News Release for Immediate Release
January 11, 2007
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty Announces Action Plan: 100 Days and Beyond
As his first full week as Mayor of the District of Columbia draws
close, Adrian M. Fenty today announced his Administration’s 2007 Action
Plan for the city, to be implemented over the next 100 days and beyond.
“We’ve identified a comprehensive set of action items researched and
detailed by the Transition Team. Starting today, District residents can
expect a government that makes our communities cleaner and safer, brings
vibrancy and inclusiveness to our neighborhoods, ensures quality,
affordable healthcare for our citizens, and insists upon fiscal
discipline,” said the Mayor.
From e-Transition blogs, nationwide best practices trips, and Ward town
hall meetings, to the 100 Day Team, the Fenty Administration has
exhaustively captured valuable national and local input in an effort to
build a truly effective government of the nation’s capital.
In addition to detailing Fenty’s core strategy for the next 100 days,
the plan also serves as a longer-term blueprint for governance. The 100
Day Plan will chart a course for a transparent, responsive, accountable
and energetic District of Columbia government that produces tangible
results for the city’s citizens.
The plan centers around six core themes:
A. Education
B. Public Safety
C. Healthcare
D. Human Services
E. Environment & Infrastructure
F. Economic Development & Affordable Housing
Although this plan kicks off the first 100 days of the Fenty
Administration with specific goals and objectives, it is meant to chart a
course for an active DC government for the next four years and will
continue to evolve as progress is made.
Vision
The Fenty Administration will leverage the District’s tremendous human
capital and potential to bring prosperity, hope and safety to each and
every block of the nation’s capital.
Mission
The government of the District of Columbia must – and will – manage
essential services in a continually more efficient and responsive manner,
employing high-quality professionals and implementing smart policies that
reflect the great potential our city possesses. Above all, starting with
the Mayor, government will be held accountable to its stakeholders: The
citizens of the District of Columbia.
From Anacostia to Takoma to Friendship Heights and the Southwest
Waterfront, in the next four years, government and citizens will cooperate
to set and meet goals across a range of vital areas.
Mayor Fenty challenged his transition team to formulate and engage in
the most participatory transition in history to establish the
administration’s priorities.
Process
In the hours following the September 12 2006, Democratic primary, in
which Mayor Fenty swept the city with a historic mandate, winning all 142
precincts, his team assembled policy leaders representing all parts of the
city in a broad range of pre-transition groups. The Fenty Pre-transition
Team included more than 2,000 participants who took part in policy blogs,
webinars and face-to-face meetings. These teams put together more than 50
reports detailing policy and leadership priorities and presented a summary
to Mayor Fenty in a webinar on November 6, 2006.
After capturing more than 90 percent of the popular vote in the general
election on November 7, 2006, the newly elected Mayor Fenty instructed his
team to engage in a multi-tiered process to take policy priorities
recommended from pre-transition teams, and further refine them through the
following:
Core Transition Analysis: Fenty Transition Team members met with
directors of DC agencies to explore policies and results,
organizational structure and leadership capacities.e-Transition Input: New policy teams were formed and the original
pre-transition groups continued to identify even more detailed input
on policy, operations and best practices. More than 2,000 residents
participated in this process.Citywide Town Hall Working Meetings: Forums were scheduled in each
of the City’s eight wards from mid-November to mid-December to discuss
the public’s aspirations for the city and the Fenty Administration.
More than 4,000 questionnaires were gathered using trained
facilitators.Vision and Theme Team: To add a guiding vision and to help
synthesize the Mayor’s transition efforts, a group of local and
national experts focused on six key issue areas.Best Practice Trips: The Fenty Transition team visited with mayors
and leaders from around the country to identify best practices for
government operations. Mayor Fenty’s team visited:Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Los Angeles
Miami
New York
San Francisco
100 Days and Beyond: 2007 Action Plan for the District of Columbia
The Honorable Adrian M. Fenty
Mayor, District of Columbia
January 11, 2007
Contents
CORE TRANSITION ANALYSIS
E-TRANSITION INPUT:
CITYWIDE TOWN HALL WORKING MEETINGS:
VISION AND THEME TEAM:
BEST PRACTICE TRIPS:
EDUCATION: EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR QUALITY LIFELONG
LEARNING
PUBLIC SAFETY: A SAFE CITY AND A SECURE NATION’S
CAPITAL
INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT: CREATING A SUSTAINABLE
CITY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & AFFORDABLE HOUSING: A CITY OF
OPPORTUNITY
OPERATIONS: MAKING OUR GOVERNMENT RESPONSIVE,
ACCOUNTABLE, TRANSPARENT AND EFFICIENT (RATE)
THE ADRIAN FENTY POLICY & VISION TEAM
APPENDIX 1: MPD’S FIRST 100 DAY STRATEGY
APPENDIX 2
Executive
Summary
On November 7, 2006, the residents of the District of
Columbia overwhelmingly elected Adrian M. Fenty as the city’s next
Mayor. Mayor Fenty promised a more transparent and responsive government
with fresh energy and ideas. After one of the most active transition
processes in the history of city government, Mayor Fenty and his
administration have begun the task of running the District armed with
recommendations from policy experts, local government officials as well
as those from other cities and, most importantly, the thousands of DC
residents he met as he campaigned for mayor.
The plan centers around six core themes:
A. Education
B. Public Safety
C. Healthcare
D. Human Services
E. Environment & Infrastructure
F. Economic Development & Affordable Housing
Although this plan kicks off the first 100 days of the
Fenty Administration with specific goals and objectives, it is meant to
chart a course for an active DC government for the next four years and
will continue to evolve as progress is made.
Vision
The Fenty Administration will leverage the District’s
tremendous human capital and potential to bring prosperity, hope and
safety to each and every block of the nation’s capital.
Mission
The government of the District of Columbia must – and
will – manage essential services in a continually more efficient and
responsive manner, employing high-quality professionals and implementing
smart policies that reflect the great potential our city possesses.
Above all, starting with the Mayor, government will be held accountable
to its stakeholders: The citizens of the District of Columbia.
From Anacostia to Takoma to Friendship Heights and the
Southwest Waterfront, in the next four years, government and citizens
will cooperate to set and meet goals across a range of vital areas.
Mayor Fenty challenged his transition team to formulate
and engage in the most participatory transition in history to establish
the administration’s priorities.
