DC Government

From an email:

“Deadline for letters to be signed and returned is Tuesday, April 11 evening (i.e. tomorrow). This is not just for Tricia, whom we lost tragically and brutally, but also for the Public Safety of the DC community, so that such a thing never happens again.

Hello,
Just a reminder (if you have not already) to send your letter in memory of the tragic loss of our beloved friend and Bloomingdale resident
Tricia McCauley.
(and please pass this email along to friends and other DC residents, and/or share on Social Media) (more…)

From a press release:

“A new alcohol law is in effect beginning today that creates new ways of doing business for District alcohol manufacturers and retailers.

“This new law allows District businesses to expand areas of their operations consistent with other jurisdictions,” said Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration Director Fred Moosally. “It also clarifies existing law for licensees and the public. We greatly appreciate Mayor Muriel Bowser’s introduction and support of the legislation.”

The Omnibus Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Amendment of 2016 (D.C. Law 21-260) makes a variety of new licenses available to businesses. It creates a new bed and breakfast license that is the first of its kind in the District. The license permits an inn that has fewer than 30 guest rooms to serve alcohol to registered guests as part of a room fee. Another measure in the law allows for hotels in the District to apply for an off-premises license to sell beer and wine to guests from a store inside of the hotel. Previously, hotels in the District could generally only sell alcohol to guests from restaurants, bars or minibars. The legislation also makes additional licenses available for beer and wine stores in the District.

Businesses can also expand the types of containers they offer under the new law. Grocery stores are now able to sell wine, cider, and mead in growlers for the first time instead of only beer. In addition, restaurants and taverns that brew beer—known as brew pubs—can sell the beer they manufacture in cans, kegs, bottles and other sealed containers for customers to take home. Brew pubs were previously only permitted to sell beer in growlers. The law also allows a distillery or winery to sell its products in cans and kegs instead of only barrels and bottles. (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user Lorie Shaull

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Mayor Muriel Bowser presented “DC Values in Action,” DC Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) Budget and Financial Plan, to DC Council. As the twenty-second consecutive balanced budget, this proposal will help ensure that every single resident has a roadmap to inclusive prosperity. For the third consecutive year, Mayor Bowser hosted a series of budget engagement forums to hear directly from residents about their ideas and concerns about education, public safety, affordable housing, jobs, economic development, health, and human services.

“This budget fulfills our commitment to promote and defend DC Values and to aim for inclusive prosperity,” said Mayor Bowser. “From historic investments in public education, to investments in job training, second chances for returning citizens, and ensuring our families have a safe, affordable place to call home, this budget prioritizes DC residents by standing steadfast to our DC values.”

“DC Values in Action” incorporates this feedback along with agency recommendations and mayoral priorities to formulate the FY2018 budget proposal. From again investing $100 million in the Housing Production Trust Fund to allocating more than $1 billion in full-scale school modernizations, this budget will continue to move Washington, DC forward. Here are a few of the key investments proposed in DC Values in Action:

High-Quality Education

Rising enrollment in our traditional public and public charter schools, and increasing student achievement demonstrate that school reform in DC is working. The FY2018 budget makes the largest investment in public education in the history by:

• Committing an additional $105 million to increase the per student rate and meet the needs of a growing student body;
• Increasing charter school facilities by 2.2 percent to $3,193 per student for non-residential charter programs and $8,580 per student for residential charter schools;
• Improving technology to help parents navigate and engage in public education, specifically the parent portal for DC Public Schools; extending MySchoolDC for mid-year entries and transfers; and launching a new MyChildCareDC site;
• Increasing the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and the Community College of the District of Columbia funds for the staff and programs by $5.7 million;
• Expanding and improving Child Care by $15 million. Potential sites include UDC’s Flagship Campus (4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW), UDC’s Community College Campus (5171 South Dakota Avenue, NE), UDC’s Community College Campus Headquarters (801 North Capitol Street, NE), and the Deanwood Recreation Center (1350 49^th Street, NE);
• Transferring $4.9 million of former DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (CYITC) funds to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) for out-of-school-time programming; and
• Investing $1.3 billion for school modernization over 6 years to ensure that schools in line for modernization under established, defined criteria are budgeted for necessary improvements.

