jonetta rose barras: Seriously, it’s déjà vu all over again in DC

“Do not get trapped in an optimism bias. Do not assume what was true last decade will be true in the next,” former DC Mayor Anthony Williams advised the DC Council earlier this month during a marathon roundtable focused on risky revenue-raising ideas — some of them offered by outgoing Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who won’t be around to be held accountable for any adverse consequences caused by her legislative proposals.

“I remember the dark days in the 1990s in the District. Most councilmembers (and the likely mayor) have only known this city when it was on an upward trajectory. Believe me, it could reverse,” Williams added in his prepared statement.

Translation: DC may be in deep doo-doo and most of the folks expected to clean it up, especially those who will hold new political offices come January 2027, don’t have a clue about what products or techniques to use, let alone how to use them efficiently and effectively.

At this moment, days before the general election, the District government is facing what Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee has characterized as a fiscal cliff. That statement might give the impression that the principal problem is money. It isn’t.

Truth be told, the DC government has massive issues: It is a bloated, poorly structured, wildly expensive municipal corporation that continues to use 20th-century methodology and technology to solve 21st-century socioeconomic challenges. Those troubles are complicated by a large and marginally skilled workforce of high-level executives, middle managers and front-line employees — all charged with implementing a plethora of public policies introduced by political leaders who have failed to accurately identify the people who need help, how to improve their lives, and how to sustain those improvements.

Those elements create the roadmap to the city’s fiscal woes, including overspending that has precipitated onerous hikes in regulatory and user fees along with tax increases. 

Despite the indisputable detriments of those actions, the council is considering more of the same, while most likely providing only tweaks to some programs and expenditures.

It really is déjà vu all over again.

DC Auditor Kathy Patterson said some of the problems were addressed over the past few decades but have now “come back around.” 

“The city is financially stronger. There is an awful lot of wealth and value. There is a lot to build on,” added Patterson.

Where is the blueprint?

The Nov. 3 election may end up being nothing more than a game of musical chairs, with the usual suspects winning new seats and a continuing decline in the quality of life for many residents. Disrupting the latter trajectory requires swift, thoughtful, decisive and comprehensive action — something way beyond the executive and legislative branches’ typically flawed application of Band-Aids.

Back in 1990, the Commission on Budget and Financial Priorities — established by then-Mayor Marion Barry and led by former Federal Reserve vice chair Alice Rivlin — made a similar assessment, as new leaders were poised to take control. Barry was on his way to federal prison. Sharon Pratt, a former community manager at Pepco, had been elected mayor. John Wilson, the longtime Ward 2 councilmember, had been elected council chair.

Rivlin and her commissioners asserted that the city was facing a $90 million deficit that could grow to $200 million within a year. Without any substantial action from DC officials, they warned, the gap would grow to $700 million by 1996.

The inexperienced executive and legislative team got ahead of the Rivlin commission’s prediction. In 1994, with Barry poised to return to the mayoral suite, the city was staring at a $700 million shortfall that the mayor’s team and the council tried to close with a Wizard of Oz-like fifth quarter. Congress jumped in.

“There are giant holes in the budget,” admitted Patterson during a sobering interview with me over the weekend. She noted that fiscal year 2028 is balanced on paper in part via a 50% cut in DC schools funding. “Staffing is completely unrealistic,” she said of the education sector as well as the overall size of the government after years of growth.

In fact, Patterson argued District officials should undertake some kind of “initiative” that would take aim at restructuring the government. “If you take a look at the current [organizational] chart and compare it to 10 years ago, the print is nearly doubled.”

“The chain of command has gotten crowded,” added Patterson. “When you step back from the numbers, the part of government that showed the greatest leap in spending is education.”

Charter schools and traditional DC Public Schools are duplicating each other. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education is duplicating the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education. Meanwhile, if leaders are honest, there has been only marginal improvement in the academic performance of most students over the past five years or so.

“Every single candidate that won in June will win in the general election,” Chuck Thies, a longtime political operative and former government employee, predicted during an extensive interview last week.

“None of them has used this time to propose anything of substance,” continued Thies, adding that Janeese Lewis George, who he and others believe will become the city’s eighth mayor and the government’s chief executive officer, “is talking about rats.”

He cites recent reports about corruption and mismanagement in DC’s violence interrupter programs as an example of the emergency facing the city. “How many programs like that are there in the District?” asked Thies.

“No one is talking about rebuilding MPD. No one is saying anything about the increase in crimes with dangerous weapons,” he added.

To be fair, during the primary, candidates talked about youth curfews in response to so-called “teen takeovers.” They discussed the occupation of DC by National Guard units from other states called in by President Donald Trump. They highlighted the need for more affordable housing, and improved downtown conditions.

