Day: November 27, 2006

Over on the main site where I have announcements I posted something that our ANC Jim Berry sent out yesterday. It’s about the Armstrong School over on P Street. CAPCS, the organization that bought the school and is renovating it so that sometime before the Second Coming it will be an arts school, is requesting DC bond money. What does this mean? I have no clue, complex finances this early in the morning makes my brain hurt.
However the problem our Great Leader (until Anita takes over) has was he didn’t get notice of the bond hearing until this weekend, for a hearing TODAY. The letter was dated on the 21st. He got it on the 25th. Yes, there was Thanksgiving in the middle of it so that mucked things up.
Anyway, if you are a stakeholder (ie you live close to the Armstrong school) and you’re not doing anything today around noon, you may want to scoot on down to a Committee on Finance and Revenue meeting at the Wilson Building, room 120.
UPDATE:
Neighbors,

I contacted the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development the first thing this morning and learned that the hearing proposed for today at Noon would be postponed. According to Mr. Gregory Johnson, the hearing was noticed in the newspaper on Saturday, November 11, 2006 and the notice that was sent to me on November 21, 2006, was a reminder. Nevertheless, he told me that the DC Revenue Bond application from the CAPCS would not be considered today, largely because of issues admittedly related to the inadequacy of the notice to the general public. In this regard, he asked me to share the below notice with you.
Because I haven’t had an opportunity to review the application, I don’t know how I feel about its contents. On the one hand, if the CAPCS wants to borrow money from the city in order to renovate the historic Armstrong building and open the originally proposed charter school, then I can live with that request. On the other hand, if the CAPCS wants to borrow money from the city to build housing in order to finance the renovation and opening of the charter school, then I am strongly opposed to this strategy.
As you know, I have a little more than 30 days to continue to serve as commissioner from Single Member District 5C01; hence, I am developing a transition document for Anita Bonds that will include a list of the issues I have been working on as well as an outline of the status of each issue. My desire and my plan is to make the transition process a seamless one, so I also plan to sit down with Anita and Kris Hammond, the Commissioner-Elect for Single Member District 5C02, to discuss the transition document with them as well as to pass along to them copies of any files or documents that they might be interested in retaining for their respective records. Perhaps needless to say, the ultimate disposition of the Armstrong School building will be near the very top of my list!
Best,
Jim Berry
ANC 5C

See Frozen Tropics for more details.

Neighbors,

As you will note in the attached, The Community Academy Public Charter School (CAPCS) has submitted an application to the District of Columbia Revenue Bond Program for tax-exempt funding up to $24 million to renovate Armstrong School as well as to make major improvements to two other CAPCS Campus properties. A hearing on the CAPCS application is scheduled to take place tomorrow at Noon. Curiously, the letter notifying me of the hearing was dated November 21, 2006 and it did not arrive at my home until Saturday, November 25, 2006.

While the Armstrong School does not fall within the boundaries of my Single Member District, it resides on our southern border and, of equal importance, for many years it has been a topic of great interest to the Bates Area Civic Association, Inc. as well at to a number of my constituents who live in very close proximity to it. While I am on record as being supportive of the placement of a CAPCS at this site, I am not supportive of any plan that includes the construction of housing (of any kind) at this location in order to make the financing of the proposed school work.

Perhaps needless to say, I am concerned that notice of this hearing would be sent to me within less than seven days of its proposed occurrence and during a span of time that is interrupted by one of the most significant and distracting holiday periods of the year. Because I am not able to make an adjustment to my pre-existing schedule of professional commitments in order to make the hearing tomorrow, I am equally disturbed that the deadline for the submission of written testimony was on Monday, November 20, 2006 (or, the day after the letter was drafted and,.presumably, placed in the mail to me notifying me of the scheduled hearing).

I plan on contacting the Mr.. Gregory Johnson, Program Analyst, DC Revenue Bond – Enterprise Zone Program, to voice my strong objections to the total inadequacy of the notice given to me (as a representative from an adjacent ANC). In addition, I am going to express my concerns to Mr. Eric Goulet, Clerk of the Committee on Finance and Revenue of the Council of the District of Columbia, and (at a minimum) demand that the record for public comment on this application be extended until December 4, 2006 so as to give myself and other interested residents of our community a reasonable opportunity to review and comment on the CAPCS application, should the Committee on Finance and Revenue proceed with the hearing in spite of the objections aforementioned.

I will keep you posted of future developments concerning this situation as I learn about them.

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C
Armstrong_Bond_Review_Hearing.pdf