Process
In the hours following the Sept. 12 2006, Democratic
primary, in which Mayor Fenty swept the city with a historic mandate,
winning all 142 precincts, his team assembled policy leaders
representing all parts of the city in a broad range of pre-transition groups. The Fenty
Pre-transition Team included more than 2,000 participants who took part
in policy blogs, webinars and face-to-face meetings. These teams put
together more than 50 reports detailing policy and leadership
priorities and presented a summary to Mayor Fenty in a webinar on
November 6, 2006.
After capturing more than 90 percent of the popular vote
in the general election on November 7, 2006, the newly elected Mayor
Fenty instructed his team to engage in a multi-tiered process to take
policy priorities recommended from pre-transition teams, and further refine
them through the following:
Core Transition Analysis: Fenty Transition Team members
met with directors of DC agencies to explore policies and results,
organizational structure and leadership capacities.
e-Transition Input: New policy teams were formed and the
original pre-transition groups continued to identify even more detailed
input on policy, operations and best practices. More than 2,000 residents participated in this process.
Citywide Town Hall Working Meetings: Forums were
scheduled in each of the City’s eight wards from mid-November to
mid-December to discuss the public’s aspirations for the city and the Fenty Administration. More than 4,000
questionnaires were gathered using trained facilitators.
Vision and Theme Team: To add a guiding vision and to
help synthesize the Mayor’s transition efforts, a group of local and
national experts focused on six key issue areas.
Best Practice Trips: The Fenty Transition team visited
with mayors and leaders from around the country to identify best practices for government
operations. Mayor Fenty’s team visited:
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Los Angeles
Miami
New York
San Francisco
Below are the high-level descriptions of the Fenty
Administration’s approach to each of the six key issue areas. In
addition, there are a number of action items that the Transition team
highlighted for the first 100 days and beyond. This, by no means, is an
exhaustive list, but a representative sample. We hope to accomplish
these actions and much, much more.
Education: Excellent Opportunities for Quality Lifelong
Learning
Education is the most important promise a society makes
to its citizens. A high quality education is fundamental to one’s
success and well-being and is critical for effectively participating in
a democratic society. In the District, the importance of education as a
civil right is well-established. Yet the history of unequal educational
opportunities for too many is also well-established – for far too long
in the District, we have not fulfilled the promise.
We envision a city where every child starts school ready
to learn, where all three and four year olds will have access to
high quality early childhood education programs so they can develop necessary cognitive and linguistic skills. We envision a
strong, vibrant public education system in which the Mayor is
fully accountable to the public for results, and where high achievement
is not just an expectation, but the norm. Our public school system must
be able to focus on its core mission of educating students and rely on
support systems that actually support teaching and learning, not hinder
them. Our children deserve to attend safe, modern educational facilities
equipped with the latest technology and libraries that invite reading
and academic exploration. In a city where education is valued and
cultivated, principals will have the flexibility and control needed to
implement the curriculum; teachers will have the tools, training and
resources necessary to do their job; and parents will be engaged
partners whose concerns will be responded to.
We envision a District government that collaborates
across agencies to serve students and to provide children and families
the support they need to reach their potential. Programs and support
services will be evidence-based and designed to meet families’ actual
needs. Resources will be strategically managed and leveraged in order to
eliminate duplication of efforts and maximize opportunities to provide
high quality services.
We envision a city in which our students with special
needs are provided educational services that truly enable them to
succeed. We must offer families of special needs children effective
early intervention services so that their children can thrive as soon as
possible. Long-awaited reforms that have been recommended by numerous
experts and audits will be implemented deliberatively and efficiently
– we must reform our special education system if we are serious about
keeping our promise to all children and if we expect to see the real
impact of change.
We envision a city that embraces the notion that
education does not end with high school. Whether a student chooses to
enter the workplace directly after completing high school or chooses to
attend a higher education institution, every student should be prepared
for their next step. Our public education system must provide a robust
program of career technical education and workforce training
opportunities. We will align those offerings with career opportunities
in the District and measure outcomes to ensure quality.
To ensure a diversity of effective lifelong learning
alternatives, we will seek to strengthen options such as adult literacy,
language skills, and workforce preparation. Finally, we will fully
utilize one of the District’s most significant education resources,
our higher education community. We will partner with colleges and
universities to increase the number of DC high school students
graduating from college, to establish early college programs within high
schools across the District, and to expand non-degree or associate
degree workforce training programs. We will maximize the role that
higher education will play in improving public education for all.
100 Days and Beyond
Feedback from Town Hall Meetings: Voices on Education"With all the money we spend … we should get a lot more than what we do, our “Our leaders have failed us at all levels, our schools “The building my kid goes to school in would be “Where is the outrage?” |
EDUCATION: THE PRIORITY
Create the position of Deputy Mayor
for Education to make the education of our children a top priority for
the Fenty AdministrationIntroduce legislation to improve
public schools accountability
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Develop a multi-year plan with
milestones for providing voluntary, quality early childhood education to
all three- and four- year olds in a variety of settingsReaffirm commitment to using the
existing Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development (MACECD)
to drive systemic quality improvementSupport the development and
implementation of a strategy to increase the number of certified early
childhood education and childcare facilities
PRE-K THROUGH 12th GRADE EDUCATION
Identify strategies and partners to
support and enhance DCPS’ ability to focus on student achievementReview existing government- and
community-based initiatives and capital projects to identify and
prioritize opportunities for reducing duplication and increasing interagency coordinationDevelop framework for an Interagency
Collaboration and Services Integration Commission to address the needs of at-risk
children through a comprehensive integrated service delivery systemAccelerate the implementation of a
unified student tracking and data sharing systemDevelop a business plan for the
launch of a new Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education to serve as a central mechanism by which citizens can
communicate concerns and as an entity empowered to ensure that the relevant public education providers
respond to questions and issues in a timely fashionExplore incentives or rewards for
high quality principals and teachersExplore alternatives through which
the Mayor could drive the accelerated repair and modernization of
DCPS facilities, including a targeted initiative aimed at reducing the maintenance backlogFill Mayor-appointed positions on
the Schools Modernization Advisory CommitteeDevelop implementation plan with
timeline for making available unused school facilities for use by public
charter schoolsExplore the strategies for reducing
special education costs by minimizing the need for special education
through effective early interventionContinue consultation with the State
Advisory Panel on Special Education on strategies for strengthening the
provision of special education services.Support the creation of a
comprehensive, citywide strategy for Out of School Time programs that
includes public schools, community based organizations, funders, and
other relevant governmental and non-governmental entitiesExplore strategies for increasing
parent and community involvement in education across the city (including
diverse immigrant communities)
HIGHER EDUCATION/CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION/WORKFORCE
TRAINING
Work with the institutions of higher
education, college access providers and other community partners to develop an action plan to support the
city-wide goal to ""double the numbers" of D C high school students graduating from collegeWork with the Board of Trustees and
President of the University of the District of Columbia to identify key ways for the DC government to support
improvements at the universityReview current government
investments in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and workforce training to identify gaps in programs and to recommend
adjustments that will ensure investments are aligned with career opportunities and yield
measurable outcomesExplore opportunities for enhancing
effectiveness of the Workforce Investment Council
ADULT EDUCATION
Review the range and performance of
existing adult education offerings in the District of Columbia to
identify gaps and begin to develop a strategy for supporting and
enhancing adult education options ranging from basic adult literacy and
language skills to job skills training
Public Safety: A Safe City and a Secure Nation’s
Capital
Our citizens and the nation are entitled to a capital
city that is both safe and secure. Residents, businesses and all who
visit the District of Columbia must know and feel – as they walk the
streets, as they enjoy their neighborhoods, as they gather in their
homes – that they, their families and friends are safe. They must feel
secure in their daily activities, and have confidence in the efficiency
of emergency responders and in the District’s plans for emergency action in the aftermath of catastrophic occurrences.
