🔴 LIVE | DC Mayoral Candidates take part in forum hosted by George Washington University

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Think the trait that I'm most proud of about myself is that I'm very loving person.

[00:00:05]My friends know this about me, too, and I think while tonight you'll probably hear me spill a lot of data and statistics, and I'm I'm a true technocrat. I want good governance in government, but at the same time, I fundamentally care about our people, and I want people's lives to be better. And so, when I point out things like our corruption culture that we have in DC government, where DC residents are being robbed of their own taxpayer dollars because we have DC officials taking bribes, or when I'm pointing out the ways in which DC government is operating ineffectively, it comes from a place of love because I want to see DC residents thrive. I want my friends and neighbors to have better lives, and so that's the first trait that comes to mind. I'm loving towards everybody in my life, and I think that extends into how I would govern as a leader. Thank you, Mr. Orange. I would say the unique quality is providing remedies. Uh when I was in law school, I had the highest grade in that class providing remedies. And when I became the Ward 5 uh council member, I provided remedies for the ward by jump-starting economic development in Ward 5, and it went across the city. I jump-started school modernization, went across the city. Jump-started uh recreation modernization, and it went across the city. Home Depot shopping center, Costco shopping center, Rhode Island Row, the opening of McKinley Technology School. I was going to say Personal. That is That's a personal quality, providing remedies, being able to deliver. And I have a record of achievement that delivers. And so, even on July uh 1st this year, anyone [clears throat] that's getting the minimum wage will get $18.40 because I put the remedy in the law of indexing. So, it's going from $15, and now it'll be 1840 without us without us ever having to discuss it. And also protecting our history, creating DC Emancipation Day holiday that's been going on for 26 years. So, I am the remedy solutions candidate. Personal trait, Mr. Johnson, that you want the voters to know about you.

[00:02:11]I think integrity is very important, but I also think passion. A mayor is to represent the city, to look out for your interest. You shouldn't have to read all of the reports. You shouldn't have to go to all of the meetings. That's why you [clears throat] give these people millions of dollars a year to do, but they failed to do that. Um I I I have love. I have some compassion, but I'm also firm. And I think you have to have a mayor that's willing to stand up to special interest uh and say that the money that is going into our school system needs to go into our classrooms and not into your pocket.

[00:02:45]I think we have to stand up to developers and lobbyists who have been robbing our resources of $468 million deficit is what we're now facing. Those cuts come to low and middle income families. Uh you have to have a mayor that stands up in terms of public safety, who's going to defend you, who's going to say that you and your family are going to be safe in the District of Columbia, and I'm going to make sure that.

[00:03:12]Thank you, sir. Mr. Goodweather, personal trait, quality. The per- the personal trait is empathy. But I'll say that it it it's been a journey. It's been a lifetime of experience, training, serving as a United States Army officer, as a captain in the in the military. And it has been my education. That's uh it the education that I've received undergraduate. I received a bachelor's of science in uh uh bachelor of art and political science from Bucknell undergraduate and received one of the consortium uh universities a MBA from Johns Hopkins with concentration in finance.

[00:03:53]But, I've spent the past 15 months running for mayor.

[00:03:57]And I have been a part of of uh not just showing up, but engaging with and listening and learning from every part of the city. And that journey has brought me to a a new empathetic place, and I intend to lead with empathy. Thank you. Ms. George. Yeah, you know, I think it's just seeing the humanity in everyone. Um it's I think a a really important trait. I think it's something my mom taught me that everyone, no matter their occupation or who they are, deserves to be seen and treated with respect. And seeing humanity is really is what guided me, you know. Um it's why I authored legislation to end cooperation between MPD and ICE because uh to me, I see the humanity in our immigrant neighbors and believe they deserve that safety. Um it's why I have stood up for early childhood educators, black and brown women who are underpaid because I see the humanity in them and the fact that they deserve dignity and uh profession. It's why I stand up for workers every single day because I see the humanity in these people who work hard every day and deserve to have a living wage and deserve not to have to work two or three jobs to survive in the city. Um it's why I decided to run for office because cutting health care alliance for hunt thousands of DC residents um is to me a inhumane act, and so I want to lead as a leader with humanity and seeing people um at at their at their best. Thank you.

[00:05:23]>> Thank you.

[00:05:24]I have another question. Um which um we're going to get to specific issues in a minute, but I got another question that I want to ask.

[00:05:32]Um if you had one idea, one bold idea.

[00:05:39]We're all for lower taxes. We're all for more housing. We all know that.

[00:05:44]Tell me something innovative. Tell me one good idea you're bringing to the table that hasn't [clears throat] been widely discussed or is not yet accepted.

[00:05:53]And I'm going to go in reverse order this time so you can start with that and then we'll go in the other direction, please. Yeah. Well, you know, child care is the most expensive in this city in the country.

[00:06:03]Um and I believe that this city can lead the way just like we led the way with pre-K uh to create universal access to child care in the city uh so that no family has to spend more than 7% of their income on child care no matter who you are. Uh so that means that no matter your income you would qualify for our child care subsidy program. And one thing that's important for us to note is that DC's actually the best positioned to do this because we already have a child care subsidy plan. And so our plan really is just to expand that so that all residents qualify for it. Um and I believe that it's going to help us with the supply of child care that we have in our city. It's going to help our early childhood educators and it's going to help our young people because students' development starts from birth to three.

[00:06:45]These are critical years where we need education to happen. And so if we can make this city uh like we did with pre-K uh a city that has universal access to child care, I know that our city will be better uh and our young people will be better. So I'm excited to do that. Thank you. Mr. Goodweather, one good innovative idea. I I'd love to say I've got two but since I want to play by the rules.

[00:07:07]Um Look, I I'm I'm focused on creating a city that that is affordable for for everyone. And the bold idea is that we will become Washington DC will become the leading producer of uh clean energy in the country. And I've got a two plan uh two phase part. But the second part is building a uh fourth generation air-cooled small modular nuclear reactor uh or micro nuclear reactor. In fact, I don't think I don't think most people know that we already have a major new nuclear Most people don't understand what you just said.

[00:07:45]>> So explain what you mean.

[00:07:48]That's I mean but it this this generate this generation of nuclear reactor it it is safe. It's clean. It produces energy.

[00:07:56]The air United States Air Force is already doing it at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling. We can use this technology to be able to reduce utility costs here in Washington, D.C. I'd love to talk more about it.

[00:08:10]>> Well, we'll give you more time to talk about it but that's certainly not an idea we've heard before.

[00:08:15]>> [laughter] >> Mr. Johnson, one good bold interesting idea from you.

[00:08:22]The nation's capital Washington, D.C.

[00:08:24]This is the nation's capital of the United States of America. I want it to be the greatest city on Earth and we have been slummy.

[00:08:33]Quite frankly, I'm really disappointed in the representation that we've had, the level of violence that we've had.

[00:08:41]I want you to really enjoy this city.

[00:08:43]It's a lovely city with wonderful walkways and monuments but we're not able to enjoy it.

[00:08:50]We we we're just having too much violence and we're fighting with 274 murders between 23 and and and now 5,600 major crimes, 462 carjackings.

[00:09:05]Tho- those are the those those are those are unacceptable and that's because of people who've been left behind, who've been desperate. Our education system is failing. We've got people in the eighth and ninth grade that can barely read. So we cannot have people who are inside the system asking to repair the system. It's time for authentic grassroots leadership and that's what my campaign calls for.

[00:09:25]It's people first and I'm going to need all of you to help me.

[00:09:29]One good innovative idea, Mr. Orange.

[00:09:32]Day one, I will establish a revenue alignment commission so we can see where our dollars are. We are a $22 billion government. $12 billion is generated from DC taxpayers. $5.5 billion comes from the federal government. $4.5 billion comes from enterprise zones. But the problem is we don't have a money problem. We have a management problem.

[00:09:53]And what do I mean by that?

[00:09:55]We budget for 4,500 officers, but we've been carrying 3,100 officers for the last 4 or 5 years.

[00:10:03]Where are those When you say officers, you mean police officers?

[00:10:06]>> Metropolitan police officers. Uh the traffic cameras generated $300 million.

[00:10:11]Supposed to fund And you think that's a popular idea? No.

[00:10:15]>> [laughter] >> You didn't let me finish the thought.

[00:10:19]The thing is [clears throat] it generates $300 million to fund Vision Zero that's cost nowhere near $300 million. Where are those extra dollars?

[00:10:28]The paid family leave, the rate was so high that we had to reduce the rate. We didn't give a refund back to the business community. So all these dollars, these excess dollars, I'm going to get them and then I can address child care, I can address affordable housing, I can address mental health, but we have the money. We have a management problem.

[00:10:47]Thank you, sir.

[00:10:49]Ms. Lambert.

[00:10:50]I really want to use technology to improve service delivery across government. So I'll give you a couple of examples. Our campaign actually redesigned [clears throat] the 311 app. You can go visit our website and check it out. We built a tax dashboard which takes all of the DC publicly available data and shows you exactly where your money is going based on your income level. And we also built a small business permitting concierge that's entirely working. It's functional. Because the things that I'm hearing in DC government is that I should say from from people from constituents is that DC government does not actually serve them. I spoke to one business owner who said that a DC government official tried to shake him down for $10,000 in order to speed up his permitting process. And so, when I talk about service delivery, I want to see DC government actually perform as a high-performing organization that caters to your needs, that treats the people as true customers, and we can do that through technology.

