Dear Friend,
We have two big civic-oriented
holidays coming up: Scherzday/Strasmas and Halloween!
First, Scherzday/Strasmas! Many of
you know I grew up in a baseball-rooting family, so I can’t hide my
excitement that our Washington Nationals are in the World Series! This
has been an exciting couple years in D.C. sports with a Stanley Cup
championship, a Women’s NBA championship, and now a World Series bid.
Let’s #StayInTheFight and cheer on our Nats.
Many of you also know I apprentice
as a balloon maker, and I’m trying to learn how to make Baby Shark
balloons. I’ll be rocking the red and twisting balloons at one of my
favorite kids’ costume celebrations in the District this Friday at
Hilloween in Eastern Market! I’ve ordered a hefty batch of candy for
the festivities. For those with little ones, I hope you will dust off
your favorite Halloween wig and stop by! The Department of Parks and
Recreation is also back with a full schedule of Halloween activities happening this week
in every ward for both kids and adults. Our Metropolitan Police
Department will be hosting citywide
Halloween events this Friday too. Take a look at where to stock up
on candy, do some pumpkin carving, visit a haunted house, and even
join a Halloween game night.
Now onto legislative
updates!
LEGISLATIVE
UPDATES
Local Progress Housing Convening: One of the annual conferences I
attend is with a group called Local Progress, a national network of
progressive-policy oriented local elected officials. In July, I joined
nearly 200 elected officials from across the country for policy
workshops on strategies for building more equitable cities. It was my
third convening, and I was asked to join a new Local Progress Housing
Committee to focus specifically on policy solutions to increase and
preserve affordable housing. As part of the Local Progress Housing
Committee, I joined about 50 of my local government counterparts from
across the country in Durham, North Carolina earlier this month for
our inaugural Local Progress National Housing Convening. My focus
there was to learn from affordable housing and anti-displacement
experts and hear what other cities are doing to grapple with the
challenges that come with tensions between neighborhood growth and
inclusion.
An important note from my
conversations in Durham: The District has a larger bucket of resources
than many other cities facing affordable housing challenges. While
there is much more to do, the Housing Convening was confirmation that
our city is on the right track, and many cities across the country are
looking to us as a leader and innovator in investing in affordable
housing. I look forward to continuing to prioritize affordable housing
legislatively and applying lessons learned from Durham here at
home.
Jelleff Field Contract: You might have read or heard about a recent decision by the Department
of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to extend a contract with the
independent Maret School for use of Jelleff Field, a public field
owned by the District. I’ve remained concerned that DPR’s process in
awarding the extension was not transparent and not made in the best
interests of all District residents.
I want to be clear: I don’t think
Maret did anything wrong asking for the extension. My issue is with
how our own government made the decision to grant the extension. There
are some oddities about this agreement: First, it was done as a “use
easement” not a contract. Second, it seems to be crafted as a ten year
easement with a nine year extension so that the agreement would not
come before the D.C. Council for approval. That raises big red flags
for me.
I want to thank my Ward 8 colleague
Trayon White, Chair of the Committee on Recreation and Youth Affairs,
for convening a roundtable on the issue. More than 100 residents
testified. Many were from the Maret community, and they emphasized
that Maret has fulfilled its obligations and has been a good
neighborhood partner. That is true. But the District of 2019 is much
different than the District of 2009, when the initial easement was
signed. Green space in our city is at a premium, and Hardy Middle
School sits directly across the street from Jelleff Field. Our public
school students there are in need of the field too—but can’t access it
because of Maret’s rights to the field. Given these needs, I would
have hoped DPR would have altered the extension to try to meet the
needs of our entire community, but it does not appear that ever
happened.
At yesterday’s roundtable, DPR
Director Delano Hunter did not provide much information about why the
agreement was extended without a public process, despite concerns
being previously raised. I hope
a solution that meets the needs of both Maret and the Hardy/Jelleff
aftercare program community might be possible.
