DC Gov Customer Service Blog

Revisiting My Old Blog

2009-07-02T14:19:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted on this blog in 3 years. Reading some of the old posts today was fun. Even though community blogging took off in DC since I stopped posting here, I still have ambivalent feeling about blogging. I've been posting rarely at HalliganProjects.com and frequently at the Dupont Forum. And I've been trying to stay out of DC politics as much as I can. If I were to start writing, I'd start a DC Gov Scandal of the Week blog; there'd be plenty from which to choose.

On My (Nearly Abandoned) Turf

2006-08-16T22:01:00.002-04:00

Patrick Thibodeau

<< Hello Rob H. I don’t think Velvet is making fun of the cops. Oh it may look that way alright but go back to the beginning of her thread on this subject.

You may not like the criticism that some bloggers share about the DC PD but I’ve read enough of it on other blogs over the past year to say that the problem we’re facing is the PD isn’t reading the blogs.

But since we’re going down memory lane here, on the blog you once had you shared a letter you received about the police: http://dcgovcustomerservice.blogspot.com/2005/08/i-just-dont-how-many-times-i-can-say.html

So instead a badgering someone about attending a dog and pony show of a meeting, why don’t you restart your blog, share more of the letters and insights you get as an ANC Commissioner. Take a leadership role as a public official.

I’ll put you in the live feed so everybody can read it.

cheers
kob >>

I enjoyed your encouragement when I began this blog. I just didn’t like blogging as much as I liked my other public publishing venues. CCing the DupontForum when getting aggressive with the US Attorney was something he could understand. No one in my DC activism circles knows what an RSS feed is.

I wasn’t badgering her. I was hoping she’d try to do some good rather than act like Stephen Colbert’s character. It’s not a dog and pony show. We’re developing valuable lines of communication. And I spend almost all my time on my community leadership. Just ‘cuz I don’t do it in this blog, don’t hold it against me. I’m out there and sending 50 emails a day.

Rob Halligan

Resigning from ANC to take DCCA Presidency

2006-04-09T22:26:00.002-04:00

My election as President of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association is looking certain. I’m going to resign my ANC seat this month. I’ve enjoyed being a commissioner more than I could have imagined. If you knew me four years ago, you wouldn’t likely have guessed that I’d be the DCCA President. All this started for me with me getting mugged. My reaction was that I should do something positive as a response. Some people may dispute whether most of what I’ve done is positive, but they wouldn’t likely dispute that I’ve gotten a lot done. I plan to have a bigger impact from my new position at DCCA.

I’ll start at DCCA at the May meeting. The ANC seat would have to sit empty until January if I don’t resign by April 27. I’d like to find a good replacement and have sent my constituents (whose email I have) instructions on how to run for the seat. I could spend time teaching my successor the ropes; it’s not like I’m going anywhere. Contact me if you are (or have someone who is considering) running so I could help. None of the projects I’m working on will get dropped. I’ll likely keep doing my Public Safety Committee work and running the DupontForum.

Good neighborhoods don’t just happen; they are created, nurtured, and maintained. If we all do what we can to pitch in this will keep getting to be a better place to live and work. If more people do three hours a month the jobs of community work, we should better be able to attract people to do the jobs that are presently too time-consuming. There’s still lots of low-hanging fruit in neighborhood problem-solving.

Rob Halligan

202 319 1313

My ANC email (Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net) will be shut down. Please start using RobHalligan@bigfoot.com.

Flame Response

2006-01-26T21:32:00.001-05:00

Response to someone flaming me on the DupontForum:

<<…Previously, Dupont didn’t have an open forum. An official BCCing his/her mailing list is a lot safer than one posting where anyone can reply-to-all. The fact is, a commissioner can blow off anything he or she chooses with very little chance at repercussions. My posting that got it to the commissioner in whose district the issue is.

ANC commissioners don’t have any real power that each commissioner doesn’t carve out by forging personal, trusting, relationships with people who do have power. That anyone is willing to serve at all amazes me. I can count on one hand the number of people I know who have gotten some of those 34,000 city jobs from their ANC experience. Sure about 10 City Councilman were ANCs but about 1000 people have served on the ANC in the time that 10 had a step up

What I’d prefer to spend my time on is improving policy. I can’t fix every streetlight but I can tell DDoT what is wrong with their process for fixing them. I like to think of fixing potholes and chasing around drug dealers as what I have to do to learn how the system works so I can better tell department heads how to better do their jobs. Sometimes department heads appreciate that. Lots of them don’t. If anyone would like me to BCC them on (or forward to them) every email I send for a day, you’d get a good sense of what we really do.

