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Viewpoint
by various writers |
Members of the community express their views. |
Heed the facts before condemning D.C. reform
by Rick Rosendall and Craig Howell
On the one hand, the recent coup by Congress and President Clinton suspending many of the powers of our elected mayor and D.C. Council for the next four years has quite rightly been condemned in some quarters as an affront to the democratic principles upon which our nation was founded.
Our gains have been substantially undermined by the notoriously bloated bureaucracy built by Mayor Barry and by the council's lack of follow-through and oversight.
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On the other hand, our gains have been substantially undermined by the notoriously bloated bureaucracy built by Mayor Barry and by the council's lack of follow-through and oversight. District voters have largely disenfranchised themselves by repeatedly rewarding incompetence and irresponsibility.
Our delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, acutely pinpointed the underlying problem when she snapped: "If you want home rule, then rule!" This is precisely what Mayor Barry and our councilmembers have too often refused to do:
- Members of our council have complained about the loss of their power to confirm mayoral appointments. But not once in the entire history of home rule has the council ever rejected a mayoral nomination! The council's timidity was never more obvious than in 1995 when they confirmed Mayor Barry's appointment of Steven Jumper as head of the D.C. Department of Human Rights & Minority Business Development - even after Mr. Jumper had candidly admitted that he was not qualified to hold that position! GLAA's objections to his confirmation were summarily ignored.
- The council has stood back and done little as enforcement of the Human Rights Law has been systematically gutted during the 1990s. The number of investigators assigned to process anti-discrimination complaints has plunged from 14 in 1990 to just two today. Not surprisingly, the backlog of cases at the Office of Human Rights has jumped dramatically, and it now may take three or four years for OHR to process a single case. Calls by GLAA for major budgetary and management reforms to alleviate this disgraceful situation have largely gone unheeded.
- The council's role in suppressing meaningful civilian participation in adjudicating allegations of police misconduct over the last few years has been little short of contemptible. The council abruptly eliminated the Civilian Complaint Review Board in 1995 and let the Metropolitan Police Department investigate all citizen complaints itself (but without providing any additional resources to the MPD for this new responsibility).
Legislation to establish a much-improved system of civilian review was abruptly killed last fall on the grounds that the council can't establish a new program unless the funds are appropriated first. Efforts to provide a budget for this purpose earlier this year were defeated when the council turned around and said that it can't appropriate funds until the program is established first.
The council, in league with other government officials, unaccountably refused for three months to release a consultant's report recommending a new system for handling citizen complaints of police abuse. What has been consistent in this run-around is the council's pandering to police union and management leaders who have resisted citizen involvement from the start.
- The council's oversight failures - and the mayor's failures that make oversight so crucial - have become legendary and have had a profoundly negative impact on the Gay male and Lesbian community, especially on people with AIDS or who are HIV-positive. We could write a book about the D.C. government's shortcomings in this one area. Suffice it to say that the reforms to accelerate the payment of federal funds to AIDS service providers were instituted by the Financial Control Board, not our own elected officials or city government bureaucrats.
Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.) was recently quoted in The Washington Times: "If somebody would point out to me steps the city council was taking to curb the runaway authority of the mayor. ... I'm not aware of any." Criticize the senator as we may, we cannot argue with this statement. After all, even the devil sometimes speaks the truth.
So what shall we do now? Recent reactions by some District activists to the National Capital Revitalization Act - anger at Congress and the Financial Control Board, and comprehensive lists of demands - serve little purpose unless they are accompanied by demands that our own officials be an active part of the solution. Who, after all, but residents of the District would be hurt the most by a strategy of non-cooperation with management reform efforts?
We are similarly unimpressed by the racially polarizing rhetoric being used by some in the name of home rule. As Del. Norton has said, "Race has not been (and must not become) an issue in the current home rule controversy." Blaming our self-inflicted wounds on "The Plan" not only ignores the District's history and constitutional status, it denies that our citizens have any power or bear any responsibility. If we are truly powerless, then our elections are a sham and should be repudiated. We cannot have it both ways.
Three decades ago, Bayard Rustin, the great civil rights organizer and strategist (and an openly Gay man long before Stonewall) said that it was time to move from protest to politics. There comes a time when one must step up to the plate and demonstrate one's capacity and will to govern. The best way for the District to demonstrate these qualities, and to restore meaningful home rule, is for our city's elected leaders to cooperate as fully as possible in overhauling the government to make it serve the interests of the city as a whole - rather than the parochial interests of those elected officials who regard a bloated bureaucracy as the foundation of their personal political machines.
As we have in the past, GLAA will be there to educate candidates, work with District officials and hold their feet to the fire on the same issues detailed in GLAA's "Agenda: 1997" -- ending regulatory abuses, restoring civilian oversight of the police, defending medical marijuana, improving AIDS and other health services, securing equal rights for Gay families, and ending the backlog at the Office of Human Rights. The special election for at-large councilmember on Dec. 2 is one opportunity for demanding better leadership.
Freedom is not just a right, it is a responsibility - just as diversity is a challenge as well as a strength. We are not powerless, and we are not victims. If we want a government that works and works for us, then it is up to us as voters and citizens to put it there and hold it accountable. The task of governing is a difficult one; let us at least light candles instead of cursing the darkness.
Rick Rosendall is president and Craig Howell is secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington. GLAA's revised "Agenda: 1997" will be available online at www.glaa.org by Sept. 30, or by calling GLAA at (202) 667-5139.
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