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On Dec. 17, council members returned to council chambers, just one day after an ad-hoc committee hearing moved a beleaguered D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) closer to expulsion. With that final vote tentatively scheduled for late January, the D.C. Council set its sights on wrapping up Council Period 25. 

During this legislative meeting, discussion continued about a youth engagement program to be housed within D.C. Department of Human Services, the mitigation of amplified sound in public spaces, expanding pet owners’ access to housing, Capital One Arena’s redevelopment and expansion, and the nomination of Ruth Fisher Pollard, a non-District resident, to the Statewide Health Coordinating Council. 

The council, on its second reading, approved legislation regulating for-fire delivery vehicles. They also approved a resolution in honor of the recently deceased poet, author and academic Nikki Giovanni. 

In the same vein of racial justice, the council approved, on the second reading, legislation changing the name of a recreation center so it no longer honors 19th-century U.S. Sen. James McMillan, nor his descendent, James T. McMillan, who’s widely known for building a physical racial dividing line in Detroit during the 1940s.  

This edition of The Collins Council Report delves into council members’ tribute to outgoing D.C. Councilmember Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), DYRS oversight, and Kwelli Sneed’s confirmation as executive director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. 

Many thanks to those who’ve followed this report throughout the year. 

A Tribute to D.C. Councilmember Vincent C. Gray 

The council paused its legislative meeting on Dec. 17 to celebrate D.C. Councilmember Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) as he wraps up his final term as Ward 7 council member, and more than 50 years of public service. 

Since announcing his dementia diagnosis earlier this year, colleagues and residents in Ward 7 have been recognizing Gray, who also formerly served as D.C. mayor, and his decades-long impact on the District. This celebratory affair in the council chambers attracted Gray’s successor, D.C. Councilmember-elect Wendell Felder, as well as current and former Gray council and mayoral staffers, and members of Gray’s family. 

For more than 40 minutes, council members showered Gray with memories, reflections and statements of gratitude. Later, they presented him with a commemorative glass bowl and cleared the way for family members, including Gray’s wife, Dawn Kum, who read remarks on the council member’s behalf. 

“Our future is bright,” said Gray’s statement, as read by Kum. “Believe in yourself. Believe in one another. There are no obstacles we cannot overcome. It’s on behalf of D.C. residents I’ve given my all for the last 20 years. Because I know they’ve given their all.” 

In the decades before his stroke, Gray had a hand in deals, including the Skyland development, that have come into fruition recently. On Dec. 17, council members spoke about the man they said collegially shepherded legislation for a publicly funded early childhood education and a state-of-the-art hospital system for Wards 7 and 8.  

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who often speaks about the council’s difficulties in working with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), said Gray, as mayor, laid the blueprint for how the executive branch engages its legislative counterpart. 

“Being easy to work with is important,” Mendelson said. “That’s how business gets done. We see that over and over again with public policy.” 

D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At large) described Gray as a family man who relentlessly pursued his goals. He recounted, as a freshman legislator, watching admirably as Gray spent untold hours preparing for council meetings. 

“There’s no replacement for your time in public service,” At large Councilmember White said. “It changed generations to come. Thank you for being a standard bearer and making a difference in public service and showing us what public service means.” 

D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large), who worked in then-D.C. Mayor Gray’s administration as a policy advisor in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, recounted similar stories of struggling to keep up with Gray’s late-night work schedule.  

“I didn’t always enjoy those nights,” McDuffie said. “You spent time immersed in the work. In the weeds. It’s a testament to how clearly you care about your city. As someone still early on in my career, it was important for me to witness and I borrow from you that energy.” 

Next year, during Council Period 26, the council, along with the rest of the city, is anticipated to witness the launch of Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, GW Health at St. Elizabeths East. That milestone follows the steady establishment of a community-based healthcare system in communities east of the Anacostia River. 

In her remarks, D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large), who succeeded Gray as chair of the council’s Committee on Health at the beginning of Council Period 25, pledged to see through what she called the manifestation of Gray’s vision. 

“Your unfinished business is in good hands,” Henderson said. “We will make sure the full vision of Birth-to-Three gets fulfilled with no cuts. You have trained up various colleagues, etc. .. a good army of folks to make sure your legacy gets stronger and expands.”

Kwelli Sneed Confirmation 

The council approved a resolution confirming Kwelli Sneed as executive director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE). D.C. Council Chairman Mendelson voted in opposition while D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large) voted “present.”

Mendelson questioned D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s sincerity in finding a suitable executive director. 

“It’s an easy way out. She had difficulty finding a permanent director so she nominated a person who’s not the original [choice for] director,” Mendelson. “From what I heard, Kwelli Sneed has an extensive background in human resources. That’s a little different than public health, public safety and gun violence which are the focuses. The role of the office is all too important to fill the position with someone who doesn’t bring a well qualified background.” 

Last month, Bowser said she tapped Sneed for the executive director role after a national search. 

Amid the fallout from Ward 8 Councilmember White’s bribery scandal — which involved ONSE and DYRS — some council members, like At large D.C. Councilmember Robert White, set out to verify that Sneed had no involvement in unethical activities. 

On Dec. 17, At large Councilmember White vindicated Sneed. 

“I’m confident… the acting director had nothing to do with [the bribery allegations] and operated in the way that we want a director to operate,” At large Councilmember White said. “This is something I looked into and questioned as I digested this nomination.” 

