ANC1B Chooses New Committee Chairs

Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1B/U Street chose new chairs for its committees at its regular monthly meeting of February 7.

The meeting gets started

ANC1B has five committees: Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), Design Review, Grants, Public Safety, and Transportation. In 2013, four of the five chairs were also ANC1B Commissioners. In 2014, only one will be. At the February 7 meeting, Commissioners said they would still be active in committees, even if they are not chairing them.

Nick Baumann will be chair of the ABC Committee, which reviews liquor licenses and related issues. Baumann is already a member of the ABC Committee.

Baumann's day job is Senior Editor at Mother Jones magazine. He has also written for The Economist, The Atlantic, and other publications. Last year, he wrote some posts about the proposed U Street liquor license moratorium on his blog.

Also nominated for chair of the ABC Committee was Lela Winston, who eventually was chosen as chair of the Design Review Committee (see below).

The voting:

For Baumann: Commissioners Marc Morgan (district 01), Jeremy Leffler (district 02), Ricardo Reinoso (district 05), Dyana Forester (district 06), Juan Lopez (district 07), Emily Washington (district 08), James Turner (district 09), and Zahra Jilani (district 12)
For Winston: Commissioners Tony Norman (district 10) and E. Gail Anderson-Holness (district 11)
Absent from the meeting and all votes: Commissioners Deborah Thomas (district 02) and Sedrick Muhammed (district 03)

Baumann replaces Commissioner Leffler, who proposed Baumann for the job.

Lela Winston will be chair of the Design Review Committee, which often reviews requests to expand, renovate, or alter commercial and residential properties. Winston is already a member of the committee. She is a freelance journalist, media consultant, and founder of Winston Media Concepts.

All ANC1B Commissioners voted for Winston with the exception of Commissioner Reinoso. Reinoso voted for an absent community member whom he had nominated. I did not catch the community member's name.

Winston was nominated by Commissioner Anderson-Holness, and replaces Commissioner Norman.

Jennie Nevin will be chair of the Grants Committee.

She has done this job before -- in 2012, according to an online document. She was approved by acclamation.

Nevin replaces Commissioner E. Gail Anderson-Holness.

Commissioner Sedrick Muhammed will remain chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Two members of the community were also nominated to chair the committee. One of them was Winston (see above), the other identified herself as Jessica Rucker. The voting was confused. Commissioners Leffler, Lopez, Norman, and Anderson-Holness voted for Muhammed. The other candidates split the remaining vote.

Ben Klemens will remain chair of the Transportation Committee.

Klemens is a statistician at US Census Bureau, according to his LinkedIn Profile. He is also the author of three books. He has a Wikipedia page.

Klemens received the votes of all ANC Commissioners except Reinoso, who voted for the same absent community member he had once again nominated.