I'm calling to order this uh meeting.

This is an additional meeting of the committee of the whole of the council of the District of Columbia.

I'm Phil Mendelson, Chair of the Council and Chair of the Committee of the Whole.

Today is Friday, May 22nd, 2026.

Time is 311 in the afternoon.

We are in room 500 of the council chambers of the Johnny Wilson building.

I believe there are four members present on the dais and four members who are participating virtually.

So we will have a quorum after we confirm with the roll call.

The subject of this, this is an additional meeting, so not regularly scheduled, third Tuesday of the month.

And the subject of this hearing is consideration of the report and recommendations on the fiscal year 2027 budget and corresponding budget support act subtitles.

This will be a report that the Committee of the Whole will be sending to the Committee of the Whole.

Mr.

Cash, would you call the roll?

Chairman Mendelssohn.

Present.

Councilmember Allen.

Councilmember Bonds.

Here.

Councilmember Crawford.

Here.

Councilmember Felder.

Councilmember Felder, Councilmember Fruman, Councilmember Fruman, Councilmember Henderson.

Here.

Councilmember Lewis George.

Councilmember.

Councilmember Nidau.

Here.

Councilmember Parker.

Here.

Councilmember Pinto.

Councilmember Pinto.

Councilmember Robert White.

Councilmember Robert White.

Councilmember Trajan White.

Council Train White.

Mr.

Chairman, you have a quorum.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Cash.

Councilmember Robert White.

You are shown as logged in.

Are you here?

I am here, Chairman.

Okay.

So we have a quorum.

We have the um report and recommendations of the committee of the whole on the fiscal year 2027 budget and corresponding budget support act subtitles.

I want to emphasize those who may not follow this process very closely.

This week, all of the council committees have met to mark up the recommendations.

The recommendations that go to the committee of the whole, that's what this report is as well.

The committee of the whole will meet on June 9th, where we will adopt recommendations with regard to actually we will adopt a committee print and a committee report for the local budget act as well as the budget support act.

What is before us today is just concerning uh the agencies and BSA provisions that were referred to the committee of the whole for comments.

So this is step one of two steps for the committee of the whole.

The third is what the subcommittee on local business and local business development recommended.

And if council member Felder is here or gets here, I will defer to him.

It is a subcommittee of the committee of the whole, so uh I wanted to address that here.

And then I will the fourth part will be to address some issues or just list some issues that we'll be dealing with council-wide at the what we call the big committee of the whole.

So with regard to education, um, and I'm gonna pause after I'm done with the education agencies in case there's uh questions from members.

We with DCPS made the following changes.

We increased funding for 15 individual DCPS schools consistent with the school's first in budgeting act.

The amount involved is 2.3 million dollars.

We increased for the program new heights $192,000.

I'm rounding these numbers, $292,000 dollars, and restored three coordinator positions at DCPS to support the new heights program to support pregnant and parenting students.

The model is evidence-based and a critical lifeline to the participating students.

Third, we added four hundred and fourteen thousand dollars within DCPS to restore three connected school managers within central office, and an additional $276,000 for connected school managers at Cardozo Educational Campus and Jefferson Middle School.

Fourth, we increased $250,000 in capital funding in FY27 for microcenters designed for microcenters design study and six million dollars in fiscal year 2028 capital funding for the construction of microcenters, which is to put early child care centers in empty classrooms to boost educator retention within schools.

Fourth, the report would establish a DCPS educator evaluation performance working group to reenvision the impact evaluation system.

In addition, we are maintaining or respecting or reflecting in our recommendations, current law with regard to impact funding, which is that no funding will be outside the UPSFF beginning in fiscal year 2029.

That's current law.

So there's two $900,000 in FY27 and $200,000 in FI28 for the working group.

Even though I mentioned this under DCPS, I think those dollars are going to be in the council budget.

And then we reduce the security contract for DCPS by about half of the proposed increase.

So the mayor's budget proposal had a 30% increase in the security contract.

We're reducing that increase to fit by to 15%.

And that's a savings of about four point almost 4.5 million dollars.

What we have in this report is an increase of $10 million one-time local funds in fiscal year 2026, current year, for the child care subsidy program.

This enhancement covers the projected total cost of the program for fiscal year 2026.

We estimate that that's $150 million, roughly what we project is the cost without a wait list.

Now I will note Aussie has not said they will eliminate the wait list, but we are funding at a level where the wait list should not be necessary.

We believe the total amount that will be necessary in FY27 is $153 million.

We do not have that in this recommendation today.

The mayor eliminated the $400,000 funding that was in the current fiscal year 26 budget.

We are restoring that.

We have $500,000 one-time funding in Aussie for the Live It Learn It Experiential Learning Program.

Educator Wellness, the current year is $300,000.

The mayor didn't change that.

The mayor proposed $200,000 next year.

We increased that by $100,000, so it'll be $300,000 again next year in Aussie for educator wellness.

Aussie had a math task force, and we are funding recommendation number four, which is $70,000 in fiscal year 27 to support the development of materials and tools for a math instructional learning community, and also providing $130, almost $133,000 in recurring funding over the financial plan for one math specialist.

The recommendations we have provide $435,000 in recurring funding in Aussie to support the continued implementation of course data collection.

This data collection is necessary to support an early warning system to support smooth credit transfers and a digital backpack.

The Aussie had a couple years ago a literacy task force, and consistent with the recommendations, we are funding an additional 200 almost 281,000 in recurring funding over the financial plan to support two additional literacy coaches and testing vouchers for educators.

There's some thinking that the work that's been done in light of the literacy task force is a reason why we are seeing improvements in test scores in our schools.

Aussie has a program in it called Adult and Family Local Education.

It was funded at $3,800,000 this year.

The mayor proposed less.

We are increasing the mayor's proposal by $500,000 so that there will be $3,870,000 in that program.

The FY26 budget has $2.4 million at Aussie for community schools.

The mayor's proposed budget zeroed that out.

So we also are proposing a community schools task force to research, evaluate, and recommend changes to the grant program and community schools programming in the district.

This will be a council task force.

With regard to the University of the District of Columbia, two changes.

So it's roughly two-thirds of the cut.

In addition, there's $250,000 increase to UDC's workforce development and lifelong learning early childhood education program.

Now I have a note here that the report that we circulated may not accurately reflect this in the chapter, although I think it's correct in the tables.

We make a change to the mayor's BSA subtitle to extend the pilot, the truancy pilot, for an additional year, as there's only one full year of data at this point, which is promising but preliminary of our recommended subtitles consistent with the Committee on Human Services recommended subtitles.

They also looked at this subtitle.

This every year the mayor eliminates funding, the additional funding for St.

Colettas, and every year the council puts money in.

So our recommendation has funding of $2.7 million to St.

Coletta's for FY27.

And I believe that reflects the testimony that St.

Colid is St.

Coletta's gave it, not one, not two, I think it was three, maybe four hearings.

And then the mayor's proposed budget support act had a charter facilities subtitle that eliminated the compromise that we struck last year, and so our recommendation is to strike the mayor's proposed subtitle so that we will continue with what we had agreed to last year, which is there's a pause in the facilities allotment percentage increase until FY29.

There's a small change to the budget for the District of Columbia State Athletic Association, adding $25,000 restoring a cut the mayor proposed.

And for the State Board of Education, I find this one interesting.

The state board is not the only agency that uses the old council chambers at the Marine Berry building.

However, for some reason, DGS has decided that the State Board of Education alone is responsible for fixing the AV equipment.