White, a proponent of violence interruption data collection, gave a mandate. “She has the potential to elevate this work, but I will push them on the data so [that] as we ask for more investments, we have data to show we believe this is working,” he said. 

Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker (D), who expressed his respect for Sneed’s focus on the Pathways Program and greater inclusion of women, said that ONSE’s success, in part, depends on a mindset change.  

“There needs to be more public embrace around the violence interruption model,” Parker said. “There are some residents who see these efforts as directly opposed to MPD and other public safety efforts. I disagree and Acting Director Sneed disagrees.” 

D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D.Ward 2), chair of the council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, led the confirmation process. She gathered comments from community members who touted Sneed’s leadership at ONSE in the aftermath of Linda Harlee Harper’s sudden death. 

Public witnesses at hearings pressed for more interagency support of violence interruption efforts while Sneed, in her remarks before the committee, spoke about how the agency’s development of in-house grant oversight processes.  

On Dec. 17, Pinto expressed her satisfaction that Sneed addressed concerns about transparency that emerged in the aftermath of Ward 8 Councilmember White’s arrest. However, she emphasized that, as crime drops in the District, there must be some clarity about ONSE’s role in the violence prevention ecosystem. 

“I believe [Kwelli Sneed] will stay focused on the number one mission: drive down gun violence and ensure the individuals involved get on a path to meaningful and sustainable lives,” Pinto said during the Committee of the Whole hearing that preceded the legislative meeting. “The committee expects ONSE to standardize training, enhance oversight of grants and grantees, and to establish clear metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of violence interruption work in the duration of each grant.” 

Final Deliberation on the ROAD Act Brings Long-Term Juvenile Placement Problems to Light — Once Again 

On Dec. 17, after the delay of its second reading, the council unanimously approved the Recidivism Reduction, Oversight and Accountability for DYRS Act, also known as the ROAD Act, with what at least one council member called a problematic amendment. 

The ROAD Act, which the Office of the Attorney General introduced earlier this year, sets out to ensure that the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabiliation Services (DYRS) efficiently connects adjudicated youth to services and facilities outlined in their individual rehabilitation plans. Earlier this year, OAG presented this bill as a response to overcrowding at Youth Services Center (YSC) on Mt. Olivet Road in Northeast and revelations that residents lived in subpar conditions as they awaited placement in a long-term facility. 

The amendment in question, introduced by D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, removes a provision allowing a child to petition for a post-disposition hearing if DYRS doesn’t honor its commitment within 30 days. During the council breakfast preceding the Dec. 17 legislative meeting, Mendelson said that, in speaking with the Bowser administration, he further understood the difficulty of making placements in out-of-town facilities happen within that time frame.   

“We could not figure out how to require timely placements when you have different placements [in town and out-of-town] and there are huge delays,” Mendelson said. “That’s why rather than keeping that last paragraph [in the bill] that was problematic, we just took that out. It’s a flaw, and something we ought to continue to look at.” 

DYRS Director Sam Abed raised this point two weeks prior, just as the council delayed the second reading of the ROAD Act. In the months since its confirmation, Abed has been involved in conversation with D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large), health committee chair, about hurdles that preclude DYRS from fulfilling the tenets of youth’s rehabilitation plan. 

Some of those hurdles, as previously reported, involve the lack of a local facility that can meet youth’s long-term psychiatric needs. Amid concerns that the Bowser administration move forward with filling that gap, the council approved an amendment to Mendelson’s that compels the Bowser administration to draft a plan, not a feasibility study, for a new youth psychiatric residential treatment facility. 

That plan, according to the amendment, would include information about operation costs and reimbursement rates. 

“We need  to move ahead with understanding the gaps in care,”  Henderson said on the dais during the Dec. 17 legislative meeting. She authored the amendment in collaboration with Mendelson.  “I look forward to an actual plan and money invested. And us moving forward, rather than us talking in circles about an issue and not addressing the problem.” 

Though D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At large) accepted the aforementioned amendment as friendly, she questioned why it couldn’t require an accompanying timeline to ensure project completion. Earlier, during the council breakfast, Bonds also inquired about the possibility of DYRS, in the interim, providing basic accommodations to youth who are awaiting residential placement. 

“Our young people need the opportunity for educational advantages, mental health needs, physical health needs,” Bonds said during the council breakfast. “Those are the basics. It seems like those should be automatic from day one.” 

Other amendments, as outlined in Mendelson’s amendment in the nature of the substitute, reduce the burden of a predisposition meeting on DYRS so officials don’t have to present a fully developed individualized rehabilitation plan by the time of the meeting. DYRS would also be allowed to delay the convening of a predisposition meeting if the agency hasn’t received court-order evaluations conducted by Court Social Services Division. 

D.C. Councilmembers Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) and Parker expressed their apprehension about the amendments. As early as the council breakfast, Parker, chair of the council subcommittee that conducts DYRS oversight, warned his colleagues against weakening the ROAD Act. 

“Our goal is not to seek consensus with the mayor. The goal is to improve the operations at DYRS to ensure young people can be placed quicker on a path to rehabilitation,” Parker said during the breakfast. “All of that has been compromised and gutted. We know young people are languishing in Youth Services Center for months. They’re not receiving services and that time is not counted against their sentence. We are doing more harm than good.”