The Committee on Public Works and Operations unanimously approved its recommendations to the full Council for its portion of the FY 2024 D.C. budget. The Council will take its first vote on the full budget on May 16.
Read Councilmember Nadeau’s prepared remarks in which she details the recommendations in the report:
Video from the Committee Markup
Executive Summary of the Committee Report
This report of the Committee on Public Works & Operations on the Fiscal Year 2024 Proposed Budget for the agencies within its jurisdiction was developed after several months of hearings, testimony, meetings, and other forms of public engagement. The summary below highlights many of the Committee’s notable investments in the FY 2024 budget.
The Committee’s recommended budget makes critical investments to:
Good Governance and Efficient Use of Funds
- Reallocates $4,765,825.58 (recurring) of DPW’s overtime budget (or about 80%). This reallocation enabled the Committee to significantly multiply its overall investment in DPW, including restoring many critical positions cut by the Mayor.
- Reduces the Office of Administrative Hearings’ terminal leave budget by $36,484 in FY 2023 as well as sweeps all $92,000 recurring in FY 2024, in order to reallocate these funds to help pay for other personnel service enhancements with OAH.
Public Safety
- Accepts $30,000 from the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety to enable the Office of LGBTQ Affairs to issue a grant to a District-based organization to provide LGBTQA+ cultural competency training to District first responders.
- Provides, through a transfer to the Committee on Housing, $404,766 in recurring funds starting in FY 2025 for the Domestic Violence Training and Technical Assistance Program.
- Establishes, through a transfer to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety of $250,000, a Safe Commercial Corridors in Adams Morgan to support the hiring of additional Safety Ambassadors.
- Expands the targeted outreach ecosystem approach piloted in the Columbia Heights Civic Plaza through a transfer to the Committee on Business and Economic Development of $750,000 to support continued grantmaking. This funding will address the similar challenges of individuals in the adjacent neighborhoods to ultimately support holistic community development in Ward 1
Reliable and Accessible Transit
- Establishes a For-Hire Vehicle Congestion Management Program, levying a $2 fee on all digital dispatch rides, except for wheelchair accessible rides, entering or exiting the Central Business District during peak hours of traffic.
- Funds $10.3 million in recurring dollars for the Fare-Free Bus Service Fund, projected to cover the cost of funding at least twelve of the highest-ridership Metrobus routes in the District to run 24-hours, at headways of 20 minutes or less.
- Establishes $500,000 in recurring funding to improve affordable access to accessible for-hire vehicles for all D.C. residents with mobility impairments.
Keeping Our City Clean and Livable
- Provides $1,137,000 million to DPW to implement a pilot program to provide solid waste collection services through shared containers to residential homes currently serviced by DPW via front-of-home pick up, in order to explore alternative waste containerization, hauling methods, and rodent abatement strategies.
- Provides, through a transfer to the Committee on Business and Economic Development, $8,000 to expand the service area of the Shaw Clean Team to the 1900 block of 8th Street, N.W.
- Enhances DPW’s budget by $346,666 in one-time funding in FY 2024 to seek out a contract or partnership with a private company to place and manage four standalone public restrooms.
Empowered Workforce
- Funds a $900,000 self-release boot pilot at DPW’s Parking Enforcement Management Administration, to increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and overall safety of DPW’s parking enforcement staff.
- Restores funding for FTEs to agencies and provides funding for new FTEs, in order to give all our interim, acting, and new agency directors a truly fair shot to succeed. This includes:
- $72,022.80 in recurring funding for a full-time Resource Center Coordinator at the Office of Administrative Hearings
- $89,712.00 in recurring funding for a new Workforce Development Navigator at MOLGBTQA
- $266,216.91 in recurring funding for three full-time Law Clerks and one Legal Assistant at the Office of Administrative Hearings
- $133,218 to fund two IT Specialists that will focus on OAH’s eFiling Portal
- $657,072 across the financial plan from the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety to fund one Deputy Clerk and one Legal Assistant to support OAH’s anticipated concealed pistol license appeals work
- $385,764.51 to restore 3 Equal Opportunity Specialist FTEs at the Office of Human Rights to support the Office’s intake and investigations
- $350,000 to fund the OHR-related provisions of the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022, including 2.5 FTEs: one Investigator/Intake Specialist, one Attorney, and a part-time Outreach Specialist
- Funding 52 positions at the Department of Public Works, including:
- Restoring all Parking Enforcement Officers and Booters cut by the Mayor’s proposed FY2024 budget;
- Restoring all SWEEP inspector positions;
- The addition of PEMA support staff; and
- Adding flexible Motor Vehicle Operator positions, which can be used to support improved graffiti removal, towing, and leaf services.
- Funds all DLCP-related costs of the “Street Vendor Advancement Amendment Act of 2023”. This includes:
- 1 FTE to serve as Vending Zone Program Staff;
- 1 FTE for an additional Inspector for Vending Enforcement;
- Replacement of Special Purpose Revenue with recurring Local Funds to account for reduced revenue due to the reduction of licensing fees; and
- $125,000 in recurring funds to support the Columbia Heights-Mount Pleasant Vending Zone management contract.
Supporting the District’s Most Vulnerable Residents
- Provides, through a transfer to the Committee on Housing, a $1,000,000 enhancement to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
- Provides, through a transfer to the Committee on Housing, $561,384 in recurring funds starting in FY2025 for twenty LRSP vouchers for Returning Citizens Designated by ORCA.
- Provides, through a transfer to the Committee on Health, $200,000 for grant funding for a pilot program to provide substance abuse and behavioral health services in the vicinity of the 600 block of T St. N.W.
- Provides, through a transfer to the Committee on Health, $225,000 for a grant to a home visiting program for first-time mothers who are eligible for Medicaid.