What frustrates me is when people aren’t responsive to calls to constructively express discontent at the dysfunctionality of the government. If I got more of those responses, I wouldn’t mind the kvetching at me (on my listserv). Your government stinks. Annual Oversight Hearings are coming up. Sign up to tell the City Council what is wrong with any agency and even with the ANC. People not willing to spend 5 minutes on the phone, probably aren’t going to be writing testimony for a Council hearing.

727-1000 is getting pretty good.

Rob Halligan

Dupont ANC>>

Will Mayor Williams Leave Us a Mountain of Bad Debt?

2006-01-17T17:01:00.013-05:00

The below piece was in this Month’s DC North. The DC Fiscal Policy Institute does great work pushing the political conversation in a responsible direction. The DC City Council passes 1000 to 1500 laws and resolutions each year. If they would stick to pressing issues, we would see some serious improvements in this city.

<<Will Mayor Williams Leave Us a Mountain of Bad Debt?

Ed Lazere

For Mayor Williams, it’s seven years down and one to go. Combined with his three years as Chief Financial Officer, Williams has been a leading figure in the city for a decade. That allows him to claim a lot of credit for bringing us from being in debt and junk-bond status to surpluses and A+ bond ratings. As we start 2006, the finances of the District of Columbia are stronger than ever.

But a lot can happen in one year. I am starting to get nervous about the fiscal legacy Mayor Williams will leave his successor. From a hugely expensive baseball stadium, to a heavily subsidized hotel, to a new hospital that many health experts say is the wrong prescription, the mayor is pursuing a number of initiatives that are bold but not necessarily wise. The combined price tag is staggering.

Gandhi and debt??

Don’t get me wrong. I think DC should use this opportunity to start tackling some of its most serious long-standing problems. It’s the right time to be thinking boldly. Fixing dilapidated schools that were neglected for years is key to the city’s future. Preserving and building housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income families is needed to keep us from going the way of Manhattan and San Francisco. And something has to be done to help residents gain skills that will connect them to the area’s good-paying jobs.

Boldness along is not enough, however. Given limited resources we have to set smart priorities and strategies. In a number of high-profile projects, I don’t think that is what we’re doing right now. The decisions made in 2006 on these projects could have serious long-term effects.

	Total Cost	DC Share
Baseball Stadium	$667 million	$647 mil
Convention Center Hotel	$670 million	$170 mil
National Capital Medical Center	$400 million	$200 mil
Sursum Corda New Community	$558 million	$290 mil
Total	$2.3 billion	$1.3 bil

.......Baseball Stadium: In the past month, cost estimates have jumped from $535 million to $667 million. While stadium deals in other cities normally put the burden of cost overruns on the team, Mayor Williams offered to cover it all. He tells us not worry because the economic spin-offs will outweigh any costs, ignoring the economists who have studied the impacts of new stadiums for decades unanimously and have concluded that this doesn’t happen. (Williams actually says that he doesn’t believe them or their research.) The fact that Mayor Williams is willing to bring baseball back to Washington at any cost – forgoing the price cap that other mayors and governors have insisted upon – is perhaps the greatest sign that his fiscal responsibility instincts have atrophied horribly.

Convention Center Hotel: When the city committed to building a convention center that ultimately cost $850 million, were we told that the city also had to have a huge hotel to go along with it? Maybe they did, but I certainly don’t remember. Now plans are firming up to put $170 million of public funds from “Tax Increment Financing” into a $670 million privately-owned hotel. The notion behind TIF is that this subsidy is paid off using the new or “incremental” taxes flowing from the project. That makes sense if the area would not otherwise be developed without the subsidy. This is not the case for the site of the hotel, which is prime real estate and will generate tons of taxes from some other development if the hotel is not built. So the $170 million is really a cost to the city. It is not free money.

