Keep a Low Profile
Dear Human-Scale Humans:
The National Capital Planning Commission voted seven to three against
changing the Height Act and for preserving the District of Columbia as a
low-scale, family-friendly city. At the same time, the city council also
voted, with the sole exception of Marion Barry, to preserve the
protections of the Height Act. Advocates of developers and skyscrapers,
posing as “smart growth,” are angry with both the NCPC and the council,
and are trying to portray this as “states rights,” “self-government”
issue. When the local governing body, the city council, takes the same
position as the federal body, the NCPC, it’s difficult to see what
dispute there is between the feds and the locals. In this matter, both
entities are representing DC’s local residents against the special
interests, who reject the kind of city DC has become, and prefer the
models of Rosslyn and Crystal City instead.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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District Elections in 2014
Dorothy Brizill,
dorothy@dcwatch.com
Voting precincts and polling sites. The DC Board of Elections (DCBOE)
has scheduled two additional public hearings and extended the deadline
for public comment on the proposed plans to redraw voting precinct
boundaries and relocate many polling sites in 2014. The public hearings
will be held on Thursday, November 21, at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., One
Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, NW, Room 280 South. Written comments
must be submitted by November 30 by E-mail to director@dcboee.org or by
postal mail to DC Board of Elections, 441 4th Street, NW, Suite 250,
Washington DC 20001.
At the monthly Board meeting on October 2, the DC BOE tentatively
approved a plan that had been developed by the BOE staff (with no civic
or community input) that would drastically change voting precinct
boundaries and polling locations in the District. The plan is on the
Board web site at
http://bit.ly/17CwIMq. It was
initially sent only to ANC commissioners, with a short public comment
deadline of October 30, so that the new precinct boundaries and polling
sites could be implemented by the BOE for the April 1, 2014, primary
election. Most neighborhoods have reacted with surprise upon hearing of
the plan, and many residents found the plan and accompanies maps
indecipherable. Concerns were raised about the relocations of many
polling sites, which in some instances were more than a mile away from
their current locations. Assuming the Board reworks its plan following
the public comment period, the earliest the Board could vote on it would
be at its scheduled December 4 meeting. The BOE would then have to
forward the plan to the city council, which retains the sole legislative
authority to redraw precinct boundaries. (The Board can only determine
the specific locations of polling sites within those boundaries.)
Assuming that the council would not hold public hearings on the BOE plan
until the first quarter of 2014, it now seems unlikely that there will
be adequate time to implement new boundaries and polling sites properly
by the April 1 primary date.
Candidates and campaigns. An updated list of people who have picked
up nominating petitions is posted on the DC BOE web site at
http://www.dcboee.org/popup.asp?url=/pdf_files/hr_1256.pdf.
In the Democratic Party, new entrants include Michael Lee Matthews for
US Delegate, John F. Settles and Kevin Valentine, Jr., for at-large
councilmember, Carolyn C. Steptoe for Ward 5 councilmember, Shelonda P.
Tillman for Ward 6 councilmember, and Glenda J. Richmond and Martin
Sterbal for US [Shadow] Senator. No new Republican or Statehood Green
candidates have filed for any seat, but Bruce Majors of the Libertarian
Party picked up petitions on November 20 for the office of mayor. Majors
ran for the position of delegate in 2012 against Eleanor Holmes Norton
and managed to receive enough votes so that the Libertarian Party
secured permanent ballot status as a party in the District.
Nonresident petition circulators. In 2012, Majors and the Libertarian
Party sued the Board of Elections challenging a long-standing provision
in District law that required nominating petitions in DC to be
circulated by District residents. In their lawsuit, Majors, et al.,
claimed that District law violated “rights guaranteed to them by the
First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitutions.” In an out-of-court
settlement, DC Attorney General Irv Nathan got the city council to amend
the District’s election law so that in the 2014 election non-District
residents will be able to circulate nominating petitions, provided they
register as petition circulators with the Board of Elections prior to
circulating them.
Seven campaigns (Jack Evans, Reta Lewis, Beverly Wheeler, Paul
Strauss, Muriel Bowser, Andy Shallal, and Eleanor Holmes Norton) have
registered twenty-eight nonresident petition circulators with the Board
of Elections (see
http://www.dcboee.org/popup.asp?url=/pdf_files/nr_1256.pdf).
To date, the Evans and Lewis campaigns, with eleven and eight
nonresident circulators, respectively, have the most.
OCF filings. The District’s election law requires a candidate to file
a “statement of organization” regarding his or her campaign committee
with the DC Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) within five days of picking
up nominating petitions. On November 8, Gerri Adams-Simmons,
representing the Draft Committee to Save Our City, picked up nominating
petitions for Vincent Orange to run for mayor in the April primary. On
November 14, Orange filed a statement of organization for his Vincent
Orange 2014 for Mayor committee with OCF, but he failed to specify
either a committee chairman or treasurer, as required by District law.