So we have $38,000 in the budget to DGS to cover what it says is the state board of education's requirement to repair the AV system at the Barry building.

So I'm gonna pause here before I go to non-education to see if there are questions from members.

Councilmember Parker.

Thank you, Chairman.

Um I want to applaud you and your team uh for doing uh a tremendous job in addressing many of the cuts uh that we saw to programs, but also right sizing in areas that I think are going to be really transformative for our educators' families and our young people.

A few things just to applaud and lift up the $10 million enhancement to the child care subsidy program.

I want to underscore how significant that is, and it will be important for us to gain clarity about the waiting list.

It's also worth noting we didn't have clarity, even though the waiting list was announced before, when it was going to uh open, how many families might be impacted, etc.

So I'm really glad that you were able to do that, and I'm really hoping that the council can work with the executive uh to ensure that we can extend that subsidy program uh as you're intending.

Uh the restoration of the community schools grant program, um, and some of the DCPS connected school costs.

I want to note that Dunbar is not on the list.

Uh, the restoration of our charter facilities allowance in fiscal years 29 and 30, um, as you have.

I've heard a lot of concern from many families, educators uh in the charter sector, and rightfully so.

Um, they have highlighted uh an increasing attempt to draw money out of the UPSF, and I appreciate you flagging that we have established as law uh that we will equally fund our sectors.

And so while uh we're not fully there, I appreciate the efforts to move us in that direction.

I do have two questions, but uh I just would also highlight uh the enhancements to uh the literacy in the math task force work, specifically with the math task force.

I want to acknowledge ASI's efforts to what I presume is support LEAs and schools.

Chairman, as you know, I have railed about this for many months, and it seems like through this enhancement through the uh recommendation for the math task force, it will equip ASI to develop a tool to work alongside our schools to improve their practice.

Yes, we want to see more of that, and that is the role of a state education agency.

Uh, and so I'm really excited that we're moving in that direction.

I do want to just address this working group around impact.

Um, I and I I want to offer you an opportunity to speak more to the intention behind it.

Um, while I take to heart the concerns that many educators have raised about impact and how unfairly it has impacted educators, um, and and in that vein, I do think we should look at it.

I want to note though, it would make it will give me serious pause and concern if the goal is to eliminate impact altogether or not have a teacher evaluation system.

I you know, I think and I would hope you would agree uh that for the sake of our school communities and our young people, uh, we should be fairly uh but uh measuring the impact that our educators are having in classrooms.

I think that's really important, even if it means there's room for us to improve the way in which we are evaluating.

Um, so I would love if you could speak to that.

Um, and then I did have a question around um this child care subsidy, but first, uh chairman.

I don't know if you want to speak to the working group and what the vision or goal is.

Um, and I know if I could just squeeze in, it seems like you what I thought will was eliminated the funding for the impact grants that DCPS educators receive or high quote unquote high performing educators receive, but it sounds like you're just moving that back into the UPSF so that DCPS could still in fact uh offer those grants, but that we address the way in which it's being funded.

So if you could just speak to those two things, that would be helpful.

Uh for FY27, impact is funded outside of the UPSF, and for FY28, impact is funded outside the UPSF.

And for FY29, and this is consistent with what the current law is.

If DCPS wants to continue with impact, would be funded, have to be funded within the UPSF.

So they have this is current law, so they have more than two years, they've had at least two years, if not four, to figure that out.

Um, as you know, Councilmember Parker, there's been a lot of complaints about impact.

Impact is the only evaluation system I know that is a verb.

As you know, we impact teachers out of a school, and that's not right.

Uh, there is widespread feeling that impact is punitive, and there has been uh ample compelling testimony that a good evaluation system, um, not only identifies strengths and weaknesses in educators, but actually guides educators to be better educators.

Um, I think I can only speak for myself, but I will in the plural, we're tired of these complaints and no change.

So the idea behind the task force is to identify how the evaluation system can be what it should be.

So that's the answer on that.

Um, yeah.

Uh the other question you had had concerned the child care subsidy.

Yes, but if I if it and I don't want to monopolize time, so I will forego that question.

If I could just quickly follow up, it seems as though you're you're uh sweeping the funds for that impact grant in the out years in 29 and 30.

I hear what you're saying, DCPS or the mayor at the time can put it back in the UPSF, but we are in fact taking the money, which I just you know gives me concern.

While I appreciate the efforts to right-size funding between our sectors, um it seems to me now there's a gap in a tool that is working to support um proven educators, and that in a mix of us looking at the evaluation tool, I just would reiterate uh that DCPS has been making progress.

Yes, there's room for improvement.

Yes, we should tweak and improve the impact tool, but If we are not careful, I think this could be a recipe where the train goes off the track.

I'm not saying that's your intention, but it certainly is something we should look into, and I'll stop there for the sake of time.

Uh, thank you, Councilmember Lewis George.

Uh thank you, Chairman.

Um, thank you to you and your staff and the budget office and the office of general counsel for the enormous amount of work that went into this report.

Uh, there is a lot in uh this budget, and I know the committee of whole is carrying some of the biggest and most complicated pieces of the budget overall.

Um I won't be able to touch on every item, but I do want to highlight that uh several investments, policy choices, and remaining concerns that are especially important to Ward 4 families and to the values of uh the count, the council should be uh fighting for.

I want to lower my hand because I don't like seeing it there.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, I want to start by uh thanking you for accepting the committee on facilities transfer of funding for a program manager position, supporting building inspection work at the Department of Buildings.

Uh your report is clear about the problem.

Uh DOB conducted more than 45,000 rental housing inspections in fiscal year 25, but as of April had only 38 rental housing inspectors.

That workload per inspector cannot be tenable.

Uh, the report also notes 19 vacant inspector positions and raises real concerns about whether DOB has enough inspection capacity to meet residents' need.

Uh, I strongly share those concerns.

Uh residents should not have to live with unsafe housing additions, repeated co-violations, or unresolved building issues or next door to vacant embodied properties because the district does not have the staff to inspect, enforce, and follow through.

Uh so as we continue to do the work together, as we share uh the department of buildings and oversight work.

Uh I would uh want to continue to make sure that we're doing our part, and that's why uh the committee on facilities transfer funding for a program manager position to support that building inspection work.

Uh on education, I am deeply worried about how the cuts to DCPS capital budget and DGS school facilities budget will impact the conditions of our schools and frankly their ability to stay open.

Uh, the mayor eliminated DGS's preventative maintenance program for school HVAC systems with an 11 million cut that will both do immediate harm to systems performance and permanent damage to the long-term life of these expensive systems.

Uh, Cardoza and Baloo were closed for two days this past week uh due to HVAC failures, as I was on the ground.

Uh DGS made clear more failures are guaranteed uh during our hearing uh if these gaps are not closed.

Uh so I want to make that clear.

While both schools are back open for now, dedicated operating and capital investments are needed in the current year budget to keep them open, particularly if DCPS intends to offer summer school at Cardoza as it has in years past.

Council member, Council Member, to be clear, you're talking about uh DGS because these are not.

I am this is this is me earmarking these things for the committee of the whole as it relates to the uh us moving to from little cow to big cow.

These are priorities that me and you have to tackle together, having both DGS and DCPS on our portfolio.

Absolutely.

Yes, yes.

Uh DCPS capital budget also has much less capital money for ADA compliance, athletic facilities, life safety, roofs, major repairs, which means when systems and equipment fail beyond repair because we don't have enough operating funds to maintain or fix them.

DC also won't have sufficient capital funds to replace them, leaving those schools less accessible, healthy, and safety.