[00:11:49]Let me ask if anybody has heard an idea from one of you that you really like, someone else's idea that you really like.

[00:11:57]Anybody hear something that you really like from someone else?

[00:12:00]Yeah, go ahead. I agree with Mr. Orange.

[00:12:03]There is a lot of money in our district budget. We talk about it a lot, but there's a lot of more money we can be leveraging, a lot of money we leave on the table.

[00:12:11]And I do think the district government can do a better job by having systems in place in our government that is tracking this money in a very real way. So, I think it's important. What have you heard that you liked? I So, Renee brings up about that somebody was shut down for for $10,000, and I actually hear that across the board with uh with restaurants, with getting a building permit. But here's the thing is that DC legalizes it. Mhm.

[00:12:35]They encourages it. Mhm. They have because to be the DC government, Department of Buildings, to do to be able to exit by expedite your permit, uh it's called a velocity program, and they've renamed it, but it's effectively you as an owner, developer has to pay more for the DC government to do their job. Yep.

[00:12:57]That is unacceptable. What have you heard Mr. Orange you liked? What Vince and what what Renee both said, accountability and mismanagement. We have to reel those things in, and these things have been going on for decades.

[00:13:10]And that that's why I talk about a public courage. I'm also chairman and CEO of the Friends of the Frank Reeves Building, 380,000 square foot building that most of you know is on Martin Luther King Avenue. I've been fighting for 10 years to keep that building out of the hands of developers. These are the type of things that we need our elected officials to step up for. But when you ask them to attend a different event, they're just not available. Fortunately enough, we have the votes on the city council to block a land disposition agreement. So we're going to be held up and as soon as I become mayor, I'm going to revoke that RFP because of the uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh >> Not answering my question. But Mr. Orange, tell me something you heard you liked. Well, I I like Louis Georges' passion for humanity and the fact that she wants to address child care and other issues out there and that's what my revenue alignment commission is going to do, find the money because I know there's waste and abuse inside the government and I indicated to you earlier one of my character traits is finding finding solutions and remedies.

[00:14:15]And first I got to get on top of the dollars and then I'll address those issues. Also, I'm the only one up here that testified before Chairman Mendelson and provided a plan to jumpstart our economy by $2.5 billion without raising taxes cuz we don't need to raise taxes.

[00:14:33]As I indicated before, we have the money. We have a management problem.

[00:14:37]What did you hear that you liked?

[00:14:39]Mr. Johnson and I have been at many forums together now and one thing he says consistently is calling for the resignation of the three PSC commissioners and it's resonated with me over time >> Explain what you mean. Yeah, public service >> Public service commission?

[00:14:54]>> Commissioners. who are directly contributing to our Pepco utility hikes because from all of the information that I've been absorbing, I think that we have political government officials who are in the pockets of Pepco and utility providers who are causing our affordability crisis and I fear that that is the elephant in the room when we ask ourselves why is it so expensive to live in Washington DC?

[00:15:18]It's because people are being bought and sold um, quickly in DC. And so that's the thing. We need to get the right people in place. And unfortunately, all of Council voted for this existing PSC Commission, and it's got to go.

[00:15:31]Well, I'm glad you have so many, uh, areas of agreement. Did you want to add something, Mr. Yeah, because you called my name on it. Okay. Okay. So, so I definitely [clears throat] wanted to speak to that.

[00:15:41]She wasn't criticizing you, though.

[00:15:42]>> No, no, no. She was actually No, she wasn't. praising you. No, no, she wasn't. And she's exactly right, and this is where I started with the conversation about public courage. Uh, the reason that your utility rates are up, uh, is because, uh, Richard Beverly, who is on the Public Service Commission, is a friend of Kenyan McDuffie. And M.L.

[00:16:02]He's not here, and I and I in fairness, let's not speak directly cuz he can't be here to to listen. We won't call his name, but the other two, uh, uh, Ted Trabue, who is, uh, also who who is also on the, uh, Public Service Commission. These are utility lobbyists. And I will call Janice Lewis' name because she confirmed them. And this is when you talk about trust, is when you need to step up. You on the committee, you on the committee, and you voted for the confirmation.

[00:16:34]>> Yeah, the the goodwill lasted just so long, right? I mean, it's done.

[00:16:40]Uh, he mentioned your name, so I give you a 30 seconds to respond.

[00:16:43]>> think we need to stand up for our community as it relates to utilities.

[00:16:47]Um, I think we have some tools that we get to utilize. Um, I [clears throat] think we need to use our legal tools and come after the the, um, the the data, uh, centers out in Virginia, um, who are pulling on our energy grid. I think we need to right-size the shareholders, uh, guaranteed income levels that they get while they are share Pepco shareholders are raking in dollars. Um, and District residents' rates are going up. We could right-size the ROE so those shareholders don't have that guaranteed income. I think we could do more by expanding community solar and uh government solar on our buildings and making sure that um uh we can allow for things like even balcony solar. We can expand our solar and energy grid to create credits to lower our utility bills. And so >> I have called for the resignation of public service commission. Will you join me in the in the call for the resignation? I do believe we need we need public service commissioners. I've been very clear about us needing new public service commissioners. Um and uh as the commissioners come up for reevaluation, the council will have the opportunity to vote on new commissioners and I absolutely will be voting on new commissioners should they come come forward. Um one correction is I was not on the actual business and economic development committee. That was led by Councilmember McDuffie who sent those nominations up to the greater council.

[00:18:04]So I wanted to make that clarification.

[00:18:06]Okay. I I just speak to quickly >> real quickly. You know, and this is the reason why we need executive leadership with institutional knowledge. Calling for the resignation of public service commission is not going to lower the rates in the District of Columbia. Most of them just got there. That's like me calling for the resignation of President Trump. You know, we have to deal with >> You can do that, too.

[00:18:26]I said no that's That is an issue we agree on.

[00:18:29]I don't believe that's within the power of the DC mayor, but >> [laughter] >> That's right.

[00:18:35]>> But the point is the point is the point is that they're not going to follow that, but there's other things you can do as the mayor. You can call in the public service commission and go over the law, go over what they were supposed to be doing. As the mayor, you can go and call in all the utility chairmans and have a conversation with them about what's taking place and also utilizing your tools to make it hard for the utilities, to make it hard for the public service commission. You know, you have to use the power and the tools that you have, not this pie in the sky stuff cuz it's not going to work. And that's my point. Use the use the power of the office to utilize to make it work for you.

[00:19:17]>> All right, I got the next question.

[00:19:21]We all know that the the big issue here is economics, right? Every every mayor in every city in the country faces an economic crisis.

[00:19:30]Um and and it's certainly true here.

[00:19:32]Um there's going to be in the new budget that uh Mayor Bowser proposed, um there's a budget deficit of more than 1 billion, that's a B, 1 billion dollars.

[00:19:47]A lot of proposals sound good, but you got to find a way to pay for them in a city where it has a deficit of 1 billion actually it's more than 1 billion dollars.

[00:19:56]Um uh her budget of 21.2 billion is actually a decrease of 4% in previous spending.

[00:20:05]We all know the reasons for this.

[00:20:07]There's a long list which we'll talk about.

[00:20:10]But I want to ask a a big picture question.

[00:20:14]You all have all of these proposals to spend money, right? But what are the trade-offs?

[00:20:20]With a billion dollar with whoever becomes mayor is going to inherit a trillion of a billion dollar deficit.

[00:20:28]How do you handle the deficit of that size and yet also do some of the things you want to do to improve the city?

[00:20:36]Talk about the big picture. I'm sorry.

[00:20:39]Sam, the Sam Adams start.

[00:20:41]I might be the only candidate in the race who is a no new programs candidate and I have come out in favor of this or suggested this not because I don't believe in our social safety net programs, but I think it's dishonest for us to suggest that we can expand certain programs when currently provider economics actually make it even very difficult to open up a child care center in DC. You can't open up a child care center on a second floor in DC. And so, my proposals and plans don't have any expansions in that sense, but they actually propose making sure our DC government is run effectively, that we claw back money that is owed to us. For example, Events DC overcharged DC government by $70 million, and that money is still not back with DC government. That's just one example.

[00:21:30]DHCA housing director got a $40,000 bonus the same year that we had the highest vacancies in affordable housing units in the city. So, if we run DC government effectively, if we don't propose no new any programs until we actually clean up our city and make it work better, we're not going to have to deal with a crisis like this one. Mr. Orange, how do you run a city with a billion-dollar deficit and yet also meet the needs of the of the people? Well, first of all, as I indicated before, you need executive leadership with institutional knowledge.

[00:22:01]I was here when we had the control board. When I came into office with Mayor Williams, we had a $518 million deficit. When we left, there was $1.6 billion in the bank. Your premise is not correct. There is a $1.1 billion gap that's [clears throat] over a four-year period. We balance our budgets over four-year period. This government will balance its budget. The first time they don't balance their budget, the control board comes back. And so, it's just a question of how are you going to balance it? That $1.1 billion deficit really was created by the council when they decided to decouple from the White House's bill, and it created a $600 million deficit. And then, the mayor soon thereafter came in added another $400 million to that because of child >> I'm asking you for a large writing.

[00:22:48]There's a deficit. I don't care what you call it. There is a deficit. You have to reconcile the deficit with your programs. I'm asking >> not how you do that. I'm telling you that that is not true. There is no deficit. There's a potential deficit when the council balances the budget and approved the budget, it will be balanced. It will be balanced.

[00:23:06]>> I'm asking you how you do that when you have to cut back to meet the deficit.

[00:23:12]No, because the mayor has already put before the council a balanced budget.

[00:23:16]It's up to the council >> Okay, I'm not I'm not you're you're not asking answering my question. Go ahead, Mr. Johnson.

[00:23:22]>> on the council 13 years. I know exactly what I'm talking about. The budget is balanced. The mayor has to send you a balanced budget. And then the council has to decide whether or not they want to go with that budget, and if they don't, then they have to come up with specific cuts, but they have to send a balanced budget. Which involves cuts. It could involve cuts. It does not necessarily I'm trying to I'm trying to get you to focus on the single biggest issue facing this city. And how do you reconcile the financial crisis with the needs of the public, a large-scale issue? Please, Mr. Johnson, go ahead.

[00:24:00]>> Again, this is where you talk about public currency and you get away from all of the rhetoric, what is necessary.

[00:24:04]Yeah, how do you balance the budget? The same way Bowser just now balanced it on our backs, on the backs of low-income and middle-income residents. That's how you balance it. What we need to do is bring an end to this excess spending, make sure that our dollars are going to where it go. And and and I don't mind introducing both ideas. One of the things that I will not be spending money on one that she continues to spend money on is sanctuary city funding. We are putting people up in hotels at $250 a night. We're giving them BET cards.

[00:24:35]We're giving them free health care. And at the expense of what? So, as mayor, am I going to just cut your trash back pickups to one day a week? Because that's what needs to happen when you don't reel in all of the excess spending and all of the waste, fraud, and abuse.

[00:24:52]When you don't call that out, you're going to have issues. Yes, we have a deficit. We have a bigger deficit than that and I don't expect him to leave me with anything really to work with to be quite honest with you. So, I'm going to have to just scrape the bottom of the barrel and that's why I said I'm going to need everyone's supporting me.

[00:25:08]Honestly is a good thing. Go ahead and that's a good brother.

[00:25:11]>> [laughter] >> First thing is that first thing that I'm going to do as mayor is I am going to look at the budget and go line item by line item and see what programs are working for DC residents and which ones are not. The ones that are working we can allocate more dollars to. The ones that are not, those potentially need to be eliminated.

[00:25:32]Second of all, we need to create a net positive economy so that we are growing our tax base.

[00:25:38]Additionally, I'll just give you a couple of examples where we are not utilizing our dollars most.

[00:25:44]Department of DCHA owns 8,000 The District owns 8,000 residential units.

[00:25:50]20 to 25% of them are uninhabitable.

[00:25:54]That seems like dollars that we can that we can reallocate.

[00:25:59]I do want to make a point of clarification. The The The way the DC budgets work and by law, we are required to have a balanced budget. If we do not have a balanced budget, then then then the financial control board comes back immediately. President Trump can can appoint the overseers. That is a loss of under the home rule act and we can and will lose more autonomy.

[00:26:23]But we also look at our budget as current fiscal year plus three.

[00:26:29]Thank you. Thank you. Great question. I think first and foremost, my principles as a mayor is I believe that budgets are moral documents and where we put our funding says a lot about where our values are as a city. And so my principles will be this. We need to preserve our social safety net because if we don't preserve our social safety net, if you take away school-based mental health like we have in this budget, and you take away health care from hundreds of families, you create issues subsequently, right? You create public safety issues that you then later complain about when you have unhoused and displaced residents, when you don't invest in young people. So, those are my principles. How do we make it happen?

[00:27:04]What do you cut to make that possible?

[00:27:05]>> I We don't What we do is do I'm going to do is do a forensic analysis of every single agency in district government for savings and implement policies that create those savings. For example, the health budget, we could be saving 5 to 6% even up to 10% if we switch to a value-based system like Maryland. That is a way to gain money. We leverage our federal funds. Uh we gave $34 million back to HUD last year. Uh we got $60 million in from the Inflation Reduction Act from the Biden administration. We spent 3 million of the 60 million and it expires in 2029.

[00:27:38]Um and we don't leave money on the table. We We don't actually do the work [clears throat] we need to do to collect on things. We give out hundreds of millions in fines with DOB every single year and we only collect 1% of those fines. And so, we leave money on the table. And so, we need to leverage our federal dollars, find savings in through smart policies in our agencies, and uh continue to make our government work more efficiently and effectively. And I think in that way, we can have a productive government and spend [clears throat] our money wisely. Um let's get a little more specific here.

[00:28:10]Let me read you what the Urban Institute has written about the challenges facing DC. DC's labor market appears to be navigating a structural shift, not just a cyclical bump.

[00:28:23]Remote work has come down from its peak, but remains elevated. Transit ridership is recovering, but it has not fully recovered.

[00:28:32]Job losses tied to federal workforce reductions are real and they're broad-based.

[00:28:38]And the commercial real estate market, while stabilizing, reflects a city that still has significant excess capacity to absorb. We all know the latest sign in every Washington office building, for lease.

[00:28:55]Right? Space for lease.

[00:28:58]City's been hollowed out by a whole series of events beyond the control of of a mayor, whether it's reduction in federal workforce, whether it's moving federal agencies out of the city, whether it's remote work, which has some people have returned to work, but the number of of folks still working remotely is still much higher than it was before COVID. And that has a ripple effect on our economy. It's not just the office buildings that are for lease.

[00:29:28]It's the small businesses, the lunch the restaurants, the dry cleaners, the drug stores, all of them downtown depend on those workers to be there, and they're not there.

[00:29:40]And as the Urban Institute says, this is a structural problem, not a blame. So, I want to ask you, thinking about the workforce in DC, and that long-term challenge, what do you do to help revive and replace the income that's been lost and the the tax dollars, but also the revenue every day that people coming into the city spend? You can start. Thank you. I agree. We we have to reimagine DC. The last 50 years of DC is going to not going to be the next 50 years.

[00:30:13]On day one, I'm going to create a a business development corporation that has bonding and financing authority to be able to make sure we're making smart investments in downtown. I believe that we need to anchor and use our strengths as a city. I think our [clears throat] strengths are our universities, because we know that we have great some of the best universities in the country here in this city, and we know we can use them to expand their campuses, but also build housing, but also create innovation districts within our city. I want us our hospitals. We also have some of the best hospitals. Children's is one of the best research hospitals. Let's make this a city where we leverage our hospitals for innovation and growth and attract people to this city and attract other universities say, "You want a footprint in this city." I think we leverage the things we have. We know that we are a sports town. In fact, we [clears throat] are women's sports town and we are winning in women's sports. Let's leverage that moment. Uh we also are town with unions and so we want to get our unions in our schools at earliest sixth grade and create apprenticeships pathways for young people for jobs.

[00:31:11]That's how we reimagine our community.

[00:31:13]And DC's always been a space of creatives, right? We are a city with music, art, culture, theater. Leverage that and bring people here. We have an opportunity to reimagine our city and we have some strengths and I can't wait to capitalize on those strengths to strengthen our city, but I want to be clear, our biggest income always comes from our people. So, dealing with the affordability crisis is how we keep our tax base here and bring more tax tax people here who want to be a part of our city.

[00:31:39]This is good. Whether you are, you know, been in economic development for a long time, how do you replace the people and the income that the city has lost? This structural problem that Urban Institute talks about. This is This is a opportunity to re-envision our city and we are going to use our resources, our greatest resources, to be able to create new industries, new businesses, and that is all the talent that we have here.

[00:32:06]>> a good example. So, we we have the highest [clears throat] educated workforce in the country. We have scientists. We have doctors.

[00:32:16]One of my closest friends who's a clinical researcher, he he wanted to open up his his business in DC, but it is and he lives in DC, but it is a in DC makes it too hard. DC says no to to new businesses. No in what way? You can't get uh press it's hard to get a professional license to get a permit to certificate of occupancy to get to open up to be able to open up a business. Uh and to be able to even stay in compliance with with requirements that the district sets that that you can never meet that are really just arbitrary makes it anti-business.

[00:32:59]He lives in DC. He is developing next generation therapeutics for for mental health. He opened up his office in in Maryland. So, what we do and it continues to amaze me, what we are going to do is be able to utilize all of all of the intellectual capital, all of the resources we have here in the city and I'm going to do this through my through my Capital Core which is a workforce I'll get more into that. Workforce development program that provides career pathways for residents.

[00:33:28]>> both of these answers a little extra time but it's an important question. So, you get a little extra time to answer this one cuz this is so important. What did you do about this structural problem, Mr. Johnson? And it is a very serious structural problem as you as you pointed out. And I just want to say everybody on this panel has some great ideas. I take no pleasure in just disagreeing with any of them for any reason just to disagree. But we have to do first things first and it's going to take a minute really to deal because Department of Education has been dispatched actually Department of Indy Spay.

[00:34:01]Number federal workers are not coming into the city. So, we cannot miss opportunities like we have like the RFK redevelopment deal. That is a 1.3 billion dollar right now giveaway that some people here voted for. I would not I would revoke that. I would bring in Allen Porter to renegotiate a 26% ownership. You own 26% of the team.

[00:34:21]We're going to buy out the minority owners.

[00:34:24]Magic Johnson them loves the idea because we're giving them a 10% ROI.

[00:34:29]Those are the type of lifetime investments that we cannot afford. then you have a real seat at the table. You have tag-along agreements. So, if the city if the team is ever sold 10 15 years As George said that this is the kind of development she wants, utilizing the sports teams as a source of economic development. A lot of people think bringing the Commanders back to the city creates jobs and creates economic vitality. So, why you're against it?

[00:34:57]>> It it does. It does, but you have to look at the city's history and the way that we do things. A $1.3 billion giveaway for some jobs and some affordable housing in the future is not the way to go. You want a real seat at the table. You want ownership. You buy out the minority owners. You get 26%.

[00:35:14]The NFL says that the Jeff Harris has to own so much. He has two partners in Philadelphia with the Penguins. They they own so much. So, the rest that's left is minority owners. It's 26%. You don't miss these opportunities. They don't come around every day. I I agree with you, Janiece. You do have to grow, but just giving them $1.3 billion as a subsidy is not a wise investment. So, I'm going to bring in all important law firm to renegotiate that deal. We're going to get the team in. We're going to get the stadium built.

[00:35:43]And you are going to own 26% of the team. So, you won't just be rooting on TV now. You you'll be rooting as owners, okay? And that's because your mayor is a mathematics major, okay? He comes up with formulas. See, lawyers like to argue. I can Yeah, we we like to come up with solutions and formulas, okay? So, that is basically and I agree agree with her 100%, but it takes a certain amount of courage to do these things, okay? And you take a certain amount of forethought. So, as you can see, these are things I've been working on ever since the the deal was announced. Okay, thanks. I will tell you that I'm a season ticket holder. I am and a big fan.

[00:36:26]Go go go ahead, Mr. Arons. It's so once again, I'm going to say it again.

[00:36:30]Executive leadership with institutional knowledge. Got to know why How do we get here today?

[00:36:36]>> Okay, but tell me I understand. Tell me one thing you would do to do this >> my point, sir, please. Let me make my point. Let me make my point.

[00:36:42]>> But you've repeated the same point about six times. So, now I want to I want to get a specific from you. Okay, go ahead.

[00:36:48]>> very specific.

[00:36:49]>> Yeah.

[00:36:50]There was a plan called the economic resurgence of Washington, D.C. Citizens Plan for Prosperity. It took us from the $518 million deficit to where we are today. 40 action items. We executed those action items and it brings [clears throat] us to where we are today. Adrian Fenty was the one that had the vision that came in picked MCI Center and he said everything would grow and that's what happened. I was the seventh vote to bring baseball back to this city and Mayor Williams and all of us, we knew what was going to happen. It generates revenue. And so, what I'm indicating to you, what I just told council uh council chair, we can jump-start this economy because there's $1.5 billion in the budget right now as we speak for certified business enterprise contract opportunities. Then you take that $600 million that that big beautiful bill and it's going to go to these folks. That $600 million is for D.C.'s middle class, seniors, and businesses. The middle class was going to be able to deduct their overtime and they were going to be able to to deduct tips. Those are our workers. When you put that money back in their pocket, they're going to spend it in this community. That bill gave $6,000 to every senior. When you put it in their [clears throat] pockets, they're going to spend it. That That bill gave uh uh the businesses the right to have more accelerated depreciation and deduct their research and development. That's $600 million that you add to the $1.5 billion, it's circulating in your economy. And then what uh the others wanted to do is they wanted to take $400 million and I don't know $200 >> your time is up. $200 million and give it to low-income families, but the council wanted to keep $400 million.

[00:38:34]That's the problem. No one is really looking at and I'll Okay, your time Your time is up.

[00:38:41]Your time is up. Democracy dies in darkness. That's what the Washington Post says and they did it all in the dark.

[00:38:46]>> Your time is up.

[00:38:48]Ms. Ampath.

[00:38:51]So DC is first in the nation for first year business failures and I think where this is starting and the issues that we're having with our economy stem from our procurement. And I'll explain. So I believe that government is good. We're all Democrats here, right? But the way that DC government does >> [clears throat] >> procurement procurement is abysmal. I'll give you an example. Certified Business Enterprise.

[00:39:15]It's a program that's obviously stimulate our economy. 70% of the contracts are going to 10% of the businesses.

[00:39:23]Another example that I can give you. The $67 million that was spent on the snowstorm.

[00:39:29]Many millions of dollars went to a contractor who was indicted for fraud in November. So the money that we are spending as a government with the intention of doing good for economic stimulation is simply not going to the right businesses. It's not sticking where it needs to stick and that's the kind of reform that we need to make.

[00:39:49]Again, it goes back to my concept of we have a cult culture of corruption in Washington DC. Absolutely. We have a lot of money in Washington DC and there's a lot of taxpayer money going into our government. But how that money is being distributed and how the outcomes are coming out and how it's impacting your quality of life is abysmal. We have one candidate in [clears throat] this race who claims to be the business candidate, frontrunner in this race, but we still have the outcomes that we have today.

[00:40:18]Shakedowns by our government officials for small business owners, people struggling to keep their restaurants alive. We're not a business city. And to see that the money is going to these individuals is extremely disheartening, and we know it's because of the political machine at work. 25K is what some of these real estate developers donated to Mayor Bowser in the last race, and she very quickly gave them the contracts that they needed in order for her succeed. And now she's anointed a new uh mayor effectively. And so I just want to make sure that we don't have that situation and make sure our economy actually prospers.

[00:40:51]>> Okay, I want to follow up on I've heard the word corruption from each of you in one form or another. You've talked about kickbacks, you've talked about cronyism, you've talked about sweetheart contracts, right?

[00:41:02]>> Mhm, absolutely. And at a time of economic scarcity, this becomes an even more significant issue.

[00:41:08]Exactly. It's easy to say I'm going to clean up corruption.

[00:41:12]Each of you to give me one idea about how you would deal with this problem, which you all agree is essential to the economic vitality of of the city.

[00:41:21]Start with you. One idea to deal with corruption. We need to prioritize expertise over loyalty. Our DC government has been appointing officials who don't actually have the expertise in their areas into positions of power. And we know from anecdotes, from conversations with neighbors, our most vulnerable residents in the city, that the kickback schemes, because the wrong people are being appointed in these positions, are affecting their daily lives. I talked to a resident this morning. She found me on TikTok of all places, and she said, "Can we have a conversation?

[00:41:55]My emergency rental assistance program is not working for me." And the reason is because this program is being run by people who don't know how to actually coordinate between the agencies, have a technology system that's actually working, and have real service delivery.

[00:42:10]I mentioned this earlier. And so if we get experts, if we do nationwide searches for these roles and appoint to roles that make sense, we're going to actually see an improvement in your quality of life. So, corruption starts with the people in office, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to lead like a leader who doesn't have their hands tied.

[00:42:27]Mr. Orange, what would you do about corruption?

[00:42:30]Well, first and foremost, I've been trained by the best. I worked with the number one accounting firm in the world, and we had the audit of DC government.

[00:42:38]That's why I know it like the back of my hand. You have to put in internal controls. And in No, you put those internal controls in place, but you got to know the system. You have to know what's taking place. And what Through those internal controls, you identify what's taking place. That's the reason why I'm going to have a revenue alignment commission. I'm going to know.

[00:42:59]I'm going to know those dollars, and I'm going to know if it's not being spent for the intended purpose. And I'm going to know when somebody is taking those dollars because of the internal control and the people that I bring in the office with me. You know, uh when we had that deficit, and I predicted the deficit, and somebody says, "Well, why don't you run for office?" So, I said, "You know what? I will." And I came into office with the bean counter, another technocrat. And you look and you test those systems, and when someone violates the system, you zero in. It's surgical.

[00:43:30]Thank you. Mr. Johnson.

[00:43:34]Corruption. Uh I really don't want to alarm our audience, but this >> Go ahead. This corruption is way deeper than what's being presented. And um we have 30,000 of the most great, fantastic employees, but they need a leader. And so, I'm going to have to call in the Inspector General, uh the DC Attorney General, meet with the US Attorney and the Justice Department. But also, I'm going to meet with the uh House and Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committee. This is the level of theft that we have going on in the District of Columbia. And it has to have a very serious response. I pointed out earlier in another form, we have a small rogue MPD group that we need to deal with. I'm going to bring our training from the Middle East back to a It was Air Force Base.

[00:44:23]And as I mentioned that the right after that 13 of them were were dismissed. I get information that other people don't get because they trust me, they have confidence in me.

[00:44:33]They have know that I have the ability to keep my word and to maintain their confidences.

[00:44:40]So, I get a lot of this information and I'm able [clears throat] to act on it and they know that I will. But, it is way more serious than than than what's being let on.

[00:44:49]Thank you.

[00:44:49]Corruption and cronyism, how would you deal with it?

[00:44:52]One brilliant idea, service.

[00:44:56]Government work is service work.

[00:45:00]I am running for mayor because I want to serve you.

[00:45:05]I do not have any political debts to pay to anyone.

[00:45:10]I've got a great life.

[00:45:12]And I have been trained, I've been educated to serve other people. My values dictate to me >> Corruption and cronyism. My my my values, my values do not allow me to to it's ethical standards. It is service for other people knowing that your stakeholders are the people that you're trying to serve. I I am not there I can I can remove the corruption the cronyism because I'm not trying to I'm not trying to pay any political debts and I can go line item by line item at the at the in the budget and be able to strike where we're seeing that type of cronyism, that quid pro quo. Look, this is not about managing the status quo.

[00:46:07]I'm not running to manage the status quo.

[00:46:10]I am running to fundamentally change it and bring service and government service, eliminate cronyism, and put the power back into service into people's hands. Thank you. Corruption and cronyism, you raised the question yourself earlier.

[00:46:23]>> Yeah, you know, I I've seen um members of the DC Housing Authority board who um complied with HUD, uh they were ousted.

[00:46:33]In fact, after they were ousted, colleagues voted to re- reshuffle the board after those members stood up and rightfully called out DC Housing Authority. I was one of only three council members who voted against it. Uh I have seen uh the ways in which uh I've seen my constituents in Ward 4, I call I have landlords uh who have left them in slum conditions. I called DOB, they give out fines, nothing happens to those individuals. We We haven't disbarred a single housing provider. So, I think my >> the housing provider, nothing happens to the housing provider.

[00:47:05]>> Nothing happens, right? [clears throat] And so, I think my three things are this: real transparency, real accountability, and real professionals.

[00:47:12]Real transparency means all of our contracts and procurement should be online for people to see. When people bid for a contract, you should see who bids, not under LLC, what are your names, who bids on a contract, what was the RFP they submitted. Let everyone see the RFP, so they can know, "Hey, my RFP didn't win because it wasn't good enough, not because I wasn't friends with the person in DHCD or the person in the small business." So, we're going to bring real transparency. Every contract, there's going to be a a transparency, and actually I've already had this legislation in the council right now waiting and hoping to be passed, but real transparency where you can see who applies for every single bid, what was their RFP, why they were selected based on actual criteria, because that's what people want. What was the criteria, right? And that black box is what has allowed the corruption to continue. And real accountability is when we have a DCHA who refuses to hold anyone accountable and we have a DOB who refuses to hold anyone accountable, when we have agencies in our district who refuses to put anyone accountable, we have a problem and that is purposeful, right? I see it happen every day as facilities chair and then real professionals is, you know, what my colleague down here said, which is we need agency directors who have a real background and are not just loyal loyalists but can actually deliver for DC residents and we don't have the retaliation that people have been afraid of [clears throat] and that have has been real in district government. Okay.

[00:48:31]Um we've got a lot of other topics to to cover and I one that is very high on the list when we asked people what they were interested in.

[00:48:40]One that was very high on the list is is just the larger question of DC's autonomy. We were in a very we're not a state, we're not a normal city, we're a special place in America, that place by special rules. Uh and we've been uh taught how special they are recently.

[00:48:59]Um on August 11th, 2025, President Trump invoked Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act for the first time in history to place the Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.

[00:49:13]He deployed 800 National Guardsmen, you can see them on the streets out here.

[00:49:18]They're still here, some of them.

[00:49:21]And he named a federal official as interim interim MPD commissioner, not subject to pressures from the White House but from Congress as well.

[00:49:29]This is very important to many voters.

[00:49:31]We've seen within the last year the consequences of our special circumstance and the limited autonomy and the political pressures that can be exerted uh on on the district from political opponents. So, my question to you is how do you protect our autonomy?

[00:49:52]Uh primarily when it comes to police and public safety issues, but in general.

[00:49:57]How do you govern this city in a way that every one of the residents here feels that they can control their own destiny and are not controlled by them. Please start.

[00:50:08]>> Yeah. You know, as [snorts] a daughter of the district, you know, I've been fighting for DC statehood my whole life.

[00:50:12]I understand how important autonomy is and also how important it is for us not to have a control board coming in. So, I'm going to make decisions to not jeopardize that, but I want to be clear I don't believe complying in advance is a strategy. I think our strategy needs to be a three-fold strategy.

[00:50:26]>> Did you say compliance in advance?

[00:50:28]>> a strategy.

[00:50:29]>> Yeah. I believe that we need to use all of our legal tools.

[00:50:31]>> the current mayor did that?

[00:50:32]>> I do absolutely believe that.

[00:50:33][clears throat] With with health care alliance, that was complying in advance because the Trump administration didn't want us to pay for health care for undocumented residents. That's what's complying in advance. That's just the truth.

[00:50:46]In many ways we have seen that play out.

[00:50:48]And those decisions have hurt DC residents. We know that.

[00:50:52]And also going on TV and saying this has been great or this benefits us, right?

[00:50:56]That's not okay when residents are losing families every single day on the street. So, that's a problem. I think we need to use every legal tool we have, work with Attorney General Brian Schwalb to fight back every legal way we can. We know it we know AGs across the country and states are doing that work. I think we need to build relationships in Congress. I plan on having executive office of mayor with a real federal affairs office and I'm not talking about one person and I'm not talking about showing up to Caucus happy hours. I'm talking about a really meaningful conversation with real Democrats, which I've been doing and I will tell you one of the things I know this works. A couple of months ago my team had a meeting with Vindman, a congressperson out in Virginia.

[00:51:33]>> Yeah. Uh, Vindman is had been voting against DC. Uh, we said look, what you know, why you've been voting against DC?

[00:51:40]And he said well, look I'm in a purple jurisdiction and sometimes I have to vote with Republicans. And we said okay, well and I and he said I didn't see my vote against DC as consequential. And we said oh my God it could be I don't want to be unfair to everybody else. I don't want to be >> me a question in the [clears throat] middle of the question and the answer.

[00:51:56]Okay, but my point is the solution the end of that conversation was that he understood that we need to make the case for our self in Congress with Congress people even Hakim Jeffries said we're doing a terrible job and that is because we have to make the when when Republicans in Congress are coming after us, it's not the rest of the Congress people's job to find out what's true or false. It's our job as a district to equip them with the information to be able to fight back and stand with us and gaining leverage in the house and the Senate is how we ultimately protect DC statehood and DC's autonomy and build the groundwork for when we do have a Democratic president house and Senate again to pass DC statehood. So I will say that and and uh Okay, I'm going to give everybody a little extra time on this to be fair to everybody, okay? Um the question of autonomy tell the voters here not just in this room but who are going to stream this and listen to us it's at the top of the mind. How do you protect the autonomy of this city? All right. I mean number one we need to address the our current situation and I am going to ensure that there is no collaboration between Metropolitan Police Department and and ICE. Number two is we need to protect our budget. As I mentioned before, we are legally bound to ensure that that we that we have a balanced budget. In Washington, DC we have seven deadly sins under the Home Rule Act. If we breach any of them, then again, the president can over can appoint the overseers. So my job as mayor is to create a city that is affordable, that is a safe, and have a budget that works for everybody then I can go to Congress and to be able to get more for DC residents to be able to get full financial autonomy the power of the purse for for our city and start getting more control over our court system as well.

[00:53:43]I'll say this, I took an oath to the Constitution once to defend to defend every American.

[00:53:51]When I am mayor, I will take another oath. And this is why this is service.

[00:53:56]My oath will be to protect and defend and set every DC resident up for success. And that is my mission and I will use every tool and create new tools to be able to do so.

[00:54:10]Mr. Johnson, autonomy. I know this is an issue important to you. Tell us how Reassure voters, what would you do on this issue?

[00:54:19]Well, when you talk about the historical perspective, I I've worked with Walter Washington and obviously the late Mayor Marion Barry. So, I have a a great historical legacy in working towards autonomy in the District of Columbia. The problem that we have is that a number of our residents and that's why we're doing so well in wards 5, 7, and 8. These wards have been left behind. They know they've been ignored.

[00:54:45]They don't pay any attention to mailers and whatnot. If once we bring all of these people on board, when we have a statehood rally, we'd have 200 250,000 people. Then you're you're you're beginning to be listened to. Also, you have to have a certain amount of respectability. You just heard about the robust approach that I'm going to take to corruption. People respect that. When you're talking about approaching things at that level. So, that's the type of approach that we have to have in order to protect the autonomy of the District of Columbia. And that goes along with public safety. That goes along with everybody playing by the same rules.

[00:55:23]Everybody feeling comfortable.

