platform. Second, we will wage war against rats and insufficient or inequitable trash pickups. Third, we will immediately institute curbside recycling (if it still has not been done), and introduce legislation to designate it as a core service, and a permanent budget item.

8. I feel that it is a crime that we have taken or coerced away the rights of some workers to bargain collectively and strike, if necessary. It is unjust to the workers, and it is unfair and unwise for the District citizen. District employees who are not working under an agreement that is mutually acceptable to all parties are working under duress, which lowers moral, which inevitably, has an effect on services. The District taxpayer wants no more than to pay fair wages to city employees, and to receive no less than top quality services. Let us not ruin that possibility by engaging in warfare against unions, rather than constructive negotiations.

10. These mega entertainment complexes are designed to meet the needs of commuters and tourists. The return, in terms of jobs, pales in comparison to their costs. The Coopers & Lybrand study, commissioned by the Washington Convention Center Authority, found that 60% of the economic benefit of the new convention center would go to the suburbs, yet we must foot 100% of the cost. We must stop being the “go-fers” for the entire region. Development should be development for the residents of the District, and should not come at the cost of destroying neighborhoods.

11. I feel this is the foundation of our future economic strength. We must invest in education for all ages. Class sizes in our public schools must be cut in half. Every significant study on the issue shows that urban school children learn better in class sizes of 15 or less. But a high school diploma is no guarantee of success in the twenty-first century. We must build up, not tear down our only public university, UDC. It must maintain a four-year liberal arts college, and an expanded graduate school, which includes a law school. (The law profession continues to be a growing source of high paying careers in the District, and we must take advantage of that fact by improving the resources and quality of our law school.) For those of us in the middle of our working lives, we need a public university where we can retool our skills so that we can take advantage of opportunities to move up, and so that we are not victimized by corporate and government downsizing. In addition, we will utilize after-school arts and recreation, adult mentoring, and youth intervention and drug rehabilitation programs to keep people out of a life of crime. Looked-after youth equals safer streets. More investment in libraries, parks and the arts means more well-rounded and well-adjusted people. Studies show that when deciding where to locate, employers look primarily to the educational levels of the workforce, the stability of the neighborhoods, and the quality-of-life in the area. Once we have implemented our plan, we will have created a city which will be more appealing to providers of careers.

12. Please see #11 above.

13. In order for the master school plan to be accessible, it needs to be boiled down. It should be condensed, referenced as a matrix, and disseminated to the public libraries and PTAs.

14. We need some barometers to measure our schools performance. Reliance on the Stat 9, and the incumbent over emphasis on test taking skills is heading down the wrong trail. Better barometers would be: student retention (drop out rates); attendance; incidence of teen pregnancy; incidence of school violence; participation rates in PTAs; the percentage of high school graduates who go on to college or gainful employment.

15. It is shameful that our current policy of welfare reform does not adequately address the necessary resources to make the program an actual success. We should be utilizing UDC to prepare these people for the careers that are available in our job market. Some of the money saved from welfare reform should go to free metro passes during the former recipient's transition period. Finally, affordable pre-Kindergarten daycare should be available. Under my program, however, there would be no need for additional expenditures for other daycare, because all public school children will be able to stay in an in-school, after-hours arts and recreation program until 6 pm.

16. My first preference is to keep Lorton open. In no event, however, would I tolerate a prison in Ward 8, it sends too many wrong messages. In a ward where career opportunities are lowest, and too many young people are left adrift, it would be a cruel and cynical symbol to build a prison, which would be- a metaphor for the destiny we have created for them. And no where in this District would I tolerate a private prison. Creating a profit motive for continual criminal activity is perverse, and not my idea of saving the District money.

