Posted tagged ‘District Budget’

« Park View, D.C. home page

Get Out and Vote Tomorrow for the Open At-Large DC Council Seat & Budget Autonomy Amendment

April 22, 2013

Budget AutonomyIf you didn’t take advantage of early voting, tomorrow is the official day to vote in the April 23rd special election for the At-Large Council seat vacated by Phil Mendelson when he became Council Chairman. The seat was temporarily filled by Anita Bonds who is among those running in the election to fill the seat. The full slate of candidates is:

  • Matthew Frumin
  • Perry Redd
  • Elissa Silverman
  • Patrick Mara
  • Anita Bonds
  • * Michael A. Brown – WITHDRAWN
  • Paul Zukerberg

The Lets Choose DC Website has some useful information on the candidates if you want to learn more about them.

In addition to the open At-Large seat, voters get to vote on a DC Charter Amendment on budget autonomy. In addition to the relevant text of the charter amendment from the DC Board of Elections and Ethics Website (below), you can learn more from the DCVote Website.

Turnout at special elections tends to be light. There are a few good candidates in this race and depending upon turn out it could very much be up for grabs.

Below is the text from the DCBOEE site relevant to the Charter Amendment:

PROPOSED CHARTER AMENDMENT VIII
Charter Amendment:  Local Budget Autonomy
Currently, the Home Rule Act requires affirmative Congressional action with respect to the entire District budget (both federal and local funds).

This Charter Amendment, if ratified, enacted and upheld, would permit the Council to adopt the annual local budget for the District of Columbia government; would permit the District to spend local funds in accordance with each Council approved budget act; and would permit the Council to establish the District’s fiscal year.

Share

Categories: Elections, Government
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Some Highlights from Mayor Gray’s Ward 1 Budget Town Hall Meeting

April 17, 2013

If you were not able to attend Mayor Gray’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Town Hall Meeting for Ward One last week, I thought it would at least be good to make the Mayor’s PowerPoint presentation available. I’m sure that in going through the 33 slides there will be many areas of interest. Keeping in mind that the presentation was at a relatively high level, there were two areas that I wanted to draw out for the community.

The first was the continued renovation of the Park View School building. According to slide 25, the next phase of modernization is scheduled for FY 2018 with a budget of $6.6 million. At this time I am uncertain if this is the second or final phase of the modernization. Originally, phase two was scheduled for FY 2016, but the 2012 phase one work far exceeded the normal scope of a normal phase one modernization. Clearly there is more clarification needed here, but it is encouraging to see that the city is keeping its commitment to the school.

FY 14 Budget Schools

During the question and answer portion of the meeting, 1A Commissioner Dotti Love Wade specifically asked if the city was going to rebuild an elementary school on the Bruce-Monroe property at Irving and Georgia Avenue. On this issue, Mayor Gray responded that the District has no intention of building a new school on that site.

In addition to school improvements, another budgetary focus that will impact every resident is a planned five-year replacement plan for all of the City’s Supercans. The District is also planning to eliminate fees for the replacement of damaged or stolen cans and is seeking a design that will make the cans more rat proof.

FY 14 Budget Trash

While I’m sure there will be many other parts of the budget that will positively impact the community, the improvements to trash cans and schools jumped out for comment.

Share

Categories: Government
Tags:

Comments: 1 Comment

Mayor’s FY2014 Ward 1 Budget Town Hall on Thursday, April 11th

April 9, 2013

Are you interested in knowing more about Mayor Gray’s proposed FY2014 budget? If so, consider attending the Mayor’s town hall meeting this Thursday at the Columbia Heights Community Center.

ward 1 town hall flyer

Share

Categories: Government
Tags: ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Mayor Gray Submits Fiscal Year 2014 Budget to Council

March 29, 2013

Yesterday, Mayor Gray released his Fiscal Year 2014 proposed budget to the D.C. Council (press release below after the jump). This will begin the cycle of Budget Town Hall meetings (Ward 1′s is scheduled for April 11, 2013, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at the Columbia Heights Community Center) and DC Council hearings. While the proposed budget does tend to set a lot of the broad budgetary priorities, there is still a lot of wiggle room — which is why the Council hearings are important.

