jonetta rose barras: A highly sought, thankless, important political job

Robert Vinson Brannum recently called the job of being a DC advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 5 “thankless. You have developers and other folks deluge your mailbox.

“You have to be able to go up against seasoned developer lawyers, and you have maybe 24 hours to review their materials” in zoning cases, Brannum continued during a telephone interview with me last week. “You have the distrust of some agency [directors]; some don’t want to deal with [you].

“It’s a tasking position,” he added. 

Still, Brannum is running a third time, albeit unopposed, in the November general election to represent residents in Single-Member District (SMD) 5E08 in the Bloomingdale community.

A frequent presence in the John A. Wilson Building, he is the chairman emeritus of the Ward 5 Democrats, chairman emeritus of the DC Federation of Civic Associations, and an at-large member of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Citizens Advisory Council. More than a decade ago, Brannum was also an ANC member; then he took a break. Now, he has come back.

“Over time the neighborhood residents have changed. I will take it that I have no opposition because I’m valued,” he said, joking that it could also be that “I have too much free time — ‘free’ being the operative word.”

That last bit makes the job of advisory neighborhood commissioner all the more difficult. Unlike council members who receive more than $140,000 a year, ANC members are unpaid. 

It’s crazy, right? Who does that, especially during a pandemic and economic decline? 

“It’s not necessarily a glamorous position. I like that. That’s how you grow,” said Peter Wood, whose energetic campaign in SMD 1C03 has caught the attention of several longtime Adams Morgan residents and business owners. He is competing for the seat against Elias Benda and incumbent Ted Guthrie.

Wood, an Iowa native, fell in love with the District years ago when he stayed with family in Alexandria, Virginia. They later moved to Manassas, and finally retired to Florida. He eventually became invested in academic pursuits including postdoctoratoral work in Brazil focused on urban redevelopment and violence.

He circled back to his first love, permanently moving to Adams Morgan a year ago. Interestingly after months of putting in applications all over the place for full-time employment, Wood found a job during the pandemic. “It took a lot of effort.” Now he’s working with a DC-based company as an international telecommunications analyst while hoping to become more entrenched in city politics at its most basic level.

Wood called the lack of compensation for ANCs an “unsustainable theory.” Still, he has jumped into the competition with unbridled enthusiasm.

More than 300 other people across the District are also vying to be called commissioner — although “a lot of people move here and don’t know anything about ANC,” said Logan Circle resident John Fanning. A former compliance officer with the DC government, he made an unsuccessful bid for the DC Council in the June Democratic primary, losing out to Brooke Pinto.

“It’s been an honor for the most part; it’s been gratifying for a number of reasons,” continued Fanning, a current Ward 2 ANC chair who is running unopposed for reelection in SMD 2F04.

Fanning is right that many people either don’t know or don’t care. Consider that in 2018,  3,172 out of 30,770 voters in Ward 5 failed to mark their ballots for any ANC candidate — although Brannum received 686 votes in his SMD. In Ward 2, the number of undervotes for ANC was slightly higher: 3,268 of the 23,060 ballots cast. Fanning received 707 votes in his SMD.

In Ward 1, where Wood is competing, there were 4,811 undervotes out of 30,636 ballots cast. Guthrie, the incumbent, won his race with 711 votes, according to the election tallies that appear on the DC Board of Elections website.

For many years, I was one of those who didn’t bother to mark my ballot for an advisory neighborhood commissioner. As I became more involved in the community and started working as a journalist, I came to understand the crucial role collectively played by ANCs in fostering civic engagement and keeping local democracy alive and thriving. In my view, an effective commissioner is by turns a community organizer, government watchdog and navigator, public policy translator, neighborhood advocate and all-around fixer. 

The advisory neighborhood commission network was designed that way. It was created in 1974, when the District received quasi-independence from Congress through the Home Rule Charter, our version of a local constitution. In structure, ANCs are somewhat akin to a House of Representatives, with each commissioner serving an SMD that comprises about 2,000 people. The ANC positions are nonpartisan and up for election every two years. No one gets paid, although the government does provide some funds for basic administrative operation of each advisory neighborhood commission. 

