(Photo by Mr.TinDC)

By DCist contributor Cuneyt Dil

The District’s hyper local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions may receive an array of new regulations and perks under a D.C. Council bill, but open government advocates are calling foul over one provision that would exempt commissions from Freedom of Information Act requests.

Created in 1976, ANC commissioners are the District’s lowest rank of elected officials. They advise on a wide variety of local issues, including zoning matters, restaurant and business licenses, and neighborhood grievances. Each of the District’s eight wards are divided into commission districts (1A or 4B, for example), which are further sub-divided into single-member districts covering only a few square blocks and representing roughly 2,000 residents.

The 37-page bill from At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds aims to address gripes from commissioners by requiring government agencies to work closer with ANCs and send out permit notices in further advance. Commissioners are currently unpaid, and the legislation would change that: members would rack up $50 per meeting (max of nine) and be paid in total at the end of the year.

But one piece tacked on to the end of the bill reclassifies ANCs to no longer be considered as an “agency.” That would exempt ANCs from FOIA laws that apply to other District government entities. In a public hearing today, advocates, including Traci Hughes, director of the the city’s Office of Open Government, argued against the provision.

“This is a terrible idea and we urge the council not to enact this aspect of the bill,” testified Alex Howard, a senior analyst at the Sunlight Foundation and Capitol Hill resident. “There is no compelling need to reduce the rights of the governed to request information about what is being done on their behalf by their most local of government bodies.”

One reason commissioners asked to be exempt from FOIA laws was because it created a “burden” for themselves, as volunteer public officials, to complete the requests, Bonds and commissioners said. Gottlieb Simon, executive director of the Office of ANCs, said there have been four FOIA requests made so far this year, and that has been an increase from past years.

In response, Hughes said that her open government office can lend resources to help ANCs complete FOIA requests. She also called on the council to bring ANCs to fall under the Open Meetings Act. The bill “risks sending all agencies down a slippery slope of compliance with the District’s open records laws and would be completely antithetical to a public’s right to know,” Hughes testified.

In a brief interview after the hearing, Bonds said it is likely the provision will be removed. “I think the FOIA process is necessary,” she said.

The bill was drafted after consulting 175 commissioners, Bonds said, and that most of them are pleased with the legislation. One wouldn’t get that impression from the hearing, however, where two commissioners effectively asked for the entire bill to be thrown out.

Kathy Henderson, member of ANC 5D, said the bill was an attempt to “whip commissioners into shape and to put onerous provisions upon commissioners.” She took issue with parts of the bill that call for ANCs to produce yearly performance reviews of their work and regulations on how commissioners handle their bank accounts.

“I will be lobbying each member of this committee and the council to make sure that this version of this off piece of legislation goes nowhere but the trash,” Henderson told Bonds, chair of the Housing and Community Development committee.

In a somewhat milder assessment of the bill, Mark Eckenwiler, a member of ANC 6C, said the bill would be “bad for ANCs, bad for residents, bad for the public interest.”

Other portions of the bill would bring more resources to commissioners, like a “legal division” within the government’s Office of ANCs for advice. A 500-square foot “ANC Hub” would be set up in each ward for commissioners to use, and a digital “ANC Portal” would be made to track constituent service requests and government agency notifications. Another hearing on the bill will take place after the council’s summer recess, Bonds said.