Responses: 3. Government Oversight

3. You have been named chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment. Name three initiatives you would introduce to improve oversight of DC government.

Biddle:

• Currently council oversight hearings on recommendations for the previous budget only occur once a year in February. These are reactive hearings focused on preparing for the March series of budget hearings. I would take a proactive approach to oversight and conduct quarterly hearings on overseeing the changes that are needed within our city operations and agencies.
• When I was appointed to Chair the Special Committee on School Safety and Truancy, I arranged for 3 volunteer law students and two non-profit agency volunteers to help the Committee in researching best practices related to school safety and truancy remediation. As Chair of the Government Operations Committee, I would meet with the leadership of our universities to establish a volunteer program to include students in helping the Council to increase capacity to better prepare for oversight hearings and prepare white papers on policy issues.
• The open meeting laws must be updated to require independent boards and commissions to minimize issues discussed in executive session. Some of the most important discussions and decisions take place behind closed doors including hearings about campaign finance violations at the Office of Campaign Finance and critical elections board decisions at the Board of Elections and Ethics.

Douglas: Location, location, location is to real estate, as accountability, accountability, accountability should be to government. One initiative that I’d implement to improve oversight of the government is full disclosure of proposed spending to the public. Too much major expenditure gets by because the public doesn’t know about them until too late. Secondly, I’d introduce an initiative that would place youth in shadowing capacities on every level of government, to include Council. Youth should be able to run for political office to represent their ward. The third initiative that I would introduce is a universal communications program. This program would empower youth and adults to share information coming down from the government. We would employ their unique talents and gifts to disseminate info around the city in a manner understandable to all. This would both increase the interest of a larger number of citizens, but would also reach a lot more people through various means.

Lopez: The recent hiring scandals demonstrate a need for tough oversight of the Office of the Mayor to ensure highly qualified employees are hired to run our government, which I would fight for. I would move towards updating our campaign finance laws. It’s unacceptable for public officials to continue to break the law and face no punishments. I would also move to strengthen the Office of the Inspector General by expanding their authority to ensure accountability and transparency in DC government.

Mara:

1. I propose a top-to-bottom review of all city contracts. We must exhaustively evaluate how efficiently District government is spending money. Over the past decade, spending has increased 78% and that is simply unsustainable. However, cuts in spending do not mean we still cannot provide all the services our city needs; I believe too often we throw money at problems without evaluating outcomes. As Councilmember, I will seek to provide the most efficient and effective programs the most funding.
        For example, everyone understands that we face an unemployment crisis in DC. In order to address this issue, we must take calculated measures to build a well equipped workforce that can address the labor needs of District employers. Job training programs like the one at Carlos Rosario help equip citizens with the necessary skills to be placed in growing industry's at nearly a 100% rate. In fact, the three programs at Carlos Rosario (culinary, nurse's assistant, and computer support specialist) all have placement rates in the high 90s.
2. Leverage technology to provide transparency. Anyone familiar with District agencies knows how far behind with regards to technology. By updating District government's technological systems, we can give voters better and more transparent access to how their taxpayer dollars are spent. Additionally, we can experience huge savings and economies of scale by utilizing the latest technologies for data processing and analysis.
3. Hold Councilmembers accountable and seek punitive action for those who commit ethics violations or break the law. Put simply, I will aggressively pursue legislation that empowers the people of DC to boot lawmakers who violate the public trust from office.

Page: First, the process of city contracting should be completely transparent and the Office of Contracting needs a real-time updated website displaying the name, address and tax identification number of all entities seeking city dollars through responses to RFPs. Second, I would propose funding to establish a joint task force between the DC Board of Elections and Ethics and the Office of Contracting to generate a database accessible to the public that identifies corporations or private persons who have sought city contracts and have also donated money to the campaigns of elected officials in the District, to increase transparency. Third, I would propose funding for the Office of Attorney General to hire an ethics prosecutor who would be charged with investigating and prosecuting all current and future cases where elected representatives in the District are accused of violating local or federal elections or ethics laws, in addition to investigating any other legal violations purportedly committed by elected officials in the District.

Weaver:

1. Create a Doing Business with District database that would list all companies that do business with the city that would essentially prohibit any of those companies or their subsidiaries from contributing to political campaigns in the District of Columbia.
2. Outlaw the practice of subsidiary LLCs ability to contribute to political campaigns. Currently subsidiary LLCs may each contribute to a political campaign thus skirting the maximum contribution limit.
3. Eliminate the ability for a councilmember or the Mayor to take third-party paid trips.