Human Services Public Hearing

Council of the District of Columbia COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004 COUNCILMEMBER BRIANNE K. NADEAU, CHAIRPERSON COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES ANNOUNCES A PUBLIC HEARING ON B24-0706, THE “BOARD OF ETHICS AND GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY DELINQUENT DEBT RECOVERY AMENDMENT ACT OF 2022” Wednesday, April 6, 2022 immediately following the BEGA Budget Oversight Hearing Virtual Public Hearing via Zoom Streamed live at https://www.brianneknadeau.com/committee On Wednesday, April 6, 2022, Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau, Chairperson of the Committee on Human Services, will convene a public hearing to consider Bill 24-0706, the “Board of Ethics and Government Accountability Delinquent Debt Recovery Amendment Act of 2022.” The public hearing will be held virtually via the Zoom platform immediately after the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability’s (“BEGA”) budget oversight hearing. Bill 24-0706 will allow BEGA to retain the funds resulting from ethics and open meetings violations under its jurisdiction. It will allow the Central Collection Unit (“CCU”) to collect delinquent debt on BEGA’s behalf and deposit those funds into the Ethics Fund or the Open Government Fund, instead of the General Fund. The money deposited into those funds do not revert to the unrestricted fund balance of the General Fund of the District of Columbia at the end of a fiscal year, or at any other time. The delinquent debt that is recovered and transferred to BEGA will supplement the agency’s limited operating budget by providing additional special purposes revenue. BEGA will have the benefit of using that special purposes revenue to support its operations and personnel. Pursuant to its enacting legislation, BEGA maintains two funds for the collection of fines and civil penalties paid in connection with violations of statutes under its jurisdiction. The Office of Government Ethics (“OGE”) maintains an Ethics Fund for civil penalties collected in connection with violations of the Ethics Act. The Office of Open Government (“OOG”) maintains an Open Government Fund for fines collected in connection with violations of the Open Meetings Act. BEGA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the Chief Financial 1 Officer (“OCFO”) to allow the CCU within the OCFO to collect delinquent debt stemming from ethics violations on behalf of BEGA and to deposit those collections in the Ethics Fund. The CCU recently informed BEGA that pursuant to the Delinquent Debt Recovery Act of 2012, D.C. Law 19-168; D.C. Official Code § 1-350.01 et seq. District agencies are required by law to forward any uncollected debt that is over 90 days to the CCU and that debts collected by the CCU on behalf of BEGA are to be deposited into the District’s General Fund. The Committee invites the public to testify or to submit written testimony. Anyone wishing to testify at the hearing should complete the witness form at https://www.briannknadeau.com/testify or call the Committee on Human Services at 202-741-0909, by close of business on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Witnesses who anticipate needing language interpretation, or requiring sign language interpretation, are requested to inform the Human Services Committee office of the need as soon as possible, but no later than five (5) business days before the proceeding. We will make every effort to fulfill timely requests, however requests received in less than five (5) business days may not be fulfilled and alternatives may be offered. Length provided for oral testimony will be determined based on the number of registered witnesses and the time allotted for the hearing; more information will be provided by the Committee after confirming your registration, but the Committee customarily permits five minutes for the first individual testifying on behalf of an organization and three minutes for any subsequent organizational witnesses and individuals testifying on their own behalf. Witnesses are encouraged to submit a copy of their testimony electronically to humanservices@dccouncil.us in advance of the hearing. For witnesses who are unable to testify at the hearing, written statements will be made part of the official record. Copies of written statements should be submitted either to the Committee at humanservices@dccouncil.us or to Nyasha Smith, Secretary to the Council, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 5, Washington, D.C. 20004. Additionally, voicemail testimony can be provided for the record by calling the Committee’s unique voicemail number – 202-570-4281. At the beginning of the message please state and spell your name clearly, provide the name of the organization you are representing and title (if any), the topic of your testimony, and then begin your testimony. The hearing record will close for all forms of testimony at the end of the business day on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. 2