We envision a capital city whose parks, museums and
monuments can be enjoyed without anxiety for personal safety. We seek
neighborhoods where residents can live, stroll, congregate and enjoy
their leisure without uncertainty about the dangers that will greet them
around the next corner. Every citizen should be able to pursue their
lives and activities with a confidence that emergency requirements will
be met with responsiveness from trained and dedicated professionals,
organized and equipped to answer, serve, or respond in a timely and
efficient manner. Here in Washington, DC the capital of the most
powerful and richest nation in the world, is where the standard for law
enforcement, emergency services, preparedness, and planning should be
established and emulated.
Law enforcement in the District of Columbia must be strengthened through an
aggressive community policing strategy that focuses on collaborative
relationships between police officers and citizens. Strong, efficient
and effective law enforcement is the business of both police and the
citizenry. Policies that make policing more effective and that empower
officers to utilize creative approaches to reduce and prevent crime must
be developed and implemented. New enforcement strategies must be
initiated, including better and more informed methods of deployment and
utilization. Training must be enhanced.
Fire and emergency services must protect our citizens’
and visitors’ lives and property. One rule is paramount: An untimely
response too a fire or medical emergency is no response at all. Our law
enforcement, fire and emergency medical services personnel are dedicated
and committed professionals. It is our responsibility to train, equip,
support, and lead them so they can provide our citizens with the responsiveness that is the
difference between safety and crisis that too many of our citizens have
come to know first hand.
Our detention practices and correctional policies must
provide effective and humane confinement of pre-trial detainees and
sentenced inmates, and assure the highest level of safety and security
for inmates, their families, those who operate our correctional systems,
and the public. We must continually strive as a government and as
citizens to provide successful reentry into the community for
ex-offenders who have paid their debt to society, so that recidivism is
reduced.
None of this will happen overnight. Most of it will not
be completed within the first 100 days. But it must start now with us.
When will we know when we’ve been successful? When homes,
neighborhoods, parks, offices, shops, and streets are secure places
where citizens move and live with a sense of increased personal freedom
and enhanced civic pride.
100 Days and Beyond
Feedback from Town Hall Meetings: Public SafetyWalking the Beat Residents from around the city overwhelmingly agreed on Voices on Public Safety “Every time I think I know who my police are … they “I’d like to see the police outside their cars. They |
Provide the Mayor a homeland
security briefing on his first day in office (day 1)Reintroduce MPD community policing
by undertaking MPD 100-hour plan. See Appendix 1 (1 week)Add four more EMS transport units to
improve response times (30 days)Reestablish Emergency Preparedness
Council (30 days)Enhance public safety agency
coordination by beginning monthly meetings between firehouse leadership
and police district commanders (30 days)Reduce crime and fear of crime by
instituting a Customized Community Policing program (60 days)Reinstate the Continuing Quality
Improvement and Quality Assurance Program at FEMS (60 days)Support the Expansion of the
Re-Entry Program to the DC Prison, providing 100 male and female
misdemeanant offenders with Life Plan counseling sessions, a three-week
life skills orientation, and re-entry center programs that coach them on
job skills, literacy, and parenting (60 days)FEMS Mobile Data Terminal (MDT)
Training and Program Roll-Out (60 days)Issue an updated protocol study
guide to all FEMS personnel and perform field tests (90 days)Begin implementation of the
“Homeland Security, Risk Reduction, and Preparedness Act of 2006”
(B16-0242) by making the Emergency Management Agency the Homeland Security and Emergency
Management Agency (90 days)Identify key personnel who would
require Homeland Security and Preparedness Training and develop a
strategy to train them (90 days)Establish a working group to lobby
aggressively for the recapture of federal reimbursements to DC for holding
sentenced felons in District prisons (90 days)Re-establish EMS Rapid Response
teams (90 days)Implement enhanced officer
deployment and resource allocation with an emphasis on maximizing deployment to the PSA’s and increasing first line
supervision (100 days)Develop and begin implementing
electronic forms, so that officers will only have to enter incident data
once, allowing faster processing of arrest and incident
paperwork (6 months)Appoint an EMA/Homeland Security
Director to replace retiring Director (6 months)Appoint a permanent Fire Chief (6
months)Appoint a Board-Certified
Pathologist as DC Chief Medical Examiner; and examine the need for a
Forensics Chief (6 months)Develop a comprehensive public
safety agency training enhancement strategy (6 months)Implement alternatives for reducing
EMS “Frequent Flyer” heavy users (6 months)Develop a strategy for better
managing attrition at the Department of Corrections (6 months)Explore expanding Death
Pronouncement Authority to FEMS (9 months)Establish a 24-7-365 Mayor’s Call
Number (Phase 1 – 6 months) and Roll-out City-wide 311 (Phase 2 – 1 year)Expand FEMS Safety Net of First
Responders by expanding training to other DC agencies (start within 1st
year)Transform MPD’s customer interactions to ensure
responsiveness & foster community engagement as measured by a
customer satisfaction survey (1st year) measuredFinalize the design for local
forensics lab (1st year)Build homeland security &
emergency preparedness into the culture of the MPD & the community
(1st year)
Public Health: A Healthy City
A new era for the District of Columbia stands before us
an era of transparency and accountability. Today, we envision the
evolution toward a healthy city, a capital prepared to lead our nation,
to learn from proven success and to set the precedent for our residents
and for our children. A healthy city reflects every facet of our lives
from our personal heelth to the health of our neighbors, our communities
and to our environment. In realizing a collective vision we understand that a
healthy city ensures that all District residents have:
Access to affordable, comprehensive
and high-quality health care through established medical homes;Access to affordable health
insurance that includes cost-effective preventive care and health
maintenance;A strong health care safety net that
fosters social inclusion by covering services for medical needs, mental
illness, pharmacy services, substance abuse and oral health care,
regardless of ability to pay;The tools necessary for residents to
maintain, both individually and collectively, healthy and balanced
lives.
