In the last two years, only 50 percent of city contracts have been awarded on a competitive basis. As a result, citizens do not get the most value for their tax dollars. In addition, by forcing competitive bidding on city contracts, we can begin the process of rebuilding trust with our population, which has grown cynical from the repeated stories of cronyism and self-dealing by our government officials. The Council has seldom aggressively exercised its oversight powers over the District government and has been too passive and reactive in addressing the mismanagement problems that routinely plague our city s administration. There can be no doubt that the Council has failed to exercise appropriate oversight regarding our city s administration.
Effective oversight is achieved through hard work and follow-up.
As a member of the Council, I look forward to inquiring about the priorities and lack of accountability in the respective city departments. This year the Council managed to adopt a balanced budget, meaning that for the time being further cuts may not be necessary. In any event, before I would propose making cuts to government programs, I would first like to make certain that our government is operating as efficiently as possible. However, if it is determined that additional cuts would be needed, I would favor the cuts coming from further reductions in city employees. Notwithstanding the recent cutbacks in city employees, our city still has a disproportionate number of employees, especially in the middle management ranks.