So we have to work to close that 11 million gap for our schools so that they can continue to do the learning they need to do and not be in conditions that do not allow that or missing school days of instruction.

Um I appreciate the committee's approach to charter school funding.

Um especially striking the mayor's proposed out-year reduction to the charter school facility allowance.

I know there are real and ongoing questions about how we balance funding across sectors, and I continue to believe we need transparency and countability and responsible planning from every school that receives public dollars, and I appreciate the committee identifying the funds need needed to prevent instability for schools and families while continuing to push for stronger oversight and better planning across the sector.

I also want to specifically recognize the impact of the school's first restoration for ward four.

The report's uh the report school first analysis shows Roosevelt High School with a final net gap of nearly 900,000, and I appreciate the committee's identifying funds to address gaps like that.

Roosevelt is a cornerstone school for Ward 4 families.

I appreciate the committee is restoring managers at Cardoza and Jefferson, adding central office support, and creating a community schools working group.

That is the right direction.

Uh, but the takeaway also cannot be that we patch this together year by year.

If we believe schools should connect families to health care, mental health, enrichment, housing help, and trusted adults, then we need a sustainable funding model that does not keep pushing school towards another cliff.

On the truancy pilot, I appreciate the committee narrowing the mayor's proposal while continuing the pilot for another year.

Truancy and chronic absenteeism are urgent, and we need real data on what is actually helping students reconnect with school.

If the pilot is working, we should build on it.

If not, we need to know that too because students cannot wait while we fund programs without that evidence.

On early childhood, I appreciate the committee's one-time fiscal year 26 investment to address immediate child care subsidy pressure, but we should be clear that this does not solve the fiscal year 27 problem.

The report itself warns that the subsidy wait lists and and any move to flatten reimbursement rates could create serious financial strain for providers, reduce classroom seats, and especially harm war uh families in ward seven and eight.

At the same time, the pay equity fund remains uh far short of what is needed to restore salary supports for early childhood educators.

Advocates estimate the child care subsidy program needs an additional 63.2 million in fiscal year 27 to avoid wait lists, reimbursement cuts, and lots of access for families, and the pay equity needs 82.2 million to restore fully salary supports.

Early childhood is not optional.

It is infrastructure for families, children, educators in our economy, and we cannot talk about keeping families in DC uh while um safe while making child care harder to access and work hard to work harder to provide.

I too share the committee's serious concerns about the impact of the mayor's proposed cuts to paid family leave uh that paid family leave would have on families already struggling to get by in the midst of an affordability crisis.

Paid leave is in the lifeline for families.

Without it, people won't stop having care caring needs or serious illnesses.

It is vital that that we do all that we can to protect paid family leave and honor the commitment we made to district working families.

Uh I finally want to be clear that this report uh does important work, and as we make it to the full council, uh we still have uh have to meet the moment with TANF PSH vouchers, rapid rehousing, ERAP, paid family leave, school-based behavior health, the child tax credit, pay equity, access to justice, LSRP, and the housing reduction trust fund are still on the table, and these are not extras.

They are the difference between a family staying housed or entering shelter, between a worker recovering with dignity or falling behind, between a child getting support early or being left to struggle uh alone.

Uh so with that, I look forward to working with you, Chairman Mendelssohn and with all of our colleagues to reduce those gaps and put forward a budget that reflects the needs and values of district residents.

Thank you again to you and your tremendous team who worked on this report.

Uh, and with that, I do have just one question, and that is I wanted to flag the issue of immigrant teacher retention and visa support.

My understanding is that DCPS is seeing a significant slowdown in H1B visa processing and due to federal disruptions, heightened scrutiny, and much longer processing times.

Um DCPS has said it is focused right now on supporting educators already in the H 1B process and the roughly 20 educators still in the green car pilot pipeline rather than creating a new permanent residency process.

It does not feel confident and can implement successfully.

Chairman, understanding that the process has become more difficult, I would like to understand what went into the decision not to fund this again this year.

Was DCPS's explanation sufficient?

And what would the council need to see from DCBS to revisit this issue moving forward?

I do not want us to lose qualified immigrant educators because the system is too complicated to manage.

So the question is what went into our lack of a recommendation to uh fund that.

I would say two things.

One is that uh we put money in this year, it wasn't very much, 200,000, and uh DCPS is not spending it.

I mean, they're just not spending it, and so there's not much point in our putting money in if we know that they're not gonna spend it.

Um in addition, the um the if I remember correctly, the we have every reason to believe that the teachers who are in the pipeline right now, and I think you just referenced that council member, roughly 20 teachers of the DCPS will continue with to support them through the pipeline.

Uh, I would add a third factor, which was we were looking at uh trying to continue programs as much as possible, like educator wellness restoring the funding so it's the same FY27 as it is in FY26.

And uh, so even though the H1B visa program was more robust several years ago, uh, if we look at it between the lack of spending this year and going forward next year, um, we thought the dollars were better going into other programs to maintain funding there.

That's what the reasoning was.

Thank you for that explanation.

Uh, thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Henderson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

First, I'd like to thank you and your staff for the hard work on tackling these very complex issues.

I encourage folks to actually read the committee report, though it's long because when you open it up, the fact that your staff turned around 38 subtitles all together is a huge feat, which I know as a former staffer.

Also, shout out to whoever wrote the chapter on the CFO, but we'll get there at another time.

I think probably anonymous.

Anonymous.

Sure, sure.

Yes.

Okay, on education.

Um, I do have a couple of questions, but first I want to thank uh the committee for sustaining the investments in the advanced technical centers.

Um since the beginning, I've been a very strong advocate for sustaining the mayor's proposed investments in the ATC, first, because of the role it has played in addressing some of the very, very important healthcare pipeline needs by exposing students to early career paths, including in nursing and what will be coming online in dentistry.

Um, second, because it's gained such real interest uh from DC students with its practical and hands-on curriculum.

Um, they have a wait list um several hundred students for both locations.

Um, and so um I know that the committee has decided to move the additional 4.6 million for this program outside of the UPSFF to maintain the integrity and fairness of that formula.

Um, but uh by and by preserving those dollars, I think you are preserving the significant investments that we've already made in the infrastructure and the equipment to ensure the future of the program.

Similarly, on that note, I want to thank you all for accepting uh the committee on health transfer of 150,000 uh for the certified nurse aid summer program for FY27.

Um again, this is helping students not only gain exposure but also secure licensure credentials that can help lead them into the nursing pathway.

Um I was also happy to see that the committee's inclusion of the public school experiential grant, which would invest 500,000 in the Lib It Learn It program.

Uh, this has been a uh significant impact and creating exciting experiential learning opportunities.

Um so far, the program has supported over um 7,400 students across the district, allowing them to visit um museums, landmarks, environmental learning sites.

Um it's actually a true delight to open up those reports from that team and see some of the places where young people in the city have been able to go.

Um I also want to thank you for the transfer of the 74,000 um to the committee on health to help restore the food policy council, but again, we're focusing on the education stuff.

I want to get to my questions.

Um I want to follow up on a question that Councilmember Parker asked about um the impact working group.

Um so I understand what you're trying to do.

I also question the $900,000 price tag for such a working group.

Um, you know, in terms of the summary and of who is on the working group, the working group reserves a seat for the chancellor of DC public schools in their designee, but I'm concerned that I mean who holds that seat in the middle of a transition.

Um the working group is supposed to deliver its recommendations in November of 2027 by best counts, right?

If there's actually a full national search that takes place, DCPS will probably not have a new chancellor in place until maybe February or March of 2027.