The state of our health and well being is an indicator of
the general condition of our city. For our city to continue to prosper
we must enable our citizens to be productive by taking a
more expansive view of the term “health care.” A healthy city relies
not only on what the District does for its residents, but also on what
the residents do as individuals and collectively as a community to
create the conditions under which people can be healthy. In an era of
accountability comes the accountability of each of us as well — a
responsibility to take care of ourselves, to seek preventive care, to
have a medical home base and to have our voices heard as citizens to
foster needed change. Together we will realize the District of Columbia
as a healthy city.
100 Days and Beyond
Feedback from Town Hall Meetings: Voices on Public Health“Our healthcare system needs to take care of everyone “A healthy city means more than people not getting sick “Every day we don’t do what we must more people |
Establish a policy to better use the
capacity of the School Based Health system beginning with moving
responsibility for this program to the Department of Health:Continue the successful partnership between the
Department of Health’s Maternal and Family Health Administration and
the Children’s School Services program for the provision of
school-based nurse services throughout the District of Columbia public
schools (immediate)Identify health services to be available via
school-based delivery, the providers needed to deliver these services,
links with students’ Medical Homes and funding sources, including Medicaid ((1st year)
Designate a cabinet-level official
to convene the Interagency Lead Task Force so that work across agencies
may proceed (30 days)Reorganize DOH to consolidate
administrations and improve public health functions (30 days)Make immediate improvements in
healthcare, safety, and management at Saint Elizabeths Hospital (SEH) by
appointing a new COO (60 days)Open Ward 4 Senior Wellness Center
(90 days)Award contract to begin construction
of the Ward 1 Senior Wellness Center (90 days)Develop tools to foster building
healthy neighborhoods through such actions as:Evaluating the benefit and costs of
establishing “wellness opportunity zones” (100 days)Publicly endorsing and enforcing
smoke-free regulations and the development of a plan to promote smoking
cessation programs (100 days)Preventing of sexually transmitted
diseases through exploring implementation of needle exchange programs
and broader condom accessibility (100 days)Introducing legislation that will
improve the District’s ability to enforce against all regional health
threats and hazards including lead (100 days)Identifying proven and innovative
health initiatives that establish community infrastructures to support
health, access to healthy foods and safe places to be physically active
(6 months)Evaluating best practices and develop pilot program
initiatives with monitored outcomes within specific communities/
neighborhoods (6 months)
Explore expanding home visitation
and early intervention programs to reduce infant mortality, child abuse
and neglect, youth violence, and to support mental health and wellness
as well as offer HIV/AIDS prevention services through DMH provider
agencies (100 days)Explore taking a public health
approach to interpersonal violence, intentional trauma and domestic violence including a
formal administrative home-base within the Department of Health
(100 days)Develop a recommendation on establishing a health
care financing administration to coordinate and evaluate all health
related funding streams with fiscal and programmatic accountability with
an immediate focus on maximizing Medicaid reimbursement for existing
services (100 days)Explore developing a model that
would allow the Alliance to provide supplemental coverage to eligible
residents who have inadequate coverage from other sources, for example
for primary and preventive services, without discouraging employers from
maintaining or expanding their contribution to insurance (100 days)Begin implementing the adult dental
health coverage to Medicaid benefits package (100 days)Coordinate with medical service
providers, especially those part of the Medicaid/Alliance safety net, to
implement routine HIV testing for patients ages 14 and up (100 days)Develop an implementation plan for
expanding health care coverage to children of families with incomes less
than 300 percent of the poverty level (6 months)Build a project plan for
health-related data collection, analysis and dissemination by building
on the experience, regulations and practices of other jurisdictions
including possible approaches such as: (1st year)Establish and enforce a standard
data report and collection timetable for hospital and other provider
dataEstablish public-private
partnerships to develop data capacity within city administrationsCreate a plan for cross public
agency data sharingPublicly support interoperable
Electronic Medical Record implementation
Increase access to walk-in services
for STD and substance abuse available at multiple locations (6 months)Work with the DC Housing Authority
to improve options for elderly and chronically ill individuals to live
and receive care in the community, including development of standards of
care for care in these community settings (1st year)Develop an East-of-the-River
HIV/AIDS response capacity-building initiative (1st year)Develop city-wide programs to reduce reliance on
emergency rooms for non-emergencies including exploring the possibility
of 211-call line based nurse advice line, expanding primary care
availability, emergency room outreach workers to make clinic
appointments for non-emergency patients, public education campaign for
alternatives to emergency rooms and options for insurance
(Alliance/Medicaid) (1st year)Increase community messages on
testing and prevention of HIV/ AIDS and explore establishing a medical
home for low income residents testing positive (1st year)Outreach to small businesses to
provide health screenings, wellness programs, and options for affordable
health insurance options (1st year)Develop a system for early
identification of child and adolescent mental health issues and for
providing needed care locally (1st year)Increase the District’s investment
in targeted substance abuse treatment and prevention programs. (1st
year)Increase federal Medicaid
reimbursements by $10 million (1st year)Finalize the design for local forensics lab (1st
year)
Human Services: A Caring City
Our aim must be to end poverty in our city, and not only
to end poverty, but to see that every family in the community has an
income it can actually live on. Our local story draws on Charles Dickens
— we are truly a tale of two cities. Nearly one in five of our people
live in poverty. It takes all of the income from a DC minimum wage job
((and more than the poverty level for a family of three) to pay for a
two-bedroom apartment at the federally determined Fair Market Rent for DC. We have the worst
income gap of any city in America – the top fifth of District residents have average incomes over a dozen
times the average income of the bottom fifth, $157,700 versus $12,770. This is not acceptable.
Our strategy should be fourfold: work, opportunity,
security, and community — all of which must come together to build
families that not only survive, but live successfully in safe
neighborhoods, with assurance that their children will have a full and
fair chance to make their way in American society.
