D.C. Council takes up a procurement overhaul, landlord receiverships and nightlife noise before the election

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — The D.C. Council holds its last legislative session before the Nov. 3 election on Tuesday, with an agenda that would rework how the city buys goods and services, give the attorney general new tools against negligent landlords and rewrite the rules for how loud a bar can be next to someone’s bedroom.

The Committee of the Whole meets at 11 a.m. in the John A. Wilson Building, and the Legislative Meeting follows immediately, according to the council’s notice. The committee’s draft agenda lists 18 measures, including the procurement overhaul and the nightlife noise bill, which come over from the Committee on Public Works and Operations under waivers of the committee’s usual review rule. The agenda lists the next Legislative Meeting for Nov. 10, a week after the election.

Rewriting procurement

Bill 26-594, the Contracting and Procurement Reform Amendment Act, was introduced in February by Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who chairs Public Works and Operations, with Councilmembers Janeese Lewis George and Zachary Parker. According to Nadeau’s office, it would merge the District’s procurement portals into one system with real-time tracking of solicitations and awards, require the Office of Contracting and Procurement to publish plain-language templates and early notice of upcoming solicitations, and move the procurement ombudsman out of the agency it oversees and into the Office of the City Administrator with more enforcement authority.

The bill would also overhaul the D.C. Supply Schedule so agencies can buy directly from pre-approved vendors, give technical evaluation panels access to all the information the procurement office holds, and require written justification when the office overrules a panel’s recommendation. “It’s hard for vendors, agencies, and the Council itself to get information about the status of contracts,” Nadeau said when Mayor Muriel Bowser sent over her own procurement proposal in March.

Tenant receiverships

Bill 26-493, the STRONG Homes Amendment Act, was announced in November by Attorney General Brian Schwalb and At-Large Councilmember Robert White. It revises the Tenant Receivership Act, under which a court can put a neutral receiver in charge of a building with chronic health and safety problems. The bill would let the attorney general’s office tap the Tenant Receivership Abatement Fund for emergency repairs, temporary relocation and receivers’ fees; allow the court to order a sale when an owner refuses to make repairs; require any buyer to fix existing code violations; keep a receivership in place after a sale; and bar landlords from raising rent during or after a receivership to recover repair costs. It would also extend the attorney general’s authority to seek judicial dissolution of LLCs and limited partnerships.

“Too many families in our city are still boiling water on stoves for heat, sleeping under tarps because the roof leaks every time it rains, or putting their kids to bed in rooms filled with mold,” White said at the time. The Committee of the Whole held a hearing on the bill July 7.

Noise next door

Bill 26-369, the Nightlife Noise Balance Amendment Act, introduced by Chairman Phil Mendelson, targets a quirk in D.C. liquor law. As Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1B described it in a resolution supporting the bill, the current standard counts noise as a violation only if it can be heard inside premises other than the bar, which means inspectors from the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration have to go into a neighbor’s home late at night to confirm a complaint.

According to the commission, the bill would define a “noise restricted area” covering outdoor space within 15 feet of a building where someone lives in a residential zone, so inspectors can verify complaints from outside. It would add bass and vibrations “even if not audible” to the definition of noise, raise penalties above the current schedule of $250 for a first violation up to $2,000 for a fifth, and let the ABC Board suspend a license for up to 10 consecutive days or restrict specific endorsements such as summer gardens and sidewalk cafes. The commission, which covers the U Street corridor, North Shaw and lower Columbia Heights, urged the council to go further and include mixed-use zones.

Also on the list

The committee agenda also includes Bill 26-100, the Deferred Retirement Option Program Amendment Act; Bill 26-360, the Senior Tax Aggregation Amendment Act; Bill 26-254, which concerns a contractor’s right to stop work for nonpayment; Bill 26-707, the rodent-control measure known as REMY; and confirmations of two members of the Commission on Human Rights.

The session comes two weeks after the council narrowly approved expanded parking enforcement by campus police and business improvement districts, and tightened ballot-initiative rules, both of which went to the mayor for review.

The Washington Inquisitor asked Mendelson’s and Nadeau’s offices, the Office of Contracting and Procurement, the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration and ANC 1B for comment Tuesday. This story will be updated with the outcome of the votes.

Photo: The John A. Wilson Building in Washington. APK / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.