ANC2C02 Forum

Last weekend, while I and some volunteers were distributing the latest edition of my community magazine, anc2c02&You!, a neighbor showed me this flyer. He told me that the flyer was personally given to him a week ago Friday by Leroy Thorpe, current president of the ECCA, former ANC 2C02 Commissioner and former Chairman of ANC 2C. Mr. Thorpe told the neighbor that he is running for ANC 2C02 Commissioner in the November 4 election and sought his support. We noticed that many of these flyers were distributed to homes throughout my single member district.

Well, I guess the obvious has now been officially verified in writing: Mr. Thorpe wants his old job back.

During the last election cycle, I didn't publicly announce my candidacy until August 2006, and did not officially start campaigning until after Labor Day 2006. I assume in, this election year of "Change," both Mr. Thorpe and ANC 2C03 candidate Jessica Lanza see the benefits of starting their campaigns earlier.

However, one could argue that Mr. Thorpe has been plotting his political come back since December 2006 when it became clear to him that after 18 years as ANC 2C02 Commissioner, he lost his re-election bid. In December 2006 he devised and carried out a plan to oust Betty Newell, then president of the ECCA, and have himself installed as head of the civic association. A few days later in one of his final acts as ANC 2C02 Commissioner, he resigned as ANC 2C Chairman and immediately called for an election of new officers for ANC 2C. Because he controlled the majority of the votes on our four-member commission, he was able to have his two allies, ANC 2C03 Commissioner Doris Brooks and ANC 2C04 Commissioner Barbara Curtis — both of whom won their re-election bids, elected to all four of the officer positions. The newly elected Commission Chairperson/Secretary, Doris Brooks, while reading from a script Mr. Thorpe had prepared, moved the commission to award thousands of dollars to the ECCA to purchase computers and video equipment. Ms. Brooks went on to read/move the commission to name Mr. Thorpe as Parliamentarian and Executive Assistant to the Chairperson, and to have Mr. Thorpe's telephone number listed as ANC 2C's official contact number. Needless to say, all of these motions were approved.

The actions Mr. Thorpe took with the ANC before his term ended, were taken so that he could maintain pivotal control over ANC 2C. Knowing that when I replaced him as ANC 2C02 Commissioner, the Commission would not be able to muster a majority vote to elect new officers and thus the officers elected in the previous term would maintain their position in the next term.

Because Mr. Thorpe has undue influence over Commissioners Brooks and Curtis, he has control of the agenda, the actions the Commission takes, who appears on the agenda, the fact that Commissioner Padro and myself are only allowed to look at quarterly reports a few minutes before we are to vote to approve them, and the fact that Mr. Padro and myself have absolutely no input into the agenda or any of these issues. Mr. Thorpe also has control over the venue of ANC 2C meetings and this year he changed the venue from Africare House, where it was often held in the past and where there is ample space to accommodate members of the pubic, to one of the smallest rooms at the Kennedy Recreation Center where only a few members of the public are allowed to participate in the meetings. There were times in the past two years when individuals, business entities and government agencies wished to speak before the Commission, but Mr. Thorpe required that those spokespersons appear before the ECCA first in order to be considered for being included on the ANC 2C agenda.

In spite of being turned out of office, Mr Thorpe did this in order to maintain unilateral control which he acts as if he is entitled to and in order to have a foothold to make a political comeback in the upcoming 2008 election.

When I initially ran for the office of ANC 2C02 Commissioner, Mr. Thorpe and some of his supporters treated me with contempt, as if simply by entering a democratic race I was tying to wrongfully take something that Mr. Thorpe had some right to. Nothing could be further from the truth. The position of ANC Commissioner is something that rightfully belongs to the public who are empowered to decide who should represent them for the benefit of the community. In my opinion, Mr. Thorpe believes that the ANC 2C02 Commissioner seat is something he is entitled to. But I believe it is more akin to a position that is leased to a individual by the public, in the same way that a landlord issues a lease to a tenant and gives them the option to renew their lease when it expires. At the end of the lease, the landlord can always — at his or her discretion — choose to lease the position to someone else if the tenant fails to live up to the landlord's expectations.

With this being said, I am asking you, the community, to renew my lease on the position of ANC 2C02 Commissioner.