To fulfill these aims, we must build not only a
government that serves all of our people effectively and courteously,
but harnesses all of our civic resources — business and labor, faiith-based
and secular, leaders from every sector, and our people themselves — to
solve our problems.
Our work strategy must pursue jobs that produce a living
income from all sources in combination — wages as the cornerstone,
supplemented by federal and local refundable tax credits, and added to
by help with health coverage, child care, housing, and college
attendance.
Opportunity means seeing that every child is ready for
school by age five and graduating students with an education that
produces readiness for college and work. It means enriching off-school
hours to add to an assurance of readiness at the end of the road. It
means helping parents do their job, so that what happens at home
supports what is going on in school and not the opposite.. It means
helping immigrant families acquire the English language literacy they
need to succeed in the work place. It means ending the cradle-to-prison
pipeline that enmeshes so many children and puts them on an inexorable
path to incarceration and a lifetime of troubles.
Specifically, a new opportunity strategy for our city
means creating new pathways to success for all of our youth, and
especially those at the highest risk of becoming disconnected from the
larger society and those already disconnected.
We must pledge not just to improve our K-12 system of
education, but explore transforming our structure into a P-14 system –
beginning with high-quality pre-kindergarten for all 3 and 4 year olds
and continuing through two years of community college. And we should
make our University of the District of Columbia into the flagship
institution that it has the capacity to be.
Security means physical security and economic security.
It means safe neighborhoods and a safety net for tough times. It means
that if you are between jobs, disabled, or in economic difficulty for
any of a number of reasons, we are a humane and caring city. Work is and
should be the main source of families’ income, but some workers need
extra help to add to unfairly low wages and some families and
individuals are not in a position to work as much as they would like or
at all.
Community is a special challenge in our city. We are
separated by an economic chasm. Concentrated poverty has been a
destructive force for decades. In recent years the renewed
attractiveness of the central city has drawn people with higher incomes
back into the District. This is certainly good for our tax base, but
unless care is taken, it can be a destructive force at the same time. We
need to commit ourselves to a course of equitable development, coupled
with greater efforts to add substantially to the supply of affordable
housing and maximize the number of economically diverse neighborhoods.
This is a time of wonderful possibilities for our city.
We must have a vision of where we want to go, and we must pursue that
vision with a broad perspective that sees that everything is connected
to everything else. It will do little to build our future if we improve
housing without improving education, if we get employers to commit to
hiring our people without helping to prepare our people for that work,
if jobs are available but child care is not, and so on and on.
Nor can we do what we need to if we do not continue the
process of making our local government agencies work for the people.
Personnel and procurement processes are still a challenge. Private
agencies that contract with the government are still not consistently
accountable for the quality of the service they provide and, conversely,
still encounter debilitating difficulties in dealing with the
District’s government. Much of the challenge ahead is not one of
monetary resources, but making sure that our human capital does its work
at the highest level.
These are some of the elements of a caring city – of
how our city can be a fully caring city – in the 21st century.
100 Days and Beyond
“It’s a dog eat dog world out there and there ain’t
no safety net. Who’s looking out for the old people or the poor
people?” — Ward 8 ResidentMake Mental Retardation
Developmental Disabilities Administration a cabinet-level agency and
change the name to the more appropriate Department of Disability
Services (30 days)Perform independent death reviews of
all Mental Retardation Developmental Disabilities Administration decedents (30 days)Design a comprehensive workforce
development strategy (30 days)End the 90-day moratorium on new
Medicaid Waiver placements for people with disabilities (30 days)Award contract for the construction
of a new Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services facility (30 days)Propose solutions to resolve the
shortage of family shelter spaces (60 days)Initiate Department of Youth
Rehabilitation Services assumption of responsibility for education and
mental health at Oak Hill (60 days)Begin to migrate to
performance-based contracting for Child and Family Services Agency
providers (90 days)Working with a private non-profit,
initiate an effort to explore a Housing First policy to address
homelessness (90 Days)Hold an Interagency Summit to bring
together youth-serving agencies and their constituents, in coordination with the Department of Youth Rehabilitation
Services’ “Reconnecting Disconnected Youth” program (90 days)Open the new supermarket in Ward 8
(90 days)Identify and eliminate the back-log
of Department of Mental Health provider payments (90 days)Provide additional downtown shelter
space by resolving the Franklin School issue or other means (90 days)Explore increasing TANF monthly
payments to parity with Maryland (100 days)Create new and clear pathways into
the job market for youth at risk of disconnection from school and work
by developing a pilot career training requirement in a DC services
contract (100 days)Explore family group decisions
making strategies for youth crime reduction (6 months)Hire a permanent Director of the
Department of Human Services (6 months)Hire a permanent Director of the
Department of Employment Services (6 months)Hire a permanent Director of the
Office on Aging (6 months)Hire a permanent Director for the
Department of Disability Services (6 months)Renovate six units at Oak Hill
consistent with the implementation of the Missouri model (6 months)Propose a comprehensive Career and
Technology (vocational) Education strategy for DC Public Schools (6
months)Work with the Board of Trustees and
President of the University of the District of Columbia to identify key
ways for the DC government to support improvements at the university (6
months)Develop a comprehensive adult
illiteracy elimination plan (1st year)Eliminate unnecessary District rules
that limit use of Medicaid to fund services (1st year)Develop a strategy to transform
child care, Head Start, and pre-kindergarten programs into a coordinated
system that assures school readiness by age 5 (1st year)Develop a strategy to ensure that no
parent will be unable to find and keep a job due to the unavailability
of affordable child care (1st year)Develop a strategy to dramatically
change the ratio of institutional versus family-based service provision
to MRDDA clients (1st year)
Infrastructure &
Environment: Creating a Sustainable
City for the 21st Century
As the nation’s capital, Washington, DC is a dynamic
hub of people and ideas where native Washingtonians, workers from around
the region, and visitors from across the globe interact on downtown
streets. The District is home to diverse neighborhoods and businesses,
and has a unique role as the seat of the federal government.
We have the power to create a sustainable city of the
21st century. To be a sustainable city the District of Columbia must be
a learning city, a safe city, a healthy city, a caring city, and a city
of opportunity. In essence, the government of the District of Columbia
must be a visionary organization able to stimulate progress while
preserving our core values and natural resources. Under the leadership
of the Fenty Administration, the government of the District of Columbia
has the opportunity to partner with the federal government, the 110th
Congress and other public and private sector partners to further
transform the nation’s capital into a sustainable city.