So it seems a bit odd for there to be a working group about changing an educator evaluation system in the middle of the next administration trying to actually recruit someone to come head that agency.

Um how are we thinking in terms of the timing here?

Well, I'm not sure I agree with you, because I think that it's the what we're looking for is to have a quality working group to look at what would be a quality evaluation system.

As we know, impact was developed presumably as a quality evaluation system, it's become very much uh disliked, as I think we all know by educators at DCPS.

Um we want somebody from, I would say we want somebody from central DCPS, but that doesn't mean it has to be the chancellor, which is where I'm disagreeing with you.

So, but if you were the leader, put yourself in a the position of heading an agency for you to have an entire working group with recommendations for which you had no opportunity to be a part of the conversation.

Does that not seem odd?

No.

And that would not deter you from applying for the position.

I don't think so.

Okay.

I just don't think so.

Um we want, so I, you know, I've been through this before when we did the police uh reform commission when we did the uh pay equity task force.

Uh I look take very seriously looking at how we get a group of folks who are qualified, interested, trying to avoid any kind of uh bias coming in when I say any kind, uh I don't mean that literally, but um to to really to try to have it um focused on expertise.

So I think it's important that we recognize that we want expertise from the administrators, and that's how I look at it, not from the chancellor, Lewis Faraby.

Well, he's leaving, so then now we're in the.

No, I'm not looking for his, I'm looking for central central administration expertise there.

And hopefully, that won't change a whole lot.

Now we can get into a conversation about that.

But I don't know.

I I just there's a shift.

Someone has resigned, someone knew is coming in, someone new also has the ability to hire their own people.

It just feels a little odd that the council would be leading a working group about DCPS without the participation of whoever is going to be leading DCPS.

What is the best evaluation system?

Not for DCPS.

Yes, but right?

This is an evaluation system that is not shared by the public charter school sector.

Um, my second question is around um the committee recommends allocating 250,000 in capital funding for a design uh study to assess the feasibility of establishing um microcenters for early childhood education.

Yes.

So several of these child development centers already exist within DC public schools.

I'm aware of uh a few that actually closed this past school year because they lost some private funding.

Can you say a little bit more about the need for this new study and what we're hoping to gain and feedback from something that has already been implemented within DCPS?

Well, this would not be uh the normal child care facility.

Um it would not be like what we've seen in a couple schools where they the um students who are parents can bring their children.

This is meant to be utilizing vacant space where there are some educators or adults in that school who could use the um uh a child care facility.

We see this as helping with educator retention, and uh the idea behind the study is to develop that concept more, okay.

And I can have my staff talk with you about it.

They understand it much better than me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes.

Other questions on education?

Um Councilmember Nadeau and then Councilmember.

Oh, I just wanted to follow up on what Councilmember Andrews needed to ask.

Let's do Councilmember Nidow and then you.

Councilman Do?

Thank you, Chairman.

Um, and before I ask my question, I wanted to thank you for the work that you did to address child care subsidy spending pressures and community schools.

Very grateful for that work.

Um, and also bridge the gap, new heights, um, connected schools, educator wellness grants, and adult education Family Literacy act.

So thank you for all your good work on this.

Uh I'm concerned about the repeal of the alternative school breakfast program, which supports our kids who arrive late and rely on the program to eat.

What was your thinking uh in terms of the funding for that?

As I remember, staff will correct me if I remember it correctly.

Um it's a small amount of money, something like $180,000.

And that it was used, has been used primarily for equipment.

And that the thinking was that schools that have utilized this, well, they've got the equipment already, so additional funding isn't necessary.

And then within the context that we're looking for funding other programs to at least maintain them, like experiential learning or the wellness grants, that uh the money we could identify would be better going to those other programs.

That was our thinking.

Okay.

And thanks for answering uh Councilmember Lewis's George's question on the visa program.

Um, I think my I think my only other education-related question is um, I had met with some adult charters recently about their concerns around the budget, and I am curious if you think that you have addressed the concerns the adult charters were raising.

I see a number of places that you're tackling this issue, but I'm not sure if it's every bucket that they were asking.

Do you happen to know?

Uh it's not every bucket, but that's for two reasons.

One, um, I think you said this transportation, adult transportation.

My recollection is that the committee on transportation and the environment, chaired by councilmember Charles Allen, has put some money in for the uh adult transportation subsidy.

So that's why we're not addressing it in this report.

And I expect that the full committee of the whole will maintain that um that uh what do I put that move by transportation?

Okay, um, can you tell me more about the no?

Let me say a little bit more.

So the charter sector has been very upset that uh there has been increasing dollars outside going to DCPS outside of the formula, not wanting to provoke a lot of discussion here.

I don't think we go far enough with this report.

I don't know how much farther we can go.

Uh I was planning at the end of my presentation, talking about uh some issues for the uh big committee as a whole, and one of them is um we've identified some dollars that could reduce how much of the facilities money is leaving DCPS and going to DGS outside of the formula, but it's not nearly the whole ticket.

So just for the benefit of the public, there's um the idea behind UPSFF is that there's equal funding between the sectors based on the characteristics of students.

So high school students have a different weight than elementary school students, for example, but every elementary school student in DCPS gets the same level of funding as in the charter sector, going to the LEAs.

That's the the theory behind it.

Uh teacher bonuses at DCPS are funded, that's impact outside of the formula.

That's $25 million.

And uh with this year's budget, the mayor's taken all of the maintenance costs that DCPS has paid for decades and uh has moved it outside the formula to DGS.

That's about 60 million.

Uh we're not going to be able to reverse that 85 million dollars.

So we're not going nearly as far as the charter sector would like.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

And I was I I definitely didn't want to open the whole can of worms, but wanted to sort of focus in a little bit on the adult charters, um, since we have so many here in board one.

Um, just to clarify, um, we will be working together on the child care subsidy for FY27 and the pay equity fund together in the big committee of the whole, I assume.

Yes.

Okay.

Great, thank you so much for your work on the education.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Bonds.

Yes, thank you, Chairman.

Thank you very much for uh your report in total from what I have been able to consume fairly quickly.

Uh, what I wanted to follow up on was a comment made by my colleague, um, Councilmember Henderson.

Just trying to understand the micro um centers and how they're going to work.

I know what the language is in the BSA, but for some reason I was thinking that it also would allow opportunities for young people that have children, toddlers, infants, to also utilize the facility, and that it would be an opportunity for teaching moments where young folk who are interested in child care industry would also have an opportunity to horn their skills.

But I see it's really um not that when I look at the BSA, but I wanted to ask you, and looking at your BSA earlier, if there's any uh room for um expanding the prototype that you're creating through this process.

Well, the thinking is to boost educator retention, but we're also thinking to look at this in FY27 and implement it in FI28.

So it could be that it evolves the way you're thinking.

Okay.

All right.

Well, that that was my um one um concern.

I did want to commend um you in your report uh regarding University of the District of Columbia and how they uh finally moving um their workforce development to talk about elevator repair training um and HVAC.

So I'm really happy about that.

Those are some of the areas that seem to be missing in um the current workforce climate that's provided um, in fact, throughout the city, so I wanted to applaud that while you're talking about the education um bracket and like to come back and talk about the other areas when you get to them.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

So let me just in the community report, it says microcenters are licensed child development facilities located inside a school building to provide child care services to infants or toddlers and have a license capacity of not more than 10 children.

Uh the committee is recommending the capital funding be provided to for DCPS to conduct a planning and design study to assess the feasibility of establishing microcenters that include an assessment of licensing and funding requirements, recommending policy changes to support microcenters, and recommending timelines and costs for implementing three or more microcenters.

