On May 4, 2026, the Council of the District of Columbia's Committee as a Whole, chaired by Phil Mendelson, held a public hearing on the proposed FY2027 budgets for the District of Columbia Auditor, the DC Retirement Board, and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The hearing featured testimony from agency heads, public witnesses, and extensive discussion on revenue forecasting, pension plan designs, tax compliance, and budget transparency.
I'm going to order this hearing. This is a public hearing of the committee as a whole of the Council of the District of Columbia. I'm Phil Mendelssohn, Chair of the Council, Chair of the Committee as a whole. Today is Monday, May 4th, 2020 is 212 in the afternoon. My apologies for our starting late, our starting very late. And those agencies are we will hear testimony in this order. District of Columbia Auditor, DC Retirement Board, and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The mayor submitted the budget on April 14th of this year. The council has 56 days before we vote first reading, which is scheduled for June 9th. For the first three weeks, not including the week of the 14th. The council's committees are having hearings on the proposed budget for the agencies under their purview. Committees will mark up the following week. The um as I said, the council will vote on June 9th first reading. The um this is the sixth of nine hearings the committee is having related to the budget. On Wednesday, we will hear testimony regarding the Commission on Arts and Humanities, Office of Zoning, Office of Planning, and Department of Buildings. On Thursday, May 7th, we will hear testimony regarding the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. And next Wednesday, May 13th, we will have a hearing on all of the legislative measures to mayor submitted, which would be the Local Budget Act for 2027, uh revised budget for fiscal year 2026, the Budget Support Act, and the Federal Portion Budget Request Act. That's May 13th. The um I think at this point we will proceed with um uh witnesses. Uh again, the order will be the auditor, then the retirement board, and then the chief financial officer. The uh for the auditor, there were two individuals who signed up to testify before I get to the auditor. Scott Goldstein, I'm assuming he's participating virtually, and Dunchia Pradeau. I don't know if she is here. Don't see you. Mr. Goldstein, uh, the floor is yours. Good afternoon. The DC auditor continues to be an incredibly valuable part of DC government's ecosystem, conducting critical studies that hold the government accountable and make important recommendations. The auditors recently released three different reports on education focused on spending. While they note an increase in overall education spending, the majority of that increase is uh come from driving down student to teacher ratios in a way that is good for student outcomes. They do make important points about potential duplication of initiatives across education agencies, which is worth noting in a time of tight budgets and high absenteeism, because we'd be well served to have a better coordinated, more holistic response to this challenge. They also note a sharp increase in administrative positions in schools. This is worth further investigation. Uh while some positions classified as administrative are deeply valuable, such as connected schools managers, attendance counselors, or wellness coordinators. We haven't thought strategically about how administrative staffing works and what the most effective structures are. Whether by the auditor, the council, the state board of education, or potentially the research practice partnership. It would be worth us as a city looking at the dozens of administrative staffing models across DCPS and charter LEAs to determine the effectiveness of different models since the cost variations are extremely high, and this takes away funding for direct student support. We do have duplication in some ways because of the undefined mandate of the DME's office, partially as a result of our education governance model. While mayoral control is designed to make things more efficient, in reality, it makes spending less efficient by stacking so many roles in mayoral-run agencies and the council that are stretched thin already that would normally be shared by others, like a school board. Second, I'm testifying to ask the DC auditor to conduct a thorough on-the-ground investigation and report on the effectiveness of youth curfews. Why is this needed? Every independent study, everyone, from the Campbell's collective's meta-analysis to the American Journal of Criminal Justice to the Marshall Project, all show that curfews do not work. Not only do they do not work, but studies find they actually increase youth violence for a multitude of reasons. The conversation among council members and the mayor about this policy has been almost completely evidence-free and driven by politics. Implementing an idea that will make them look like they're addressing something rather than actually addressing it. I've heard many council members refer to the curfew not as a solution but as a band-aid. But I don't see how something can make a situation worse and be a band-aid. Band aids help stop the bleeding. Curfews increase the blood. Curfews plainly do not help avoid arrests, as Councilmember Pinto and others have argued, but rather put youth increasingly in interactions not only with MPD but the National Guard.