Advisory Neighborhood
Commission 6B
Minutes of Regular
ANC Meeting
January 13, 2004
Commissioners Present: Julie Olson, Neil Glick, Mary Wright, David Sheldon,
Scott Cernich, Kenan Jarboe, and Will Hill
Commissioners Absent: Keith Smith, Francis Campbell and Daryl Snowden
Chairperson Julie Olson
chaired the meeting and all commissioners introduced themselves.
There is a quorum for
conducting business.
Add after item number 4 a
presentation by Mr. Catania. Under item
number 5, Planning and Zoning Committee will pull off BZA Variance for
The motion was made and
seconded to approve the adopted agenda.
The vote was unanimous.
Election of Officers
The Chair turned the meeting
over to Councilman David Catania.
Councilman Catania asked for
the nomination for Chair person.
Commissioner Hill nominated
Commissioner Olson, which was seconded by Commissioner Jarboe. Commissioner Sheldon nominated Commissioner
Glick. Commissioner Glick declined the
nomination. Commissioner Olson nominated
Commissioner Sheldon, which was seconded by Commissioner Wright.
Mr. Catania announced that
there are two (2) nominees for Chair Commissioner Olson and Commissioner Sheldon.
Mr. Catania asked all in
favor of Commissioner Olson as Chair to raise their hands. The vote was unanimous for Commissioner
Olson.
Mr. Catania then asked for
nominees for Vice Chair. Commissioner
Olson nominated Commissioner Will Hill, which was seconded by Commissioner
Glick. Commissioner Sheldon nominated
Commissioner Cernich, which he declined.
Mr. Catania asked all in
favor of Commissioner Hill as Vice Chair to raise their hands. The vote was unanimous for Commissioner Hill.
Mr. Catania asked for
nominees for Secretary. Commissioner
Jarboe nominated Commissioner Wright, which was seconded by Commissioner
Cernich. There were no other
nominees. Being no other nominations for
Secretary, Mr. Catania asked all in favor of Commissioner Wright as Secretary
to raise their hands and the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Catania asked for
nominees for Treasurer. Commissioner
Olson nominated Commissioner Jarboe, which was seconded by Commissioner Wright. There were no other nominations. Being no other nominations for Treasurer, Mr.
Catania asked all in favor of Commissioner Jarboe as Treasurer to say raise their
hands and the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Catania asked for
nominees for Parliamentarian. Commissioner
Wright nominated Commissioner Sheldon, which he declined. Commissioner Hill nominated Commissioner
Glick, which was seconded by Commissioner Sheldon. There were no other nominations. Being no other nominations for Parliamentarian,
Mr. Catania asked all in favor of Commissioner Glick as Parliamentarian to say
raise their hands and the vote was unanimous.
Commissioner Catania then
congratulated the new officers for being elected to their new positions.
Mr. Lars Hydle, former ANC
Commissioner from Ward 3 stood and stated that he had been working on the new
PSA structure and announced that the City Council will be reviewing it for the next
60 days and will be scheduling hearing.
He stated that the neighborhoods have asked that the PSA boundaries be
drawn without regards to neighborhood clusters and to align them with the
various ANCs. He presented a map of the
proposed PSAs for the Commissioners and community to review. ANC 6B will be divided into 4 PSAs. He then asked ANC 6B to pass a resolution and
offered the following draft: ANC 6B calls upon the Metropolitan Police
Department, the Mayor and Council to agree upon a Police Service Area whose
boundary area which are aligned with ANC 6B.
Commissioner Olson stated
that the Commission would be taking up the PSA issue later in the meeting.
Peter Jones stood and
introduced himself as the new Ward 6 Service Coordinator.
There were no Community
announcements.
Commissioner Sheldon thanked
Councilman Catania for taking time to participate in the election of officer
and he offered a special thank you for his support for all ANC across the city.
Reference a report on Eastern
Market prepared by OPM and submitted to the City Council. He stated that his concern was pursuant to
the District’s law Fiscal Year Budget for 2004 for the Neighborhood
Revitalization Eastern Market Design Project was reduced by 1 Million
Dollars. He went on to say that on page
9 of the report states that OPM is telling EMCAC it needs to tell them how to
spend the funds by March 15th. His point
was that EMCAC has been raising this issue over the last two years about this
money sitting in the bank and not being used.
He went on to say that it appears that the shed is getting renovated or
fixed after a year and a half. They have
been constantly telling OPM that the building is basically falling apart and
needing repair. His major concern is
that the funds in the account are not being used and he is afraid EMCAC will
lose these valuable funds. Therefore he was raising the issue to have everyone
have an opportunity to weigh in on it.
They will be reviewing this issue this Thursday at EMCAC where the
report will be formally presented.