National Capital Medical Center: Mayor Williams also wants a new hospital on the site of the former DC General to be part of his legacy. Almost everyone agrees that a health facility is needed there, but health experts say we don’t need another 250 hospital beds. The new hospital, which would be owned and operated by Howard University Hospital, would cost $400 million, with DC putting in at least half. No one has been able to tell me where that money would come from. Howard says that the hospital will be self-sufficient after three years, but this relies on overly optimistic assumptions. Moreover, because it would be privately owned, it is not clear NCMC would serve anyone who comes through the door, regardless of insurance or ability to pay. The community would be far better served — and at a lower cost — by a facility that has an emergency room and urgent care center and a full range of diagnostic and specialty care services. But that doesn’t sound as sexy as a new “Level One Trauma Center” hospital.

New Communities: Robert Bobb and associates have worked tirelessly over the last year to develop a plan to re-develop the area around Sursum Corda, a housing development faced with foreclosure in an area that has both serious crime and drug problems and gentrification pressures. Only in DC. The plan is to invest $558 million to create a new into a mixed-income community, with additional funds going for a new school, rec center and medical clinic. This “New Community” would be funded in part by borrowing against future revenues going into the Housing Production Trust Fund. The city’s goal to preserve affordable housing and coordinate other services is laudable, but the cost of the project on a per-unit basis is incredibly high. Meanwhile, in other parts of town, tenants have been told their plan to buy their building before it goes condo is too expensive. New Communities may be the right way to go, but I am not convinced that officials have determined that this is the best long-term strategy for preserving as much affordable housing as possible.

One of the things that ties all of these projects together is debt. In each case, the city’s share of the project would be supported by borrowing money in one way or the other. On paper, it looks like it’s doable. But the District of Columbia already has a lot of outstanding debt — more per capita than any other jurisdiction — and our Chief Financial Officer is waving a red flag. Dr. Gandhi recently sent a letter to Mayor Williams noting that our debt would soon exceed levels considered safe by industry standards. He wrote that “District policymakers must be judicious about additional borrowing and set priorities among projects…” I agree.

You may have noticed that schools were not included in the list above. That is because Council Member Kathy Patterson has come up with a novel way to fund school modernization efforts. Rather than issuing bonds, the normal way to fund construction projects, she has put together a package of tax deferrals and revenue enhancements to directly fund $1.3 billion in school facility improvements over the next 10 years. This plan is not worrisome because it is fully paid for in advance. But that also will make it hard to get it through the DC Council. She wouldn’t have to do it this way if borrowing capacity were not so tight.

This is backwards. Funding schools should be at the top of the list, not pushed off. This is just like the bumper sticker that say “Wouldn’t be great if schools got what they needed and the army had to have bake sales?” While Mayor Williams and others would argue that building a baseball stadium doesn’t conflict with schools — and he may be right technically — it certainly looks bad to be piling on debt for the stadium while telling schools we cannot borrow more for you.

It’s not too late to get it right. The DC Council can make wise choices and avoid getting us into costly long-term obligations that are not top priorities. The next mayor better be praying that it’s so.

Ed Lazere is the executive director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (http://www.dcfpi.org/), which conducts research on tax and budget issues that affect low- and moderate-income DC residents.>>

FW: How many DC bureaucrats does it take to change a light bulb?

2006-01-17T09:26:00.000-05:00

In celebration of DDoT Director Dan Tangherlini's promotion to interim head of Metro, I resurrect an old email to him.

Rob Halligan

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01 Commissioner)
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 2:07 PM
To: Dan.Tangherlini@dc.gov
Cc: Bill Rice; Ann Simpson-Mason
Subject: How many DC bureaucrats does it take to change a light bulb?

Director Tangherlini:

As an ANC Commissioner it is very easy to give up on making simple improvements in your constituents' lives when every nearly every 727-1000 request we make ends up taking 6 months and an average of 6 follow ups to achieve closure with something like getting a light bulb replaced or a parking sign re-hung.

I've made at least 20 contacts over the 2 street lamps (listed below) that are out. I'm sorry to have to come directly to you but no one of the numerous people I've been shuffled between in your department has managed to fix these 2 lights since July, and no one has been able to tell me that they don't have power to the pole. I've driven around with a guy showing him the poles, button-holed people a receptions, participated in conference calls, and sent emails. The magnitude of the Kafkaesque ridiculousness and inefficiency of this is hard to fathom.