[00:55:26]And we have to take those those little small steps and stand up if you want to gain people's trust like our $2 billion lead pipe replacement program. That's a backdoor rate increase to you. That's why your water bills went up. Council voted approves it. As mayor, I'm going to revoke that. We do need a lead pipe replacement, but we can get a $500 million grant from EPA. The taxpayers don't need to pay for it. These are the things that a mayor has to have the courage to really act on. So, once we demonstrate that we can govern right now, we we haven't been demonstrating that. That's how we got the National Guard. That's how we got all these other agencies. And when you hear people talk about ICE, there are 252 law enforcement agencies in the District of Columbia.

[00:56:09]All of them need to respect you. Okay.

[00:56:11]Well, thanks.

[00:56:13]Mr. Orange, I want I want to let's focus on this issue.

[00:56:16]>> I got it. And I I know you don't want to hear it again, but I'm going to say it I'm trying to I'm going to say it anyway. Executive leadership with institutional knowledge.

[00:56:25]So, I'm going to come to you with your time.

[00:56:27]>> If you want to repeat yourself, you can do it. I'll do it. So, I'm going to come to the table in the words of John F.

[00:56:32]Kennedy. I'm not going to approach the White House and Congress in fear. Yet, I'm not going to fear to negotiate. And what's non-negotiable? Home rule. It's non-negotiable, Mr. President. DC autonomy is [clears throat] non-negotiable, Mr. President. And the pursuit of statehood is non-negotiable, Mr. President. But also, I'm going to look at my own house and make sure that we don't get caught with our pants down again because we were the ones that created that "defund the police." And when we did that, we let our officers go to all these other jurisdictions. That's why we only have 3,100. And that's why the White House was able to come in because we couldn't protect ourselves. And then they told us, "You're playing with the numbers." We said, "No, no, no, no, no, we're not." 13 officers are under investigation for playing with the numbers.

[00:57:22]And so, we have to be real. We don't have internal controls in place. And this whole thing about statehood, we don't have statehood because of Democrats, not Republicans.

[00:57:32]Uh this last go round, Eleanor Holmes Norton took us to the 1-in line. And the And two Democrats let us down, and that's why we don't have statehood today. The Democrat from West Virginia and the Democrat from Arizona. Kamala Harris was sitting right there with the pen, break the 50-50 tie, Biden's ready to sign the legislation. We are a state, and what we're talking about right now wouldn't be happening. The last time we had an opportunity to be a state, Jimmy Carter was the president, and we controlled the House, and we controlled the Senate. And what happened? We are our own worst enemies, and we have to be on top of ourselves and tell the truth.

[00:58:12]We got to tell the truth about the money, we got to tell the truth about public safety, we got to hold these uh parents and teenagers accountable so we can be around in the city and guard the city. Tell the truth.

[00:58:24]Time up.

[00:58:27]The same path.

[00:58:30]autonomy I'm going to answer your question in two parts. One, my answer is good governance. We got here in the situation where we have so much federal encroachment because of bad governance that's been perpetuated by career politicians who are in this race and who govern DC. And I'll give you a few examples. So, right now, I know even being a Ward 1 resident, I'm celebrating the fountains having been turned on, Malcolm X Park. We're excited. Um my dog loves it. But issue, why were we even put in a position where it was President Donald Trump who had to, you know, close down Logan Circle Park, had to close down Malcolm X Park? It's bad governance. Our DC government does not deliver on its fundamental municipal promises. It's your 311 system, it's your 911, it's your sidewalks getting repaired on time. All of these things need to be taken care of, and the role of a mayor is not that of a career legislator. It's a role of an administrator, it is the role of an operator, so you need someone who understands what good governance is in order to clean up that mess. The second part of this is I want to talk about actually advancing statehood. So, Mr. To Mr. Orange's point, completely agree that Democrats aren't bought into this and that is one of our biggest hurdles. And so, what I want to see is not just a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, but use our Democratic influencers. I'm talking our governors or allied governors, bringing Democratic influencers, whether they're elected or community leaders, and having them tout the importance of DC statehood across the United States. This needs to become as big of a conversation as it is here in Washington DC and I have the opportunity to use the mayor's pulpit to make that kind of a campaign a reality.

[01:00:17]So, we have to have good governance, but we also have to have a real effective campaign to make the Democrats bought in. Thank you.

[01:00:24]I got to move on to another couple of coming to the end here and I have a couple of important issues I still want to get to and one is education.

[01:00:34]We're here at the George Washington University. My own classrooms are two floors above us right here.

[01:00:39]The consortium of DC University is a very important sponsor of this of this meeting and so education is on high on the on the list of a lot of people who are here tonight. And you started this this but Congressman George Congresswoman George made this point, but I want to ask each of you to delve into it a little bit more.

[01:01:03]With all of the world-class universities and colleges within the within the district and part of the consortium, how do you leverage and and how do you build on the presence and the vitality of these institutions as part of the economic revival? So, let's talk about these institutions a little bit more. Go ahead.

[01:01:25]We were having a conversation with our GW provost right before this all started and he mentioned that 100,000 of our residents are college students and that is remarkable. Uh we have 700k residents in DC of that 100k are college students.

[01:01:42]Amazing. And to me what that reminds me is that DC government has to prioritize young people in the decision-making process.

[01:01:51]Uh youth advisory council which is something that mayors should be running.

[01:01:56]Uh the last time the webpage was updated was several years ago. So, what I want to see is an actual seat at the table for our young people. I want to see of course the institutions flourish, but if people know that when they come to DC you would have an opportunity to be a young person who has their voice heard, that they have a Marion Barry youth summer program that's actually year-round, that they have a paid internship with the mayor's office, we'll be able to attract more young people to Washington DC because they see it as a place for great employment, for a future. And that's the kind of long-term strategy and investment I want to see by giving young people a seat at the table. Mr. Orange, role of the colleges and universities here. Well, the first thing we have to do is stop giving our youth money only to leave the city. We give them $15,000 that TAG program, but they have to leave. Why is that? I don't get it. Cathy Patterson and I tried to change that that paradigm because generally where you go to college, that's where you wind up. You know, I've been here 46 years. I went to Howard Law School, got bit by that bison right there, been here ever since.

[01:03:02]Thought I was going back home. You know, [laughter] and that's what happens.

[01:03:06]>> Love it. You know, and so uh for me >> [clears throat] >> as the mayor, two things I'm going to do for our high school graduates.

[01:03:14]One, our high high graduates can go to the University of District of Columbia tuition free.

[01:03:19]The second thing as mayor, I'm over all the agencies. Everyone's not going to go to college, but if you come to me say Mayor Orange, I I think I want to be a accountant. I'm going to send you to [clears throat] office of tax revenue.

[01:03:30]18, 19 years old, you're going to get health benefits, you're going to get retirement benefits, and you're going to get an entry-level job. If you want to know about events planning, I'm sending you to events DC. If you want to be involved in the environment, I'm sending you to Department of Environment. And indirectly, [clears throat] I'm fighting I'm fighting crime cuz I'm taking up these young people's time. I'm going to give you a job and and and in addition to that, we didn't talk about it, I'm going to push workforce Pell to make sure that our people Everyone's not going to go to college, but they need those grants to go out and get those credentials. And that's the program I've been running over at Howard. I just got 22 high school graduates graduated, got a job at Howard University Hospital. I know it works and they got credentials. They got the credential in CPR and basic life support. So, that's the direction. We got to give our children hope. We got to let them know what's waiting for them.

[01:04:25]In an Orange administration, you will have a pathway. And the reason why you're going to have a pathway, I'm a better [clears throat] chance student. I got a scholarship when I was 14 years old. I come from an extremely poor background. My parents only had sixth grade education. And but some teachers took care of me, introduced me to that a better chance program. I went away to private boarding school, went to school six days a week, mandatory study hall every night, never looked back.

[01:04:48]Education is the key and I'm going to make sure that the the children of the District of Columbia have a better chance at a better quality life and I'm providing them three pathways. I'm glad you mentioned work work workforce Pell because that's a it's a new program.

[01:05:02]It's actually not even going to go into effect till this summer. Yes. But we have a lot of students here at GW who are on Pell grants. So, every university does. But this is a new innovation which allows you to use Pell money for non-college, you know, for trades and and and skills which can really help in terms of training a workforce. So, as you answer this, if you want to mention workforce Pell, we're delighted to have you include that. Please, Mr. Johnson. Thanks for mentioning it. And and and and thank you for mentioning GW students. In fact, I have more GW students in my campaign than anybody sitting on this stage. In fact, most of them are sitting in the audience right now. Well, I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll get their papers later and I'll I'll grade them.

[01:05:41]>> [laughter] >> I'll grade them gently in your honor, Mr. Johnson. Thank you.

[01:05:45]>> Give them a break. [clears throat] Give them a break. They're working hard.

[01:05:48]>> I I Fair enough. What One of the things >> a GW graduate in my household.

[01:05:54]>> [laughter] >> Okay. But in all honesty, my focus is really on DC public schools.

[01:06:01]That is the foundation to grow on and we're spending a billion dollars a year and we have kids in eighth and ninth grade that can barely read or write.

[01:06:09]That's because our resources are not going to where it needs to go through.

[01:06:12]We have some of the highest paid teachers in the region. So, money is no problem.