Councilman
Catania discussed the efforts of his and Councilman Evans office to put a 10%
cap on property tax assessments. He
wanted to know if the community felt that the 10% cap was sufficient or if they
preferred a proposal to increase the Homestead Tax Exemption from 30K to 50K,
which would mean a windfall of about $200 dollars to property owner, but they
would not get the backend help of the cap.
This would mean that after receiving the $200 you would be faced with an
annual property tax increase of 10% or 20% depending upon where you start.
His
second issue was the Excess RX Plan, which is an effort he started two years
ago to look at how the District could be a smarter purchaser of prescription
drugs on behalf of its citizens. The
District currently spends approximate $300 million on prescription drugs. He went on to say that the District does not
attempt to use its market presence to maximize it buying power. This bill Excess RX has 3 components. The first requiring the District to start
looking holistically at all the drugs it purchases and certain proven cost
containment measures such as aggregate purchasing, re-importation, preferred drug
lists and etc. Second is to guarantee to
solicit lawsuits from the pharmaceutical industry and from pharmacy benefits
managers. The third is to require the
pharmaceutical companies to submit an annual report the District’s Department
of Health mentioning how much they spend on marketing in the
Councilman Catania rapped up
his discussion after fielding several questions from the audience and
Commissioners by providing his e-mail address dcatania@dc.gov
for future questions and discussion of the issues.
Certificate of Occupancy:
Protest – New Dragon Carryout
Commissioner Wright made the
Committee reported regarding the New Dragon Carryout. The neighbors of the New Dragon Carryout
requested the Committee to recommend that the ANC protest the Certificate of
Occupancy for this establishment. Their
reasoning is that under the Zoning of the neighborhood, which is C-2-A, a fast
food restaurant is not allowed.
After looking at the various
zoning regulations, the Committee agreed and recommends that the ANC protest
the Certificate of Occupancy of this establishment before the BZA.
Commissioner Glick, whose SMD
this establishment is located, stated that this is the biggest problem and
supports voting against their occupancy.
The Chair stated that the
zoning does not allow for fast food carryout establishments in C-2-As. She believes the New Dragon has developed
into this type of establishment over the year because some years ago it probably
was a deli there that conformed to the regulations, now it does not based upon
it current activities.
Commissioner Jarboe stated
that the current zoning has a big hole in it regarding the regulation of fast
food. There is no definition for
carryout, but there is one for fast food, which is where the problem is. He went on to stated that he believe this
could affect all the carry outs in the City as a test case.
The Chair stated that the
recommendation from the Committee is before the Commission to protest the
Certificate of Occupancy for New Dragon to the BZA. She then asked all in favor to raise their
hands. The vote was unanimous 7-0-0.
Transportation: Oil Tankers
on
The Committee heard from
neighbor Mark Shlien concerning the issue of tanker trucks on
The Committee is especially
concerned about the transportation of hazardous materials, including tanker
trucks, through residential areas. We
believe that tanker truck traffic has increased on the residential portions of
Therefore, the Committee
recommends that ANC 6B request that DDOT undertake a study of tanker truck and
other hazardous materials transport traffic on Capitol Hill, including
recommendations for limitations of such trucks in residential areas. As part of this request we also recommend
that DDOT provide ANC 6B with answers to the following questions:
Commissioner Sheldon
mentioned that he thought this study was already being done. However, the Chair stated there is a truck
study being done by the DDOT, but the ANC wants to specifically target oil
tanker trucks.
Commissioner Jarboe added
that the current truck study is the generic study of how trucks will be
regulated in the city. He went on to say
the Commission is asking specifically what DDOT is planning to do about hazardous
materials that come their the neighborhoods.
Commissioner Sheldon then
asked about expanding it to include oil tanker and railroad cars that are 3
blocks from the Capitol that contain highly explosive materials, which are
routinely shipped through the city, some are less than 50 yards from
residential homes.
Several other Commissioners
suggested that it would be better to address the oil tanker truck issue first
and later address the railroad car issue later.
The Chair stated that the
Commission has before it a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning
Committee regarding oil tanker trucks and writing a letter to Emergency
Response about hazardous material and for response to several questions. She then asked all in favor of the
recommendation to raise their hands. The
vote was unanimous 7-0-0.
The Chair stated that was
something in the Planning and Zoning Committee Report that is not included in
the P&Z agenda is the 15th Street Rezoning. The Chair turned the discussion over to
Commissioner Jarboe.
Commissioner Jarboe said that
while the Committee was talking about the New Dragon issue, they also talked
about how to rezone that area to residential, which would help address the
issue. However, the issue came up that
the Commission would have to take a step before going to the Zoning Commission,
which is to actually amend the Ward 6 plan, because the plan actual calls for
that area to be commercial.
Commissioner Sheldon made to
motion to amend the resolution of the December meeting to include amending the
Ward 6 Plan. The motion was seconded by
Commissioner Jarboe.