They are:

Dead "Historical" Style light at SE end of the 1700 block of Riggs.

Dead "Historical" Style light in front of 1748 S Street.

Please fix these bulbs before we have another mugging under them,

Rob Halligan
2B01

-----Original Message-----------

Ms. Simpson-Mason:

I acknowledged your efforts and praised everyone's responsiveness. However, activity and progress are not always correlated. The system needs reforming.

It's not the additional request response with which I had a problem. It's the 3 problems that have been going around and around for numerous cycles over months that have me concerned. Instead of everyone "managing the issue", why doesn't someone actually get on a ladder and change the light bulbs and the one globe.

Efficiency is something someone whose property tax bill has doubled in the past couple years would like to see.

Rob Halligan

If dropping some light bulbs by my office would be the solution, I'd be game. I'd have preferred to repair my sidewalk myself than go through what I'm still going through with DDoT.

-----Original Message-----
From: Simpson-Mason, Ann (DDOT)
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 11:42 AM
To: 'Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01 Commissioner)'; Gross, Steven (DDOT);
Simpson-Mason, Ann (DDOT)
Cc: Nwadike, Callistus (DDOT); Laden, Ken (DDOT); Ray, Clark (EOM);
Subject: RE: Request for MPD Stakeout on 1700 block of Riggs

Commissioner Halligan:

Steve Gross has been very responsive to your requests and we will work to make sure that the additional locations are inspected and fixed as soon as possible.

Ann

The Gingko Hits the Fan

2005-08-16T00:58:00.000-04:00

As a follow-up to my July 8th "Urban Forestry Administrator Doesn't Care About Our Gingko Hell": A week after the below email (and several others) DDoT Urban Forester Caldwell "stepped down", suddenly. I don't know if I had anything to do with that but I hope so. CM Schwartz's staff said they'd get back to me and hasn't.

<<
Administrator Caldwell - Thanks you. James Briskow (sp?) did call July 13th to say he inspected some of the trees in the neighborhood. Were you out of the office since May 17th? (I’m answering this from the beach, and I’m a volunteer.) May 17 is the day I reported the spraying had not worked (and many times since then). That's almost 2 months on a season-critical complaint. Everyone I know who works in the private sector would get fired for managing a customer service request as you did.

Mr. Briskow (sp?) reports that by the time you assigned him to inspect the trees, it was too late in the season to re-spray and that the trees were poorly sprayed in early May (if at all). He said he would have a crew come around to shovel up the gingko berries. He also said he thinks the gun sprayer doesn’t work and that you should go back to the fan sprayer.

Director Tangherlini – you’ve been CCed on all these emails. You are ultimately responsible for customer service. This is an all-too-typical encounter with DDoT. Why do you run your department this way?

CM Schwartz - I watched all your oversight hearings and I testified that DDoT typically operates this way. What have you done in your oversight role to stop DDoT from abusing its customers?

I suggest the entire senior staff at DDoT sweep ginkgos to smell what your mismanagement is putting us through.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC
>>

The Director is a "Financial Guy"

2005-08-16T00:32:00.000-04:00

DDoT has not yet spent any of the road and alley funds for fiscal 2005 (which ends in 45 days). If you are sick of having a 4-wheel-drive alley, that complete mis-management should incite you to storm the Reaves Center.

They have these beautiful maps of each ward with different color lines on alleys indicating the year they plan to re-pave or re-rebuild which alley out to the year 2010. Yeah right, that'll happen! It's a beauticul fiction.

"A lotta small cities are actually comic operas with real estate taxes"

2005-08-16T00:15:00.000-04:00

Listen to Chris Lydon on Open Source on how local news is changing:
Hyperlocal Journalism

Terms such as Civics Nerds, the tinfoil-hat-brigade, real estate porn, and the anvil of democracy hit right where I'm aiming.

I just don't how many times I can say...

2005-08-16T00:06:00.000-04:00

I write a lotta emails like this and I'm still unsure whether I ought to be blogging them.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01)
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 6:15 PM
To: 'Mark Bjorge'; 'Dan (DDOT) Tangherlini'; 'Bill (DDOT) Rice'; 'Ramona Burns'
Cc: 'Carlson Klapthor'; .... Carol Schwartz (carol.schwartz@dc.gov)
Subject: RE: Hansen # 994-996, Hansen # 978-412, and a attempted murder

....and the repeated acts of prostitution committed in that spot since the light went out...and the numerous car break-ins under the out light.

