11/16/2022: 5C Full Commission meeting

tl;dr

• Many ABRA renewals were on the agenda, and a couple letters of support were passed; most renewals were not discussed or acted on, so it’s unlikely the ANC will engage on those this renewal cycle
• Contractors for DDOT will be upgrading light fixtures throughout DC early next year
• The Quarterly Financial Reports for FY22-Q4 were considered not ready for approval due to a number of small uncategorized transactions
• Two subsequent meetings were held to attempt to resolve issues with the Treasury Report, though submission doesn’t appear to have occurred as of 12/7.

Meeting Details

The meeting was held virtually (via WebEx) at 6pm ET on Wednesday 11/16/2022. It was over around 8pm. Video and transcript are available here.

This is a regularly scheduled monthly meeting. Full-commission meetings are:

• open to the public
• properly noticed to the public ahead of time
• require a quorum (majority) of Commissioners present (in person or on camera)
• the only suitable venue for official Commission actions (e.g. voting on resolutions/letters)

This meeting was chaired by Vice Chair, Commissioner Thomas, with support from Commissioner Montague, due to Commissioner/Chair Manning not being present. Though she tried to join later, this didn’t occur due to technical difficulties. All other Commissioners were present for the call.

Agenda

As conveyed by Commissioner Montague in an 11/14/2022 email with annotations/corrections/updates based on what happens:

• MPD briefing/questions
• CM McDuffie’s office update
• ABRA - 120010, His & Hers, 2214 Rhode Island Ave NE, License Renewal
• ABRA - 110502, Fun It Up, 2312 Rhode Island Ave NE, License Renewal
• DDOT - DC Smart Street Lighting Project (Presentation)
• DDOT - Speed Humps -17th St NE (Status)
• technical difficulties
• Brookland Manor, Status Update (5C06-5C05)
• 17th St. NE and other traffic safety discussion (DDOT not present)
• ABRA - 095711, Bliss, 2122 24th Place NE, License Renewal

  tabled because no SMD meeting

• ABRA - 115736, Echostage, 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE, License Renewal

  tabled because no SMD meeting

• ABRA – SYD Liquor Store, License Renewal

  tabled because Commissioner Manning not present

• ABRA - Power, License Renewal

  tabled because Commissioner Manning not present

• ABRA – Power ABRA – Public Option, License Renewal

  tabled because no info/SMD meeting

• Secretary’s meeting minutes
• Quarterly Report Fy22-Q4, ending 9/30/2022
• Water retention issues with 2425 20th St. NE

MPD briefing

Inspector Altieri from MPD presented some information and took some questions related to crime. He emphasized that while crime is low in our area, “people aren’t stats” and low crime is irrelevant if someone is a victim or fears being a victim. He discussed plans for Walk and Talk events in each ANC area.

He mentioned a couple things to watch out for:

• being aware of the Pepco scam
• being aware of your surroundings if pulling your car over, as this leaves you vulnerable to carjacking or other crime

The was some discussion on a nuisance property at 2400 20th St. NE, with some plans for follow-up with the property owner if squatting is the issue.

CM McDuffie’s office briefing

Kelley Cislo from CM McDuffie’s office gave quick comments and took some questions, including about a new program to training software testers at the Learnix Tree Center funded by DC government grants.

ABRA Renewals

ABRA licenses allow a business to sell or serve alcohol; they may be issued to stores, restaurants, taverns, bars, or nightclubs, among other business types, and include allowable time periods for various types of sales and activities. You can learn more about the many license types/classes on the ABRA website.

ABRA renewals can be protested by any of a number of parties with standing. If someone decides to protest, the issue can frequently be resolved by negotiating a Settlement Agreement (SA), which adds additional ABRA-enforced provisions to the license. A party with standing must formally notify ABRA that they are protesting before the protest deadline. In the case of an ANC, protesting requires a formal resolution of the ANC.

cases up for renewal

The licenses originally on the agenda, in order of protest deadline, are:

2022 SMD	establishment	placard link	protest deadline	hearing date
5C06	The Public Option	PDF page 49	11/14/2022	12/5/2022
5C04	Power Night Club/Lounge/Restaurant	PDF page 34	11/21/2022	12/12/2022
5C02	Bliss	PDF page 46	11/28/2022	12/19/2022
5C07	Fun It Up	PDF page 83	11/28/2022	12/19/2022
5C02	Echostage	PDF page 15	12/12/2022	1/3/2023
5C07	His and Hers	PDF page 21	12/12/2022	1/3/2023
5C04	Syd’s Liquor Store	(unable to find)

discussions

As 5C currently operates, outreach at the SMD level should be done through a meeting before bringing a matter of the full Commission. Only the two cases in 5C07 had received an SMD meeting. All other cases on the agenda were skipped due to lack of an SMD meeting having occurred (or possibly just due to Commissioner Manning’s absence in the 5C04 cases).

One case, that of The Public Option, had already passed its protest deadline by the time of this meeting, though Commissioner Thomas (whose current SMD boundaries cover the establishment) did not appear to know this when he deferred on the topic.

As the protest deadlines for all other cases will pass before the next regular meeting of 5C, it seems unlikely SMD Commissioners or the ANC will be acting on the other renewals in time, though it is possible this occurs in a special 5C meeting (such as 11/21’s).