The Chair asked all in favor
of the motion to raise their hands. The
vote was unanimous 7-0-0.
The Chair stated that the
past treasurer was not present, but she and the new Treasurer, Commissioner
Jarboe would continue to work on getting the necessary documents to the auditor
as quickly as possible.
Commissioner Sheldon asked
the chair if the Commission had a November 25th deadline from the letter
he received by Certified Mail. The Chair
asked Commissioner Sheldon if he had received a letter by certified mail that
no other Commissioner had received and his response was that the only thing we
knew was that he received one and it stated that the ANC had until November 25th
to respond.
The Chair asked Gottlieb
Simon if he could help them understand what the situation was related to the
letter.
Mr. Simon said the auditors
had stated that the ANC’s next quarterly allotment maybe delayed unless they
received the necessary supporting documentation.
Commissioner Jarboe stated
that the Commission has responded to the request in that Commissioner Hill sent
the auditors a letter informing them that the Commission was working on getting
the necessary documents to them.
The Chair informed Mr. Simon
that the Commission has received it allotment letter, but has yet to receive a
check for any of the allotments. The
auditors did send the Commission letters withholding several thousand dollars from
each allotment, which they are working to clear up. She went on to say that the saving account
has approximately $26,000.00 in it.
Eastern Market Citizens Advisory Committee (EMCAC)
Dues
The Chair commented that each
year the Commission authorizes the payment of dues to EMCAC, which is $150.00
and is require if the Commission want to remain a part of the organization.
Commissioner Sheldon informed
the Commission that his office had paid for 3 members of EMCAC dues who are not
sponsored by an organization, but are basically on their own.
Commissioner Jarboe stated
that he would vote to support the payment of the dues, but he wanted to go on
record indicating that he does not think it is correct the ANC to have to pay
them and for one government agency to be telling another how to spend its
money.
Commissioner Hill made the
motion to pay the EMCAC dues. The motion
was seconded by Commissioner Wright. The
Chair asked all in favor to raise their hands.
The vote was unanimous 5-0-2
Vote of Continuation of Eastern Market Committee
The Chair stated that every
year the Commission does not have a standing committee that allows for the
input, which is not in ANC 6B’s bylaws.
Therefore, the Commission must vote to continue the Eastern Market Committee.
Commissioner Sheldon made the
motion to continue the Eastern Market Committee. The motion was seconded by Commissioner
Glick. The Chair asked all in favor of
the motion to raise their hands. The
vote was unanimous 7-0-0.
PSA Boundaries
Commissioner Jarboe stated
that he had slight problems with the boundaries. He went on to state that he was publicly on
record as being skeptical about aligning PSA Boundaries with the ANCs, not that
the ANCs are not important. But in a lot
of cases the ANC boundaries were drawn with very basic political reasons and
that was seen in this ward. The far end
of PSA 103 is not even in the ward, it is in ward 7. He stated that it makes no sense to have that
has part of a PSA if it is on the other side of the river. He went on to remind the Commissioners about
the fight they had with Southwest about the area south of the freeway involving
the political powers-to-be to take away an area that has traditionally been ANC
6B’s. Therefore, he will be opposed to
the alignment because the Commissioners of 6B have worked very had to
integrated that area into this area and the rest of Capitol Hill. He went on to say that he would support the
resolution in principle that the ANCs should be brought into the boundaries
drawing process. However he feels there
are enough anomalies in ward 6 that he would feel uncomfortable saying and that
the PSA and ANC boundaries should be the PSA boundaries. He thinks there should be a lot more
discussion on this issue.
After much discussion between
the members of the community and the Commissioners, the Chair suggested that due
to the interest expressed and the limitation of time that the issue could be
referred to the Planning and Zoning Committee, which will be the first Tuesday
of next month, for a more detailed discussion.
Commissioner Jarboe stated
that that would be fine but the clock is running in regarding to the time frame
under which responses can be lodged.
After more discussion regarding the resolution and the time limited associated
with making a response, it was suggested that certain language should be added
to the ANC Resolution.
Commissioner Jarboe made the
motion that the ANC call upon the Council to take no action on the PSA
Boundaries until or unless they involve all ANCs in the process and ask the MPD
to involves the ANCs in the drawing of the boundaries and gives the ANCs the
appropriate great weight. The motion was
seconded by Commissioner Wright.
It was mentioned by someone
in the community that the Council is saying that they are not submitting this
to the Council for the Council’s approval, but rather the Council’s review and
the Council could simply let the time pass and it would become law, therefore
he thinks the Commission should take a stronger stance.
Adjournment
There was not further
business and Commissioner Hill made the motion that the meeting be adjourned
until its next meeting date of February 10, 2004. The motion was seconded, and the vote was 7
to 0.
Meeting Adjourned.
Prepared by Bert Randolph
Attested: