{"id":3029,"date":"2022-07-11T10:44:22","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2022-07-11T10:57:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:57:11","slug":"dc-ethics-board-rules-waba-must-register-as-lobbyist-bike-assoc-must-reveal-expenses-contacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/dc\/3029","title":{"rendered":"DC Ethics Board Rules: WABA Must Register as Lobbyist Bike Assoc. Must Reveal Expenses, Contacts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Immediate release: Monday, July 11, 2022<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Contact:\u202fNick\u00a0DelleDonne,\u202f\u202f<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

delledonne.n@comcast.net<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u202f, 703 929 6656<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0DC Ethics Board Rules:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

WABA Must Register as Lobbyist<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Bike Assoc. Must Reveal Expenses, Contacts\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In a major victory for the Dupont East Civic Action Association (DECAA) and its attorney\u00a0Ed Hanlon,\u00a0DC\u2019s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability\u00a0(BEGA)\u00a0ruled Thursday that WABA is a lobbying organization. It must register with the Ethics Board as a lobbyist and must publicly report quarterly its lobbying expenses and its contacts with DC government officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For years WABA has illegally lobbied DC officials for more bike lanes\u00a0and more money for WABA itself.<\/span> <\/span>WABA now gets over\u00a0$1.2 million dollars\u00a0a year from\u00a0DC taxpayers\u00a0to promote bike lanes, <\/span>street design, and traffic safety.<\/span> WABA declares in its IRS tax returns over the last 3 years it spent\u00a0$113,000\u00a0specifically to lobby, a fact DECAA brought to the Ethics Board\u2019s attention in its complaint.<\/span><\/p>\n

DECAA\u2019s request under the\u00a0Freedom of Information Act<\/i>\u00a0(FOIA) for DC Councilmembers\u2019 emails recently caused the release of\u00a0thousands of documents which show the extent of WABA\u2019s illegal lobbying activities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, all this lobbying, WABA did in secret, bypassing the requirement to register as a lobbyist. \u201cThrough WABA\u2019s illegal lobbying activities ordinary citizens of the District of Columbia were for years shut out of the decision-making process about bike lanes,\u201d said Ed Hanlon. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Huge amounts of public space on neighborhood roadways were set aside as \u201cprotected\u201d bike lanes for the exclusive use of a minority of city residents.<\/span> <\/span>As an example, on the congested commercial stretch on 17th<\/sup>\u00a0Street NW in Dupont Circle,\u00a020%\u00a0of the road\u00a0has been set aside for the exclusive use of\u00a0few neighborhood\u00a0residents. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are gratified at the Ethics Board decision,\u201d said DECAA President Nick DelleDonne, \u201cand see it as ushering in a new era of civic reform in DC.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

BEGA\u2019s decision raises many new related questions about\u00a0possible similar violations in Maryland, Virginia and with the federal government, possible misuse of funds, why DC\u2019s elected officials allowed themselves to be illegally lobbied and whether it is appropriate for DDOT to partner with WABA on task forces, Ward bike councils, ANC Vision Zero Caucuses, Capital Trails Coalition, etc.\u00a0 DECAA will be pursuing answers to these questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Join Dupont East Civic Action Association<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Dedicated to Community Engagement and Civic Action<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Application available at www.KeepDupontGreen.org<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immediate release: Monday, July 11, 2022\u00a0 Contact:\u202fNick\u00a0DelleDonne,\u202f\u202f delledonne.n@comcast.net\u202f, 703 929 6656\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}