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December 18, 2006
By Facsimile
The Honorable
Vincent C. Gray, Chairman-elect
Council of the District of Columbia
Washington, DC 20004
Re: Council Rules for Period 17
Dear Chairman-elect Gray:
On the eve of your convening Council Period 17, the ACLU of the National Capital Area urges you to consider ways to promote public input to the legislative process by making Council proceedings more transparent and accessible. In particular, we invite your attention to the recommendations sent to you on November 9th by a broad coalition of civic organizations. Similar recommendations were made by the DC Appleseed Center in its February 1999 report, “Operational Reform of the District of Columbia Council: A Fix-It-Yourself Manual.” As you and your colleagues write the Rules for Council Period 17, you have a wonderful opportunity to make the Council a real house of the people. We urge you to give particular attention to the following areas.
Public Access to Information
- Establish an email notification service to which interested persons may subscribe, which would:
- Send subscribers the Council’s two-week calendar (this could save considerable expense compared to mailing paper copies of the calendar).
- Notify subscribers of changes to the calendar after the initial online publication.
- Notify subscribers of amendments in the nature of a substitute at least two business days prior to committee or Council consideration.
- Update the online calendar as changes are made, with changes to the original calendar clearly marked to facilitate perusal.
- Update the online Legislative Information Management System (LIMS) with the latest version of bills as they are amended or substituted.
- Post amendments in the nature of a substitute on the Council’s website at least two business days prior to a committee mark-up or full Council consideration.
- Post draft Committee Prints and Reports on the Council’s website at least two business days before mark-up.
- Post Committee Prints and Reports on the Council’s website at least two business days before Council consideration.
- Work with the Mayor to improve online access to the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations as required by D.C. Code Sec. 2-555. Currently, not all sections are available online.
Public Participation
- Require five business days public notice for the convening of a roundtable.
- Require committees to provide at least five business days’ public notice of a mark-up.
- Provide copies for the public of amendments in the nature of a substitute and other amendments circulated to councilmembers at committee mark-up and full Council meetings.
- Require a 30 minute break for sessions and hearings that have run more than four hours. Members often eat and drink on the dais, but this is not permitted to the public. At a minimum, have a TV monitor available in a break room, so that persons may have lunch there and not miss the proceedings.
- Stop requiring persons to display photo ID in order to enter the Wilson Building. This requirement, imposed without careful thought in the aftermath of 9-11, serves absolutely no security purpose and prevents D.C. residents who do not have photo ID, or who chose not to carry photo ID, from having access to their elected representatives.
- Publish the Council’s Rules on the Council website in a readily accessible, tabbed browsing format and as part of the D.C. Code.
Limit Recourse to Legislating on an Emergency Basis.
Enacting law on an emergency basis without public input denies the Council views and information important to its deliberations. Excluding this input except in real emergencies is disrespectful. The Appleseed Center concluded:
[The Council should employ] the emergency legislative process only when the hardship that would be caused by delays inherent in the standard legislative process substantially outweighs the harm that would be caused by excluding the public and limiting time for Council deliberation. Moreover, when the emergency legislative process is unavoidable, the Council should seek at least limited public participation through public hearings and otherwise.
In the final analysis, only you as Chairman of the Council can prevent abuse of the Council’s power to legislate on an emergency basis. We are looking forward to your leadership on this issue.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Johnny Barnes
Executive Director
Stephen M. Block
Legislative Counsel
Cc: Members of the Council |