We've also been trying to get a light on Twining Court for YEARS where there is major drug dealing going on.

I just don't how many times I can say: DDoT's inability to get the trees cut back and to maintain lighting is a major public safety problem. Even saying it on TV numerous times and in Oversight Hearings doesn't seem to change things.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

-----Original Message-----

From: Mark Bjorge [mailto:mlbjorge@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 5:32 PM
To: Dan (DDOT) Tangherlini; Bill (DDOT) Rice; Ramona Burns
Cc: Rob Halligan; Carlson Klapthor;....Michele Molotsky

Subject: Hansen # 994-996, Hansen # 978-412, and a attempted murder

Dear DDOT Officials:

Please see to it that the broken streetlight on the 1600 Block of Church Street NW, between 16th and Stead Recreation Center, is immediately repaired. When I called today, ticket number 994-996 had been marked as completed. Ticket number 978-412, submitted on 7/15/05, also for this matter, continues to be marked as "Open".

Though DDOT has known or should have known for 2 months to repair this light, as the reported attempted murder at this location last night shows, the light is was still out, and people are still thereby endangered.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated immediate attention. I've copied information on the reported attempted murder at this location below.

Sincerly,
Mark Bjorge
202-.....
ANC 2B05

Subject: Possible Incident Last night Outside of Church Place
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 09:04:45 -0400

I can’t imagine that I am the only one that heard this last night at about 1:30 am, but there were shrill screams of “help me help me don’t kill me hellllp!!” coming from Church Street last night. It was a man screaming VERY loudly at someone else. I couldn’t quite see the people but it lasted several seconds so I called 9-1-1. For several minutes while the dispatcher asked me what was happening it continued, moving to the back ofour building. The man kept screaming “Help Help”. I asked the dispatcher why it was taking the police so long saying that it sounded like this man really was in danger of being killed and she said “We have no cars available in your area because there has also been a shooting nearby.”

Eventually (about 10 minutes later) I told her that no one was screaming anymore and she said that she would still send a car to “the area”. I watched out the window for about 15 more minutes and no car came. I hope that this was nothing more than a loud drunken dispute that eventually fizzled, but this highlights the need to be vigilant behind out building, especially until the street light is fixed. If you call the police, they may not come.

name redacted | Managing Director

.... Corporation |

A Sense of How Bad...

2005-08-15T23:57:00.000-04:00

So far this year Boston has had 41 murders with less than 700 police officers. In DC MPD alone has over 3500 officers and 117 murders so far this year. And we have numerous other policing entities. Boston has more people than Washington. These simple facts give one the sense of what a mess we still need to clean up.

The City Council passes over a 1000 laws a year. With all that legislating, why is the government still only-half functional?

A Start....

2005-07-30T07:57:00.000-04:00

This blog got covered by another blog. That may sound like an echo chamber but that's a positve thing in the (gag me) blogosphere. I was hoping to keep a separation between my intemperate blogging id and my ANC id but this guy links them:

http://www.dcblogs.com/2005/07/dc-blogs-noted_28.html

...better to go out with a bang than a wimper....

Do any of my readers use RSS feeds? The feeling that screaming in the wilderness is bad enough (when no one who I show this thing will post a comment) but spending time setting up an RSS feed when I doubt any (either) of my readers would subscribe, would be depressing. An alternative would be to email a link to people who I'd like to read a partular post.

(Pardon the navel-gazing but I do want to repeat that I'm still feeling my way into this and want to develop a bit of a coherent style and message before taking this out of beta.)

What's an ANC Commissioner?

2005-07-21T11:14:00.000-04:00

I overheard the neighbor of a Maryland friend of mine ask what an ANC Commissioner does. My friend who often hears me on the phone said, “It seems they try to make people who are getting paid by the DC government actually do their jobs.” I liked that.

Chatty Blather

2005-07-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

Now back from the beach with 235 activism emails piled up, I've been thoroughly avoiding chasing up any paying work by sending over 50 activist emails a day. ABC/ABRA, DDoT, DPW, MPD, the US Attorney, the Parks Dept, and Robert Bobb have been my targets.

Not many people showed up at my Public Safety meeting after putting out a few calls to action. Even without the citizens seeming to care, MPD has had a lot going on the drug front. I asked them to do some PR on what's been going on. As much as I try to cheerlead for them, 95% of the community communication is inbound and 5% outbound.

I’ve had lots ABRA/ABC emails of back and forth on whether they followed up on one thing or another and I forwarded anonymized emails of constituents trashing them. I try to hope that they are on a constant improvement track.

The Asst. US Attorney is looking into why the accused BORF graffitists were only charged with misdemeanors.

I felt like I was doing a “Who’s on First” routine with DPW. It took all morning and a dozen emails before anyone would tell me who the deputy director in charge of enforcing dumpster infractions was…not confidence inspiring.

I’m not sure if I’m going to publish the Robert Bobb correspondence. I’ll see how he responds. Carole Schwartz says she’s looking into the DDoT allegations I’ve made. I haven't even put stuff up here thatI've put on the very public Dupont Forum. I need more feedback on what to do with this blog before I go out of beta with it.

Call to Action on DupontForum

2005-07-19T12:38:00.000-04:00

Posted to The Dupont Forum

We’ve been having some success calling 727-1000 to report public trash cans overflowing. They have come out right away. That’s really not a long term solution, though. The DCCA Environment Committee that was announced this week will help as well. Our Neighborhood Services Coordinator is making some progress, but he doesn’t get enough support. I asked to meet with the Dep. Director of DPW but like so many requests it fell though the cracks – which brings me to my point.

I would like to start, join, or improve such a grass roots activism movement. When I’ve called for letter to judges or the police chief through the Dupont Public Safety Committee, we’ve had excellent results. I’ve asked that people interested in pushing our Public Safety to another level show up tonight at (The Dupont/Kalorama Joint Public Safety meeting (known to MPD as the PSA 306 meeting) tonight, (Tuesday) at 7pm at 1620 V Street and every third Tuesday.)

On other matters where I’ve hoped for email campaigns to pressure people, I’ve been frustrated. I’d like to see the city government rise to the next level of accountability. The mayor, his executive branch, and most of the City Council are “Ivory Tower”. This is our government. We pay more taxes than almost anywhere in the country; we shouldn’t tolerate our government torturing us with a 2 year rebuild of R Street; we shouldn’t tolerate the wait for the P Street Project; we shouldn’t tolerate the lack of enforcement on trash issues, etc.

I say we all CC those interested on our requests for service, post a spreadsheet of promised actions, blog every egregious abuse that we endure, and link to everyone else’s postings of abuse. Demand accountability. Write me at RobHalligan@bigfoot.com.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: DupontForum@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DupontForum@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of grimm_ed
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 3:03 PM
To: DupontForum@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [DupontForum] Posting from Craig's List

Here's a message that was forwarded to me:

Dupont Circle Clean up Days
Reply to: redacted...@hotmail.com
Date: 2005-07-15, 1:38PM

Anyone wonder why the trash cans are too often overflowing with
trash, or why the fountain is not running PROPERLY more often than
it is?

If there was a grass roots movement (maybe in cooperation with the
Dupont Circle Ass'n) to fix this situation by joining an organized
group of volunteers - how many people might be interested in
participating?

Give me some feed back...

Jim

A Good Example

2005-07-19T08:46:00.000-04:00

There are 18 comments on this post about DDoT not repairing a sidewalk in Ward 4:

Petworth News - Wall of Shame

...not in touch with what is going on in trenches

2005-07-09T18:07:00.000-04:00

I was telling some ANC commissioners today how I've been surprised to recently hear Mayor Williams and 3 City Councilman go out of their way to praise DDoT Director, Dan Tangherlini. Where as, I can’t find an ANC Commissioner who doesn’t think that DDoT is abysmally managed, that dealing with them isn’t torture, and that they are not incredibly inefficient. Tangherlini has been the director since the department was founded. How could he not be to blame? One commissioner today theorized that Tangherlini must “manage up” better than he “manages down”.

Note to City Council and Mayor Williams: you are not in touch with what is going on in trenches if you are saying Tangherlini is doing a good job.

Start a Group?