With the recent passage of the Green Building Act of 2006
by the DC Council and the creation of the District Department of the Environment (DDOE), the District of Columbia is
poised to be the leader in the area of energy conservation and green
building. The Fenty Administration supports the U.S. Conference of
Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, and believes that further
national leadership is essential to reduce our carbon footprint, improve
energy efficiency and repair our damaged ecology.
We must continue the progress that has been made in
cleaning the Potomac River, and commit to restoring the Anacostia River
and the fragile ecosystem that surrounds it to ensure that residents can
enjoy the splendors of its natural environment.
Improving our natural environment will also improve our
health and our lives. Already too many DC residents suffer the health
effects of polluted air and water. Too many more suffer the additional
effects of lack of exercise and access to the outdoors. We need to
improve our green spaces and enhance our parks to both enrich our
natural environment and improve our collective personal health.
Key to a clean environment is a well-built, well
maintained and sustainable infrastructure of utilities, roadways and
transit. We need to recognize that our built environment directly
impacts the natural environment. We can enhance our already
national-level leadership in walkability, bicycle, and transit access,
by providing clean transportation alternatives to more District
residents and neighborhoods. At the same time, we need to find ways to
reduce what we demand off our natural environment by improving our
recycling and better managing our waste stream.
The District of Columbia can be an international role
model for sustainability and efficiency. We can reduce our impact on the
earth’s ecology, while improving the quality of our citizens’ lives.
100 Days and Beyond
Feedback from Town Hall Meetings: Voices on Environment
and Infrastructure"My kids don’t play in the park because there’s too much glass and trash. If they
can ticket my car if I’m five minutes late with a quarter why can’t
they ever clean up my street.”“Why don’t the police ever arrest people for
littering and making a mess?”“We need to teach kids in school what happens to the
trash they throw on the ground or in the sewer, schools might not be
able to teach people geometry but they ought to be able to teach people
to walk three steps to a trash can.”Begin a Rush Hour Towing Pilot
Program (30 days)Endorse the US Conference of
Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement (30 days)Begin implementation of Traffic
Calming Measures in targeted neighborhoods (30 days)Ensure coordination between DPR and
MPD to bring community policing activities into the Parks (30 days)Introduce a revised taxi zone map
(30 days)Nominate Appointments to WASA Board
of Directors (30 days)Nominate Appointments to WMATA Board
(30 days)Break ground on the Navy Yard Metro
expansion in the ballpark area (30 days)Ensure seasonal readiness of parks
and recreation facilities (60 days)Ensure that a senior executive official will be a key
figure in the InterMunicipal Agreement (IMA) Negotiations currently
ongoing between WASA and surrounding jurisdictions (60 days)Provide Administrative and Technical
Support for Transfer of Stormwater functions from WASA to DDOE (60 days)Plant more than 3,000 trees (90
days)Eliminate 150 Vehicles from the
District’s Light Vehicle Fleet (90 days)Consolidate waste collection
activities into the Department of Public Works (90 days)Restructure and review performance
of the task-oriented routes currently in place for waste collection, to
increase worker efficiency and workplace safety (90 days)Support a DPR “Get-Fit” Campaign
(90 days)Hold a Mayoral Recognition Awards
for DPR Partners (90 days)Begin the 2007 local infrastructure
program (100 days), which will include:Repaving more than 50 miles of local streets for the
2007 construction seasonReconstructing sidewalks on more than 50 streets
throughout the cityRehabilitating more than 20 alleys
throughout the citySee Appendix 2 which provides a
ward-by-ward list of projects
Fund planning for the development of
two new recreational centers (100 days)Conduct traffic safety audits in
each Ward of the city (100 days)Identify funding and begin clean of
up recreational facilities in critical need of improvement (100 days)Launch Street Smart traffic safety
education program for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists (100 days)Propose legislation to extend
license renewal requirements to 8 years (100 days)Propose legislation to extend
inspection intervals for new vehicles from 2 years to 4 years (100 days)Transfer all District tree
maintenance responsibilities to DDOT Urban Forestry Administration (6
months)Coordinate efforts between local and
federal agencies to inventory, assess, and manage the District’s green
space (6 months)Undertake a comprehensive analysis
of governmental facility energy use to identify savings and efficiencies
(6 months)Break ground on a streetcar
maintenance facility (6 months)Expand Circulator service into
additional neighborhoods (9 months)Install Fuel Rings (wireless device
attached to the car which tracks gas purchases and consumption) on all
District vehicles (9 months)Do a demonstration project to
retrofit District buildings with Green Roofs (1st year)Institute Photo Ticketing by Street
Sweepers – sweepers will photograph vehicles parked in the street
sweeping lane, a citation is then mailed to the violator (1st year)Convert all DC government heavy
vehicles using diesel fuel to ultra-low sulfur fuel (1st year)Break ground on Phase II of the
Metropolitan Branch Trail (1st year)
Economic Development & Affordable Housing: A City of
Opportunity
The District of Columbia has undergone an economic and
housing renaissance over the past several years. In many parts of the
city formerly abandoned lots and vacant houses have given way to new or
renovated housing, exciting new commercial and retail projects, and an
abundance of construction cranes. While the renaissance has dramatically
improved the fortunes of many, too many of the District’s long-time residents
have been left behind. One thing is clear, the District of Columbia’s
economic development and affordable housing strategies should ensure
that policies benefit the residents of the District of Columbia, and not
just the business community. Equally important, recent economic
development has been concentrated in certain sections of the city. It is
clear to most, if not all residents, that all corners of the city
deserve to benefit from the District’s economic boom, and must do so
before the District of Columbia becomes a “City of Opportunity.”
The approach to economic development cannot only focus on
groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings. It also needs to focus on preparing
our residents for the workplace and ensuring they have the skills and
opportunity to take advantage of benefit from the coming economic
growth. Job training and apprenticeship programs need to build the
skills for jobs that are coming to the District of Columbia. Economic
development strategies need to focus on improving the operations of city
agencies to encourage and incubate the creation of locally owned
business. Also, economic development in the District of Columbia should,
to the greatest extent possible, encourage developers to employ District
of Columbia residents and use local subcontractors.
Our vibrant housing market has been positive for both the
District’s finances and individuals who are able to buy and sell
today. Unfortunately, it’s also driving out lifelong District residents,
threatening our elders on fixed incomes, and discouraging critical city
workers who should live in the community in which they work. It’s a
housing crisis we must manage, not just leave to market forces. The
average selling price of a home in the District hovers around $$462,000,
a price that requires an annual income of nearly $100,000 to finance.