Safer, Stronger DC

The District is committed to ensuring that those in all neighborhoods feel and are safe, providing an environment in which residents and businesses can thrive. The FY2018 budget includes the following investments: (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user Lindsey Robinett

From a press release:

“Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen will introduce emergency legislation at next Tuesday’s meeting of the full Council to protect women’s health care benefits required under the Affordable Care Act by making them local DC law. All 12 of Councilmember Allen’s colleagues on the Council will join him in co-introducing the bill.

“This Presidential administration is threatening to roll back basic, life-saving women’s health benefits by any means necessary,” said Councilmember Allen. “Just this week, we saw HHS Secretary Tom Price promise before a congressional committee that he’s going to do everything he can to take away coverage for women. We know benefits like cancer screenings and contraception improve health outcomes and lower spending. We need to make these critical benefits local law for District women now.”

Many of the benefits guaranteed to women in the Affordable Care Act aren’t written into the law itself, but instead are required by guidelines and recommendations created by the Health Resources & Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Preventive Services Task Force. These guidelines and recommendations are particularly vulnerable to federal action. (more…)

From the Mayor’s Office:

“In recent weeks, news about Washington, DC’s missing youth, particularly teenage girls of color, has garnered local and national attention and concern. Ensuring that Washington, DC continues to improve its response to missing children, Mayor Bowser has identified six immediate initiatives to locate young people who have been reported as missing, provide critical resources to better address the issues that cause young people to run away from home, and support young people who may be considering leaving home.

Recently, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Youth and Family Services Division began aggressively using social media to generate immediate public attention for missing young people, and these six initiatives will build on this strategy. By using social media to make the community aware of missing young people, MPD has been able to generate significant public attention around the cases – often a key contributor to finding missing persons. The tweets have also brought much-needed attention to the fact that in cities across the country, hundreds of youth, particularly young people of color, are reported missing each year.

“One missing young person, is one too many, and these new initiatives will help us do more to find and protect young people, particularly young girls of color, across our city,” said Mayor Bowser. “Through social media, we have been able to highlight this problem and bring awareness to open cases, and now we are doing more to ensure that families and children are receiving the wraparound services they need to keep families together and children safe.”

The six new initiatives announced by the Mayor include: (more…)

From a press release:

“The Property Disposition Reform Amendment Act of 2017, aims to get vacant and blighted properties owned by District government into productive use by engaging licensed real estate brokers to sell these properties on the District’s behalf. The bill requires the Department of Housing and Community Development—which currently has up to 180 vacant and blighted properties in its portfolio—to follow a broker disposition process used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This would put properties on a faster track to getting back into use for affordable housing or other purposes, but does not change the current mission of selling these Property Acquisition and Disposition Division or “PADD” properties to non-profit organizations at a significantly discounted rate for the purpose of redeveloping them for low and moderate income residents. (more…)

“Dear PoPville,

I just closed on a new condo and would like to appeal my DC property tax assessment. It’s a three-unit building (all units are brand new construction with same materials), and they’ve assessed our unit as the most expensive by far ($120K more and $76K more than the other two units) even though ours was the mid-priced one in terms of the list price and the eventual purchase price when comparing the three units to each other.

I am definitely going to appeal the assessment and have read many threads on this site and others about how to do it. My remaining question that I hope to have answered here is: (more…)

From the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor:

“Please find attached a press release for the report, “Internal Weaknesses Found in Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program” (MBSYEP) from the Office of the D.C. Auditor. ODCA was directed to evaluate multiple years of the summer youth jobs program to assess whether the program has met and is meeting program objectives. The report is a review of MBSYEP during 2015 and 2016 and is the last of four reports intended to fulfill the Council’s directive.
The report’s findings include:

• Some $43K in unaccounted-for transportation expenses.
• Instances when DOES exceeded legally-mandated wage rates and hours of work for MBSYEP participants.
• Weaknesses in the information technology system procedures used by MBSYEP that pose risks for waste, fraud, and abuse.
• The lack of sufficient advance planning that caused adverse consequences for the effectiveness of the program and unnecessary costs.
• Inefficient payroll processing, including 18 payrolls processed for a six-week program.”

You can read the full report here.