The Washington Blade - Friday, May 14, 1999
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

The three parties approved the increase in funding for AHA, which oversees the city's AIDS programs, as part of a $4.7 billion budget for the D.C. government that includes an unprecedented tax cut for residents and businesses.

The so-called "consensus" budget also includes $900,000 in funding for a Civilian Complaint Review Board that Gay activists and other community groups say is needed to investigate allegations of police misconduct. In addition, the budget provides a modest increase of $165,000 for the D.C. Office of Human Rights, which has long been plagued by an enormous backlog of pending cases, including cases alleging anti-Gay and AIDS related discrimination.

The Council passed the budget Tuesday, May 11. Under the city's limited home rule charter, the budget now goes to Congress, which must approve it before it can become law. Although Congress has the power to make any changes it wishes, city officials said they are hopeful that Congress will accept the recommendation of the control board, which has given its stamp of approval to the budget.

News media coverage of a dispute between Williams and the Council over the size of the tax cut overshadowed nearly all other aspects of the budget, including a separate dispute between the mayor's office and the Council over the AIDS budget.

The dispute over the AIDS budget surfaced earlier this year when Williams's initial budget proposal called for cutting funds for AHA by $180,000. AHA Director Ron Lewis said the cut was part of an across-the-board "efficiency" reduction mandated by Williams for most city agencies.

Gay and AIDS activists expressed strong opposition to the proposed cut, saying the cut would put in jeopardy millions of dollars in AIDS funds the city receives each year from the federal government. Activists noted that the federal AIDS funds are contingent upon the D.C. government's compliance with a rule set by Congress that bars cities and states from reducing their AIDS budgets by replacing their own funding of AIDS programs with federal funding.

Williams told Gay and AIDS activists at a Gay community town meeting in March that he had not intended to cut the AIDS budget and would check with his budget aides to determine whether the cut could be eliminated. However, an aide to D.C. Councilmember David Catania (R-At-Large) said the mayor's office did not inform the Council of any changes in the AIDS budget as of last week.

Councilmember Sandra Allen (D-Ward 8), chair of the Council's Committee on Human Services, told AIDS activists last month that she and her committee had rejected the mayor's proposed cut in the AIDS budget and would recommend an increase in AHA funding. Allen and the committee later voted to increase the AHA budget by $1.2 million, the amount agreed to earlier this week by Williams and the control board.

In a separate matter, Gay activists also expressed dismay that Williams's original budget did not provide any funding for a Civilian Complaint Review Board, known as the CCRB. Williams told the Gay town meeting that he favored funding for the CCRB but was counting on the federal government to provide the money. Congress included a $1.2 million funding allocation for the CCRB in the city's fiscal year 1999 budget. However, House and Senate GOP leaders, who control congressional purse strings, said the funding was aimed at starting up the newly created CCRB and they would not provide CCRB funding in any future years. The D.C. Council passed legislation creating the CCRB in 1998.

Members of the D.C. Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance expressed additional concern this week over news that the city has yet to spend any of the $1.2 million allocated for the CCRB in the current fiscal year. Marie Drissil, director of the Mayor's Office of Boards and Commissions, has said her office has spent virtually all of its time scrambling to fill vacancies on boards and commissions that are essential for the public health and safety. Drissil noted that, because of a failure to fill vacancies under the administration of Mayor Marion Barry, the city was unable to approve licenses for nurses.

Drissil said she plans to turn her attention to putting together the CCRB later this year. But GLAA member Rick Rosendall told Tuesday night's GLAA meeting that Capitol Hill sources believe Drissil and the city may have waited too long to act. Congressional officials believe unspent CCRB funds may have to revert back to the federal treasury, according Rosendall said.

"We're hoping the funds can be rolled over into the 2000 budget," Rosendall said.

Spokespersons for the House and Senate subcommittees that oversee the D.C. budget did not return calls by Blade deadline.

In a report accompanying its budget resolution, the Council said it approved a modest increase of $165,000 for the D.C. Office of Human Rights as a means of helping the office reduce its backlog of cases. The additional funding is earmarked for the hiring of one additional OHR employee, which will raise the office's staff from 16 to 17 full-time employees.

The Council report noted that, despite pledges by OHR to reduce the backlog from 700 to 600 cases last year, the backlog stood at 711 cases at the end of fiscal year 1998.

"The backlogs make the District's human rights law a hollow shell, despite its promise of broad protections and swift justice," the Council report says. The report said the Council learned that, although the human rights law, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, calls for OHR to complete its investigations of cases within 120 days, "the median time from the docketing of its cases to its closure was 560 days during FY 98."

Gay activists note that most of OHR's problems began long before Williams took office in January 1999. But activists said they are hopeful that Williams will take steps soon to improve OHR's performance in enforcing the human rights law.
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