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Response to the Washington Interfaith Network Stand Up and Take Charge Questionnaire

by

Anthony Williams
Candidate for Mayor

I commend the efforts of the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) to assure healthy neighborhoods, affordable housing, and job opportunities for low-income persons in Washington, D.C. As Mayor, I will work closely with WIN and other community groups to assure that these fundamental community goals are achieved. I am uniquely qualified as Mayor to work with WIN and other groups to achieve these goals because of my experience as Chief Financial Office of the District of Columbia, Executive Director of the Community Development Agency in St. Louis, and Assistant Director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. These positions fully prepared me to provide the Mayoral leadership needed to best serve our people and neighborhoods.

While I have provided specifics on each of the four major areas, these proposals must be interconnected and represent one vision for strengthening our neighborhoods. I believe that our schools are the heart of the neighborhood. All initiatives should be driven by the commitment to educate our young people, preparing them for the world of work, so that they can achieve their fullest potential as human beings and future leaders of the District of Columbia.

At the July candidates forum, I will present a model community plan, similar to those I have used in both Boston and St. Louis, that I proposed to follow throughout the District once elected Mayor. Central to developing and implementing a comprehensive neighborhood plan is the commitment of all people — our faith communities, parents, local businesses, nonprofit service providers and government. In addition to local leadership and involvement, I will bring together the best minds in the country in each of these areas to enrich our efforts and make the District a capital city of which all Americans are proud.

My specific responses to the WIN agenda follow:

Youth and Education

  • $30 million annual dedicated fund to support after-school enrichment programs citywide financed by the Tax Incentive Fund ($30 million over five years -- 10% of total) & other sources to be identified (e g., Control Board interest fund on Federal payment).

If we expect our children to grow up to be well-educated capable adults. we must create an environment conducive to learning during the formative years. As children grow up, it is profoundly important that we find ways for them to engage in constructive activities that develop their skills and prepare them for the future. Eighty percent of a child's time is spent outside of the school. Parents, especially working parents, are concerned about what happens to their children after school, between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. A quality public education system doesn't begin at 7:30 or 8 a.m. and end at 3:00 p.m with a sound of a bell. Before- and after-school programs should

  • Provide a safe place for our children to spend their their outside school hours;
  • Develop their skills in math, science, the arts and other subjects, and
  • Provide enrichment opportunities to develop the social skills necessary to be successful in life.

Many school districts have successfully partnered with for-profit and nonprofit organizations to provide constructive activities for students after the regular school day ends. The Washington Interfaith Network is to be commended for creating an effective after-school program in Hine Jr. High School. At the same time, we can look to examples in other cities for additional models to consider. For example:

  • Community organizations in Boston are developing and expanding after-school programs to hold down juvenile violence.
  • Jacksonville, Florida runs an after-school program known as SAFE/TEAMS that provides a free, 90-minute program in all 23 Duval County middle schools, offering activities in math, science, language arts, homework assistance, and recreation.
  • In Los Angeles County, 4-H offers a positive alternative to unstructured, unsupervised free time in neighborhoods where income is low, social resources are few, and gang-related activities are an ever-present threat.
  • Bell Atlantic, in supporting after-school care, donated $6,000 to a middle school in West Virginia to improve math and science skills for students.
  • In the cities of Palo Alto, San Mateo, Brisbane and San Francisco, community services agencies such as the YMCA, the school districts and the city recreation and parks departments have teamed up to provide a wealth of creative and appealing after-school and evening programs for teenagers.

We can learn from these successes and build on them to develop effective after-school programs that are supported by our school administration, Department of Parks and Recreation and other government resources. The District government needs to engage with WIN as well as similar community organizations and businesses as partners in developing our school as neighborhood hubs.

My administration is committed to identifying a long-term source of funds to provide after-school programs for each school within the District. The after school programs should be funded by the most efficient and effective means possible and we must ensure that the source of funding for these programs cover both the up front cost of development as well as the long-term operating costs.

In funding these programs we should use local dollars to leverage federal funds, available grants, and support from the private sector. In Sacramento, California, an after-school program received a $1.58 million grant that allows it to add four new school sites, operate 10 programs during summer breaks and provide tutoring and recreation to 1,400 more students Furthermore, the President of the United States plans to add a national initiative to spark private sector and local community efforts to provide after-school programs to more than half a million children The U S. Department of Education made available $40 million in grant money to help set up hundreds of new 2lst Century Community Learning Centers, community-based after-school programs in rural and inner-city public schools.

