Recording in progress.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I would like to good afternoon.

I would like to call this meeting of the committee on the judiciary and public safety to order.

Happy Friday.

I am Councilmember Brooke Pinto, representing Ward Two and chairwoman of the committee.

Today is Friday, May 22nd, 2026.

The time is eleven oh six a.m.

And we are conducting this meeting in person in room 500 of the Johnny Wilson Building and streaming on the DC Council's website and YouTube and X at CM Brook Pinto.

We have a quorum today with Ward 7 Councilmember Wendell Felder, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, and at large council member Donnie Crawford.

We have one matter on the agenda today: the approval, hopefully, of the committee's fiscal year 2027 budget report and recommendations.

I'll begin by providing an overview of the committee's recommendations before opening the floor for discussion.

This report was developed after months of extensive hearings, oversight, testimony, meetings, and public engagement across the city.

The report reflects the committee's commitment to safety, justice, and sustainable peace throughout all of our communities in the District of Columbia.

As the district grapples with a shifting federal landscape, building vacancies, shifting uses in our downtown, rising cost of living, we confront the urgent need to diversify our local economy and provide innovative economic opportunities for DC residents while maintaining our fiscal responsibility and importantly, ensuring public safety for every resident and visitor, increasing affordability for housing and child care, and supporting our seniors, our young people, and residents most in need.

Public safety plays an especially important role in bolstering the district's efforts to strengthen our economic opportunity in light of these changing trends.

The committee recognizes that the district faces acute budgetary restraints this year.

Nevertheless, our recommendations demonstrate and maintain the district's commitment to enhance public safety and justice with investments that we are proposing across our public safety ecosystem.

Agencies within the committee's purview experienced dramatic cuts across the board in the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, leaving extraordinary gaps in the tens of millions of dollars and few opportunities for the committee to reallocate sufficient funding to fill these gaps completely.

Second, meet our urgent public safety needs and support for our public safety workforce across the board.

And third, bolster the foundational needs to provide for safe and thriving communities across the district.

I also want to make note that we are moving today the dais print of the report, which makes some minor technical corrections and adds in a technical amendment for one of the committee's new subtitles.

One particular clarification in the circulated report describes the suspension of the private camera security program as only applying to the remainder of FY2026 and FY27, where in fact the proposed suspension is across the financial plan.

While the attachment A consolidated report correctly reflects this, the budget chapter description in the circulated report has now been updated as well.

We also added in a policy recommendation for the committee of the whole to move a BSA subtitle that we drafted and we've been trying to move, however, it is outside the committee's jurisdiction, which fixes a problematic client confidentiality and records access issue in OVSJG grant service agreements.

So let me overview some of the budget recommendations now.

The budget, as proposed by the committee that I'm moving today, works to interrupt cycles of violence and support our underserved residents by supporting over $3.4 million across the financial plan to restore devastating personnel cuts to the Office of the Attorney General to ensure OAG can protect district residents and interests.

Support $51 million over the financial plan for victim services grants at the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants to support victims, survivors, and service providers.

Invests $20.1 million dollars in justice grants at OVSJG to provide support to returning citizens and those at risk of becoming justice involved.

Invests $1 million in FY27 and an additional $1.2 million across the financial plan for the Pathways program to provide better support and follow-through for job training and permanent job placement for individuals at risk of participating in or becoming a victim of gun violence.

Invest $1.8 million across the financial plan in domestic workers and workers' rights grants at OAG to support workers' rights education and legal representation for vulnerable workers, supports $4 million for access to justice across the financial plan enhanced to provide civil legal support and diverse services to disadvantaged and vulnerable residents for domestic violence.

This budget allows us to meet our urgent public safety needs and support our public safety workforce by funding important investments for officers and first responders at the Metropolitan Police Department and FIRE and EMS, which encourage recruitment and retention while identifying operating and capital savings.

Invest $34.6 million across the financial plan for MPD and FIRE and EMS scheduled capital improvements to provide safe, dignified, and modern workplaces for our first responders.

We are also working on a modernization plan both for both for both FIRE and EMS and MPD facilities, ensuring that the district has clear plans and priorities for which facilities need to be updated and when.