Implementing Paid Family Leave: Last week, I held my eighth public
roundtable with the Department of Employment Services (DOES) to ensure
that paid family leave benefits are still on track to become available
to residents in July of 2020—less than one year from now. Good news:
The District reached $70 million in reserved funds by the end of the
first quarter from employer contributions, and we are well on our way
to meeting financial benchmarks as we now near the end of the second
quarter.
I also confirmed at the roundtable
that a contract has been awarded to build the program’s IT system that
will distribute benefits. I look forward to continuing to work with
DOES Director Unique Morris-Hughes to understand the timeline and
readiness goals as the buildout process for the system begins. You can
find last week’s testimony from the DOES Director on my website
here.
Fall 2019 Workforce Rountables: In my last newsletter, I mentioned upcoming
roundtables in my Labor Committee to do rigorous oversight of
workforce training programs that received conditional funding in the
most recent budget cycle. The conditional funding was applied because
these programs had not yet provided reliable data showing District
residents graduating with skills certifications and securing jobs. The
first of those roundtables will happen next week, and DOES has
provided the new performance data that we will be discussing for four
specific programs. Those programs are the D.C. Infrastructure Academy,
Local Adult Training Program, Project Empowerment, and D.C. Career
Connections.
You can find the new data from DOES
at elissasilverman.com/workforceroundtables. The first roundtable on the D.C.
Infrastructure Academy & Local Adult Training Program will be on
Wednesday, October 30, starting at 10:00am in Room 412 at the John A.
Wilson Building.
COMMUNITY UPDATES
Joining Neighbors Across the City: Over the past few weeks, I had a chance to reconnect with residents,
advocates, and businesses across the city to hear about upcoming
priorities for our new fiscal year and share legislative updates from
my office. I most recently joined the Marshall Heights Community
Development Organization in Ward 7 for a discussion about the city’s
next steps to expand affordable housing and job training options. I
also met with Delta Sigma Theta’s Washington, D.C. Alumnae Chapter for
a robust conversation about improving health care options and quality
of care at United Medical Center for women residents of color,
particularly in Wards 5, 7 and 8.
I was also honored to present the
High Road Award to D.C. Central Kitchen at the 2019 Think Local First
Awards last week and met with an incredible group of young people at
Catholic University on Monday night to talk about why having women
leaders in elected office matters.
Hamilton Relay Scholarship: The Hamilton Relay Scholarship is again
available to support graduating high school seniors in the District
who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have difficulty speaking
in their goals of continuing their education. The scholarship is $500,
and applications must be received or postmarked by January 31, 2020.
The application documents can be found online at hamiltonrelay.com.
Upcoming Events:
-
Hilloween: Friday, October 25, from 5:30-7:30pm at
Eastern Market (225 7th St. SE)
-
17th Street High Heel Race: Tuesday, October 29, from 7:00-10:00pm
between P and S Streets NW near Dupont Circle. The race begins at
9:00pm.
-
Labor Committee Roundtable on D.C.
Infrastructure Academy & Local Adult Training
Program: Wednesday, October
30, starting at 10:00am at the John A. Wilson Building (Room 412, 1350
Pennsylvania Ave. NW)
-
DowntownDC Fall Festival: Thursday, October 31, from 10:00am-2:00pm
at the Woodrow Wilson Plaza (1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW)
-
MPD Community Fall Festival: Thursday, October 31, from 4:30-8:00pm at
Friendship Recreation Center (4500 Van Ness St. NW)
-
D.C. Veterans Hiring Fair: Friday, November 15, from 10:00am-3:00pm
(2001 E. Capitol St. SE)
-
Labor Committee Roundtable on Project
Empowerment & D.C. Career Connections: Thursday, November 21, starting at 10:00am
in Room 500 at the John A. Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW)
Thanks so much for reading. Have a
safe and fun Halloween, and let’s go Nats!
Elissa.
Councilmember Elissa Silverman http://www.elissasilverman.com/
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