Yesterday I wrote about commissioners in ANC1B, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for southern Columbia Heights and U Street: turns out some of them rarely go to their own meetings. One commissioner, Deborah Thomas, only went to 1/3, while a couple others only made 57%. ANC1B as a whole attended only 71% of their own meetings, meaning they aren’t representing the constituents who elected them almost 30% of the time, and also meaning a few times the meetings didn’t reach a quorum, so no votes could be taken.
I decided to do the same thing for ANC1A, which covers northern Columbia Heights (roughly north of Girard, see the map below.) Turns out, ANC1A does a much better job of making their meetings, with a total attendance of 85%. There were a few bad apples: commissioner Thomas Boisvert of 1A07 only made 7 our of 16 meetings, or 44%, and 1A04’s Morgan Corr only went to 6 of the 11 meetings while he’s been on the commission. Boisvert and Corr have also missed the last 6 and 4 meetings, respectively. Neither are running for reelection, which seems like a good thing. (Of course, there may be some good reason for them missing so many meetings. I reached out to both, will let you know what they say. Update: Corr responded, see below.) Daniel Kornfield of 1A01 also only attended 63% of his meetings.
However, some members did a great job: chair Kent Boese (1A08), Rosalind Gilliam (1A12) and Vickey Wright-Smith (1A02) made every meeting, while Patrick Flynn (1A06) only missed one while Anthony Cimino (1A10), Kevin Holmes (1A05) and Dottie Love Wade (1A11) only missed two. Others who served shorter terms also made all their meetings.
So it looks like, as representation goes, ANC1A members take their jobs seriously. Glad to see it.
Here’s all the data below, gathered from the minutes posted on ANC1A’s website, and from chair Kent Boese. They don’t meet in August.
Update: Got an email back from Morgan Corr: “Unfortunately, I now have a standing professional obligation which prevents my attendance at full ANC meetings, and I’m not running for re-election because of that conflict. However, since the time these obligations started preventing my attendance the time had passed when a new commissioner could legally be appointed to fill the seat had I resigned. I resolved to hold the seat and do my best to address constituent concerns until the end of the term when a new commissioner could be elected.
I remain dedicated to Columbia Heights and the further growth & improvement of our neighborhood, and look forward to supporting the new Commissioner in my SMD when he or she is elected.”
