ANC 5A held its monthly public meeting on January 26, 2022. All commissioners were present.

The meeting was (unnecessarily) long clocking in at almost three hours, so I might be forgetting some things.

ANC Business

The commissioners elected the same ANC officers by acclamation for the new year:

• Chair – Commissioner Ronnie Edwards (5A05)
• Vice Chair – Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08)
• Secretary – Commissioner Emily Singer Lucio (5A03)
• Treasurer – Commissioner Sandi Washington (5A07)

Anthony Hood did the honors in swearing in the officers.

Commissioner Diego Rojas (5A04), the new commissioner representing the Catholic University area, joined the ANC for his first official ANC meeting. Commissioner Rojas was installed in December 2021. He is a first-year undergraduate student at Catholic. He is majoring in business, plays golf, and has family in the DC area. With Commissioner Rojas, the ANC once again has a full commission with no vacancies.

The ANC approved participation in the ANC security fund, approved the quarterly financial report, and approved the November 2021 meeting minutes. The ANC also approved meeting dates for calendar year 2022 after some protracted back-and-forth about when the November meeting will take place.

The ANC might or might not publish an annual report. Apparently, the ANC has never published an annual report. The commissioners have talked about drafting one in the past and even started drafting one one year, but Commissioner Edwards said the ANC has never actually completed one. (Note: The annual report is required under the DC Code, §1-309.10(n-1). The ANC is supposed to “publish an annual report or newsletter that summarizes the activities of the Commission in service to the community over the preceding 12 months, including a highlighting of key issues voted upon, comments submitted to District agencies, and issuance of community grants.” It sounded like some of the commissioners were not aware of this requirement).

Catholic University

Cheyenne Range, a Brookland resident, is the new Associate Director of Government and Community Relations for Catholic University. She will act as university liaison with District agencies and residents, so we will likely see her at future ANC meetings. She started in December 2021.

Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) Trail Ranger Program

WABA representative Ursula Sandstrom reported that the WABA trail ranger program is fully staffed. The trail rangers will now be on the trails year round. Ms. Sandstrom said that the lights on the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT) will be wired into the street grid instead of operating by solar energy, so they should operate better once that is done. She also stated that the trail rangers will be riding the Brookland-Fort Totten extension of the MBT once that section is completed, which hopefully will be sometime in February.

MPD Police Report (MPD 4D Commander Carlos Heraud)

New MPD 4th District (4D) Commander Carlos Heraud introduced himself to the ANC and residents. Commander Heraud has worked in a few other police districts in DC, including 3D, 5D, and 7D. There was some discussion about community engagement – having police officers get out of cars and speak with residents and having community events in Northeast DC neighborhoods as well as Northwest DC neighborhoods in the 4th District. Commander Heraud said he is aiming to have one additional officer join MPD 4D’s community liaison Officer Robert Hamrick. He is also asking that Derek Staten, the previous MPD 4D community liaison, help with 4D’s community engagement. He said that Mr. Staten was given the choice to join MPD’s central administration or stay at 4D and Mr. Staten decided to centralize his role at MPD headquarters.

I did not quite follow a discussion between Commander Heraud and Commissioner Damion McDuffie (5A01) regarding patrols in known hot spots in Riggs Park. It sounded like Commander Heraud was saying that he cannot (or will not) have dedicated officers or patrols in known hot spots because that will reduce the availability of officers in the rest of the police district. I could be getting that completely wrong though so if you have questions about this, reach out to Commissioner McDuffie.

A commissioner asked Commander Heraud about reports that individuals arrested for crimes in DC are not being charged or that they are being released by the courts due to backlog. Commander Heraud stated that there are lots of theories floating around about the increase in violence in DC these days. He mentioned that one frustrating thing for MPD right now is that he believes that the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) for DC is maybe overly relying on police body worn cameras (Note: I’m paraphrasing his remarks). He said that if a police officer records an observation in an incident and if that observation is not supported by body worn camera footage (or some other footage I imagine), then the USAO will essentially dismiss the officer’s observation. Commander Heraud said this practice by the USAO is problematic because the body worn camera is fixed to the torso and records what is in front of the camera, whereas officers can move their heads, “swivel” left and right, and look behind, and therefore officers can observe individuals/actions that would not be in the field of the camera. Commander Heraud did not offer any data on the number of incidents affected by this alleged practice by the USAO.

Commander Heraud can be reached at carlos.heraud@dc.gov.

Lamond-Riggs Library Construction (Robert Oliver)

Completion of the Lamond-Riggs Library is anticipated in late spring this year.

Lamond-Riggs Library Renaming Proposal (Rodney Foxworth)

A last minute addition to the agenda came from Rodney Foxworth, who (with former ANC 5A Commissioner Frank Wilds) is lobbying to have the Lamond-Riggs Neighborhood Library named after Lillian Huff. Mrs. Huff was a Ward 5 Riggs Park resident who is largely credited with advocating for getting the neighborhood library built in Riggs Park in 1983. She was also a strong DC statehood advocate and held a number of positions in political organizations around DC. She enjoyed relationships with elected officials all the way up to the White House. It is unclear if the ANC received documents from the group of residents in support of this request; if so, they were not shared with residents.

Robert Oliver, president of the Lamond-Riggs Library Friends, noted that there is at least one other naming proposal out there (for brothers Charles and Robert Bryant, architects of the original library), and he recommended that the ANC table its vote so that the ANC could consider both proposals. Commissioner Damion McDuffie (5A01), who represents the area in which the library sits, said that he had not received a proposal regarding the Bryant brothers and that it was up to supporters of that proposal to submit something to the ANC for support.

The ANC voted unanimously to support renaming the Lamond-Riggs Library in honor of Lillian Huff.

(Note: For reference, see DC Public Library’s building naming policy here).

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

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the opening of COVID centers in each ward to provide a one-stop shop for free vaccinations and boosters, PCR and at-home tests, and KN95 masks. The Ward 5 COVID center is located at 2300 Washington Place NE at Rhode Island Row. (Note: The full list of COVID centers is available at https://coronavirus.dc.gov/covidcenters. The site has a live dashboard with how many masks are available at each center. The Ward 4 COVID center recently opened at 4704 13th Street NW inside People’s Congregational Church).

The U.S. Postal Service is delivering free COVID home tests to individuals who sign up at https://special.usps.com/testkits.

Mayor Bowser announced a pilot direct cash assistance program in partnership with Martha’s Table. The program will provide roughly $900/month for one year to 132 new and expecting mothers in Wards 5, 7, and 8.

Ward 5 MOCR Nokomis Hunter can be reached at nokomis.hunter@dc.gov or (202) 251-5049.

District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Issues

I do not know if DDOT was officially on the agenda, but DDOT’s Ward 5 liaison, Dalando Baker, was on the meeting so Commissioner Charles Lockett (5A02) took an opportunity to advocate again for a few residents in North Michigan Park who have requested removal of the raised stop bars at Sargent Road and Emerson Street NE. Residents who live near the intersection say that large trucks and buses traveling over the stop bars cause their homes to shake. The raised stop bars were installed several years ago after a child was killed by a driver. So far, DDOT has stated that the agency will not remove the bars and that they will continue to work with residents regarding speeding on Sargent. Mr. Baker can be reached at dalando.baker@dc.gov.

ANC Grant Policy

The ANC approved an ANC grant policy, which permits grant awards up to $2,500.

Miscellaneous

Commissioner Lucio (5A03) is having a single member district meeting on February 3, 2022.