Much of our workforce, including teachers, police officers and other
civil servants, simply cannot afford to buy a home in the District. The
District of Columbia’s affordable housing policy needs to encourage
homeownership and needs to be robust enough that children growing up in
the District today will have an opportunity to live here as adults.
100 Days and Beyond
Feedback from Town Hall Meetings:
Voices on Economic Development and Affordable Housing
“What happens to the American Dream if you can’t
ever, despite working your whole life, afford to buy a house in a city
you were born in?”“When I go to New York City and other places there is
so much activity and excitement on the sidewalk and streets … here,
except for a few places you can’t even walk to a store to get some
sugar…”“When they built the convention center they said that
residents would get jobs and training, well nobody I ever knew got a job
and I saw license plates from every state around except DC.”“Getting a permit to do anything in DC is asking for
trouble, you either get the run around or the guy working with you makes
it seem like he’s doing a favor for you by doing his job.”Appoint a new Planning Director
(Immediate)Restructure the Deputy Mayor’s
Office of Planning and Economic Development (45 days)Appoint an Affordable Housing
Coordinator under the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
(30 days)Design a comprehensive workforce
development strategy (30 days)Appoint a business advisory team of
the top 25 CEOs to recruit new businesses to the District (60 days)Initiate a publicized program that
targets fraudulent home contractors called “Operation Nail Gun.” A
multi-agency effort to “nail” unscrupulous, unlicensed contractors
(60 days)Issue report analyzing alternatives
for the structure of AWC and NCRC (60 days)Explore transferring Consumer
Protection Activities to OAG (90 days)Announce a Retail Action Strategy
(90 days)Identify a private partner to
initiate a comprehensive analysis of the DC affordable housing program
(90 days)Working with a private non-profit,
initiate a community-based planning effort for economic development
along Mississippi Ave. and three other targeted areas (90 days)Working with a private non-profit,
initiate an effort to explore a Housing First policy to address
homelessness (90 days)Enforce and implement the new
authority that will allow DCRA to immediately enclose hazardous and/or
vacant properties (90 days)Eliminate the entire backlog of
DSLBD certification applications (90 days)Launch the Business Opportunity and
Workforce Development Center (90 days)Provide additional downtown shelter
space by resolving the Franklin School issue or other means (90 days)Secure commitments to open new bank
branches in underserved communities (100 days)Open a new, customer-oriented permit center at DCRA,
and examine the possibilities of conducting online permitting (100 days)Announce the locations of the 4
storefront libraries and expedite procurement of construction for the 4
permanent neighborhood libraries (100 Days)Issue RFI for master developer for
the proposed Howard Town Center in Ward 1 (100 days)Sign land lease with developer,
approve design and break ground at old Convention Center site in Ward 2
(100 days)Release request for joint
development partner for the 4th and L St, NW site in Ward 2 (100 days)Sign land disposition agreement for
the Riggs Road Project in Ward 4 (100 days)Approve IRB financing package for
3910 Georgia Avenue, NW in Ward 4 (100 days)Sign site acquisition agreement with
NCRC for NW One New Communities (100 days)Approve revised Tax Increment
Financing for Skyland Shopping Center in Ward 7 and submit to City
Council (100 days)Approve bond financing package for
new NAACP headquarters in Ward 8 (100 days)Ground breaking at the old
convention center site (4 months)Appoint a new DCRA director (6
months)Appoint a new DOES Director (6
months)Appoint a new DHCD Director (6
months)Identify private and non-profit
groups to make meaningful investments in DC schools and parks (6 months)Begin initiative to offer banking
and surety bonding services directly to the LSDBE community (6 months)Working with a private non-profit,
develop a strategy to meet DC’s goal of 2,000 units of supportive housing (1st year)Develop a plan for implementing an
online LSDBE certification compliance program (1st year)Initiate a comprehensive rewrite of
Zoning Regulations (1st year)
Operations: Making our Government Responsive,
Accountable, Transparent and Efficient (RATE)
Our government is surely more functional than it was when
it was in deep financial straits, but far more needs to be done. Stories
of unresponsive government officials were frequent at the Mayor’s
transition forums held around the city. Inn addition, government
agencies continue to suffer from the difficulties of navigating the personnel and procurement processes. Private agencies
that contract with the government present two troubling stories, of
opposite kinds. Some, trying to do their job, suffer from being unable
to receive payment in a timely fashion. Others take the government’s
money and deliver inferior services, for which they are not held
properly to account. Chief among the outcomes that the Mayor wishes to
bring about is pride in the operation of the government itself.
Achievement inn that realm is vital to accomplishing the goal of
deserving the appellation of a caring city.
The Fenty Administration will work to build on the work
of the last eight years in improving government service delivery and
agency accountability. The core principle of these efforts will be to
build a government that will rate high in the eyes of the citizenry. Rate in the sense that goals
will be set and outcomes will be tracked. Not once a year, but on a
continuous basis. We will look at agency performance, both in service
delivery and in financial management. We will also monitor how we rate
with customers, through satisfaction surveys and testing. As customers
of government services, the citizens of Washington DC rate a responsive,
accountable, transparent and efficient government.
100 Days and Beyond
Create bullpen to speed the pace of
decisions and communications (day 1)Streamline the Executive Office of
the Mayor and the City Administrator’s Office by eliminating 33 Deputy
Mayor positions (day 1)Launch CapStat, a program that
fosters accountability and efficiency in government (1 week)Appoint a new Personnel Director (1
week)Display the snow plow tracking
system on the dc.gov website (30 days)Significantly reduce backlog of
contract requests that are in process (100 days)Develop a program to call residents
who place service requests to ask them about the quality and timeliness
of the government’s response (100 days)Appoint a new Chief Procurement
Officer (6 months)Aggressively recruit more bilingual
employees, especially in customer facing positions (6 months)Start a “How am I Driving?”
campaign for all DC Government vehicles tied to 727-1000 (6 months)Align agency services to eliminate duplication (e.g.