Could be, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Robert White.

Uh thank you, Chairman.

On the education piece, I do want to thank you and your team uh for all the work that you have done.

Uh committee addressed several pressing gaps in education and special education, closing the 2.7 million dollar shortfall as thank Coletta's.

Obviously, that means that students with the most intensive needs will get the one-to-one support they need and won't lose a central services, uh correcting DCPS schools' first uh budget uh budgeting the DCPS school's first budgeting issue that helps ensure that schools have the required resources to begin the year on solid footing, restoring connected school managers, new heights coordinators, literacy coaches, math specialists, and community schools grants, uh all will help keep critical academic and wrap around supports in place, and the committee strengthened higher education and early learning by adding resources for the child care subsidy program uh and restoring needed funding for the university of the District of Columbia, which is such an important institution here.

I also want to relatedly highlight the funding uh to implement Title II of the youth mentorship through community engagement amendment act, which we passed.

Uh, the council passed unanimously in 2024.

Uh the committee on housing transferred this funding to the committee of the whole because young people have advocated for mentors, structure, connection, and opportunity.

Uh, and when young people talk and make these kinds of requests, we have to listen.

So uh thank you for uh accepting that funding in a time when uh our conversations about youth too often begin and end with enforcement.

Uh we have to fund programs rooted in support uh trust and prevention.

The the one question uh I have on on the education side of the budget uh is around the true.

Well, I have two questions.

The first is around the truancy pilot.

Do we know at this point how we're going to evaluate those programs to determine if they're going to continue?

I mean, obviously more kids in schools, but do we have like if there's a marginal increase, you know, that may or may not show success.

So any idea how we're going to evaluate this.

Uh there's required to be a report, or maybe I should say reports, plural.

Uh what's a little bit frustrating to me is that the um pilot did not start with a hundred percent of the schools in the pilot on the first day of the fiscal year.

So we're now into the second year, and the first year they ramped up to, I think it was five schools, the last school being added in maybe February.

So we don't even have a full year.

And then this year we added uh several additional schools.

So I think it's 10.

I think it's 10.

And um similarly, it's not 10 on the first day.

Um I think the 10th school was just a month or two ago.

So we're not yet getting full year uh data on the program.

I will add as well that the program is somewhat um self-selecting.

So a school will uh there are a number of ways, but the primary way the student would be identified for the pilot is if the school reports that to DHS.

DHS reaches out to the family, the family has to agree to participate in the pilot.

So not every student who is has a absent uh and not every student has an attendance problem is participating because they're not required to.

Uh, and I think that can skew the data a little bit, but we're supposed to be getting reports.

At the end of this year, we should get a report on the second year, but again, it won't be full year data for all of the schools.

So we're extending it for another year.

Um, as you know, Councilmember Fruman has oversight over the Department of Human Services where the pilot is housed, and so we've been working closely with him.

So there's there's no ideally there's no daylight between his recommendations and our recommendations with regard to next year.

Okay, all right.

I appreciate that.

Um, and this is not something I had focused on yet, but uh council member Henderson raised it.

Um the teacher evaluation system is something I've been very focused on for a number of years, very concerned about.

Um, but is it nine hundred thousand dollars for a study on that?

Yes, that will that's I know that sounds like a lot.

Um it's not hiring a study so much as it is um hiring a consultant to help us with an evaluation system, understanding an evaluation system.

Okay, what um and is it within the realm of possibilities that the next chancellor since Chancellor Fairby announced this week that he's gonna be departing uh in just a few weeks, uh that the study could hold until a new chancellor is uh brought in brought in?

Um I don't like that idea, but uh again, what I'm interested in is that we have a um bona fide expert analysis with that ends up with some recommendations on what a good evaluation system looks like.

And if it turns out that um that we need to be uh more deliberative in the approach, then we will be.

Uh my notes here say, O RA, Office of Um Revenue Analysis was quoted at between 750,000 and 1 million dollars.

This would likely include research on impact, teacher and principal engagement, light surveys, instrument validation, both psychometric and statistical, and possible stipends and feedback from other experts.

Okay.

All right.

Well, it does sound like there's some useful work that could start even before a new chancellor getting insights from teachers.

Um I'm glad that we are are looking into this.

It does seem like a lot of money uh for a study, but um uh but we we will move forward.

Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you.

So let me move to the non-education.

We call this double dipping, Mr.

Parker.

Question that I didn't get to because I was trying to be mindful of.

And so this will not take any time for you to have additional questions.

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate section for UDC.

It is.

And the budget might allow for that.

And then just secondly, there was an effort to uh move funding around for past Ward 5 projects for weekly Ward 5 school.

And I know there was some back and forth with the budget office and DCPS.

And so I'm just hoping we still have your commitment to support Wheatley on that front.

Let me take the latter first.

So you and I have talked about Wheatley, and I forgot to uh say anything to staff, but I did tell you that we would put some money in the capital budget.

I have not worked with the budget office on the capital budget, so um that's something I'll have to do between now and the big committee as a whole.

With regard to UDC's intention, I believe what they want to do is to reduce and ultimately relocate the community college from Bacchus to the main campus.

Um I don't believe that's fully funded in the capital budget, so they're not able to quite do that yet.

And uh that's something we will also be looking at between now and the big committee of the whole.

Um, you should work with my staff who better understand what the UDC capital budget is.

Okay, thank you.

Non-education.

So, Elder, I put in the text in the chat that he would like to go.

Uh, thank you.

Yes, I did uh councilmember Felder.

Councilmember Felder, if you're speaking, I can't hear you.

We can't hear you.

Uh, well, if you can't hear me, then it won't help if I say log off and come back on.

So let me move to non-education and then now recognize Councilmember Felder.

Uh, the Department of Buildings.

Uh, we funded in this recommendation, we funded two FTEs at 307,000 recurring to implement the vacant property registration plan, the vacant right regist vacant property registration plan provisions of the vacant to vibrant amendment act of 2026.

In addition, we've accepted transfer or this committee uh the to report recommendations accept transfers from uh public works and operations uh facilities and the judiciary committees for five additional FTEs, three FTEs uh at $397,000 recurring to fund the Harmonious Living Amendment Act, one FTE at 171,000 recurring from the facilities committee to focus on long-standing housing code violations.

Councilmember Lewis George referenced that earlier, and one FTE and at $171,000 recurring from Judiciary Public Safety Committee to work on permit expediting.

I will note that we do not have funding in this for mold inspections, which I'll speak to again at the end of my report.

The recommendations of in the attached report also increased the nuisance abatement contract work in the FY27 budget, increase it by $750,000 one time.

In nondepartmental, we've put $200,000 one time for implementation costs of the drop act.

So the drop act is the deferred retirement option program for firefighters and police.

This is legislation pending in the committee of the whole.

They think that it will encourage retention.

And so we are working on the legislation running into some obstacles between the retirement board, well, really with the retirement board.

And so to enable us to move forward, we're putting $200,000 in non-departmental so that when this legislation is adopted, assuming it will be, that funding will not be a problem.

The I think those are the only other budget moves.

We retain the downtown building conversion support subtitle, the WAMATA tax abatement subtitle, the federal property tax exemption subtitle, and other economic development subtitles that will bolster economic development and investment in the district.

We recommend striking the workforce housing opportunity tax abatement subtitle, the federal properties tax fund subtitle, the industrial revenue bond subtitle, and the certificate of occupancy fee reduction subtitle.

I do want to note with regard to the workforce housing opportunity tax abatement subtitle.

