December 18, 2006 A letter from the ACLU of the National Capital Area to Chairman-elect Vincent Gray on the eve of convening Council Period 17, urges “making Council proceedings more transparent and accessible” with particular attention to public access to information, public participation, and ways to limit recourse to legislating on an emergency basis.
“Enacting law on an emergency basis without public input denies the Council views and information important to its deliberations. Excluding this input except in real emergencies is disrespectful.”
Later on June 25, 2007
Mayor Fenty visits the Foggy
Bottom Association and forgoes mentioning anything about the West End
land deal he put forward earlier in the day.
July 2 Councilmember
Carol Schwartz sends an email at 5:57pm to Empower DC about a joint public roundtable to be held
the next day with the West End emergency resolution on the agenda. No other notice of the
roundtable goes out to the public at large.
July 3 -- "PUBLIC" ROUNDTABLE? A Roundtable chaired jointly by Councilmembers Carol
Schwartz and Kwame
Brown is attended by Anthony
Lanier of EastBanc and associates.
The West End emergency resolution under consideration names Eastbanc, an influential realty developer,
as the sole purchaser and developer of the West End properties, which includes the West
End Library currently in service. A record of this roundtable is still not available on the DC Council website as of
September 16, 2007.
Transcription
of the roundtable from a copy of roundtable audio.
July 10 Robin Diener, director of the Library
Renaissance Project, learns of the West End emergency legislation to dispose of a public library on the same day it is scheduled for a Council vote. She promptly emails the Council and their staff to vote against this stealth attack on our public property, attaching a letter
addressed to Jack Evans, co-sponsor of this emergency resolution.
July 10 Emergency Resolution is passed 12-1 with the lone dissenting vote from Councilmember
Phil Mendelson who said "I don't like the process."
Video
of the vote shows how both Schwartz and Brown praised this
"opportunity." Brown touts the affordable housing component which,
however, is not actually required to be built as set forth in this
legislation.
From the dais, Schwartz acknowledges Robin Diener's letter
citing a Washington Post article reporting on unfulfilled promises by EastBanc for the Ritz-Carlton project developed several years ago.
July 11
After the vote, Kwame Brown responds to another email from Robin Diener which notified him that representations he had received from EastBanc about the status of negotiations with the tenants of the Tiverton Apartments, a building on Square 37, were actually false. Brown says he will respond to this concern but to date has not.
July 13 Library Renaissance Project founder Ralph Nader and Attorney Robert Weissman send a letter to DC's Attorney General Linda Singer inquiring if the Office
of the Attorney General has issued or prepared any formal or informal opinions
on the procedural legality of the West End deal. The OAG responds on July 27, 2007.
July 14 West End Library Friends holds its quarterly membership meeting. A previously scheduled presentation by EastBanc about its unsolicited proposal for development of the library is now a fait acompli. EastBanc Vice President Joe
Sternlieb, husband of Attorney General Linda Singer, hears community expressions of deep concern regarding the sale of
the West End Library and the lack of public input.
Eastbanc VP, Joe Sternlieb, at West End Friends Meeting
July 14 Empower DC and Library Renaissance Project rally the community to say NO to selling public property -- especially through the use of 'emergency' resolution. Click the pictures for rally videos.
About 75 people led by Ralph Nader's D.C. Library Renaissance
Project rallied outside the West End Public Library in Northwest Washington
yesterday, upset by a recent D.C. Council decision about the future of the popular
branch that they said caught them by surprise...
July 18
The Tiverton Residents Association sends a letter to Jack Evans objecting to having been used by Council as the rationale for making the West End resolution an "emergency."
July 18 Councilmember
Mary Cheh responds
to LRP's July 10 email urging her to vote against the West End emergency resolution.
In
her email she writes, "While I do not believe there was any intent to hide
this project from the public, too few people in the broader community outside
the West End knew that it was coming."
July
18 -- JACK'S PROMISE Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC2A)
in the West End neighborhood hosts Councilmember Jack Evans to explain to the
public his co-sponsorship of the West End emergency resolution. Evans says "With 20/20 vision, I wouldn't have done
this." Evans pledges to abide by the public's wishes in the matter and awaits their input. Video of
meeting shows Jack's timeline.
July 25 At the regular bi-monthly meeting of the
DC Library
Board of Trustees, The
Library Renaissance Project presses Board President John Hill to take a stand on the West
End deal. Hill explains that he will survey the
entire Board, in private, to get consensus on the message they will bring to the Council, also in private. Once this is done, Hill says the Trustees will release their
message and report on Council's response. To date, Hill has not reported anything. John Hill is CEO of the Federal
City Council and sits on the Board
of EdBuild.
July 25
Susan Haight, president of the West End Friends, publicly addresses the DC Library
Board of Trustees and its president John Hill with questions about their role
in the West End deal. They explain that their membership was "shocked and outraged"
about the process by which the emergency resolution was passed. Her
testimony and questions were submitted in writing.
It was only then, July 10, that residents got wind of an emergency
bill passed by the D.C. Council to negotiate the sale of the neighborhood library
and surrounding city-owned land to a private developer...
... the latest example of Mr. Fenty's corner-cutting is also the most egregious
-- the ramming-through of a proposal to sell valuable public property to a private
developer...
July 31
The Foggy Bottom Association meets and publicly condemns
the West End emergency resolution.
August 8
Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC2B)
in the Dupont Circle neighborhood passes
a resolution calling for the rescission of the West End emergency resolution.
A growing chorus of community organizations are calling on
the D.C. Council to revoke an emergency resolution adopted in July that virtually
guaranteed public facilities on the West End would be dealt to a developer
with interests nearby...
September 17 ANC2A -- The West End Advisory
Commission -- passes a resolution demandind the rescission of the very problematic
West End emergency resolution.
September 18
A rally "To Save Public Property" will be held at the John A. Wilson Building
starting 9 a.m. The rally is being held on the opening day of the council's
first legislative session since the summer recess. We are turning out to demand
that the council rescind its terrible vote on the West End Library giveaway,
and your presence is important to achieving that goal. The rally is being organized
by Empower DC.
Council members Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2)
said they will ask their colleagues to reconsider the sale of the West
End branch library and fire station and surrounding land at the
council's next legislative meeting, on Oct. 2...
September 24
Committee on Economic Development, Chairman Kwame Brown, hosts a "Public
Oversight Hearing on Projects Managed by the Office of Deputy Mayor for Planning
and Economic Development" at 10 a.m., Room 500, John A. Wilson Building.
This proceeding will be seen far beyond the Wilson Building as it will be televised
on the city's public cable system. Please sign up as soon as possible to testify
by contacting the committee's John Adams at 727-6683 or by e-mail at Jadams@DCCouncil.us
LIBRARY
DYNAMOS
February
1999
nt and accessible” with particular attention to public access to information, public participation, and ways to limit recourse to legislating on an emergency basis.
Emergency Resolution is passed 12-1 with the lone dissenting vote from 