[01:06:16]My son went to Murray. The difference is is that those masters in their subject, they make far less than DC public schools, but our money is not going to where it needs to go. So, I want to reform the from pre-K to the fifth grade. Make sure that everybody has a foundation in reading, writing, and arithmetic. That that foundation is solid. When they go from sixth grade to the 12th, I want STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math, but I want to return vocational training to all of our schools because those are the jobs of the future. The plumbing, the electricians, the bricklayers. Can't offshore a plumber.

[01:06:53]Yeah, all of those. They're the future millionaires, I tell you. Cuz AI is going to replace a lot of these humanity jobs. All right, just just to kind of like let you know they're already doing it. You're scaring your students over there.

[01:07:05]>> Well, I'm I tell them the truth. I tell them I tell them the truth. And so so I want them to understand the importance of vocational training as well because everybody doesn't want to go to school.

[01:07:15]There's there's some things that we need to put back in our schools. I know home economics was there. I remember we used to like to go around the class because the girls cooked all of the cookies and everything. We we really enjoyed a lot of that. So I want to bring some >> you did, but let's go on.

[01:07:29]>> [laughter] >> Go ahead, Mr. >> I just got to start by getting it on the GW Brad part. Gianna just graduated on our team just graduated 3 days ago from George Washington University.

[01:07:43]My father My father is a George Washington University law law school graduate as well.

[01:07:49]So I am creating a citywide workforce development program and it's called the Capital Corps. It is I designed it after my time in the United States military, after AmeriCorps, off of City Year if you're familiar with that, as well as the Marion Barry Summer Jobs program.

[01:08:07]Participation in the program and it's a workforce development program. It will provide the training, the education, and the skills that our DC residents need and there is tuition reimbursement because we need to make sure that if you're receiving an education here in the city, you can also afford to live here in the city and to be able to stay here and use your skills here in the city.

[01:08:31]Muriel mentioned that we're talking about we have about 100,000 gradu or 100,000 college university post grad residents here. We also have 100,000 students in DCPS and charter schools. We want to utilize We talk about utilizing universities and the resources. I want that the universities to also participate in our in our in our educational system more, including each of you to be able to be mentors and trainers. And we're going to hire more special educators. We're going to hire more social workers. We're going to hire mental health professionals because we need to address our youth at the very at the very earliest stages of the development so that they can have a productive life and have good great career and life outcomes. Thanks.

[01:09:23]Thank you. Yes, as I've said before, we have some of the best universities in the country right here in DC. I want to leverage university in several ways. The first way is to help our government work better. In fact, other jurisdictions have already done this.

[01:09:34]Actually, Chicago University helps their public safety because they too suffer from not having all the resources they need. And so, they created the crime data lab at the University of Chicago and helps them teaches them how to disperse their officers, how to disperse their resources to Good idea. Yeah. Uh University of Michigan is helping Michigan right now optimize traffic safety across their community by showing and running systems to show, "Hey, you can improve traffic. You can improve safety by using these things." Boston University has leveraged their universities to attract innovation, to be a part of a core part of Boston's actually economic development. And they also use their universities to help inform their policies and how they operate. We have all these brilliant professors, all these brilliant students teach us as a government how to operate more efficiently, how to operate better.

[01:10:24]What should we be thinking about AI and how do governments need to approach this work to help support workers, but also do safe things? So, I want to use our universities to help our government work better. I also want to help use leverage our universities so that our students have access to education. When I was at School Without Walls Penguin, which I consider GW student because I went to School Without Walls right across the street here.

[01:10:44]As a School Without Walls Penguin, we had access to get six credits here at GW before we went to college. Right now, Coolidge and Roosevelt students are graduating. Actually, they're going to graduate soon. They are graduating with associate's degrees from Trinity University before they even walk across their high school stage. So, I want our university >> Nancy Pelosi's alma mater. Yeah. And yes, right. And [clears throat] so, I want our universities to step up and help our young students in DC get access to associate's degrees because it helps bring down the cost for their families.

[01:11:12]I also want to see our universities be a part of growth in our city and what that looks like to help attract more people because universities and hospitals are what? The number one job creators in a city. And that's not just sort of like high degree white-collar jobs. Those are basic level jobs, too, where people who have a GED can have a job because they need people to run the system. So, to create jobs to help our students and to help our government, that's how I imagine us working with universities in a joint partnership that can actually benefit all of us.

[01:11:40]>> Thank you. We're coming close to the end here, but there is one other critically [clears throat] important issue that I want to get to with try try to keep your answers a little brief because we're running out of time.

[01:11:49]That's housing and gentrification. It's a gentrification is a is a very difficult issue in some ways because it provides all sorts of benefits, new investment, uh new people bringing the college students, keeping them here in the city.

[01:12:03]But it also has a cost because it drives out older residents. So, housing affordability, how do you balance the growth and gentrification and the and the investment that's a good thing for the city and minimizing the impact on the underserved communities and the lower-income residents who get pushed out? And how do you deal with the fact that one out of 10, according to the Urban Institute, one out of 10 people in DC experience housing insecurity. How do you deal with this issue?

[01:12:31]You can start. Okay. Housing affordability across the board, uh we're going to have to build more housing. We just have to. In order to be able to bring down costs in the city, we have to build more. We have to make it easier and cheaper and more efficient to build housing in the city. We as a city also have to do deeply affordable housing ourselves because the market doesn't allow for a normal housing provider to build the deeply affordable housing we need as a city cuz they have to center profit and we as a city have to center housing as a public good. So, we step up and add new tools by creating that deeply affordable housing we need ourselves. Uh for our seniors who are aging in place, we make sure that programs like single fee family rehabilitation that helps them age in place in their homes actually functions [clears throat] well and the dollars actually go out the door. For seniors, we also do our safe at home program that allows them to be able to get the safety uh um things that they need in their housing to be able to do that. Um and we continue to expand our homestead deduction so that they can afford to stay in our city. Uh when it comes to residents, though, we don't >> have to cut you off because otherwise we're going >> leverage from people because my family was displaced and the leverage that I had as a young person was to exercise my topa rights. And when I exercise those [clears throat] rights, they gave me the first right of refusal and I said, "Hey, actually, I want to buy." And so, I've got to give I'm sorry. I've got to give >> Not voting to take it away is how I've got to give everybody a chance to answer this question. Go ahead. We Once the clock starts, thank you. Uh we are going to build 50,000 multi-generational homes in Washington.

[01:14:00]>> need to cut you off. No, you're not. In Washing in our city. I've been building in this city for 30 years. We are going to completely revamp the Department of Buildings. We need to make it easy to be able to get a permit to be able to build. Number one. Number two, I the the definition of AMI and FMI, it does not take into account the true cost of living in Washington, D.C. We are creating a new formula to actually be able to to be able to look at what it costs to to live here in the city. What it costs to actually operate a building.

[01:14:32]I am also going to remove I am also going to lower real estate taxes as part of what we are doing a real rewriting the tax code. The real estate taxes are making our city less affordable and I will bring them down.

[01:14:44]>> I I apologize. It's a very complex subject, but we we're running out of time. So, I do want to give everybody a chance to answer that question. Mr. White. Absolutely. Over the last decade, we spent $10 billion with developers, and this is this is why we have an affordable housing crisis because they don't keep their word on anything. So, I'm going to use nonprofit developers.

[01:15:03]I'm going to use certified minority contractors, and I'm going to use some of our vocational students who are in vocational training as well. Also, for residents, if you are 60 years old, you've been in your house over 15 years, you make under $70,000, you're not going to have to pay any more property tax. We have to give our residents a break, and that's how we begin creating affordability. Thank you.

[01:15:27]Mr. Orange. I'll take the $100 million that we put into the housing production trust fund on an annual basis and go right back to where I started with our youth and our seniors. I'm going to build 1,600 square-foot units. And I want to make sure that those that are recently graduated from college can get a deed so they can start building their lives. Our seniors, some of them need just just have their own facility. I'm going to make sure that they're in that equation.

[01:15:56]And our first responders, I need the police officers back. And so, I'm going to take that $100 million.

[01:16:02]I'm able to get stuff accomplished. I get the short-term victories. I have over 40 pieces of legislation that have been passed, and I don't have to talk about it because I know you're you're in Home Depot, you're in Costco, you're in Lowe's. Your kids are in the McKinley Technology High School. The other kids are getting the minimum wage. They're they're cashing the checks. I am in the delivery business, and I started out by telling you I specialize in remedies.

[01:16:24]And that's >> You'll have a final statement in just a minute. Go ahead, please.

[01:16:28]Rent-burdened residents, it's horrible. Many senior citizens are especially rent-burdened. We know one in three senior citizens are, and we know that rent is for one bedroom in DC is one of the highest in the entire nation.

[01:16:42]And so for me, building more homes means increasing the supply, bringing the cost down, up zoning, eliminating parking minimums near transit, legalizing single stair buildings up to eight stories.

[01:16:53]These are going to allow us to create more supply. At the same time, to answer your question about displacement, we have to require an equity plan for every single developer. And we have to create a public dashboard that showcases the milestones these developers are hitting.