2005-07-09T17:32:00.000-04:00

One of my beta readers had the thought that this rebellion against being abused should be formed as a group that would endorse candidates. The young and upcoming political class who are willing to speak truth to power. After an initial sit-down, my friend is going to come back with something written.

One of my thoughts is that if 15 people or 50 people had blogs like this one - that were all linked - it would be a group in itself. The media wouldn't have to call around to get stories, they would just read the blogs.

Having an occasional meeting would be interesting, though. I'm thinking we could show the movie Network at the first one.

Thoughts?

A Note to the Abused - Do Something About it!

2005-07-09T17:00:00.000-04:00

A few thousand people got this email. I'll be surprised if a few people respond to the call to get engaged:

If you want to reduce the incidence of these crimes we need to:

1. Call 311 when you see suppositious people. MPD usually comes promptly.

2. Get rid of the drug houses and hang outs in the neighborhood. Many of these crimes are committed so someone can get the $30 dollars to visit that drug house or those suspicious people sitting in the park that you know about and haven’t been pressuring the police to close down.

3. Get DDoT to improve the lighting in our neighborhood. The blocks east of 17^th are dark. DDoT needs to cut the trees back, replace bulbs, and put in some new lights. People (particularly DDoT staffers) get tired of hearing me say this. It matters.

4. If the government perceives that we are tolerating this level of crime in our neighborhood, it has plenty of other priorities to attend to. The next Dupont Public Safety meeting is July 19^th at 7pm at MPD 3D Headquarters. People seem to not turn out to these meetings if the incident is more than 2 weeks after the latest incident. We need 20 people work with MPD, Park Police, the US Attorney, the judges, and the Core Team year-round if we want to get to the next level of safety.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC
>>

DDoT-Urban Forestry Administrator Doesn't Care About Our Gingko Hell

2005-07-08T11:30:00.000-04:00

I typically have 40 to 60 such open items with DDoT. Many of these tasks stay open for years. The Director of DDoT has testified at his oversight hearing that he told his staff to not spend time on citizens questions because it gets in the way of them accomplishing things. Here's a typical devolving encounter:

<<>

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt by starting out believing that you were going to follow up. This experience has turned out the same as most DDoT experiences: I ask why DDoT didn't properly do what they are tasked to do; DDoT pretended they were checking on it; I squawk and squawk and it still falls between the cracks. With this incident as well documented as it is, I'll have reporters chasing you around in September. They'll do the cutaway shot from the stinky piles of ginkgo berries on the street to you explaining why they weren't sprayed properly.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01) [mailto:Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net]
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 12:39 PM
To: 'Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT)'
Cc: Dan Tangherlini (Dan.Tangherlini@dc.gov); 'DupontForum@yahoogroups.com'; 'Babra, Ranjit (DDOT)'
Subject: RE: Gingko spraying,...

Ainsley Caldwell,

The immature gingko berries have still not fallen as a result of any spraying you are responsible for successfully completing. Mr. Little has still not contacted me. You've seen the pictures of how bad the berries are when you do the spraying as done in previous years. We don't want inches of stink berries on our streets.

We've been exchanging notes on this for 6 weeks. Way too many issues with DDoT become matters of attrition. DDoT says they will do something and the customers eventually lose interest in chasing the problem down after months of looking for a simple answer. That's a customer service problem. I don't know why we customers tolerate this.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01) [mailto:Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 9:24 AM
To: 'Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT)'
Cc: 'Babra, Ranjit (DDOT)'; 'Judy Werdel'
Subject: RE: Gingko spraying, Empty boxes, Olive Restaurant

I still haven’t heard form Mr. Little.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

-----Original Message-----
From: Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT) [mailto:ainsley.caldwell@dc.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 11:52 AM
To: 'Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01)'
Cc: Babra, Ranjit (DDOT); Judy Werdel
Subject: RE: Gingko spraying, Empty boxes, Olive Restaurant

Mr. Halligan,

Mr. Littles (a member of our staff) who is responsible for spraying the gingkos will reinspect trees at this location and will give you a call today to discuss your concerns.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01) [mailto:Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:05 PM
To: 'Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT)'
Cc: Ranjit Singh Babra; Judy Werdel
Subject: RE: Gingko spraying, Empty boxes, Olive Restaurant

It's been 14 days and only a few premature berries have fallen out of each female - wind would likely have knocked more down than that. Even in the years when the spraying didn't work effectively, the sidewalk was carpeted with premature berries.