Councilmember Fruman has raised a concern because it could affect a project in his ward.

We are not spending the money associated with that.

He's not in this report.

So it's easy to have this conversation with Councilmember Fruman between now and the big committee of the whole.

None of that money is being spent in this committee markup.

That money is being reserved for councilwide priorities at the big committee as a whole.

So I have a note here.

We um looked at their budget rather carefully.

We identified seven positions that are vacant that we put in a request to eliminate a total of about five hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars recurring.

That's $595,000 in each year of the financial plan.

All of these positions have been vacant since at least September 10th, 2023.

ORA or OBP, OBP, denied the cuts.

I'll say that again.

We identified seven vacant positions that have been vacant for help me here, September 10th, 2023 is two and a half years ago.

We identified them to be eliminated, saving just under $600,000 a year, or that's $2.4 million over the financial plan.

And that request was denied.

Now I don't believe most agencies have contracts for subsidized parking for their employees.

But the OCFO has a parking contract over on 4th Street Southwest at a cost of $736, $737,000 a year recurring.

Help me, seven times four is 2.8 million dollars over four years.

Um we attempted to cut that contract.

And I brought up there that we had obtained click data for employees coming to work.

And it was the average monthly attendance by OCF employees was 1.8 days a month.

1.8 days that's less than two days a month.

Anyway, we attempted to cut the parking contract.

We were told, these are my notes here, that quote, half the expenses reimbursed to employee payroll deductions, unquote, and that cutting the contract would quote circumvent the OCFO's independent authority, unquote.

Now I believe as appropriators, we have appropriation authority over the entire budget that includes all the agencies, including the independent agencies, office of zoning.

I hope so.

We didn't make any changes to office zoning, but they're in us in this committee.

Arts Commission.

And I would just want to add, because I would if anybody's listening, watching, maybe they could help explain why employees would be paying for parking cost if they're coming to work less than two days a month on average.

At any rate, I intend to move these uh cuts at the full committee.

And we we intend on supporting that.

So the are there any questions so far?

Councilmember Bonds and Councilmember Parker.

Yes, um, thank you very much.

Um Chairman, when we talk about the Department of Buildings, and you mentioned in your report um today.

You're saying the department has 54 vacancies.

Um you give us some additional information in your comments, and then you mentioned that the department has not shown sufficient urgency in recruiting for these vacant positions since the hiring freeze was lifted.

And so I I just wonder if two things we need to consider.

One um, since there's no sense of urgency, yet we know we need these services.

Perhaps this is time for us to put the need for these services.

That is the training module, maybe in the infrastructure academy, and move forward to get people trained to do this kind of work.

So, in other words, move the resources to to workforce training.

It'll take probably nine months, but at least we know we'll have a rainbow at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.

And I'm wondering if that's something that you would like to consider as we move to the big cow as we call it.

Um we'll certainly look at it.

I don't know that requires budget action, but uh we have oversight over the department of buildings, and um I think that's worth our looking at.

Yeah, they do need to fill those positions.

They were their hiring was set back by the freeze last year, and the freeze was a result of the continuing resolution, debacle that Congress visited on us.

Um they do need to fill those positions.

Yes, they do.

These are very important positions.

I think one of my uh colleagues spoke to it earlier and the value to the community, and I certainly am hoping that we can move a little more expeditiously to to deal with this.

I also want to um I want to express my immediate support for um some of the your findings with the office of the um financial chief financial officer, yes, with the office of the chief financial officer, and these um perspectives that many of us were not paying a lot of attention to, obviously, because they've been going on for a few years where we are not um spending the resources as intended, and so uh I'm I'm thankful that you are going to bring it to the big cow, and we will all have an opportunity to uh move forward.

All of us are suffering um throughout this um government as it relates to um uh the flatness of what we are able to do with the resources that we have, and so I think um uh if we have as we do the purse strings of the government that we would we would utilize them and um utilize them rather quickly.

Um these are resources that we really can use today.

Thank you.

Uh I want to note I because I didn't say this earlier.

I mentioned uh that we identified seven positions that have been vacant.

I believe there are more than seven.

In fact, I know they're more than seven.

I think it's over a hundred that are vacant, but we identified seven.

Their total payroll is um close to eleven hundred FTEs.

So I'm not even I can't even do the percentages.

What's seven-tenths of a percent?

Uh council member Parker, did you want to be recognized?

Yes, um I two quick questions.

I do want to uh thank you for preserving the tip funding for the Barney Street Market, as well as the work um that you did to address bacon and blighted properties across the district, which I think is important.

I wanted to add my voice to this concern uh um with the office of the CFO, and you know the question there is what will change for the council between the work of your committee and when the budget goes to the whole council.

Uh, because if you're saying that the the cuts weren't certified, what do what do we anticipate being differently?

Well, I'm trying to remember, Councilmember Parker.

I think it was last week.

You uh were told that some uh reductions that you had identified had been uh denied.

Uh what changed between then and we weren't gonna go there, but since you brought it up, no, no, no.

So what changed between your those being denied and your markup?

Well, um there was uh uh an effort to gain clarity.

There were some difficult conversations, and then while uh the money was available.

Uh, you know, I just will say for the record, so that's my answer.

That's my answer to you.

Okay, got it.

I I just would say for the record, I am growing increasingly concerned by the ways in which the CFO is wielding significant influence that is overstepping into the work of the council uh and legislators.

Uh as you mentioned, we have the power of the purse, um, and it increasingly seems whether it's through mandating um ridiculous amount of FTEs for various policies, or if it's not certifying certain cuts, or if it is saying, oh, now all of a sudden we can certify it, just doesn't seem as though there is a level of consistency.

So count me as a ally there.

I did want to also just ask you to speak to the work for housing tax abatement with the changes the committee is proposing.

My team is looking into potential impacts into Rhode Island Row and the Floridian and Ward 5, and just would love if you can expound a little bit more there.

So Councilmember Parker, I left you out when I said earlier that I was um looking forward to working with Councilmember Fruman with regard to a project that could be impacted in his ward.

I should include you in that as well.

My understanding is that we were looking for some additional information from Dem Ped and didn't did not get it.

So I would consider this a work in progress.

Understood.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So there's nothing Councilmember Henderson.

Thank you.

So I I just wanted to, there are a lot of different subtitles that were within your committee report, and so I wanted to highlight um two additional ones that were non-education related.

First is with regard to the Wamada property tax subtitle.

You know, I think it's really critical for our development pipeline that the council do this to accelerate some mixed use residential development at prime Wamata stations that down the line will yield essentially net property tax revenue that right now that we we don't have access to.

Um but also it could be a strong uh anchor for workforce housing given its proximity to a metro station.

Um so I hope that we're able to retain this subtitle as we go forward.

Um, I also want to highlight the committee retain the medical cannabis uh tax subtitle, which would increase the sales tax rate from 6% to 10.

Um 5%.

Uh I am concerned about this, and I know that you guys mentioned that you didn't necessarily have the funding to um strike this particular subtitle, but the medical cannabis market in the district is already struggling along because we have to deal with a um illogical set of uh rules uh put in place by a congressman from Maryland that his party continues to support, and then they tell us that we're not doing enough to regulate illegal sales, but you basically said we couldn't.

Um, Virginia just Virginia governor just um vetoed their recreational market legislation, and so it is an opportunity for our businesses to be able to get a stronger whole.

And I just want to be very clear for folks who are listening, the the operators here in the district, these are small businesses.

These are not multi-million conglomerate 10 locations across 25 states.

