D.C. Housing Authority Commissioner Janet Parker who represents Seniors and Disabled in DCHA housing was very concerned about the 9/10/22 HUD report.  In March 2022 Commissioner Janet Parker took her elected position as Commissioner for Seniors and Disabled on the Board for a term of 3 years.

The HUD investigation which took place in 2021 highlighted numerous problems within the DCHA.   One of the gravest concerns was the lack of proper procedures in regards to procurement and financial management as well as numerous incidences of conflicts of interest in regards to contract management.   Thus because oversight of the financial administration and management is a responsibility of the Board, Commissioner Janet Parker, with appropriate legal advice,  wrote a resolution for fraud prevention and whistleblower protection to present to the BOC.  This draft resolution was written on November 9, 2022 and was emailed to all the current Board of Commissioners during the November monthly public BOC meeting.  Commissioner Janet Parker requested to the Chair Dionne Bussey Reeder, that Commissioner Parker's draft resolution be placed in the public board meeting minutes and that the Board of Commissioners discuss and consider the draft resolution at a future meeting.  The Chair Dionne Bussey and Executive Director Brenda Donald told Commissioner Parker, that Ms. Parker as a Commissioner, had no right to draft any resolutions and that all resolutions placed in front of the Board of Commissioners were to be drafted by the Mayor's office and needed the Mayor's approval.  Therefore the draft resolution would not be added to the BOC agenda or ever discussed by the Commissioners in any committee meeting, brown bag or BOC meeting. 

This was not the first time that Commissioner Parker had run into such a road block,  she had also faced similar resistance to any discussion of the "Senior Strategy" in regards to redevelopment all the buildings that now house seniors (62 years and older) and disabled, through the RAD process.  Commissioner Parker wanted to discuss the real needs of the current residents and what kinds of protections they needed during the obvious disruption of their lives that would happen as the buildings went under construction.  Most importantly would the residents who are disabled be getting adequate accommodations and modifications based on their disability needs.  Commissioner Parker was told by the Chair Dionne Bussey Reeder and Executive Director Brenda Donald that the current needs of seniors and disabled residents were not going to be on the agenda of the DCHA Resident Services Committee meeting and no staff hours would be devoted to determining the actual disability status of residents prior to the RAD process.  This concerned Commissioner Parker as she had spoken to residents of the 14 high rise properties and knew that many needed accessible features to their bathrooms.  Instead of being willing to discuss the needs of current residents,  the BOC Chair insisted that Commissioner Parker had no standing to put any item on the agenda of the DCHA BOC  Resident Services Committee.  The DCHA attorney Lorry Bonds insisted that only 5% of the units needed to have accessible bathrooms, even when the 14 buildings planned for RAD had between 32% and 56% disabled currently living in these buildings and basically almost 90% are 62 years and older.   Almost all the residents Commissioner talked to face to face needed or wanted some form of accessibility to their bathrooms - if only grab rails to prevent falling.  But apparently provision of accessible bathrooms was not desired by the RAD development contractors and thus discussion of this concern was never going to happen in any DCHA BOC Resident Services Committee meeting and certainly never be presented to the Board of Commissioners as a whole.

The Board of Commissioners of the DCHA has a fiduciary responsibility for ensuring that the integrity of the Agency's procurement process and that all awards comply with federal and local procurement laws.  Commissioner Parker's Draft Resolution (written 11/9/22) was to authorize the execution of Procurement standard, procedures and protocols consistent with federal and local procurement regulations and to create and implement anti-fraud protocols and procedures.

This draft resolution called for the proper staffing of the DCHA's Office of Audit and Compliance so that it can perform its function in an efficient and timely manner.  Currently the OAC Department is only staffed 50% which is inadequate to perform the necessary functions of detecting inefficiencies and irregularities including fraud, waste and abuse. 

The draft resolution  called for implementation of internal security and access controls such as dual authority or monetary authorization limits, enforcement of clear lines of authority as well as audits, unscheduled inspections, management reviews, background checks, use of surveillance devices and transaction monitoring.  

Commissioner Parker's draft resolution also called for the establishment of a Whistleblower Policy and a Fraud Hotline for confidential reporting of suspected complaints of improprieties, criminal activity, wrongdoing, fraud, waste and abuse of any kind within or related to the agency.   

The Chair Dionne Bussey Reeder and the Executive Director Brenda Donald both insisted that such a proposed resolution by Commissioner Parker would not be discussed in any Board of Commissioners meetings.  The agenda of all BOC meetings was set by the Mayor and not by Commission board members and all resolutions are written by the Mayor's office.   The draft resolution written by Commissioner Parker was dropped and no discussion or action was taken on it. 

Instead, on Dec 1, 2022 the Mayor announced that she wanted to remove every independent and elected Commissioner from the D.C. Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners by placing bill B24-1144 in front of the D.C. City Council.  This proposed legislation would effectively remove Commissioner Janet Parker from the D. C. Housing Authority Board of Commissioners - a  position to which she was elected and which is a 3 year term position.   On 12/20/22 the D.C. City Council will be voting on this bill B24-1144 to remove all elected and independent Commissioners from the BOC. 

Call your D.C. City Councilmember and all the At Large City Councilmembers and ask them to VOTE NO on B24-1144