DC law prohibits agencies from taking “any action that will significantly affect a neighborhood unless they give the affected ANCs 30 days advance notice. This includes zoning, streets, recreation, education, social services, sanitation, planning, safety, budget, and health services,” according to the citywide Office of ANCs website.

“I always refer to the ANC as a mini general assembly,” Fanning said.

Given their role and responsibilities, ANCs should be adapted into the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature. At-large DC Council member David Grosso introduced legislation last year to expand the District’s legislative branch; action has yet to be taken on his proposal. While he didn’t specifically outline a role for ANCs, the current network with some reductions and tweaking could offer the broad outline for such an expansion. 

“The lower chamber represented by ANCs could be called the House; council could be the Senate,” said Brannum, noting that “the District already has been operating as a state” and that the statehood structure approved by DC residents envisions a bicameral legislature. 

“The only drawback would be how to pay for it,” he said.

“DC is not a state. Wait until it’s a state to do that,” said Terrance Hunter, the commissioner for SMD 7F02. A DC Water employee and member of the DC Commission on Persons with Disabilities, Hunter is running for a third term as his neighborhood’s representative. He is being challenged by Dawn R. Cook and Frederick Wolf. 

Hunter said he inherited the community service bug from his mother, Linda Hunter, who worked for then Ward 6 Council member Nadine Winter and DC Mayor Marion Barry. “I started watching [her] go to meetings. She brought her work home many evenings. I heard her have conversations. I may have gone to the office a few times.

“I don’t want attention from the press. I like moving in the shadows. I just want things to move smoothly,” continued Hunter, noting that he is focused on “trying to rebuild the city” after COVID-19. He also called food deserts “the biggest issue for most constituents, who want better choices like they have in wards 5 and 6.”

Hunter said he has argued for an urgent care facility but supports the construction of a new hospital on the campus of St. Elizabeths in Ward 8.

Getting residents, organizations and commercial business owners through the shock of the coronavirus pandemic also has animated Wood’s ANC platform. He said many issues like housing, transportation and commerce are “interwoven.” 

“I want to keep Adams Morgan’s charm, not just for economic reasons. A lot of commercial properties have rental units above and people live there,” he said, adding that he wants to diversify the kinds of businesses in the community. He is pushing to permanently close 18th Street NW, making it a pedestrian plaza.

“I try to be a big-picture advocate; it’s worthless if you’re not willing to get your hands dirty,” said Wood, offering that he has no obstacles to prevent his total involvement in the community.

Brannum said his attention has been focused on issues such as transportation, traffic calming, street closures to accommodate bike lanes, and the McMillan development project. Asked about the rewards, he laughed, “I got paid big money.“

He said he does the job because he enjoys “being part of the continuing process of moving toward self-government, bringing public awareness about why the commission exists, pushing for our government to be more responsive to the needs of the community.”

“Recently commissioners across the city have been talking to each other more often than in the past. That helps each community,” added Brannum.

There is always some alley that must be cleaned, some site where there is illegal dumping, or some development project that demands attention to protect the quality of life in the neighborhood. Not all ANCs are responsive, said Fanning. He has heard complaints from residents about other commissions in his ward. When the system does work, it can be a blessing. He recalled two cases that occurred early in his tenure and brought him great satisfaction. 

One was the development of the N Street Village, an organization for homeless and low-income women. In the beginning many people were against the project. Fanning said, “I spoke up in support. And look at it now.” It is one of the premier facilities for women in DC.

In the second, a landlord was squeezing tenants out of affordable housing units. “I got a call from a woman attorney who lives there. I met with her and spent two hours guiding her through [the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act]. They weren’t aware of their rights. They ended by becoming a co-op. It is still there in the 1400 block of N Street,” said Fanning.

“This is my passion,” he continued. “There is no greater thing we can do in a lifetime than give back to your community.” 

That’s what makes ANC commissioners a special bunch, and why you’d do well not to ignore their names on the November ballot.

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jonetta rose barras is an author and freelance journalist, covering national and local issues including politics, childhood trauma, public education, economic development and urban public policies. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.