Bill 21-0697. On July 6, 2016, OOG Director Traci Hughes, Esq., was one of several witnesses to provide testimony before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Housing and Community Development in opposition to provision in Bill 21-0697, the “ANC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2016.” Among other things, provisions within Bill 21-0697 provide for secret ANC ballot voting, and excludes ANCs from the definition of “Agency” for compliance with FOIA. The OOG’s opposition is well founded as the provisions stand in stark contrast to “the public policy of the District of Columbia that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and those who represent them.” (D.C. Official Code §§2-531, 2-572).

Mandatory Disclosure. On July 13, 2016, the D.C. Council’s Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs held the beginning of a two-day Public Oversight Roundtable on the systematic problems which plague the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) including the agency’s failure to comply with the provisions of D.C. Official Code § 2-536(a)(8)(a). This provision requires DCRA to make available to the public on the Internet, and without the need of filing a FOIA request, “all pending applications for building permits including the permit file.” The Jan. 29, 2016, OOG opinion issued regarding DCRA’s failure to comply with FOIA was frequently cited by witnesses at the hearing.

Liberation of the D.C. Official Code. The D.C. Council has made it easier to access the laws of the District of Columbia. Last month, it launched the DC Code in an open source format. Now, anyone can read, search, and print the code without logging into a paid legal research platform. It is a huge technological step forward for the Council, and is the result of years of hard work by the Office of the General Counsel to the Council and the civic hacking community.

Kudos to the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities! The Open Meetings Act (OMA) requires that meetings of public bodies are “open to the public”; which means “the public is permitted to be physically present at the meeting.” (D.C. Code § 2-575(a)(1)). Absent a statute which states otherwise, the OMA does not mandate that public bodies allow public comment or participation in meetings. However, the OMA does not prohibit a public body from allowing the public from doing so. In the spirit of “good government” and “civic engagement” and without a statutory requirement that they do so, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and the Humanities (CAH) provides a 30 minute public comment period during the start of each meeting. The CAH allows up to 10 associations, individuals or organizations to request a 3 minute slot to speak. However, the speaking slots are on a first come first served basis and the request must be emailed to the CAH within 24 hours of the meeting.