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Control Board Can Do Better, Residents Say

A majority of Washington residents say the D.C. financial control board has not done a good job improving the quality of public schools and other city services in the two years since its creation by Congress, according to a new Washington Post survey.

About half of those interviewed said the control board had not done enough to reduce waste and fraud or to protect needed services. The board’s efforts with the public schools drew the lowest marks, with about eight in 10 residents saying they had noticed no improvement.

Opinions were split sharply along racial lines. Two out of three white residents said they approved of the control board’s work, while one in five white respondents disapproved.

Black residents were far more critical and far more divided. Nearly half said they disapproved of the board, while 40 percent expressed support.

"The control board is doing nothing more than policing a system that doesn’t work," said Christopher Clement, a 28-year-old student at Howard University. "The control board is extremely closed off from the public. They rule out the possibility that anyone knows better than them."

A majority of black people polled said they have little hope that the board will make the city a better place in which to live in the long run, while more than seven in 10 white residents said they expected eventual improvement. Black and white respondents were united in opposing further congressional intervention in the city’s affairs, and they agreed that the control board—which will be around until the city balances its budget for several consecutive years—should not be permanently left in charge.

"We’re up against a Congress that wants to be plantation masters rather than legislators," said James Featherstone, 63, who said he has lived in Southeast Washington for many years.

The poll, the first in-depth survey of Washington residents’ views on the control board, comes as the presidentially appointed panel reaches its second anniversary. Congress created the board in the spring of 1995 to address the District government’s financial crisis and tackle its management and service problems.

A total of 1,004 randomly selected D.C. residents were interviewed between April 30 and May 4. The margin of sampling error for the overall results was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Control board Chairman Andrew F. Brimmer said the racial divide in perception of the board reflects the "polarization in the city." He also said that people are justifiably disappointed by the board’s inability to improve city services significantly.

"We have the same impression," he said. "The results are not there."

Given broad powers by Congress, the board has focused heavily on financial matters, forcing spending cuts and pushing the city toward a balanced budget. It also has launched major initiatives to overhaul the public school system and the police department.

Brimmer said the board’s focus on finances and other issues less readily obvious to the public may have contributed to the perception of inaction. He said more attention now is being directed toward filling potholes, cleaning alleys and focusing on other programs that should improve "quality of life" in the city. He predicted that the board’s focus on public schools eventually will lead to major improvements but said that the changes won’t be visible immediately.

Brimmer also said the control board’s emphasis on improving the police department has made neighborhoods safer because more officers are on the streets making arrests. The poll found that about four in 10 people approved of the board’s efforts to enhance the police force, the highest rating the control board received in any city service category.

Still, after the slayings of three D.C. police officers this year, the poll found that many residents believe the city is a more dangerous place than it was two years ago. Eight in 10 respondents said the city had not become safer.

Nathaniel Benjamin, 35, who works as a janitor in Landover, said fear of crime is causing people to alter their lifestyles.

"A lot of people are afraid to go out at night, people that have lived here all their life," said Benjamin, who lives in Northwest Washington.

Others see signs of progress. Jean Sharpe, 70, a retired schoolteacher, said the streets in her Southeast Washington neighborhood are a bit safer these days. "The crime has gone down around here," she said. "They’ve stopped those people from hanging around so much, hanging between houses and in the alleys like they used to."

Lena Joseph, who lives near the waterfront in Southwest Washington, urged people to be patient with the control board despite the slow pace of progress.

"It took some time for the city to get in the mess it is in now, and it is going to take a while for it to get straightened out," the 28-year-old office manager said. "At least they are bringing a lot of the issues out, and that is the first step. And they are putting some fire under people."

But Chucky Jackson, who parks cars at a downtown garage, said the control board and D.C. Mayor Marion Barry (D) spend too much time bickering over who is in charge instead of finding ways to cooperate.

"The control board is doing the best they can, but it needs to be a joint thing where everybody works together," said Jackson, who lives in Northwest Washington. "The control board has to work with the community as well. I’ve seen them on TV in different places, but I haven’t seen them going down to the grass-roots."

While race clearly was a factor in the poll, income and social class appeared to make no difference in the responses. Support for the board was equally strong among white people regardless of their income. Disapproval of the control board was nearly as strong among middle-class and affluent black residents as it was among the city’s poorest.

Black and white Washingtonians also differed over the impact of the board on city life. A majority of white residents said the city was better off than before the board was established. Most black residents said they saw no difference (41 percent) or believed the city was worse off (27 percent).

"I don’t think [the board] has really done much of anything if you look at how the city has turned out," said Joel Adams, a college student who grew up in Washington. "I don’t think anyone can think the city has gotten better in the last two years."

Some white residents agree that the city is worse off.

"I think things have gotten worse," said Renee Weitzner, a teacher at Buena Vista Academy, a private school in Northeast Washington. "Morale especially is really low. . . . Things don’t seem to be improving."

The control board’s decision to cut faculty and programs at the University of the District of Columbia has outraged many black residents. Eight in 10 black people polled said they disapproved. That view was deeply felt: Two out of three said they strongly disapproved of the board’s decision to shrink the city’s only four-year public college.

Whites, by 51 percent to 38 percent, supported the UDC cuts.

Sharnell Bland, a 25-year-old resident of Southeast Washington, wanted to attend UDC but said she was scared off by news of budget cuts. Bland said that she will begin studying radiology in the fall at Prince George’s Community College and that her friends who considered UDC also are headed to college in Maryland.

"What happens if I start, and a year later they shut it down or fire my teacher?" she asked. "I just didn’t want to deal with that."

Said Weitzner about the UDC cuts: "It was done in a rather harsh way, almost as if we don’t have elected officials. It seemed the control board was deciding everything, and D.C. residents could jump into a lake for all they care."

About two in 10 residents polled praised the board’s efforts to improve the public schools. But the overwhelming majority agreed it has had little positive impact on education. Others cited the continual reports of temporary building closings because of fire code violations as evidence that basic problems persist.

"In August, I heard about the problems of the schools passing fire code inspection, and now I’m hearing the same thing," Clement said. "Why is it from August until now I’m still hearing the same story, and all the control board is doing is passing the buck?"

But Lucille Gaither, who lives in Northeast Washington and has a child in a public school, praised the control board’s decision to put a new team in charge of the school system last fall. "I think [Brimmer] is a strong leader, and I think that is what it takes," she said.

Gaither said the control board is doing a good job managing the city’s ailing finances and gives the city more credibility on Capitol Hill than locally elected officials do. "If there was not a control board, then the city would be in worse financial shape than what it is in," she said.

Although he said he doesn’t fully trust the control board, Featherstone expects that the city eventually will be better off as a result of its work.

"If Congress allows the control board to become the surrogate administrators of the city and gives them the resources to make the city whole again, then I think they will do some good," he said. "I’d say they will end up on the plus side of the ledger, but barely."