These are um, for the most part, district residents who have invested a lot in the hopes that would be able to turn around, and increasing the sales tax is just gonna hit them even harder, which is kind of an interesting thing as I want to talk really quickly about the CFO, and I echo in terms of Councilmember Parker, and that I'll support you on this because I've always felt this budget is tough across the board, right?

Um we've got cuts at DLCP, we've got cuts at DPR, I've got cuts in schools, I've got cuts all throughout the public health infrastructure, and for the independent agency to sit on a hundred vacancies, and suggest that somehow these are revenue generating as opposed to just a cushion.

I think is unfair.

When we talk about shared sacrifice, and I'm gonna put that in quotes because we already know that we're not sharing equitably, but you don't get to hold on to the taxpayer money and not spend it on the priorities of the taxpayer.

We have real needs, and the idea that there are a hundred vacancies just sitting, and not even that, but like we're paying $24 million dollars on a lease that should not even use it.

I would love for everybody to be able to work from home, but give me your building back.

And keeping parking to come in once a month when your building is a block from a metro stop.

Yeah, half a block.

Half a block, cross street, whatever.

The point is you wouldn't catch a sweat walking from the metro to the front door.

When we talk about shared sacrifice across the independent agencies, and I would have the same argument for the office of the attorney general, who is also facing lots of cuts to his agency, which has done a lot for this city in terms of fighting a back against some of the federal cuts that we have been facing.

But everybody wants to be independent but also wants to be part of the government.

Well, if we can be part of the government, I need you part of the team.

And I'm happy to have that conversation with the CFO to himself.

But also, I would say to the reporters who are listening.

I, you know, read the committee report.

It gives you a roadmap to write the article.

Because I know that most district residents aren't reading it and aren't paying attention, but we all have a responsibility here.

We cannot cut child care so that the CFO can keep their parking and come in a month.

We cannot cut health care for residents so that the CFO can sit on a hundred vacancies.

We cannot cut food access programs because of a mythical cash flow problem that nobody can provide any analysis for.

If the CFO wants to be independent, he should start taking some of these meetings with some of these advocates now.

Tell them why we have to cut child care so he could keep a desk open that nobody's using and a printer wrapped in plastic that nobody has printed from in six months.

You know, I just want to say preach.

I'm done.

It's late.

Let's go.

Like the American ID.

I'm preaching.

Alright, is there anything else on this section of uh my presentation, which is the non-eduction agencies?

Uh I want to hear from the subcommittee and then uh discuss some issues for the full committee as a whole, the big committee as a whole.

Councilmember Felder, do you want to present or do you want me to present for the subcommittee?

Actually, we lost Councilmember Felder earlier.

Um, I don't know if we have them now.

He says you can present in the chat, Chairman.

Okay, so the subcommittee did not make any cuts or budget adjustments to DSLBD within the committee.

Several committees transferred funding to the subcommittee, $25,000 in one-time funds from judiciary to enhance the work of Upper 14th Street Clean Team.

$50,000 in recurring funds from Committee on Human Services for the Connecticut Avenue Northwest Clean Team.

Another $100,000 in recurring funds from the Committee on Human Services to support the Friendship Heights Alliance bid, $50,000 in one-time funds for the development creation of a new Benning Road Main Street, and those funds were transferred from the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor chaired by Councilmember Bonds, and $50,000 in one-time funds to support the Tacoma Main Street, which was transferred from the Committee on Facilities chaired by Councilmember Lewis George.

The committee subcommittee did not make any changes to the two subtitles, one concerning art all night and the other concerning the Golden Triangle bid.

And the subcommittee recommended adoption of two new subtitles, one which would redesignate the Capital River front bid as the Navy Yard bid, and another which would remove certain provisions in the Southwest bids authorizing statute to prepare the bid for disposition for the disposition of federal buildings.

If anyone has questions for me about that, I will struggle to answer.

Are there any questions from members?

Then the last thing I want to discuss is items to address at the big committee of the whole.

So the what we have before us today addresses child care subsidy shortfall in FY26.

For the big committee of the whole, uh, we are going to be looking for I believe it's about 40 million dollars for the child care subsidy program.

Actually, I have in my mind maybe it's 49 million dollars.

39.

39.

39 million.

I think I'd said earlier, about 153 million total.

Uh we're looking at uh 70 million, 60 million for pay equity.

I'm supposed to know all these numbers.

60 million for pay equity, which would maintain the status quo.

It is my goal to ask council members that we are maintaining the child care subsidy at a level that reflects the enrollment and it does not require a wait list, and that we maintain pay equity at least at the level that we are at in the current fiscal year.

Uh the latter is not ideal in terms of what the council's intent was behind the fund.

In addition, and this was touched on earlier, shifting facilities costs from DGS to DCPS to reduce the disparity in funding between the public charter school and DCPS sectors.

Third, uh shifting the lead testing funds for charter sector to DGS.

So, right now lead testing for like drinking fountains and DCPS schools is covered through DGS.

And for the charter schools, for reasons I don't understand, the mayor zeroes it out every year, and we put a million dollars in the budget.

And I would like to see that all of that is funded through one contract that DGS has.

Fifth, striking the public services hotel occupancy fee subtitles since we are making the increase in the hotel occupancy tax, the 1% increase permanent.

You don't need to get two hits in one year.

Six, reversing reductions in the paid family leave benefits, particularly the proposed one-time elimination of medical leave in the mayor's proposed FY27 budget.

Seventh, striking the medical cannabis tax subtitles so the industry is not crushed.

This picks up on what Councilmember Henderson was saying a few minutes ago.

There are a number of disadvantages that the medical cannabis industry has.

One of which is that under federal tax law, they cannot take deductions that other all other businesses can take.

Another restriction which may change is that they have minimal or restricted access to the banking system.

And so this idea of increasing the sales tax for medical cannabis to equal alcohol, is crazy, especially when medical cannabis most medical, let me rephrase that, most medicines have no sales tax.

Eighth, allocating approximately 1.4 million dollars a year to fund mold inspections at the Department of Buildings.

So we didn't cover that in the print before us today.

That's uh roughly $5.2 million dollars over the financial plan.

The Department of Energy and Environment is no longer doing any complaint intake or inspections for mold.

So I guess the alternative would be we could just make it illegal to have mold, but I don't think that will work, so we need inspectors.

And then ninth um to look to restore the funds that the mayor cut from the commission on arts and humanities, which was approximately $2 million.

The current fiscal year, which has stopped three capital, three institutions from significant capital improvements, and uh six million next year.

That's a total of eight million dollars.

Uh there's more to the list, but that's what I wanted to mention here.

Uh I'll pause again.

Any uh questions.

Uh the last thing I want to do before I ask for a vote on the uh report, is I want to thank staff.

Um, oh, yes, Councilmember Crawford, right in the middle of the thank yous.

Before you thank uh staff, you've been asking for questions, so I just have a quick statement.

Is that okay?

Yes, okay.

Thank you, Chairman Mendelson, to you and the committee of the whole team for your hard work and time since preparing this committee report.

I want to begin by acknowledging the committee's thoughtful work, navigating an incredibly difficult budget environment while still prioritizing investments, excuse me, that strengthen schools, housing quality, youth supports, and economic opportunity for district residents.

One of my priorities was seeing community schools maintain funding, and I appreciate the committee's continued support for Aussie's community schools and DCPS's connected schools, which so many families, educators, and advocates testified about this year.

Excuse me, one second.

Thanks.

I support the committee's continued focus on addressing equity issues across our public education system, including concerns raised by our charter school partners about funding outside the UPSFF and their facilities allotment.

