ANC1B Fails to Achieve Quorum for Fourth Time This Year

At its regular monthly meeting scheduled for last night (November 6) Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1B/U Street failed to achieve a quorum. No official votes could take place. Commissioners present promised a special meeting later this month to consider the matters that could not be voted on at this meeting.

Once again, not enough for a quorum

This is the fourth time this year, and the fifth time in less than 12 months, that ANC1B has failed to achieve a quorum. The previous failures this year were on March 6, July 10, and July 17. ANC1B also failed to have a quorum at its last meeting of 2013.

There are currently 11 sitting Commissioners in ANC1B -- plus one vacant seat. In order to have a quorum, six Commissioners had to attend. Only five attended.

The Commissioner who attended were: Marc Morgan (district 01), Ricardo Reinoso (05), Mark Ranslem (08), ANC1B Chair James Turner (district 09), and E. Gail Anderson Holness (11).

Non-attendees

The absent Commissioners were: Sedrick Muhammed (03), Deborah Thomas (04), Dyana Forester (06), Juan Lopez (07), Allyson Carpenter (10), and Zahra Jilani (12).

ANC Chair James Turner told those attending that several of the missing commissioners had informed him beforehand. However, Commissioner Sedrick Muhammed had said, twice, that he was going to attend the meeting, giving Turner the hope that a quorum was possible.

According to preliminary election results, Muhammed was re-elected to his ANC seat Tuesday, in spite of running in a contested race and missing nearly 50% of ANC meetings up until election day. This latest absence brings Muhammed's record to exactly 50% -- 12 attendances in 24 meetings.

Another absent commissioner, Allyson Carpenter, was re-elected on Tuesday. She ran unopposed. Rest of the absent commissioners either did not run for re-election or were defeated by wide margins -- with one exception.

The preliminary vote count has Dyana Forester losing to David Gilliland by a mere three votes. Late-arriving absentee or special ballots could change the outcome of the race.

"I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, meeting adjorned"

Among the items on the agenda for the aborted meeting was a request for zoning relief for a troubled Columbia Heights apartment building and recommendations by an ANC committee for DC's Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) about the future use of the former Grimke school.

Turner said the recommendations of the ANC Grimke committee would be transmitted to DMPED with a covering letter explaining that they could not be voted on due to lack of a quorum.

At the end of the meeting, Turner said to community members: "What we have experienced should not have to be experienced on a regular basis."

The repeated lack of quorums was, Turner said, "not respectful" and "not appropriate".

He concluded: "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, meeting adjorned."

Newly-elected Commissioners will not be sworn in until the beginning of 2015.