The timetable for implementation:

November, 1998 to January, 1999

Set up after-school education task force to work with all interested parties (parents, community groups, education groups, etc.) to determine what type of programs will best serve individual schools.

January, 1999 to June, 1999

Identify sources of funds for implementing a long-term after-school program District-wide. Ensure that funds are included into the Fiscal Year 2000 operating budget.

June, 1999 to September, 1999

Train principals, teachers, and partners in operating effective after-school programs

September, 1999 to June, 2000

Implement and operate District-wide after-school programs

June, 2000 forward

Evaluate programs and improve program effectiveness

Crime & Public Safety

  • Redeployment of 900+ officers from administrative jobs to foot and bike patrols city-wide
  • Audit MPD Crime Statistics by FBI or other objective third party
  • Performance measures to hold new police leadership accountable

I intend to be Mayor of a city where: you will not be afraid to let your children play outside or walk home from school or the corner store; you'll know the police officers protecting your neighborhood; you, your neighbors and police officers will work as partners. not just to fight crime, but to fight the conditions that let it breed — the abandoned cars and overgrown lots and graffiti, and all conditions foster crime.

In cooperation with Chief Ramsey, I will ensure that true neighborhood policing becomes a reality. This means that at least two-thirds of all officers are assigned to comprehensive neighborhood teams. These teams will be accountable for preventing crime in their areas, building trust among citizens, and forging partnerships with residents, businesses, churches, and government agencies to stop crime before it starts. Officers will spend time out of their cars talking to people, and stay on their assignments long enough to develop trusting relationships with neighborhood residents.

Some good things have happened in a few places in the past year where officers have had quality training and a positive attitude, and where residents have demanded partnership. But overall the effort has fallen short of ideal — fewer than 25 percent of the department's 3,600 sworn officers are on neighborhood teams. Right now, most of the force is working the old way, riding around in cars until a 911 call comes in. As Mayor, I will work with Chief Ramsey to review the staffing of the police department to identify the 900 officers who are supposedly languishing in administrative jobs and put them on the streets. I will ensure that every neighborhood has an effective, neighborhood police team assigned long-term that patrols by foot and bicycle as well as by car. I will also assure that our deteriorated station houses are repaired and provide the supplies and equipment officers need to be effective. I will also require that residents be treated in a courteous and effective manner.

Making Neighborhood Policing work is one key. The other is professionalizing the department. As Mayor, I will assure that our police department is modeled after the best-managed departments in the country. We will hold every officer in every rank accountable for performance and for maintaining the highest professional standards. I will direct that immediate and effective action be taken to restore the “911” service to a reliable level where every call gets answered in a timely and effective manner. I will ensure an independent, public review of crime statistics and police performance to assure that our police department stands as one of the best police departments in the country.

At the same time, I will work with Chief Ramsey to provide better training and continuous retraining for our dedicated officers.. And we will work with the City Council to establish officer’s pay at least on a par with neighboring departments.

The Department needs committed, competent leadership at the top to transform it into a real, neighborhood policing organization. As Mayor, I will help restore the public's lost trust in the department as a whole by working tirelessly to achieve these goals I outlined. Chief Ramsey has made a start towards many of these goals. Together, he as Police Chief and I as Mayor will achieve them all.

Affordable Housing — Homeownership

  • Free Land for 1,000 homes
  • $25 million in public subsidy from CDBG and other sources to develop the houses
  • Make home ownership city economic development priority

In a Williams Administration, homeownership at all income levels will not just be an economic development priority, but a District-wide priority. The District currently has one of the lowest homeownership rates in the country. That is not acceptable. Homeownership is the foundation of neighborhood stability, and provides low- and moderate-income families access to wealth and a tangible stake in the future of their neighborhood and their city. Statistics have shown that neighborhoods in which a majority of the residents are homeowners show a dramatic decline in crime rates. Home ownership leads to safer neighborhoods.

My goals will include a commitment to assure that working families with household incomes of $20,000 to $40,000 have the opportunity to own their own homes. I will achieve this goal by forming a partnership with nonprofit housing groups, including the Washington Interfaith Network and reputable developers. In this partnership, the city will provide city-owned land to support new housing initiatives. I recognize that commitments of free land made in the past have been broken. I will get to the root of these past broken promises and will identify new parcels appropriate for affordable housing development. The bottom line is that if a developer has funds committed for affordable housing, we will find the land.

For developers who have not secured full funding, I will work to see that all possible funding sources, including Community Development Block Grant funds, are made available. I also envision that as the economy continues to improve and the District maintains balanced budgets with surpluses, over time we can provide tax incentives to developers to build low- and moderate income housing.