DPW to provide waste hauling for Parks and Recreation) (1st year)Propose comprehensive personnel
reforms that speed up and clean up the District’s hiring processes and
practices (1st year)Propose procurement reforms that
expedites the District’s contracting processes (1st year)
The
Adrian Fenty Policy & Vision Team
The vision for the Fenty Administration has been
invaluably informed by the dedication, insight and hard work of many
policy team leaders. In a few short weeks, our teams have researched the
best practices of cities around the country and explored the best ideas
in District government to determine what works right and what needs
improvement. Our policy team leaders have engaged more than a thousand
people in 18 different policy areas that have laid the groundwork for
the priorities of the Fenty Administration.
eTransition Team Leaders:
Education: Bonnie Cain & Guitele Nicoleau
Affordable
Housing: Chico Horton, Bob Polhman
Health Care: Robert Brandon, Jim D’Orta & Robert
Malson
Economic Development: Max Brown, Therman Baker & Geoff
Griffis
Human Services: Susie Cambria & Mustaafa Dozier
Public
Safety: Ron Linton & Enrique Rivera
Government Operations: Rod Woodson, Emily DeCicco &
Terry Lynch
Environment: Larry Martin
Democracy & Voting Rights: Karen Szulgit & Kevin
Kiger
Arts: Judith Terra
Women and Girls: Janice Ferebee & Lois Frankle
African Affairs: George Banks & Nestor Djorkan
Religious Affairs: Reverend Pritchett & Reverend
George Holmes
Diversity GLBT: Peter Rosenstein
Diversity Latino: Arturo
Griffiths & Jay Haddock
Diversity API: Jenny Ho
Technology: Darryl Wiggans & Laurie Collins
CapStat:
Don Wilson
Issue Team Leaders:
Education: Victor Reinoso
Economic Development and Affordable Housing: Neil Albert
& Stacey Stewart
Health Care: Maria Gomez
Human Services: Peter Edelman
Public Safety: Togo West
Environment and Infrastructure: Rodney Slater
Special Thanks to:
Transition Co-chair: William Lightfoot
Transition Co-chair: James Hudson
Transition Coordinator: Clark Ray
Appendix 1: MPD’s First 100 Day Strategy
Even before Cathy Lanier is sworn in as police chief on
January 2, 2007, she is focusing the Metropolitan Police Department on
increasing police presence on the streets, and, importantly, increasing
meaningful contacts with the community that will help citizens to feel
connected to the department. This meaningful connection is the key to
making DC’s communities feel safe even if they do not see a police
officer on every corner. Forging these connections is essential to Chief
Lanier’s concept of Customized Community Policing, and is a
cornerstone of MPD’s First 100 Day strategy.
Outlined below are examples of several initial steps that
will be undertaken in the first 100 hours of the Fenty Administration to
bring this policing strategy to all of DC’s residents and
neighborhoods. These efforts are the result of brainstorming and
strategy sessions that occurred in each police district and support unit
that will serve as the symbolic first steps in the 100 Day Strategy.
Encouraging the police districts and support units to create their own
strategies and take ownership in the process is critical to restoring
individual pride, as well as creating an environment where the community
feels connected to its police officers.
Chief Lanier’s overall theme for the First 100 Hours
Strategy is “Reintroducing the MPD to the Community.” MPD’s goal
for this effort is for every member of the MPD — sworn and civilian
— to interact with a member of the community (or their unit’s
constituency) during the first 100 hours of the new administration. The
primary objectives of this effort are to increase police visibility and
seek out new perspectives on how the MPD can improve service. This
approach will not only result in an increased police presence, but also
the compilation of key suggestions for future departmental improvement.
Accordingly, each district and support unit commander has
been asked to develop a 100 hour strategy that involves greater
visibility and the provision that all members interact with a member of
the community or their constituency. This interaction may involve direct
conversation with residents, or discussions with a professional
constituency group such as mental health organization (inside or outside
of government). Later, the command staff will document the efforts and
compile promising ideas generated by the community and report back to
Chief Lanier. As the districts and support units reflect on their “100
Hours” strategies, they will informally evaluate the effectiveness and
sustainability of the strategies with the community and Chief Lanier to
determine what initiatives will continue through February — while they
are developing Customized Community Policing Plans for each Police
Service Area (PSA) — and beyond.
In addition to every member of the department interacting
with a person from the community or an organization, below are some
specific examples of 100 Hour activities from the police districts:
All management officials in the First District will
spend at least two hours each tour of duty actively patrolling their
respective area, and patrol officers will spend two hours per tour on
foot patrol. Station personnel will patrol on foot in an “adopted”
area for two hours per tour of duty.Each business beat officer in the
Second District will meet and speak with 20 business owners, and each
captain and lieutenant will contact 10 key community leaders.Each PSA officer in the Third
District will “adopt a block” (or park) within their assigned PSA
and will serve as the primary liaison officer for the area. All 3D
officials and station staff will spend time on each tour walking foot
beats to get better acquainted with community members.Each PSA in the Fourth District will
hold a community meeting in the first 100 hours to hold an open dialogue
on how police can be more effective in their community.Fifth District patrol officers will
reach out to every business in their PSA to establish or maintain
contacts, and update key information in their Business Contact file.The Sixth District will bring
officers assigned to patrol during the evening and power shift “Back
to the Beat” by deploying them to foot, bicycle, or motorcycle patrol
in 32 geographical beats. The Sixth District will also be holding high
visibility traffic and pedestrian enforcement during peak hours.Sergeants in the Seventh District will patrol
designated priority beats for part of each tour of duty. In addition to
enhanced visibility in the community, it will also support more direct
supervision of patrol personnel.Members of the Special Operations Division will
assign officers to high visibility traffic enforcement zones to increase
visibility. Members of the Horse Mounted Unit, K9 Unit and Air Support
Unit will participate in school and community events to increase
positive interactions with our youth.
Of course, as always, the districts will be supported by
other units and MPD employees in this effort. In addition to individual
interaction, members of support units will focus on improvement tasks
that are attainable in the short term. For example, the primary focus of
the Office of the Chief Information Officer in the first 6 months of the
new administration is to develop and begin implementing electronic
forms, so that officers will only have to enter incident data once,
allowing faster processing of arrest and incident paperwork. This
enhanced efficiency will enable officers to return to the street faster,
increasing visibility and productivity. Results of other support unit
task improvements will also be compiled within the first 100 days of the
new administration.
Finally, Chief Lanier will be looking at wider deployment
and resource allocation issues during this period with an emphasis on
maximizing deployment to the PSA’s and increasing first line
supervision. However, any significant organizational change will require
planning to minimize disruption to critical patrol support functions. It
will take time both to develop a sound strategy, and, more importantly,
to garner buy-in. Hasty, top-down change would risk the success of
long-term cultural change at MPD.
Appendix 2