BREAKING! Obscure District Board to Be Quietly Disbanded!
A few months ago, LL gave a little ink (second item) to the Statehood Delegation Fund Commission, a body tasked with appropriating the money collected though a check-off box on District income tax forms to the District's three shadow members of Congress. (Yes, LL's ink likely would be the only ink it has ever gotten.)
The fund currently holds a little over $30,000. The only member of the board is Barney Circle activist John Capozzi. With no quorum, the money has not been spent.
Last week, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray circulated a memo informing his colleagues that he'd be introducing emergency legislation today that would take the statehood delegation fund out of the statehood delegation fund commission's hands, essentially disbanding the body. The memo states the statehood delegation would be free to spend the money directly.
Capozzi spoke last night on Gray's proposal, on behalf of his august institution: "We had a meeting, we discussed it, and it passed with no opposition."
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11:42 am
A suggestion for a future LL column: Look into how many similar advisory commissions, councils, boards, etc. have been set up by the Council and Mayor, how many of these organizations are actually fully staffed, how many of them issue any reports, and how much money is spent on these groups.
12:39 pm
Good idea. Here's a fun fact: The mayor's Office of Boards and Commissions was budgeted for $347K last year. This year, Fenty's proposing only $271K.
Here's one nonfunctioning body I've written about: the Armory Board... http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=8137
4:03 pm
This was a good move.
That money was donated by taxpayers (taken off of their refunds) to the Statehood Delegation via a tax form check off box. I thank everyone who gave up some of their tax refund to give us a little bit of money to operate...it's all we get.
It made no sense for the money to go through an unelected board that could:
a) withhold the money
b) dictate how it's spent or
c) carve off some of for themselves
Not that I think my friend John Cappozzi would do any of that, mind you...but boards and commissions are unpredictable and the people who donated the money didn't have that in mind.
-Mike Panetta