BACA meeting 3/6/06 part 2

For Permit Parking 51% of residents have to sign on. Citizens will have to go around to get signatures.
A couple of blocks in TC has permit parking for residents. I get the feeling residents are divided on this. Yes, it is a pain in the rear if you have out of town guests and you don't have a driveway to stick their car. And the 5th District station is in a pedestrian unfriendly spot. But cars not with residential stickers can get towed or ticketed or whatever. My block decided it was worth it.

Linda Perkins of Councilman Vincent Orange spoke. We are in the budget season of the council. Jim figured to have Ms. Perkins speak before bringing on the guy who want Vincent Orange's current job and the guy who wants the same job VO is vying for. She passed out a listing which I gather can be found at www.dccouncil.us as it is a list of all the councilmembers, their office locations, numbers, assistant's names, emails, faxes, party affiliation, and what committees each member is on. She also passed out a page on performance hearings times.... I don't remember why. And there was a flyer about the 7th Annual Ward 5 Constituent Services Summit on Saturday, March 11, 2006 8:30am-3:00pm at Trinity University in the O'Conner Auditorium.

Bruce A. Marshall who is running for Ward 5 city council spoke. He has no website yet. Yet if you want to call him, call 529-2905. There is another, well same number listed as LA9 2905. Apparently it is a nod to old timers. *sigh*
Anyway in his speech he mentioned how he was a lifelong resident of Ward 5, product of the DC public school system (daughter going to Wilson), and he has worked in DC Government. He says he is an administrator not a politician. Hints of Tony? No, this guy has a bit more personality than a dead cat. Can't really say the same for Tony. Mr. Marshall has... wait for it.... a "Marshall Plan." The Marshall Plan is to put families first. Families are defined as the people who are in your house when you go home. O. K. He also has 5 priorities. 1- public safety. 2-public education. 3- support senior citizens 4- constituent services & 5- ethical government. I could say something and being behind the password I really, really, really could but let's wait for all this to ripen.
Robert Brannum who is running for city council chairman spoke. Has ties to Ward 5. Pledges not to raise a lot of money. Not a lot is $500. I plan on spending more on a new computer. Mac Minis are going for $600. Anyway about the candidate, he is retired military and has an interest in the young people. Or I think, as I don't have complete sentences in my notes. Something was said about access to government. I remember he said that the media did not consider him a viable candidate. I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree. He needs a bigger entourage or a bigger budget. People or money or both. Both is usually good too. I hope I heard wrong on that $500 bit.
Michael Brown running for DC mayor spoke. Bio. Ties to DC. Story about his son.
I'm not going to bother rehashing Mr. Brown's bio and DC roots. You could probably get that from his website. He passed out his yellow and black flyer with what looks like his DC-centric resume on the back. First off, Brown said that city debt is something we must be careful with. He did expand on this. Statehood is also important to him as well. The pleasant story about his son relates to values and being accountable. He said that we need to expose kids to the great things in the city. He said something about respecting senior citizens. Like many people running he said that education needs to be a priority. He also said that he only intends to stay for two terms in the mayor's office. He wants schools to be hubs. He wants to keep the A1 bond rating for the city.
Question: Raising revenue (relating to debt?)
Answer: Something about 2nd generation revenue stream and managed to throw in something about planning. From what I can remember (summarize), the problem is the condos attract DINKS but when they have kids they move out to more affordable suburbs. DC is losing that revenue from those families.
Question: Finance affordable housing
Answer: Affordable housing is easier to fix. Something about RFPs. He said we need to make better land lease deals. Something about involving banks to help teachers and police with mortgages so they can live in the city.
Last speaker was Phil Mendelson. Most interesting thing said (to me, just my opinion) was a mention about his workshop on real property taxes.
Unfortunately Mendelson said "baseball" a magic word that makes me zone out. I did catch him saying that there needs to be a limit on how much is spent. He talked about the problem with school buildings and affordable housing. He is also running for re-election. And that's ok.
I said the most interesting thing he said was on his workshop on tax assessment appeals. I 've been to one of them before and they are quite informative, provided that some idiot does not take over the conversation (just like meetings at work) with their own agenda. But in general they are very much worth going to and when you find out when and where, I highly suggest you go. April 1st is the deadline for appealing the tax assessment.
Another little thing Mendelson said, or rather lashed out on was President Bush's administration for cutting HUD funding. This in turn is the reason the waiting lists for section 8 (what ever the equivalent is) will be closed.

Thus endeth my (unofficial) notes for the Bates Area Civic Association meeting for the 6th of March 2006.