According to DC Code 1-1163.07, “no contribution and no expenditure
shall be accepted or made by or on behalf of a committee at a time when
there is a vacancy in the office of treasurer for the committee.” In a
November 12 article in the Washington Post, Orange is quoted as
saying that, “he has no immediate plans to form a campaign committee,
leaving the ‘Draft Committee to Save Our City’ led by Adams-Simmons to
handle signature-gathering for the time being, with fundraising to come
later.” However, in order to quality for and participate in the November
13 candidates forum sponsored by the DC Bar, Orange pledged that he
would raise $25,000 by the next reporting deadline at the OCF — December
10. Orange’s current campaign fundraising activities, without having
properly registered a committee with a treasurer at OCF, is especially
troubling given the cloud that still hovers over the finances of his
2010 and 2011 council campaigns.
Other candidates who picked up nominating petitions on November 8 who
have yet to file with OCF include Octavia Wells (mayor and US [Shadow]
Senator), Nate Bennett Fleming(at-large councilmember), and Paul
Zukerberg (attorney general).
Democratic State Committee election. On November 8, the city council
adopted emergency legislation, the Party Officer Elections Emergency
Amendment Act of 2013. The bill, which amends the District’s election
code “to permit the election of officials of political parties during
any regularly scheduled primary election,” will allow the District’s
Democratic State Committee to place the election of party officials (e.g.,
national committeeman, national committeewoman, at-large committee party
member, and ward committee members) on the April 1 primary ballot. In
order to be on the ballot, candidates will have to secure nominating
petitions from the DC BOE and submit the requisite signatures by January
2, 2014 ( http://www.dcboee.org/popup.asp?url=/pdf_files/nr_1253.pdf).
The council’s emergency legislation, which was adopted without a public
hearing or public notice, allows the DC Democratic Party to held
long-overdue and postponed party elections at public expense. Rather
than bearing the expense of convening a party convention, two
councilmembers, Vincent Orange, a National Democratic Party
committeeman, and Anita Bonds, chairman of the Democratic State
Committee, worked tirelessly to shepherd the legislation through the
council. When it came up for a vote on November 5, Orange was absent,
but Bonds did not recuse herself. Instead, she participated in the
unanimous vote to approve the emergency bill. To many, it is clear that
Bonds had a conflict of interest, and that she violated the council’s
Code of Conduct by participating in an “official action that would
adversely affect the confidence of the public in the integrity of the
District government.” Moreover, the District’s Ethics Manual, published
by the DC Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, has clear rules
and guidelines regarding activities outside the District government by
government employees and officials. It states that “if an employee is an
officer, director, trustee, partner or employee of an outside
organization, then the employee must not participate as a District
employee in any particular matter (such as a judicial proceeding,
investigation, contract, or grant) that would have a financial effect on
that organization.”
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Affordable Housing, Smart Growth, and Parking
Robert Bettmann, Ward 4,
rob@dayeight.org
There is an important conversation happening right now about the need
for increased affordable housing and how the city might pay for it. As
you know, zoning regulations are one of the few chits the city can
legally use to encourage developers to add/create affordable housing
units. Under current statute if a developer wants to go higher than the
original zoning, or cover a larger percentage of the lot than zoned with
the building footprint, that may be allowed in exchange for addition of
affordable units. These kinds of zoning variance can be a win for
everyone. A developer gets to add units (increase profits) while DC
residents get access to high quality affordable housing at less cost to
taxpayers.
If this new zoning proposal offered developers the option to reduce
or eliminate parking in exchange for adding affordable housing units I’d
support it. But as is this is simply a developer giveaway masquerading
as “smart growth.” The city needs to make sure that affordable housing
exists in prime locations (near metros) and DMPED [the Office of the
Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development] is trying to give
away an important bargaining chip that could help make that happen. It’s
ridiculous, has nothing to do with smart growth, and should be stopped.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Council of Churches Forum on DC Statehood
November 21
Ann Loikow,
aloikow@verizon.net
The Council of Churches of Greater Washington invites all interested
persons to take part in our annual fall assembly, on Thursday, November
21, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at the National City Christian Church
(Community Room) at 5 Thomas Circle. Supper will be served, and
underground parking is available from N Street, NW. Johnny Barnes, Esq.,
noted civil rights leader and former longtime director of the Washington
Chapter of the ACLU, will be speaking on “Statehood for the District of
Columbia — Why It Is Owed to Us and How Houses of Worship can Assist in
the Statehood Process.”
The Council of Churches of Greater Washington believes that now is
the right time for houses of worship of the Washington area to share
with the American public and the US Congress the deep frustration of
residents of the District of Columbia with the flawed and undemocratic
nature of our unequal status. We wish to spur public awareness that the
current situation is unjust and belies our trust that American democracy
is fair. We believe it can be permanently and constitutionally rectified
through seeking statehood — the only complete, fair and final remedy.
Why statehood? Because that is the means provided by our Constitution
to ensure equal treatment of all citizens of the United States, and
because any lesser measure can be rescinded by Congress at any time and
for any reason it chooses to do so, regardless of the wishes of our
residents. No such burden is laid upon citizens living in any of the
states making up our union. We believe justice and democracy demand
nothing less than statehood. Come, listen and take part. An online
invitation and RSVP form can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/pnfknrv.
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