THE CITIZENS SUMMIT

On November 20, 1999, the DC Convention Center witnessed a truly unique event—3,000 residents from across the city met to provide the mayor with their counsel.
Electronic polling of the group indicated that they were reasonably representative of the city in terms of distribution by age, income, race/ethnicity, and ward residence.
Attendees from the Palisades Citizens Association included Judy Dollenmayer, Dick England, John Finney, Mary Ann Floto, Nick Kauffman, Ellen Lewis, Penny Pagano, Bill Schallenberg and Doug Ormerod.
In his visit to the PCA general meeting on November 2, Mayor Williams explained the importance of this summit and its place in the city’s larger first-time effort to develop a Strategic Plan. This plan, in turn, will be the basis for the city’s budget submission for the fiscal year 2001, due at the end of March 2000.
After the Mayor’s opening remarks, Saturday morning’s session divided into mixed-ward groups of eight to ten people who were tasked to focus on their views as to what the city’s priorities should be.
The most frequently mentioned topics included the quality of education, security, family development and protection, neighborhood improvement, and economic development and jobs.
Other concerns mentioned were the quality of DC government services and the ability of the city to unite in pushing the city’s agenda, including expanded home rule.
Each table registered its opinions on an electronic terminal feeding into a central computer. Mayor Williams took the floor from time to time to comment on the more interesting of the proposals.
In the afternoon, participants reconvened into neighborhood groups to center on that community’s vision of itself and the principal actions it needed to take to promote that vision— and how the city could assist.
Our vision for the Palisades focused on our essentially residential character. The concerns identified were control of development which threatens that residential character, improved educational systems, preservation of the Palisades environment, and the need to develop a transportation plan for the community.
Again, the results from each neighborhood were fed into the central computer.
There was a general impression that the summit had far exceeded the goals originally set.
Building on this, starting in 2000, each neighborhood, with the assistance of the city, will be developing its own strategic plan, with the resulting city-wide and neighborhood priorities fed annually and automatically into the city’s strategic plan.
The Palisades was well prepared for the summit.
After the mayor’s visit here, PCA President Cary Ridder appointed a small ad hoc committee composed of Lynn Scholz, Penny Pagano, Mary Ann Floto, Ellen Lewis and Bill Schallenberg, with Doug Ormerod as chair to help prepare.
The committee convened a larger group on November 16, composed primarily of the chairs of all PCA committees. It held a wide-ranging discussion of the major problems confronting both the city at large and our neighborhood.
The committee will make recommendations to the December meeting of the PCA Board and will start to explore the next steps for the development of our own strategic plan.
In undertaking this matter, the committee is considering the broadest possible involvement of the entire Palisades community.
—Doug Ormerod