Approving 9.4 million in OUC hardware and software IT improvements in order to ensure the district's emergency response and communication center, maintain state-of-the-art and best-in-class mobile data computer upgrades, public safety radio towers, 911 call processing and electrical configurations to ensure accurate, fast and reliable emergency first response, funding the Department of Forensic Sciences at 30 million to include a $1 million investment in critical infrastructure and digital storage space to ensure the agency can process next generation sequencing of forensic DNA evidence, examine latent fingerprints and firearms, and analyze high resolution images captured as evidence at crime scenes.

This funding is crucial for sustaining the agency's continued trajectory with retaining and obtaining accreditation and ensuring rapid processing of crucial crime scene evidence.

This is critical to prosecutions and closing cases to ensure that justice is served.

Adds funding to the Office of Police Complaints at 3.2 million to ensure timely and thorough resolution of police complaints.

Funds $1.2 million for the Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure, including an additional position to ensure operational and institutional stability and durability for the Commission's important work to maintain public confidence in an independent, impartial, fair, and qualified judiciary.

Urges the rest of this is very important in that we could not find funding for this.

This is $127 million dollars across the financial plan for an agency, not in our purview, but I want to mention it here because of how important it is to all of our workforces across the district, including our public safety workforce to restore the workforce investment fund to pay for increases in pay and any changes in salary, both for collective bargaining and non-union pay increases that are expected within the budget year, but are not yet final.

This is particularly important for FIRE and EMS, which is working under a two-year-old contract, and we should be honoring their negotiated pay increases to come.

And finally, this budget bolsters foundational needs to provide for safe and thriving communities by funding $9.2 million for the Safe Passage Program and FY27 and adding additional funding across the financial plan to ensure the program does not sunset and help sustain this program in the future to ensure our students can travel to and from school safely with trained trusted adults monitoring these critical times of day and to intervene before conflicts could lead to violence.

Provides $2.6 million to ensure that current and former TANF families can receive an additional $200 per month in child support arrears, which is especially important for families in need.

Allocates $1.1 million across the financial plan for safe commercial corridor grants to provide resources for neighborhood specific safety interventions and promotes public safety along commercial corridors in all eight wards.

Provides $1.8 million across the financial plan for safe and secure DC nonprofit grants to provide resources and respond to safety concerns at district nonprofit institutions at higher risk of violence or attacks, including hate crimes.

Supports extended hours at Department of Parks and Recreation Centers with investment including an investment for the summer of 2026 in the supplemental budget, creates a new zoning and permitting review position at the Department of Buildings to expedite the building process for the creation of more affordable housing and more density in light of the need to build more housing across the district and upcoming changes to the comprehensive plan.

Thank you very much to my ward one colleague, Councilman Brian Nadeau, and the Committee on Public Works and Operations for transferring 260,000 in recurring funds to support domestic workers' grants for a total of 1.07 million dollars in the financial plan and $300,000 in recurring funds to support the Pathways Program for a total of $1.2 million across the financial plan.

Thank you to my Ward 3 colleague, Councilmember Fruman and the Committee on Human Services for transferring 250,000 in one-time funds to support the nonprofit security grants and 1.4 million across the financial plan.

511,000 in recurring funds to support the safe passage program at the Tenley Town Priority Area for a total of 1.5 million dollars across the financial plan.

Thank you very much to my Ward 6 colleague and member of this committee, Councilmember Charles Allen and the Committee on the Transportation Environment for transferring $2 million in one-time funds in FY27 to support access to justice and $750,000 in one-time funds in FY27 to support domestic workers' rights grants.

Thank you very much.

And thank you to my at-large colleague, Councilmember White, and the Committee on Housing for transferring $1 million in one-time funds to support access to justice.

Turning to the Budget Support Act, the committee provided comments on the various subtitles that were referred to the committee, and I just want to highlight a few of them.

First, Title I subtitle B, the limitations on liability against the district.

As proposed by the mayor, this subtitle would circumscribe the district's legal exposure by capping unliquidated damages that any claimant or beneficiary can pursue per incident or occurrence causing injury to $500,000, excepting in cases where the district is determined to have acted or omitted intentionally and wrongfully, in which case the damages would be capped at $1 million.

A claimant for a claimant to procure non-economic damages for the district's act or omission, except in cases of permanent disfigurement or death, the claimant must spend more than $10,000 in medical expenses.

The mayor justifies this subtitle by cost savings.

In FY25, the district's settlements and judgments budget was excessive by close to $20 million dollars.

By immunizing the district from certain claims and liabilities, the district will save, she thinks a total of $22.5 million dollars in savings through FY 2030.