The Commission passed unanimous approvals for the two 5C07 cases. As licenses are generally approved in the absence of protest, this was not strictly necessary, but allows the business more certainty as their application period progresses.

LED lighting

DDOT plans to upgrade to LED lighting DC-wide. There is a lot of background on the DDOT project page.

A briefing was given by Ashley Wells and Alese Ballard of Plenary Infrastructure DC, the company contracted to perform this work. A few critical points mentioned in the presentation as well as through question/answer:

• Component replacement will be conducted in “bundles” of 2-5 square blocks at a time. Each bundle must contractually be completed with 14 days, with multiple occurring simultaneously across DC at any given time.
• Work should generally occur during the day, with new lighting functional by nightfall.
• ANCs will be notified 45 days before start of work within their area, and there will be distribution of information cards, door knockers, no parking advisories, and then no parking signs, for areas where work is being conducted.
• All of this should commence in the first quarter of next year.

Brookland Manor/RIA DC

This is a long-planned development with a very lengthy and complicated history. The Zoning approvals for this project had been tangled in court proceedings for some time, but those cases were finally(?) resolved in mid-2021.

A recent site plan for Brookland Manor/RIA DC

On the meeting, Commissioner Thomas (while experiencing technical difficulties that made a lot of what he said unclear) emphasized a commitment to fair standards for folks who live in Brookland Manor and who have been promised relocation within the development as new buildings come online. Relocation within the development has always been a part of the RIA DC plan, a point that was emphasized in statements and questions/answers by Commissioners Thomas and Oliver, MidCity’s Andrew Lee (Directory of Community Engagement), as well as Commissioner-elect Anthony Dale.

17th St. Speedhumps/general Traffic Safety

On the 11/14 planning meeting, Commissioner Thomas mentioned seeking an update on 17th St. speedhumps from DDOT at the planning meeting, and said he intended to invite Dalando Baker (DDOT’s Community Engagement Specialist for Ward 5) to the 11/21 meeting. It’s unclear whether this invitation was extended, though Mr. Baker did not attend the meeting.

An assessment for traffic safety mitigations (such as speedhumps) is called a Traffic Safety Investigation (TSI), and DDOT maintains a dashboard for TSI requests. A TSI request may be submitted with or without a particular mitigation requested, though there is debate about which is more effective. If without, they are simply a request that DDOT look into driver behavior in a certain place and evaluate for any mitigation.

TSIs on the dashboard currently for 17th St NE:

Service Request no.	ascribed location	mitigations requested	status
22-00487051	2829 17th St NE	pedestrian signal improvements	Pending DDOT Review
22-00487048	1653 Franklin St. NE (~2700 blk of 17th)	4-way stop at Franklin/17th	Pending DDOT Review
22-00408896	2400 blk 17th St. NE	(unclear from dashboard)	Pending DDOT Review

In the 11/21 meeting, Commissioner Thomas specifically mentioned the last SR above as being his request for speedhumps, and noted the aggressive speed with which drivers operate their cars on 17th St. NE when coming off Montana Ave. NE. Commissioner Oliver also discussed various concerns about driver behavior, and mitigations she would like to see. A question was asked about the correct term for flexposts (Commissioners landed on “bollards,” though there are many inflexible variations of bollard as well), and Commissioner Oliver mentioned wanting to see many more flexposts installed.

Secretary’s Minutes

5C has had a lot of trouble preparing, approving, or posting Meeting Minutes. There have not been any meeting minutes published on the website since October 2021.

In the meeting, 5C’s Secretary, Commissioner Gail Brevard, refused to read the minutes aloud. They were ultimately approved by a mixed vote. Commissioner Brevard made representations on the chat that the meeting minutes were posted on the website, but did not answer follow-up questions on where.

Quarterly Financial Report

These must be done every quarter and outline the expenses incurred, money received, and balances for the Commission. These reports are available online for all Commissions. The specific report on the agenda was for Fiscal Year 2022, Quarter 4 (July-September 2022).

ANC 5C has been sitting on substantial savings (approximately $87k at last report), but Commissioner Oliver, the Treasurer, has been having some trouble submitting the reports. At the last full-commission meeting, the Commission voted to approve the previous report pending corrections that were to be made after the meeting (or they would risk missing another dispersal of funds from the DC Government); it’s unclear whether this submission occurred.

In the meeting, this trend continued, with the treasury report ultimately not being approved due to discrepencies and incomplete reporting. A special meeting was scheduled for 11/21 to complete this business. As this business was not possible through a virtual meeting due a lapse in authorization for virtual ANC meetings, it has been further rescheduled to 11/30.

Constituents on the 11/21 call, both verbally and in the chat, expressed frustration on the lack of secretary’s and treasury reports being completed.

Subsequent meetings:

• A special meeting was scheduled for Monday 11/21 to try again on the treasury report, but this ended summarily due to a lapse in authorization for virtual meetings
• Another special meeting was held on Wednesday 11/30, where the financial report was passed by a vote of 4-0 (Commissioner Montague voted yes with unspecified conditions, Commissioner Hicks Delgado abstained, Commissioners Thomas and Rogers were not present); since transmission still needs to occur, it’ll remain unclear what the status of this report is.
• At a 5C07 SMD meeting Commissioner Montague held on 12/7, the Commissioner indicated the report may not have been submitted yet.