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Mayor's Citizen Summit Disappoints Attendees
By Norberto Martinez

November, 2001
Volume 38, Number 9

On Saturday October 6 the Mayor's Citizen Summit II took place at the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel. The professional moderator, Carolyn Lukensmeyer, used the Mayor's city-wide strategic plan to boast great successes in our city. According to the information provided at the entrance of the hall the purpose of the summit was: "To review the current state of our City, and agree on the values that we need to live by if we are to make this the kind of city we all want it to be; To examine and provide feedback about the Draft Citywide Strategic Plan and to impact the 2003 and 2004 Budgets; and To examine priorities for improving each neighborhood in the city, and to commit to taking actions as citizens to achieve those priorities."

The areas of discussion included "Strengthening Children, Youth, Families and Individuals," "Building Sustainable Neighborhoods," "Promoting Economic Development," "Making Government Work," and "Enhancing Unity of Purpose."

The moderator placed a total of 5 questions on the screen that each table discussed, such as "What values must we stand for as a city in order to meet and rise above the challenges facing us?" Yet as the Mayor spoke of values he advocated for a war in the Middle East. He advocated for war as he brought the Faith Advisory Council to pray on stage. The religions represented from this Faith Advisory Board were Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Bahia, Native American, Hindu and Buddhist. They all spoke of brotherhood, love, compassion, caring for one another and tolerance but not a single one of them stated their opposition for another US led war in another country.

Another question tables discussed was "What do you agree with in the plan?" 80 percent of the citizens attending stated that they disagreed with the plan's list of accomplishments and 46 percent stated that the plan needed a "great extent of improvement." While 72 percent felt they had the chance to say everything they wanted to say, 22 percent did not get to say everything they wanted to say at their tables.

Who Attended?

Attendance was sparse at the summit. There were 300 tables set up and 3000 attendees were expected but the reality was that many tables were empty, many city employees attended and one moderator sat at each table so that reduces the number of citizen participants. Elissa Silverman in her article "The Sequel" from The Washington City Paper reported that "Though city officials are estimating today's attendance at 3,000 the numbers are inflated given that many almost one fifth of the tables are completely empty and many throughout the hall have seats to spare." At around 2:30pm most of the people remaining were city employees, volunteer moderators, and empty tables.

Who Sponsored the Summit?

According to the Mayor's web page, there were thirty-one private corporations sponsoring the event, including Universities, Banks, Supermarkets and others. How much did each corporation contribute to this event? How much did we pay with our taxes? Elissa Silverman from The Washington City Paper also reports that the cost of the Citizen's Summit II for this year was "approximately $835, 000. The Annie Casey Foundation chipped in $100,000, PEPCO $10, 000, and the American Legacy Foundation-an anti-smoking advocacy group ponied up to $50,000 to cover Thursday's banquet. The rest came from taxpayers." By the way, what did the organizers do with all the left over sandwiches and sodas?

What issues were raised that were not part of the Strategic Plan?

As I walked about the summit I listened to very provocative thoughts and statements. Pedro brought up the issue of equal representation for all residents so that the thousands of Latin American residents, who can't vote because they lack legal papers, are not ignored. He also stated that every resident should have the right to vote in city elections without discriminating between those who are citizens and those that are not yet U.S. citizens.

At table 117 people raised the issue of preference for city residents when it comes to transportation, jobs, adult education, job training, and housing for the poor and the homeless. People also raised the issue of giving employment preference to city residents so that the money they earn would be spent in the city rather than in Virginia or Maryland as it is now. The mayor responded to citizen's comments with "I will not promise everything to everyone and will not overspend our budget." For me this statement means "I need your attendance only so that I can report back to the sponsors of this summit."

The Mayor's Empty Rhetoric

The Citizen Summit II was essentially another of the Mayor's public relations events in which he is the star of the ceremony. This is in spite of 51 percent of summit attendees' reporting that they were only somewhat confident or not at all confident that their own neighborhood would achieve the priorities stated in the Mayor's plan. Furthermore, how will the Mayor pay back Summit sponsors for their contributions? The Mayor governs the city residents but often seems to provide better representation for corporations.

DC is not represented in Congress and our city is treated as a colony. In the Mayor's reactionary speech he stated "no taxation without representation" yet he did not campaign around this issue. The mayor could do much more to change our colonial status, such as circulating a petition among DC residents and pressuring the federal government to allow us to be represented. Together with city residents, he should refuse to follow the orders of the federal government in this and other issues.

The mayor should also respond to the concerns of summit attendees. He should stand up for free healthcare for city residents, give all city residents the right to vote in city elections, and reduce public transportation's fares for city residents. If he took these substantive issues, and actually responded to citizen input, he would have a very successful attendance.

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