ANC 5B Rejects Move to Hire “Executive Director”

Hiring process is questioned by Commissioners

On November 3, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5B (5B) voted down a motion to hire an administrative worker to handle its office affairs. The vote was 2-2 with 4 abstentions.

Commissioners at the meeting were visibly uncomfortable with the motion introduced by Chair Regina James (5B03) to hire Ward 5 resident Tony Dugger in a new position called “executive director of ANC 5B.” No other Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) in Ward 5 has a paid assistant.

Commissioners’ discomfort increased when Ms. James said it was Mr. Dugger who advertised the position on a local listserv and that he was the only applicant for the job. The position pays $25/hour for light office work. Ms. James defended her association with Mr. Dugger, saying she had met him while campaigning in a previous election.

Currently, ANC 5B has no money in its bank account, no office, and has been forced to surrender its checkbook to the D.C. Auditor over allegations that $30,000 in ANC funds were stolen between August 2010 and March 2011. Former 5B Chair William Shelton resigned after the allegations came to light.

At the November meeting, commissioners failed to get clarification from Ms. James on how much money Mr. Dugger would be paid in a year and what his employment agreement would look like.

Ms. James said no specifics were available because the employment agreement would not be drafted until after the Commission voted to hire Mr. Dugger. Ms. James suggested that Mr. Dugger would act as a volunteer until December, at which time his wages would start to accrue.

Ms. James’ efforts to hire Mr. Dugger come at a time when $5,450 in wages owed to former 5B office assistant Patsy Staten are still outstanding.

Ms. Staten claims she is owed the money for working in 5B’s office over the past year. However, Ms. Staten’s claim is impossible to verify because only Ms. Staten and former Chair William Shelton had a key to the office. “There has been no verification of the hours worked or the work performed,” wrote D.C. Auditor Yolanda Branche in a letter to 5B commissioners.

At the November 3rd meeting, Commissioner Vaughn Bennett (5B04) voiced his opposition to hiring Tony Dugger. Mr. Bennett said the situation reminded him of Mr. Shelton’s decision to hire Ms. Staten to “answer phones that did not ring.” According to an article in the Washington Times, Ms. Staten said her typical day was to “twiddle my thumbs.”

Mr. Bennett said 5B’s allotment of funds from the District was supposed to be used to give grants to local community groups, but 5B had never done so despite yearly promises.

Commissioner Rosetta Davis (5B05) also questioned the move to hire Mr. Dugger. In a September email to Ms. James and several D.C. agency heads, Ms. Davis said, “We are an unpaid elected body who happily and faithfully volunteer our time and resources to do the work of our communities and now comes what appears to be a ‘paid’ Executive Director to do what?? I’m sorry, this is a bit much.” Ms. Davis has since resigned from the ANC.

After the meeting on November 3rd, former 5B Commissioner Kathy Henderson questioned Ms. James’ decision not to use the D.C. Department of Employment Services to identify qualified candidates for the job.

Ms. James received coaching in her effort to hire Mr. Dugger from Anthony Hood, president of the Woodridge Civic Association and Chairman of the D.C. Zoning Commission. In August, Mr. Hood emailed Ms. James the text of a speech to give 5B commissioners to convince them to go along with the hire.

The prepared wording began “Commissioners …as we move through this renaissance and resurgence I ask that we agree at this time to let Tony Dugger be our office manager...please-please work with me so Tony can continue to help us move the commission forward.”

Reached by telephone, Mr. Hood said Ms. James had asked for his assistance. He said the email was unremarkable because he gave advice to many commissioners. Mr. Hood added that Mr. Dugger had served as a commissioner in 5C so “he can help some of the younger and newer commissioners.” Mr. Hood said Mr. Dugger was valuable because “he knows his way around downtown...Tony knows the system.”

In early September, Ms. James gave Mr. Dugger access to her official email account. She gave him the login and password information along with instructions to “monitor the ANC account to make the Chair aware of what is going on.” She also asked him to post the executive director job opening from her email. This handoff raises troubling questions about control and authorship of official 5B correspondence.

Charles Tucker, general counsel to the D.C. Department of Human Resources, said the District takes a hard line with employees who disclose their email accounts to others. “No one can share their login, id or password,” said Mr. Tucker. “It is treated as highly sensitive information. Violation could be subject to disciplinary action including termination.”

Ayanna Smith, spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), said she was not sure if rules for District employees against sharing login information applied to Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners.

Mr. Dugger was philosophical about 5B’s decision not to hire him. “The ANC’s are independent elected advisory groups. Their action was appropriate given the challenges they have. My prayers are with them,” he said.