ECCA Meeting, 12/4

Quite a night at the ECCA meeting this evening!

The meeting was following the printed agenda until during ANC Commissioner Thorpe's presentation, he recognized one of the attendees, who made a motion that Mr. Thorpe be elected president. Since there was no election on the agenda, someone asked president of what? She said that she was nominating him for president of ECCA.

Most of the 20 or so people in attendance appeared stunned by this development, including current president Betty Newell who indicated that she had no idea that this was in the offing. A number of questions were asked about when the election was supposed to take place and what the procedures were, but others said that changing the agenda was legitimate. Mr. Thorpe (who was running the meeting at that point) called for the question and asked for those in attendance to raise their hands for, against, or abstain. I heard no numerical count, and it appeared that at least several people (self included) did not raise their hands at all. Mr. Thorpe was declared the winner. There was no election for the other offices of treasurer and public relations (currently held by Lillian Gordon and Eloise Wahab, respectively) and no discussion of them. Mr. Thorpe is to take office in January.

The emotional temperature also was raised when during the police report, another attendee (and long-time Shaw resident) spoke about his car being broken into twice recently and, becoming more passionate, made some intemperate remarks that many interpreted as being disparaging about the neighborhood and used profane language in threatening what might happen if his car was broken into again. He then exited the meeting, followed by Mr. Thorpe. Many of those in attendance were offended by language, and several people remarked that this just proved the kind of attitude that too many people held. Mr. Thorpe returned and defended the person, saying he had known him for many years and that he had made a lot of contributions to the neighborhood and that he respected him for speaking what was on his mind.

There was also some discussion about last Saturday's workshop on crime held by the Ward 2 democrats. One of the ladies who attended it said was a very useful session that encouraged real dialogue that helped break down the us vs. them attitude. Mr. Thorpe (who had not been at the event) was more critical, which led the original speaker to suggest that he shouldn't be so negative as he had not been there to see what happened.

Sean Howard, who is the Fenty Transition's Ward 2 coordinator, also encouraged people to come to the town hall meeting for Ward 2 scheduled for Thursday evening at 6:30 at the Kennedy Recreation Center. He added that the mayor-elect is really looking for input from the community and that the meeting would be organized to elicit that. Mr. Thorpe asked how he could know what community concerns were if the transition team hadn't consulted community leaders such as himself and others. Mr. Howard replied that he and others on the team had been going door to door and that he thought they had been getting a pretty good sense of what people were concerned about. There was also some criticism that the town meeting had not been better publicized, which Mr. Howard admitted was at least partly justified. (This blog published a notice about it last week.)

The meeting provided a forum for Mr. Thorpe to serve notice (which he expressed quite plainly) that he would remain a major force in the community regardless of the outcome of the election recount to take place Thursday night. He indicated that his announced resignation as ANC chairman to take place at the Wednesday meeting would allow him to assure that one of his allies on the ANC would take his place, anticipating a commission evenly divided if his opponent, Kevin Chapple, were declared the winner after the recount. He said several times that those who opposed his re-election were "only screwing themselves." He also reiterated that there is a great need for a real dialogue within the community to try to bridge divisions.