By going to the Council’s budget meetings residents can testify re: priorities and projects for which they are advocates. In reviewing Mayor Gray’s priorities, there are two that I think align with continuing needs we have in the community, which I believe makes them low hanging fruit. Those are the “multi-million dollar investment in expanding, improving and renovating the District’s parks and recreation facilities and programs” and his commitment to affordable housing.

Field house at the Park View Rec Center in 2009.

Field house at the Park View Rec Center in 2009.

While the Park View Recreation Center has recently benefited from outdoor improvements and upgrades and renovations to the main building, the historic 1932 field house still needs to be addressed, as well as the swimming pool and pool house. The entire rec center also needs to have a 10-15 year master plan for being completely reworked. The recent renovations were executed in a piece meal fashion and neither DPR or DGS was willing to entertain a master plan for the acre and a half property without a budget to back it up. This budget season, with the emphasis on recreation, could very well make renovating the old field house, if not more, a winnable argument in the Wilson Building.

The Hebrew Home for the Aged, at 1125 Spring Road, in 1967.

The Hebrew Home for the Aged, at 1125 Spring Road, in 1967.

Few will argue that affordable housing isn’t critical. In our area, every new development includes the conversation about how many units will be affordable. But, one thing that no one really seems to be talking about is affordable housing for seniors. Politicians and activists talk about aging in place and keeping seniors in their homes, and this is good.  But I don’t really hear anyone talking about expanding or diversifying affordable housing options for seniors. In our community, I think we have an excellent opportunity to do both.

The old Hebrew Home for the Aged, located at 1125 Spring Road, is currently vacant and owned by the District. Residents have talked about renovating it for affordable senior housing in the past but to no avail. This year would be a good year to restart the discussion and get things moving. All in all, this would be an easy win/win for our seniors.

Once I’m able to get more information on the Mayor’s proposed budget, I’m sure I’ll find other opportunities to head to the Wilson building and get behind as an advocate. I would encourage others to attend the budget town hall and Wilson Building budget meetings as well.

The full press release is after the jump (more…)

Categories: City services, Government
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Mayor Gray Presents his FY2013 Budget to Ward 1

May 1, 2012

Mayor Gray at the Ward 1 FY2013 Budget presentation

Mayor Gray presented an overview of his proposed budget priorities for FY2013 last night at Bell Multicultural High School, 3101 16th Street, NW. The Ward 1 presentation was the last of his eight Ward presentations.

According to the Mayor’s PowerPoint presentation, his FY2013 budget proposal has three main goals and four development principles.

The goals:

  1. Diversity and grow the District’s economy;
  2. Educate and prepare our work force for the New Economy; and,
  3. Improve the quality of life for all.

The principles:

  1. Continue to prioritize strategic investments in education, public safety, and workforce development;
  2. Protect our most vulnerable residents;
  3. Ensure a structurally balanced budget (no use of fund balance); and,
  4. Balance the budget with no new taxes or fees.

There was a notable emphasis on education — both in funding schools and in capital improvements (such as school modernizations). In responding to a question after the presentation that questioned all the money going into schools, especially for adults without children, Gray replied that investment in education was investment in the District’s future in all areas.

Because there is a projected budget gap for FY2013, one of the Mayor’s proposed methods of making up some of that revenue would be to expand sales hours for alcoholic beverages by bars and restaurants. While very little print was give to this proposal, the Mayor actually spent some time discussing it during the presentation and it was a topic of concern by more than a couple residents during the follow up questions to the Mayor. Residents from Adams Morgan, in particular, noted their observations that services responding to concerns in that neighborhood are already inadequately addressed. Some noted their belief that any money raised by extending the sales hours for alcohol would merely pay for the increased policing, etc., of the problems that the extra hours would create.

For those interested in exploring the FY2013 budget proposal themselves, many relevant documents are currently available online and can be accessed here.

Share

Categories: City services, Government
Tags: ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Going to the Ward 1 FY2013 Budget Town Hall Meeting Tonight?

April 30, 2012

There have certainly been a lot of notices on the listservs about tonight’s FY2013 Budget Town Hall Meeting. Is anyone else going? If so, what do you hope to learn from it?

Share

Categories: Community Meetings, Government
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 59 other followers

%d bloggers like this: