Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[Laurie]

Testimony of Laurie Collins, President, Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance
Before the Committee on Public Works and the Environment
January 18 at 10:00 am in the Council Chamber, Wilson Building, 1350 Pa Ave., NW.
Amendments to the ABC code (Title 25, Alcoholic Beverages)
B17-0529, the ABC Board Reduction Act of 2007

My name is Laurie Collins. I am the President of the MPNA, and a former ABC Board member and would like to comment on the proposed amendment to reduce the ABC Board from 7 to 5 members. We do not support this amendment.

In my 3-year tenure on the ABC board, I came to appreciate the diverse experience and opinions of those who served on the Board. I also came to know that board members don’t always show up every week, whether for reasons of illness, other commitments, or the very small stipend that is given to them for such a very big job.

Enacting this amendment would mean that those who come before the Board, whether community groups or businesses, will lose the opportunity to present themselves to a full, more representative, ABC Board. We should not be expected to rely on just 3 ABC Board members making critical decisions which affect our communities and businesses. I have been involved in the decision-making process many times in that Board room. There are many different viewpoints, all informed by where people come from and what they have experienced. It is amazing how the diversity of opinion expressed during the decision-making process can improve and strengthen the ultimate decision.

I strongly believe that everyone deserves to be heard. My history in Mt. Pleasant cases brought me to the Board. Through experience with cases from Georgia Avenue, Kenilworth Avenue, Alabama Avenue, 7th Street NE, Benning Road, Adams Morgan, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, U Street, and Capitol Hill, I learned how to understand and balance different opinions and viewpoints.

We are a city comprised of 8 Wards, yet there are only 7 ABC board positions. We need to maintain and encourage maximum participation from the largest cross section of the city that is possible.

Part of our city’s vision is to expand business opportunities east of the River. With the Fenty administration, that vision will soon become a reality. Today the ABC Board has representatives from only Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4. Where is our representation from Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8? If our stated goal is to expand economic opportunity and development throughout the city, creating new businesses, then why should we reduce the amount of representation on a board that is vital to making that happen in a balanced way?

Reducing the board’s ability to be representative, will only diminish involvement in economic activity and public participation in underserved, under-developed parts of the city. By reducing the number of members, we only diminish the city’s opportunity of benefiting from the diverse outlooks with which it is so blessed.

[Laurie]

Washington City Paper - Loose Lips
By Mike DeBonis
Posted: February 13, 2008
The Incredible Shrinking Booze Board

LL, as a student of urban political machination, understands that a politician’s base of power can be built in unexpected places. New York master builder Robert Moses, for instance, seized on the relatively obscure Triborough Bridge Authority to cement his near-untouchable influence. In Los Angeles, those who control the water supply wield enormous clout (cf. Chinatown, 1974).

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham has a similar approach to building his influence in District government. His pet organ? The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

Before Graham came to the council, serving on the ABC Board was a relatively low-key affair. Sure, you had to pass judgment on hundreds of liquor licenses each year, but there wasn’t much heat, save from the occasional NIMBYish neighborhood association. These days, if you’re on the ABC Board, rest assured that your number’s going to be on Graham’s speed dial. If God forbid some act of violence occurs at an ABC-licensed establishment, get ready for nonstop Grahamstanding till that permit gets pulled (“The Death of the Party,” 3/9/07).

It’s a shrewd move by Graham, considering the inordinate amount of economic activity in this town connected with liquor sales. Bars and restaurants, sure, but also all sorts of non-nightlife folks have to deal with the city’s liquor-control apparatus at some point—and, yes, keeping the booze board on a tight leash sure can get you in good with the activist demographic.

Graham’s so obsessed with booze that oversight of the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, the city’s main alcohol enforcement agency, moved with him last year from the consumer affairs committee to the public works and environment committee. How is booze connected to public works or the environment? LL’s got it: Perhaps the results of all that tippling might strain the District’s sewer system?

The ABC Board, though, is a step further removed from Graham’s control, seeing as its members are mayoral appointees who serve four-year terms.

Right now, the board is down to only four members, and two are scheduled to leave in the coming months. Ward 2 attorney Albert Lauber’s term is up in May, as is Ward 4’s Judy A. Moy. Lauber tells LL that he recently informed Fenty that he’s not seeking reappointment and plans to resign a month early to allow plenty of time to find a replacement.

That might be a problem, seeing as Fenty already put up two names for the board last fall—Ward 8’s Herman O. Jones and Lincoln Park advisory neighborhood commissioner Nick ­Alberti—but Graham has effectively scuttled those noms. The reasoning? Graham’s trying to reduce the size of the board from seven members to five via legislation he introduced in December.

The cynical reading of this move is that it would make it easier for Graham to keep his fingerprints all over the board. Its current chair, Peter B. Feather, is a Ward 1 resident and is widely regarded as a Graham ally. The other recent appointee is Mital Gandhi, a Ward 3 resident.

And the noncynical explanation for shrinking the booze board? Says Graham, “I’ve spent a lot of time considering the ideal size of boards,” he says, citing his expertise from his days teaching law in the field of federal regulation. “If you look at federal boards, they’ve pretty much all gone to five.”

Problem: Those NIMBYish neighborhood associations might not share his regulatory expertise. At a hearing on Graham’s shrinkage bill last month, several activists showed up to oppose the bill, including Laurie Collins, a former board member and the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Association president. “We need more representation not less representation,” she says.

Graham cites horror stories about board cases that have dragged on for years (though it escapes LL how shrinking the board would solve that problem). “This is all about getting the board to function,” he says. “This is not about politics.”

As for holding up the Jones and Alberti nominations, Graham says they’re still active pending the outcome of the downsizing battle. Graham says he didn’t want to fill any slots that would be eliminated in the course of a possible shrinkage.

Time is running short: Within three months, the board could be under its three-member quorum, and getting nominees through the D.C. Council generally takes at least 30 days.

Graham says not to worry. “There’s been no problem as of yet, and there won’t be a problem,” he says. “We’re not going to let it happen.” To that end, Graham says he’s brokered a deal with the mayor to be announced later this week.

“It’s been resolved at a very high level,” he says.