I know the committee spent significant time discussing these challenges and working toward a more equitable and transparent approach for all public school students in the district.

There's still more work to be done, and I appreciate the acknowledgement that funding impact plus bonuses outside of the UPSFF deepens the inequities between DCPS and the charter sector, as well as the express commitment to reinstate these bonuses within the formula in FY29.

Next, I raised this at one of the council admin meetings.

We exit my email.

But I still have concerns about protecting out-of-school time programming in the outyears.

These programs play a vital vital role in youth development, violence prevention, academic support, and family stability, and maintaining continuity for providers and young people alike is incredibly important.

As the council continues to determine how to raise money for recurring purposes, this remains top of mind for me.

I also want to commend you and your team for strengthening some of the mayor's proposed tax incentive subtitles for downtown, including by clarifying clawbacks, reducing abatement timelines, and even reducing abatement amounts, where the data shows that take up will be unlikely to occur.

And finally, I appreciate the committee's willingness to identify priorities for big cow, particularly around implementation of the Department of Buildings proactive inspection program reforms and mold inspection capacity.

I share the committee's view that these investments should remain priorities as the council continues final budget deliberations because residents across the district deserve safe and healthy housing conditions.

Again, thank you, Chairman Mendelson, and to your team for this thoughtful work balancing difficult fiscal realities while continuing to invest in the well-being of district residents across all eighth wards.

Thank you, Councilmember Crawford.

Councilmember Allen.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I know you were organizing it and breaking it down by subject matter area, but I want to make sure I didn't get missed here.

Um I appreciate the work of you and your team on this.

Our economy, district-wide, region wide is currently shifting with remote work and commercial office vacancies still dragging us down, CFO.

And we're also going to have to adapt to the recent decisions by the federal government to reduce its workforce and its size.

So coming out of the pandemic, the mayor and the council proposed abatements and other supports to convert vacant office spaces in downtown and new homes and new businesses and neighborhoods.

It's clear though, these measures alone will not be enough to get our economy going again, and we've got to look across the board.

We do need to grow and implement policies and proposals that will bring new residents and help expand our tax base.

Unfortunately, I think the executive has chosen to go down a path where to achieve those aims.

It does so by balancing this budget on the backs of those who are most vulnerable and ask nothing of someone like me or my family in a time like this.

I do not think that we need to be pursuing growth at the expense of working people and families.

Rather, we need to grow while at the same time supporting our working people and families.

Mr.

Chairman, within the committee of the whole and the agencies under its purview, the proposed cuts are really pronounced and harmful.

Within OSI, for example, the complete elimination of the early childhood educator pay equity fund, which is how we support the child care industry by ensuring workers are paid a living wage, completely zeroed out.

That would not only affect the child care workers, but the working parents who send their kids to child care and the child care centers themselves who need to come up with a way to either reduce cost or increase the cost of child care, which is already insane, and pass that on to more working families.

The complete elimination of the community schools grant program, which, as a DCBS parent, I've had the benefit of seeing its impact on students and our families.

And the proposal to institute a wait list for the child care subsidy program.

We all know the demand for child care is so so big.

A wait list would be really harmful to families that are looking to go back to work.

Within our DCPS and charter sector, the uniform per student funding formula starts to decrease in FY28.

That really starts to put pressure on schools coming next fiscal year and how they plan ahead.

And for the deputy mayor for education, the funding for out-of-school time grants essentially cut in half starting in FY28 again.

So it would start to put pressure on our out of school time grantees coming next fiscal year.

In the non-education agencies, I'm extremely concerned about the cuts to the Commission on Arts and Humanities that have, as of today, frozen grants that had already been announced for capital improvement at theaters and venues across the city, three of which are in ward six alone.

And with all that being said, I want to commend you for the work that you put into this budget.

There is a lot of good things to highlight here.

I want to thank you for the restoration of about 10 million dollars for the remainder of FY26 for the child care subsidy program.

Hopefully, that will make the wait list implementation unnecessary.

I want to thank you for the restoration of the community schools, connected schools, and educator wellness grants, as well as the funding as you talked about for St.

Coletta's.

I'm happy to see those investments moving forward.

I do also want to lend my support for your BSA subtitle Establishing the Task Force to Evaluate Impact.

We've had impact for a while now, and everyone here in this diet knows there are some strong feelings about how this system is used to evaluate our teachers and our educators.

Some things may be working, some things maybe not.

It's worth a look to evaluate and especially with your framing of making sure that any system we have is ultimately geared towards supporting our students and their achievement in the classroom.

And lastly, I want to thank you for accepting the transfer of 200,000 in recurring funds from the Committee on Transportation and the Environment to support our food prints programming in our schools.

It is an amazing program that provides food and garden education programming in DC schools and for our students.

There is still a lot of work to be done though in the weeks ahead.

I want to add my voice to what I've heard from many colleagues about the need to restore the pay equity fund fully, our child care subsidy program, reversing what the mayor is proposing to do with the Universal Paid Leave program and making sure the capital grants for the Commission on Arts and Humanities go actually go out the door.

It's not an exhaustive list as I have plenty more priorities and we're running out of time, but I want to preview that for you, and I look forward to the work ahead in the next couple of weeks.

Lastly, I want to lend my voice and echo my colleague, Councilmember Henderson, and I think others around the CFO's baffling response to cuts you proposed making.

I don't understand why an independent agency like the OAG has to potentially fire and riff 54 people, but the CFO gets to keep a parking contract and vacancies they don't benefit from.

A hoarding money at this time is simply not a choice anybody gets to make.

So, you know, I want to thank you and your tremendous team for the staff for the report, the recommendations, and I look forward to supporting them.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Allen.

Uh, anything further before I um thank staff and move the committee report and print.

I think I thank staff before I move the report.

Uh so I want to thank Blaine Stump, Deputy Committee Director, and Evan Cash, who is the committee and legislative director.

Our education team, Bijan Verlin, Alia McNeely and Hannah Kozick.

Special counsel in my office, Christian Washington, Jen Boodoff, and the entire budget office team.

But especially, and the reason why I'm singling out a few people is because at the little committee, these are the people we've worked most closely with.

Andy Eisenlaw, Deputy Budget Director on Education Matters.

Sam Hodges, senior budget analyst on non-education matters.

That sounds like that's the whole rest of the government.

Just but just on our report.

And from the Office of General Counsel again, these are people we worked with most closely at the local committee as a whole.

Dan Golden, Deputy General Counsel and Lauren Mandanza, who's the assistant general counsel.

And I also want to thank the Office of the Secretary's team, especially the support services staff, and especially those who stayed until midnight or later when we had hearings that went on with 250 witnesses.

So thank you to all of you.

With that, I move the committee report and print with leave for staff to make technical conforming and editorial changes.

I would say discussion, except we've already had a lot of discussion, but it's the last chance.

And please nobody say I'll be quick.

So the vote is on the uh print and report with leave for staff.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Are there any posed?

Hearing none, the eyes have it unanimously.

No, no, I'm just making sure we have a tally of who's here.

So that's going to conclude the business of this meeting.

Uh for the benefit of members public, we have our work session next Wednesday.

Uh all the committee reports or markups are done.

And uh so that'll the budget office will be working on putting that together.

We will have our work session on Wednesday.

We do not have a meeting on Tuesday, correct?

Um, and for the benefit of the public benefit of the public, our first vote, which will be committee markup and first reading, will be on June 9th.

With that, the time is 449 p.m.

and this meetings adjourned.