17. Yes, there will come a time in my administration when we will all feel safe. But it will not happen overnight (it may not fully materialize until my second term), nor will it be marked by distinct milestones, like in military battles. That is because we will not gain safety through a military style assault on our youth. (They have already been demonized enough.) We cannot solve the crime question with more police. We cannot turn the District into a barracks. To be and feel safe, we must feel we live in neighborhoods again, where people care about each other. We can start with our youngest. They are starved for attention from responsible adults to be mentors and guides. We will give them more contact of this kind in our schools, by cutting class size in half, and investing in parent involvement counselors, who will show their parents why and how to keep involved in their children's education, and lives. After-school arts and recreation will keep children off the streets, and out of trouble. When youth do become involved in negative choices, more youth and drug rehabilitation programs will help save them before it is too late. As a society, we must show our children that they have a worth, that they are worth fighting for. For every dollar spent on incarceration, we will spend a dollar on intervention and prevention. In these ways, we will help create the feeling of a village, in which every child is looked after, and nobody need be afraid.

18. The Camp Simms site formerly belonged to the Federal Government, and is slated for commercial development. Under current law, the land could not be transferred without an environmental remediation. In my view, we should negotiate a deal between the Feds and the developers where the cost of the cleanup is shared between them.

19. Metrobus service is a boon to all of those who do not have cars, or who do not want to drive everywhere. It is economical and efficient, reduces pollution, and serves the entire city. Privatization of the service will inevitably result in diminished service in areas deemed to be less profitable. We do not want, nor need, a service that operates efficiently only along certain economically preferable thoroughfares.

20. First and foremost there is an inequality of service in the District that must be addressed. Trash pickup in some areas is twice, or even three times a week, and only once a week in others. This is a management level decision with obvious political overtones. Secondly, it is my understanding that the workers in DPW are significantly hampered by old, worn out equipment. Not replacing this equipment may look good on the balance sheet today, but we are paying the price in lower productivity, higher maintenance costs and lower service. Recycling is an essential service, just like trash pickup. We would never dream of suspending trash pickup for years at a time.

21. We must maintain a safe and civil buffer zone between transfer stations and surrounding neighborhoods. The neighborhoods were there first, and their rights should be respected.

22. This is just a question of good and, most importantly, honest management. It is not rocket science. Failure to provide for adequate reserves for these very predictable needs is the result of leadership that is unwilling to be straightforward with the voters. For too long we have been accepting of the convenient lie, and it gets us into trouble every time. A long time ago my momma taught me that “you can't have your cake and eat it too”. But we keep believing we can. As long as we keep electing the same status quo leaders, we will be fed the same lines.

23. For many tenants, affordable housing would be the unit they are currently living in, if they could own it at current market rates. That is one reason we are promoting an initiative to help tenants form coop-condos which could rent-to-own apartment units to new tenants without any down payment greater than a standard security deposit. I will defend rent control against its continual attacks. Meanwhile, some landlords employ a strategy of leaving units, even whole buildings un-rented, unoccupied, and unattended. This strategy is real estate speculation at its worst. These landlords are speculating with our lives. Vacant properties artificially constrain the availability of housing, degrade our neighborhoods, promote homelessness, and invite crime, rats, and disease. The DC Statehood Slate’s Covenant with the District calls for these properties to be fined, and then confiscated, and put to productive use. By discouraging this type of speculation, we will increase the available stock of affordable housing.

24. I can think of one proposal that the Commission came up with that had promise. The gross receipts tax for corporations has some merit in simplifying the tax structure, IF we replace all corporation taxes with a single gross receipts tax, with no ability to reduce taxes by spending enormous amounts on executive fringe benefits. The PILOT program, for Fannie Mae and others would also be a boon, if embraced by the organizations in question..

25. We must effectively utilize 5 year budget forecasting, which includes estimated grant funding. It is a matter of getting together the fiscal software package, and then monitoring the actual utilization of current grant funds in the short-term. Additionally, someone has to care. Someone's head should roll if significant funds were budgeted but not utilized.

26. Yes, we can and must do this. Please see #17 above.