This budget season presents many opportunities for Ward 3. In the coming months, we have a chance to fully fund our schools, revitalize commercial corridors, and make Ward 3 a more affordable, welcoming home. To accomplish these goals, your input throughout the entire budget cycle is critical. This section highlights recent opportunities and looks ahead to how you can make your voice heard during the upcoming performance oversight hearings.

Performance Oversight

Starting this week, the Council will hold performance oversight hearings for each DC agency. These hearings are an opportunity for residents to share their concerns with agency leadership.

I will actively participate in as many performance oversight hearings as I can, advocating for Ward 3 and demanding improved services and agency accountability. I strongly encourage you to join me in attending these hearings and make your voice heard.

You can find information about testifying at performance oversight hearings here. Each committee has its own sign-up process, but you can typically testify virtually and by voicemail. Language interpretation, closed captioning, and other accessibility services are available by request.

Have a question about participating in the budget process? Team Frumin is here to help. Contact Elias Benda, Legislative Assistant, (ebenda@dccouncil.gov) for assistance.

I voted to override the Mayor's veto of the Revised Criminal Code Act, clarify implementation of the tipped minimum wage increase, and commemorate the service of former State Board of Education Rep. Karen Lee Williams.

I also co-introduced critical legislation that will incentivize greener, more sustainable transportation options.

Addressing the Revised Criminal Code

I understand there is deep concern about crime in the city and the recent series of frightening episodes in our community. I share those concerns and seek to work with MPD and specifically with the 2^nd District to address them. 

For my first substantive vote, the Council was called upon to vote on the mayor’s veto of the Revised Criminal Code Act (RCCA). I joined 11 of my colleagues in voting to override that veto. 

The politics of crime are difficult, but I regret the mayor’s decision to veto the RCCA. 

Our current criminal code was drafted by Congress before World War I and an update was desperately needed.  The RCCA is the product of a 17-year process, input from an independent commission of experts, and three Council hearings. The provisions in the RCCA will not begin to take effect until 2025 and will fully phase in by 2030.

You may have heard that the RCCA softens penalties for violent crime. It simply is not the case that it will lower such penalties as a practical matter. See this recent article from Slate, here.  Everyone involved in the debate, on all sides, acknowledges that at last 95% of the 500-page bill made important, consensus changes and that the project to get it done was Herculean. If the Mayor had issues with the RCCA, the appropriate step was to come forward with legislation outlining her specific proposed changes that she wanted to see fixed before the RCCA began to take effect in 2025. It may be that she will do that now and, if she does, I will take a hard look at those proposed changes. 

Throwing the 500-page baby out with the bathwater, in my opinion, was a mistake. Therefore, I joined all but one of my colleagues in voting to override the veto. 

Public safety must be a top priority.

I look forward to working with all stakeholders in the effort to make our city safer. I will be guided by two principles – (1) that accountability is critical and (2) we will not make our way to safety by incarceration alone. As I work to keep neighbors safe, I am determined to be guided not by the politics of crime but by evidence-based solutions. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or requests. Our Constituent Services team is here to help.