WASHINGTON (JR) -- The Republican chairman of a Congressional oversight committee had given the District of Columbia only days to react to strings contained within the city's federally approved budget.
Apparently not satisfied with the city's willingness to establish a real estate management code as prescribed in the budget, Rep. Ernest J. Istook, (R-Okla.), sent a letter to Mayor Anthony Williams demanding action. The letter, obtained by the Corridor Real Estate Journal, was dated Dec. 13 -- 15 days after President Clinton signed the budget and its riders into law.
He is "concerned," but not ready to "nitpick."
The budget rider mandates that the city better manage existing leases and property disposition as well as create an inventory of district-owned properties.
Williams in his Jan. 4 reply, also obtained by the Corridor Real Estate Journal, pointed out that progress is being made to satisfy the congressional concerns. In addition, the Washington City Council now is considering the Real Property Act to streamline the city's handling of its real estate assets.
In the three-page letter addressed to Williams, Istook raised concerns that 24 of the city's 68 leases have expired, putting the district in month-to-month rental situations and not allowing the city to get the biggest bang for the buck for long-term property rentals. This includes both city-owned properties leased to private tenants and privately owned properties leased by the city.
"While the committee believes the act's requirements will have a positive impact on the district's real estate programs, we are concerned about the proper implementation of the provisions," wrote Istook.
Istook also questioned whether the 68 leases reported by the city is the total number. "Steps should be taken to ensure that all district leases are included in any filings and that the abstracts and reports are complete," Istook said.
Another issue raised in the letter concerned the city's ability to manufacture a dependable and accurate inventory and to create policy guidelines to handle the surplus of district-owned properties.
"We are gravely concerned about the current status of the real property inventory and our recommendation is that you look in the matter personally," he said.
The letter goes on to say, "The committee understands that this project may have been halted by district officials. If this is true we are concerned that the lack of interest now being shown for the property inventory project may impede the proper implementation of this general provision."
Istook's letter was his own, but represented the position of the committee. However, Rep. James P. Moran Jr., D-Va., the ranking Democrat on Istook's subcommittee was unaware of the letter.
It is not unusual for a chairman of a committee to send such correspondence, said Paul Reagan, Moran's spokesman.
In response, Williams said that he already has begun to address the problems. Reforms "have already been set into motion." Williams wrote.
The mayor stated that of the 2.9 million square feet of space under lease only 642,115 square feet, 22 percent of the current inventory, is on a month-to-month rental.
"The maintenance of a small ratio of flexible space leasing should not be unexpected," said Williams. "The district over the past two years has been consolidating smaller leases into more centralized government centers. It is often necessary to maintain leases in a 30- day terminable status when implementing a consolidation."
Williams agreed in the letter that there may indeed be more than 68 total leases and authorized "all district entities with leasing authority to submit current leases with abstracts to the Office of Property Management."
The Real Property Act presently being crafted by council should deal with many of the deficiencies Istook cited.
"The Real Property Act," wrote Williams, "details the components required as part of the district's inventory of all its real property, including actual observation and evaluation of property condition. The collection, sorting, and examination of this information will serve as the foundation for asset management-based planning and decisions."
"It's pretty clear the folks on Capitol Hill were not aware of the progress of the management of real property assets," said Councilwoman Kathy Patterson, chair of the Government Operations Committee, which created the Real Property Act.
"We have been working for three or four years now to improve the way we manage real property and the legislation that is before the council right now (The Real Property Act) would be the next step in that reform effort," Patterson said.
She said that the measure is a program where the city will hire tenant reps to handle leases and also create of an Office of Property Management, which will streamline and revise the process for property maintenance and disposition.
The measure "applies an asset management approach to our real property so that all our property is regularly and routinely inventoried in four categories including underutilized, appropriately utilized and utilized," said Patterson.
Istook's press secretary, Micah Swafford, said, "This is the first step. The city agrees more needs to be done and gave us assurance that they are doing that. Things seem to be moving in a positive direction and so at this point we not ready to nitpick."