Please advise.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

-----Original Message-----
From: Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT) [mailto:ainsley.caldwell@dc.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 12:04 PM
To: 'Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01)'
Subject: RE: Gingko spraying, Empty boxes, Olive Restaurant

Mr. Halligan,

The chemical takes effect within as little as 10 days after spraying and as much as 14.

-----Original Message-----

From: Rob Halligan (ANC 2B01) [mailto:Rob.Halligan@DupontCircleANC.net]
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 7:29 AM
To: 'Babra, Ranjit (DDOT)'
Cc: 'Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT)'; Judy Werdel
Subject: RE: Gingko spraying, Empty boxes, Olive Restaurant

Ainsley Caldwell :

None of the immature berries fell after the spraying. It seems to have not worked at all this year. Please contact me ASAP.

Rob Halligan
Dupont ANC

-----Original Message-----

From: Babra, Ranjit (DDOT) [mailto:Ranjit.Babra@dc.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 10:16 AM
To: 'rob.halligan@dupontcircleanc.net'
Cc: Caldwell, Ainsley (DDOT)
Subject: Gingko spraying, Empty boxes, Olive Restaurant

Mr. Halligan,

Thank you for your e-mails.

* UFA's director, copied on this e-mail, is Ainsley Caldwell. He has ultimate oversight of the gingko spraying. Your e-mail regarding these concerns has been forwarded to him. UFA will mitigate fruit growth.

*The list of viable empty boxes will be planted in the 2005/2006 season commencing in October.

*UFA's mandate entails street trees between the street and sidewalk and the occasional alley tree. Streetscape design is not a facet of our operations.

* The list of dead trees you provided have either been marked for removal or will be inspected shortly.

Please advise me of additional concerns you might have.

Thank you,

Ranjit Babra
UFA
Wards 1 & 2
202.671.5113
>>

Buildings Falling Down

2005-07-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

I’ve heard of 7 buildings falling down in the neighborhoods surrounding me – Dupont, Adams Morgan, Logan, and Shaw – in the past year. Last year, I sat down with the Chief Building Inspector to show him the press clippings of 4 of them. He hadn’t heard of them. Most of these were Victorian brick houses or early 20th century apartment buildings that were under construction or where the neighboring lot was under construction. Almost every one in the city knows what a painful process it is to get a permit to do such construction and how inspectors come around at every stage in the process. How hard could it be to only permit and monitor work that will not allow buildings to fall down? They have the PR that they are busting illegal construction: D.C. Battling Boom in Illegal Work on Homes

There are plenty of related atrocities: the permitting of the demolition of historically significant structures, the ease with which contractors can limbo the law, and the lack of responsiveness when a violation is reported (they’ll come out to look at it but getting action is the problem.) I’ve been to 3 hearings of the Board of Condemnation. Not one of the hearings had a quorum. It’s supposed to be a 7 member board. Two of the hearing I attended had two members and one hearing had one member.

DDoT Dyfunctionality

2005-07-06T15:45:00.000-04:00

First thing this morning a competent, energetic, and pleasant DDoT employee who I’ve had a couple dealings with called to ask my opinion on something. He was tasked with trying to find an alternative to something that would upset people. He probably wanted the people who will likely be doing the complaining about it (like me) to be informed before they got too far into it as much as he wanted my thoughts. It was bad news, but it was a positive encounter with a pro-active government.

That conversation having gone well, I asked him how I could deal with his boss stonewalling me on a very simple problem. This is one of the greatest frustrations in dealing with DC gov. A request for service will get made, someone will get assigned to follow up, and you’ll end up spending more effort chasing down a resolution that you would have doing fulfilling the request yourself.

He said, "I can't go there". He went on to explain that he was so disgusted by the lack of action and follow through on such things that he's quitting. He’s a recent hire (who is one of the good guys) giving up already. It’s even worse news in that DDoT and most DC government takes a minimum of 6 months to fill most positions. Six months is the perfect amount of time for a department to fall apart. (I’ll have more to say about vacancies, pay equity, and hiring policies in later posts). But when they hire someone who turns out to be completely incapable of doing his or job, it takes years to get them moved out of that position or off the payroll.