But no one has produced anything like a 10-point plan for growing the city’s economy, including strengthening small businesses and attracting larger companies; rightsizing the government; and preserving existing low-cost rental units while stimulating the housing market and constructing a diverse package of luxury and affordable houses. The programs that Lewis George and other candidates have offered contain nowhere near the necessary level of detail.

“I wouldn’t expect any serious conversation. They don’t have serious solutions to propose,” said Thies.

Among all the people — experts and advocates — who got into the city’s financial weeds earlier this month at the council’s daylong hearing, Williams may be the person who best understands the Sisyphus-like experience of the District in recent decades, exacerbated by a global pandemic, the damage caused by Trump’s manic presidential administrations (I and now II), and local leaders’ poor management, economic and policy choices. 

Williams served as DC’s first independent chief financial officer; when he arrived in 1995, checks were sometimes found in the drawers of abandoned office desks, and stacks of business tax returns were located in closets. Contractors frequently were not paid on time, and books needed in classrooms were either not ordered or couldn’t be found at the DC Public Schools warehouse, among other things.

While he possessed tested skills and an ample toolbox, Williams was no abracadabra-man. He and his team sloshed through it all, making such significant improvements that a cross-section of residents from both sides of the Anacostia River drafted him for mayor when Barry decided not to run for a fifth term.

“For decades, as the DC economy exploded, and with generous federal pandemic-era relief, the council continuously matched luxurious tax windfalls with new spending priorities and programs,” Williams said during the tax revenue roundtable. “Now that the windfalls are coming to an end, a responsible fiscal steward would match spending to the new tax revenue reality. 

“The council twice approved legislation to seat an Expenditure Commission. The likely new mayor has pledged to zero-in on government efficiency. I call on everyone to make good on these commitments,” added Williams, CEO and executive director of the Federal City Council since 2012.

Earlier this week, Council Chair Phil Mendelson held yet another roundtable; this one focused on agency overspending. Thies called it “performative.” Patterson said she is unsure whether Mendelson is simply engaged in another battle in his war with CFO Lee.

Interestingly, she favors placing the entire financial operation back under the mayor — a mayor who, assuming that the Democratic nominee prevails in Tuesday’s general election, has served only six years on the council and for two of those didn’t even chair a committee because of council rules. That is the person who would then take over the multimillion CFO operation with financial agents in every agency. 

How realistic is that?

Patterson told me she had a “long conversation” last week with Lewis George and two of her advisers. “I think she has some folks working on the next budget. She’s also very open to proposals on government restructuring.”

That latter task “needs to come from an executive,” added Patterson.

All of the mayoral candidates have called for an audit of government agencies. Lewis George said she would conduct a forensic audit, which Patterson said is usually done when there are concerns about corruption. “What is needed is a performance audit.”

Waiting for someone’s knowledge base and skills to catch up with the responsibilities of the job can be a dangerous strategy.

Many people I spoke with advocated for government leaders to begin the transformation work immediately after the general election. They called for a summit that would be convened by both branches of the DC government — and the incoming and outgoing administrations — to establish details for a unified Fiscal Year 2028 Budget and Financial Plan that could include collapsing some programs and agencies within the next two years.

Consider, for example, whether there is a need for a stand-alone DC Department of Housing and Community Development? Can the Housing Production Trust Fund, which the agency currently administers, be managed through the Department of General Services or the Department of Buildings? Can tenant issues be addressed through the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection or the Office of the Attorney General?

Does the city need a deputy mayor for health and human services or just more competent and experienced directors of the Department of Health, Department of Behavioral Health and Department of Human Services? Does it need a deputy mayor for education when it has a state superintendent of education and a State Board of Education?

Any changes that are made can’t be deck-chair maneuvers; we’ve seen enough of those in the past. Rather, they have to come with improved mission statements, better targeting of the service population, and an insistence that programs fulfill defined and measurable outcomes.

Williams urged the council to “spend at least six months going through a checklist on the spending side. Look at program impacts and cost-effectiveness and economize where needed.” He said members should locate their “north star” — and for “tax policy that should always be protecting and expanding your tax base.”

“Plant your policy guiding posts around growing tomorrow’s golden goose. The long-term tax payoff will be greater than a grab bag of tax hikes,” continued Williams. “The city is light years better than when I first became mayor. Don’t blow it.”

Ironically, much of the same advice was given to Mayor Pratt, coupled with a $300 million gift from Congress. However, she was surrounded by people who thought themselves to have the necessary expertise but repeatedly demonstrated their ineptitude and arrogance, failing to heed Rivlin’s warning.

Williams is right: “Too much is at stake. Cities can fall hard and fast. But sometimes they also bounce back or grow richer.” 

DC has experienced both. But if the new leaders, who are also the old leaders, are unwilling or unable to disabuse themselves of past habits and form a strong and fast collaboration, the latter will be impossible to achieve this time around.

jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.