Council Approves Increases for Police, Housing

Not everyone agreed that more officers would make the city safer. "The challenge is not more police; it is better police," said council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), whose amendment to use the $7 million primarily for housing assistance failed by a vote of 12 to 1.

"Just throwing money at the Metropolitan Police Department because that gives us an answer we give to the community doesn't solve any problems," Patterson said.

The city's dependence on the tax to fund legislative priorities caused concern, too. On Friday, D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi projected lower revenue from the tax because of a cooling off of the housing market, which prompted the council to bump the increase from 1.35 to 1.45 percent.

In another controversial decision, the council turned aside the mayor's plea to restore its nearly $15 million cut to the budget of the troubled mental retardation agency. The Council's Human Services Committee, chaired by Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), unanimously approved the cut last month amid complaints that the agency had overspent its budget and wasn't improving the quality of care for more than 2,000 people, many of whom live in group homes.

"It's time for the council of the District of Columbia to stop the insanity," said Fenty, who urged the council to sustain the cuts pending a review to see how the money is being spent. He asked: "Why should we pour money into a black hole when there's been no demonstrated improvement" in care?

In two letters to the council yesterday, Williams warned that without full funding, the agency would have to "dramatically reduce" the number of people served and eliminate all nonresidential services, such as day programs, case management and transportation.

But council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) and others said they did not believe services would be cut, particularly since the $61.5 million the council budgeted for next year amounts to a 10 percent increase in funding.

"Please don't worry about services being cut," she told families and service providers in the audience, some of whom held a protest rally earlier in the day. "Nobody is going to allow that to happen."

Williams, who is on a trade and cultural exchange mission in Africa, issued a statement after the vote reiterating his position.

Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.