A local governing body held its first meeting with a quorum in three months, approving two resolutions and electing officers.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission elected officers for the 2025-26 term. Five out of six commissioners voted to elect 2A03 Commissioner Trupti Patel as chair and unanimously elected 2A09 Commissioner Keaton DiCapo as vice chair, 2A04 Commissioner Ed Comer as secretary and 2A09 Commissioner Sean Youngstone as treasurer.
Patel and Comer also served in their respective roles in the previous term.
The ANC could not conduct official business, like passing resolutions, when the term started in January until Wednesday’s meeting because the ANC could not reach a legally mandated quorum. The Foggy Bottom community elected only four commissioners in the November election, one short of the required amount for a meeting to count toward satisfying the District’s mandate that the commission hold at least nine per year.
Courtney Cooperman, a member of the Community Advisory Team overseeing The Aston unhoused shelter on New Hampshire Avenue, announced that Friendship Place, the shelter’s operator, will host a second walkthrough of the building on March 31 at 6 p.m. Commissioners voiced concern at its February community meeting that D.C. officials didn’t adequately provide notice of the first walkthrough they held on Feb. 13 allowing community members to tour a unit and a community room, in which six locals attended.
The ANC approved two resolutions expressing concern about the Office of Unified Communications’ response to a crisis at the Claridge House Cooperative and condemning recent evictions of unhoused people.
Here are some of the meeting’s highlights:
Pepco representatives field questions from commissioners, community after West End power outage
Rob Spellman — the senior manager for underground maintenance and construction at Potomac Electric Power Company, a company providing power to the Mid-Atlantic region — said Pepco crews responded with 24/7 rotating shifts to the two-day power outage that left hundreds of West End and Dupont Circle residents without heat and electricity late last month.
He said the manhole fire that sparked the outage was about 700 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning it took crews a few hours to cool the fire before they could identify the damages and begin restoring power. Spellman said a “catastrophic” power outage like this only happens once every five to ten years.
“Both of them went on for a long time, and we understand that it was a huge inconvenience, and we’re sorry for that,” Linda Green, the external affairs manager at Pepco, said.
Patel said she was frustrated because she and other local governing officials had to “constantly” ask Pepco for updates. She said Pepco’s communication was reactive instead of proactive, and she hopes the electric company develops a better crisis management plan going forward.
Green said Patel’s comments were “fair” and agreed that Pepco needed to improve its communications going forward.
2A02 Commissioner May Yang said she’s heard from community members that Pepco has “stringent requirements” for reimbursements after the outage, specifically related to food that spoiled without electricity, as Pepco requires photos and documentation of the costs.
She said neighbors don’t find the requirements fair given Pepco’s lack of communication during the outage, adding that all people affected should get a flat minimum reimbursement for their troubles.
Green said she couldn’t comment on the matter because it’s not something her office oversees.
D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto updates commission on D.C. budget, Aston unhoused shelter
Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto told commissioners about budget requests and the impacts of federal policy changes on the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
Pinto said the priorities in her budget request include “public safety,” “economic resiliency” and “increased support for our young people.” Her request, which she said reflects a tight budget caused by a combination of losing federal workers and falling property values, contains multiple items for Foggy Bottom, which mostly focus on improving access to the neighborhood.
The request asks for $50,000 to be earmarked for improving signage between Foggy Bottom and Georgetown — specifically for directions to the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro Station. $1.9 million is asked to be put toward a “motor coach and bus parking facility.” Language in the request says the parking lot would “add 1,200 visitors to shop, dine, and experience Georgetown and Foggy Bottom/West End every few hours.”
Commissioners approve resolutions expressing concerns with D.C.’s emergency response, encampment evictions
The ANC approved two resolutions requesting information from District agencies on recent public health crises in Foggy Bottom. Both resolutions passed with nearly all commissioners voting in favor, with one abstention.
Patel authored the resolution that identified a recent incident in Claridge House as one of a series of failures by the Office of Unified Communications, which oversees 911 calls. Youngstone, authoring his first resolution as Commissioner, detailed a series of recent evictions in Foggy Bottom, concluding that they represented “political self-preservation” by District leaders.
More than 200 residents evacuated Claridge House on Feb. 8 after a resident alerted management about smoke emanating from an elevator. Patel, who lives in Claridge House, said the front desk staffer who called 911 was put on hold for 15 minutes before speaking to an operator. Nine more minutes passed until fire services were dispatched, according to the resolution. Once Fire and Emergency Management Services arrived, Patel said, “they did everything appropriately.”
Emergency services determined the smoke was caused by a motor malfunction, not a fire. Patel’s resolution says the 30-minute delay between calling 911 and dispatching emergency services is an instance of “chronic problems have diminished residents’ faith in our city’s emergency response system.” The resolution contains a request for information from the OUC surrounding the incident “to keep OUC open, honest, and transparent about its failures and progress.”
Youngstone presented a resolution addressing the District’s handling of encampment evictions. The resolution criticized DMHHS for using 24-hour “immediate disposition” notices to clear encampments, which came after a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump and called for the city to provide written justification for evictions.
Rachel Pierre, the director of the D.C. Department of Human Services, said at an oversight hearing that five residents were displaced by clearings around the E Street Expressway on March 7. The resolution addresses two other evictions on March 12 and 14, at 27th Street NW and K Street NW and a nearby plot of land. Youngstone said the displaced residents were “given the normal 14 days notice” to move from 27th and K but expected at least two weeks of reprieve at the plot they moved to.
“They moved somewhere else where they thought they would have another couple weeks, and instead, they were slapped with 24 hours you have to go,” Youngstone said.
The resolution includes a request that the ANC receive notification for future evictions, particularly on when they are. He said it is crucial that the ANC make its position on the cleanups clear as evictions ramp up.
The DMHHS web page displaying scheduled evictions lists Rock Creek Parkway and Virginia Avenue as scheduled for “full cleanup” on March 25. The National Park Service, responsible for maintaining Rock Creek Park, will be involved. NPS leans on its prohibition against camping to justify evictions on federal land, which are done in conjunction with District workers.