[01:17:06]So when they promise affordable housing units alongside a civic association like happen in Ward 3, it actually happens because people are able to see the transparency of government when any development is promised. Thank you.

[01:17:19]Um a lot of questions we didn't get to, but um uh I do want to give now everybody uh a chance to give a final statement.

[01:17:28]Um try to keep to a minute, but uh um and uh I'm going to go in reverse order from the uh introductory statement, so uh you're on, Ms. George.

[01:17:38]>> Yeah. I'll be honest with you all. You all have everybody has ballots in their hands. Um when I first decided to run for mayor, I ran from a place of anger and frustration.

[01:17:46]I was really frustrated as a Ward 4 Council member trying to get constituent services done for my residents, going to oversight hearings to 11:00 at night, yelling about all these issues, seeing residents show up every year at oversight hearings and say the same thing till till some of them said, "I ain't showing up no more cuz I don't believe our government is ever going to change." I was frustrated that we weren't fighting back against ICE in the administration and what was happening to families in our city. I was frustrated that we were getting rid of health care for thousands of DC residents. And I was really pissed about it. But I got to be honest, running for office in this moment against >> That's an official statement, pissed.

[01:18:21]Yeah. But I got to tell you, I went from being pissed to really hopeful. Because I've been talking to residents every day who believe in my vision for affordability, who believe that we can stand up to this administration, and who believe our government can work better.

[01:18:33]And if that's something you believe, I would ask you to to rank me first for mayor. Uh the machine is angry and they have put a lot of tax out there. Don't let them miss you have missed the opportunity to have a a mayor who is a real champion for the people and will put people first. Thank you for this opportunity and I look forward [clears throat] to continuing to serve DC residents. Thank you. Mr. Goodwin. Uh first of all, thank you all for being here tonight. It's it's incredibly important that you've been engaged in this process and uh I'm also going to We are an educational institution. I'm going to give you a little bit of homework. We are We are I am going to create a city that is affordable for everyone and create safe neighborhoods.

[01:19:11]We're going to do this by my affordable DC plan, which provides uh which talks about goes into the detail about the housing situation. Number two is Fair Free DC. We're going to provide free Metrobus and Metrorail uh to to DC residents, putting money back in their pockets, circulating those dollars here in the city. My Power DC plan, which talks about how we're going to become the clean uh energy leading clean energy producer and and reduce your utility bills.

[01:19:41]These are all interconnected.

[01:19:43]We had limited time here this evening, but please do some research, take a look at our website, get more information. I am running to be of service to our city.

[01:19:52]I want to serve you. I will be honored to be your next mayor. And yes, please rank me number one uh at the ballot.

[01:20:00]Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Johnson.

[01:20:03]>> [clears throat] >> Well, thank you everybody for being here. I really enjoyed the conversation.

[01:20:08]Hope that you remember a lot of things that I talked about uh that are protecting and representing you. Uh I'm in this race because we need a certain amount of public courage. We cannot stand four years of press conferences and good excuses and good alibis. We have to dramatically change because our resources are really being depleted and we in four years we won't even recognize the District of Columbia.

[01:20:35]This is a certain amount of urgency.

[01:20:37]Working with Mayor Walter Washington, working with Muriel Bowser, my family I was born to a teenage mother. My grandmother and grandfather had a third grade education.

[01:20:50]I see how we elect people in office and how they look at people differently. I see once they get in after all of the good speeches how they begin to ignore certain segments of the population and think that they're a little bit better.

[01:21:05]And so that's one of the things that I always look out for. And Muriel told me to always mix with the people, listen to what the people have to say. They will keep your feet to the fire, they'll keep you informed, you'll always know what's going on. Special interests have got a grip on our city right now. All these ideas sound good until a special interest comes in and say, "Yeah, oh oh you're going to put 200 million more in schools? Thank you." Because that's going out the back door. And we have to just stop that. So I'm hoping that I can get your vote. We're doing well in wards five, seven, and eight. Working on ward six right now.

[01:21:40]Think we're going to be okay. Just need your support. I'm Ernest Johnson and I want to be your next mayor. Thank you, sir. Mr. Orange.

[01:21:48]Well, thank you all very much for providing us the opportunity to have this dialogue. I'm Vincent Orange. I'm number seven on the ballot. Heavenly number seven and would like to be your first and sole choice. If I can't be your first choice then I'll definitely take second.

[01:22:04]>> [laughter] >> But I can tell you the city needs vision. We had a plan and that plan brought us to where we are today. But COVID and the current White House has messed up our plan. Now we have to pivot. We no longer have the downtown we used to have. We no longer have the federal wage jobs in the city. I believe we need to pivot to family entertainment. We need to be a family entertainment destination. Build on our museums, build on our theaters, build on the great things Washington D.C. And a classic example, I'm extremely upset that Prince George's County is getting the spear.

[01:22:43]And they're saying it's going to generate $65 million on an annual basis. That spear should have been at New York and Bladensburg Road and part of everything that's going to happen out there. Langston Golf, of course, the new uh stadium. You bring all that together. You generate the revenue. People are going to come to the District of Columbia. That's our new industry. That's our new vision. And we need to tie our young people to that new vision because what they're going to encounter is something that we didn't have. They're going to encounter artificial intelligence. They're going to encounter so much technology and they can be a part. And I'm here to bridge to bring them in.

[01:23:24]A lot was done for me as a Banneker student and now I'm here to give back.

[01:23:28]Vincent Orange, number seven on the ballot. Thank you so much.

[01:23:32]>> Ms. Sampa.

[01:23:33]Thank you again, everyone, for being here. I really, really appreciate it. I know it's late in the evening and I will just share this. D.C. has normalized dysfunction and I think we've all gotten really used to the dysfunction.

[01:23:47]Everything from National Guard on our streets to what we're seeing where Puro is proposing that we should have DCPS turn over data about our students and our families over to federal officers because of juvenile crime.

[01:24:02]We have normalized the bad governance of our existing career politicians. And what we need to see is a true administrator and operator in office so that we can clean up this mess.

[01:24:13]Experience and institutional knowledge, none of these things matter when our government has a sitting council member who took $165,000 in kickback schemes that should have been going towards violence interrupter programs and that is being normalized.

[01:24:28]That's not the kind of DC government that we all want because the most vulnerable residents are the ones who are suffering.

[01:24:35]I want DC government to actually work for every single person in this room. I think we have the opportunity in this election to elect someone new, to have the new generation of leadership lead, to have someone with clean hands lead, someone whose hands are not tied, or we can settle for the same old DC politics that has put the same old DC politicians in place and driven our city into the ground. So, I am asking you and especially ranked choice voting, you have the opportunity to rank me number one so that we can have a new generation in leadership and clean up the city. So, thank you so much for being.

[01:25:17]I really want to thank um the candidates. I learned something tonight. I hope you all did, too. I You learned about the passion, you learned about the energy, you learned about the commitment to the city that every one of these uh every one of these candidates expresses and that's part of why we've had this forum here at GW to allow you to see firsthand um the not just the ideas, but the quality of of of passion and energy that every one of these candidates has brought. So, I want to uh lead a round of applause for our candidates. Uh Thank you, Steve.

[01:26:03]And now Thank you, Steve, and thank I'm going to introduce Andrew Flagel. He's so anxious to talk that he's up there before I introduce him. I Andrew Flagel is with the Consortium of Universities.

[01:26:15]>> you introduce him, can we give our moderator uh a hand of applause for doing a fantastic job? Tough job.

[01:26:23]I'll go ahead and appreciate it. Andrew, the floor is yours. Go ahead.

[01:26:27]>> Thank you. On behalf of the Consortium of Universities, all of as we have heard over and over again, the over 100,000 college students that are here in the district, thank you all for joining us.

[01:26:38]Andrew Flagel, the president of the Consortium, and I want to thank [clears throat] our sponsors, the George Washington University, League of Women Voters in DC in partnership with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated's Federal City Alumni Chapter, the National Council of Negro Women, Many Languages One Voice, and the Multicultural Community Service. I want to thank all of you for being here for this incredibly important election.

[01:27:03]I want to thank our interpreters, both online and this incredibly dapper gentleman doing a great job. Thank you, sir.

[01:27:12]I do want to thank Steve Roberts one more time because he is an iconic journalist and also as a GW alumna, yeah.

[01:27:22]He's someone who I've admired for so long. So, Steve, thank you for spending the evening with us. But, most of all, I I want to thank our candidates who are here, Janice Lewis George, Gary Goodweather, Robert Gros, Ernest Johnson, Vincent Orange, and Renee Sampath.

[01:27:36]In this moment of extraordinary political strife, it is an act of heroism to stand up for office and to stand for the things that you care deeply about. And however the election comes out, we have individuals who care deeply about this incredible city we all call home, and we are grateful to each of you for making the effort to make our community better.

[01:27:58]With that, I invite you to a brief reception outside to talk with each other and with our candidates, and we close our ceremony. Thank you all so much for being here. Good night and be safe.

[01:28:11]>> [applause] >> Thank you, everybody.

[01:39:44]>> Mhm.

[01:59:37]>> Mhm.