Homeownership and housing are areas where the District has failed to provide basic levels of service in the past. This failure of basic program administration and legislative oversight lead to the imposition of a receiver to oversee the District's public housing programs. I will work to see that the District’s public housing programs are returned to District control so that the citizens can once again have one, unified government. Once control is restored, we can ensure that the resources of the District are utilized to maximize opportunities for working families. This is not just the smart thing to do for economic development, its the right thing to do for our neighborhoods and families.

Jobs

  • Living wage jobs for DC residents for all private development projects which receive public subsidies.

In the past, the District government has served as a primary employer for residents. However, our increasingly robust economy cannot expand if business taxes — imposed to support a bloated bureaucracy — stifle growth. As Mayor, I will seek every opportunity to assure that District residents are considered first when it comes to employment opportunities. And I will similarly challenge the business community to look first to District residents in filling their job vacancies.

I will also look at all possible opportunities for DC residents to participate in government supported or government-assisted enterprises. I will review the city's contracting practices to identify opportunities for city residents. I will work with the City Council to determine methods for holding private development projects that receive public subsidies to a reasonable level of employment of qualified local residents at reasonable wages.

At the same time, my administration will look beyond the boundaries of the city to promote employment opportunities for city residents The rapidly expanding economy in the Washington region provides a wide range of new job opportunities for District residents. Right now, the economies of our Maryland and Virginia suburbs are booming — creating thousands of well paying jobs — many of which are going unfilled for lack of qualified candidates.

To ensure District residents have access to local and regional jobs, we must empower them with two key tools: training and transportation.

  • Job training must give people skills. To take advantage of job opportunities, DC residents must have the skills that employers demand. The high-paying new jobs in our local economy arc in office settings and technological industries. Unfortunately, our schools and job training programs fail to prepare workers to take advantage of these opportunities. As Mayor, I will ensure that DC residents have access to educational programs that prepare them for the professional and technical job opportunities that the coming century will offer. In a Williams administration, the Department of Employment Services will not just employ government administrators, but will hire training experts who can provide DC residents the job readiness and the professional and technical development needed to provide a livable wage for families.
  • Better transportation to connect people to good jobs. Experts agree that one key to helping people earn a decent wage is safe, reliable transportation to quality jobs. Currently, Washington area trains and buses routes are not designed to help low- and moderate-income residents get to the burgeoning job corridors in the surrounding jurisdictions. In my first year as Mayor, I will work with the Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to review the bus routes serving the neighborhoods most in need to assure fast, efficient routes to access subway and other transportation nodes serving high employment areas. And we will examine how citywide carpools and van pools, transit subsidies, or other arrangements could help residents connect with jobs throughout the Washington region.

On a larger scale, I believe that the most effective way to create jobs is to create a supportive business environment that will foster the growth of new businesses, small businesses, and existing businesses. This will come by streamlining the burdensome regulatory environment that currently stifles business people across the city, and by providing basic services such as public safety and clean streets to ensure residents and visitors feel comfortable supporting District businesses, and thereby supporting the creation of District jobs. We can also focus on efforts on supporting growth in the industries that are most likely to create jobs in the District, such as tourism, technology, and health care. My complete economic policy will focus on regulatory reform, insisting that banks in the city provide loans to small businesses, providing one-stop service center to businesses, and training our residents to be prepared to take advantage of business growth.

We will also partner with community development corporations to develop local business corridors that serve and strengthen our neighborhoods. And we will look for opportunities to promote home-grown businesses and products developed by local entrepreneurs to regional, national, and international markets. While I strongly believe that we must encourage larger employers to pay a livable wage for quality job performance, we must make certain that livable wage requirements do not become so burdensome as to put smaller — mom and pop — businesses out of business.

Together we will define the District’s future

As Mayor, I stand ready to partner with the Washington Interfaith Network and others dedicated to making Washington, D C. a safe, secure — and joyful — place for all of our people to live. In addition to the agenda laid out by the Washington Interfaith Network, I am committed to a full-scale initiative to restore every single block in this city — one block at a time.

I commit to an aggressive short-term as well as long-term implementation plan serving neighborhoods. I put forth my record of restoring accountability to the financial operations of the city and my demonstrated record of community development, particularly my support of WIN with regard to the more than $50 million in unspent CDBG funds last year.

Together, we can make this one of the greatest cities in the world for people, young and old, of every faith and racial origin and all levels of income to live and grow and prosper.


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