ANC 5A held a special public meeting on December 2, 2021. Commissioners present: Damion McDuffie (5A01); Charles Lockett (5A02); Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) – Secretary; Ronnie Edwards (5A05) – Chair; Sandi Washington (5A07) – Treasurer.

Note: District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Acting Director Everett Lott was scheduled to attend this special meeting. Getting DDOT to a meeting was the reason the ANC was having a special meeting in the first place, but Director Lott had to cancel again. The ANC notified residents on November 30 that DDOT Deputy Director Sharon Kershbaum would attend to represent DDOT.

ANC Business

Catholic University first-year undergraduate student Diego Rojas has met the requirements to be ANC Commissioner. Once he is sworn in, he will officially join the Commission to represent single member district (SMD) 5A04.

DDOT

Former DDOT Ward 5 Community Engagement Specialist Kelly Jeong-Olson is now DDOT’s Community Engagement Manager, overseeing all of DDOT’s ward liaisons. The new Ward 5 liaison is Dalando Baker. He can be reached at dalando.baker@dc.gov.

DDOT Deputy Director Sharon Kershbaum, who is only five weeks into her job at DDOT, did her best to answer questions. She highlighted DDOT’s new dashboard for traffic safety investigations, available at https://ddot.dc.gov/featured-content/traffic-safety-investigation-tsi-dashboard. You can search the dashboard by ANC area and find out the status of various requests.

Because of Ms. Kershabum’s limited DDOT experience, the meeting ended up turning into the ANC Commissioners spelling out a list of issues in their respective areas. If you have attended a few ANC meetings, the issues should be familiar.

• Oversize trucks improperly using neighborhood roads
• Speeding along the South Dakota Avenue NE corridor
• Difficulty crossing South Dakota Avenue and Decatur Street NE
• House vibrations when vehicles cross the raised stop bar at Sargent Road and Emerson Street NE
• Installation of 5G cell towers on residential streets (Note: Verizon just installed one on Galloway Street NE and one on Hamilton Street NE last week).

Catholic University General Counsel Matthew Dolan also chimed in to ask for something to be done about speeding on the streets surrounding Catholic University.

A couple of residents complained about bike lanes and reducing vehicle travel lanes and parking. One resident said all of the flexiposts popping up across the city can be confusing for elderly drivers.

A couple of commissioners and residents raised process questions. For example, if DDOT closes a matter stating that no work is warranted, even though work clearly is warranted, what happens next. There should be some way to request reconsideration of that decision. And in order to do so, DDOT should have to provide the reasoning for its initial decision. Another example: DDOT is seeking to streamline requests with the new traffic investigation process. Part of that involves reducing the number of circumstances in which ANC support and lots of documentation are necessary. But Commissioner Lucio stated that there may be some instances in which the ANC would want to be involved, such as when residents on a block disagree about installing a sidewalk where there is none. In that case, Commissioner Lucio said she would want the ANC Commissioner to be notified and involved, understanding that DDOT would ultimately determine whether a sidewalk is installed.

All that said, DDOT’s processes and policies are still unclear to me. Ms. Jeong-Olson stated that DDOT will be releasing a simple one-pager about the traffic safety investigation process in the next week or so.

MPD Police Report (MPD 4D Commander Randy Griffin)

MPD Fourth District Commander Randy Griffin made an appearance to let residents know about MPD’s reward program for tips on illegal gun possession. Individuals may be eligible for a cash reward for tips leading to arrest and seizure of an illegal gun. Through a partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), an additional cash reward may be available for recovery of a ghost gun or gun with a conversion device. Call (202) 727-9099 to make an anonymous report or text anonymously to 50411.

Mayor’s Office Report (Ward 5 MOCR Nokomis Hunter)

Mayor Bowser will be holding a Senior Holiday Celebration on December 15, 2021, at the Convention Center. Registration, proof of COVID-19 vaccination, and masks are required.

DMV’s ticket amnesty program ends December 31, 2021.

The next ANC 5A meeting is scheduled for January 2022.