Responses of Sandy Allen to GLAA 2004 Questionnaire
for D.C. Council Candidates
| Yes/No (+/- 2) |
Substance (+/- 4) |
Record (+/- 3) |
Championship (+/- 1) |
Total (+/- 10) |
| ½ | -3 | -2 | -1 | -5 ½ |
Public Safety
1. Will you support an annual budget for the Office of Citizen Complaint Review big enough to prevent the development of a backlog of citizen allegations of police misconduct?
Yes, I believe it is important to address all citizen allegations of police misconduct.
2. Will you support funding for mandatory gay male, lesbian, bisexual and transgender sensitivity and diversity training including gay and transgender community representatives as a continuing part of the training for all members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Fire/EMS Department?
Yes, I support having sufficient sensitivity and diversity training for members of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Fire/EMS Department, so they can deal appropriately with the needs of all members of the community they serve.
Public Health & AIDS
3. Will you lobby your colleagues and Council Chairman Linda Cropp to create a new Committee on Health, split out from the current Committee on Human Services, that will be chaired by someone committed to vigorous oversight of the Department of Health?
No, I do not support splitting health and human services into two separate committees. I believe that many District residents have conditions that require the services of several of these agencies and that increased communication and interaction between these agencies in providing wrap-around services is essential. I also believe that improving the District's ability to maximize collection of federal Medicaid dollars is best achieved by having oversight of all of these agencies together under a single Committee. Health, mental health, and human services should not be thought of as "islands," they should be interconnected as much as possible. Therefore, I believe keeping health and human services in the same Committee is essential.
As Chair of the Committee on Human Services, I have performed rigorous oversight of all the agencies under my Committee's purview to include the HIV/AIDS Administration. I was very surprised and disappointed with the tone the GLAA Election Year Issue Agenda 2004 regarding the oversight of the Committee on Human Services. I found this section to be inflammatory and very misleading.
Since the May 15, 2003 hearing specifically on the HIV/AIDS Administration, I chaired an oversight and a budget hearing on the Department of Health. I allowed every public witness who signed up or attending the hearing an opportunity to testify, so if anyone had concerns regarding the performance or contracting process of HAA, these hearings provided a public forum to testify about those concerns. While a number of witnesses testified on HIV/AIDS at these hearing, no one representing GLAA testified at either the Fiscal Year 2003-2004 DOH Oversight Hearing or the DOH Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Hearing regarding their concerns with the HIV/AIDS Administration.
It is very perplexing to see an organization that alleges the Committee on Human Services is providing "wholly inadequate oversight" of HAA and call for more hearings, when it does not take advantage of its opportunity to come before the Committee at the Human Services and testify about its concerns at the hearings that are taking place.
I have always been one of the strongest advocates on Council for full funding for the budget of the HIV/AIDS Administration. I have worked with the Department of Health to help implement innovative programs, such as the HIV Ticket to Work program and Project ORION, which provides confidential HIV testing and referral services in the community. I also recently championed the passage of the HIV Waiver, which will provide approximately 200 more HIV-positive District residents with comprehensive health coverage. I remain very open to working in partnership with HIV community advocates and would encourage GLAA to form an active, working relationship with both myself and my staff, so we all can accomplish our shared mission of having a well-run HIV/AIDS Administration that meets the needs of District residents.
4. The rate of HIV infections in DC is the highest in the United States, rivaling levels in sub-Saharan Africa. Problems of rampant corruption, illegal activities, and demoralized staff at the HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA) have been well documented. Yet there has not been an oversight hearing on HAA for more than a year. The previous oversight hearing was five years earlier. If elected or re-elected to the Council, will you ensure that the Council holds an annual performance oversight hearing on HAA?
As I stated earlier, I have provided the opportunity for all members of the public who may have concerns with the performance or use of funding at HAA to testify before the Council in a public forum at the annual Department of Health oversight and budget hearings. I am always open to holding additional performance oversight hearings, specifically on HAA, when concerns are raised about HAA's performance that necessitate a public hearing.
5. Will you ask the D.C. Inspector General for a full audit of the HIV/AIDS Administration and its contractors?
Following the May 15, 2003 hearing on the HIV/AIDS Administration, I moved to approve a request for a federal investigation of HAA at a June 11, 2004 Human Services Committee Meeting. The federal government referred the request to the District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General. The D.C. Inspector General based upon the request made by my Committee is currently performing an investigation. Once the findings of the I.G.'s report are released I will chair an oversight hearing specifically on HAA if the report shows deficiencies within HAA that warrant a public hearing. Therefore, GLAA's assertion that "there is little hope that [I] will schedule another hearing in the near future," is both baseless and completely inaccurate.
6. The current HIV epidemiological surveillance system discourages people-especially immigrants-from getting tested by requiring both their partial Social Security Number and their country of origin. This potentially threatens their ability to stay in this country. Will you support and vote for legislation that will eliminate the partial Social Security Number from the unique identifier system?
No, I will not support amending the current HIV epidemiological surveillance system. At the December 2, 2002 hearing on the HIV Unique Identifier System Amendment Act of 2001, the Department of Health testified, "the proposed legislation would imperil [their] ability to monitor the HIV epidemic in the District." DOH stated that reporting, "the last four digits of the social security number are essential to avoid duplication in reporting." At the time of the hearing seven states and the District of Columbia were using a reporting system that includes the last four digits of an individuals Social Security number. Only two states, Illinois and Hawaii used a reporting system without the last for digits of the Social Security number. DOH noted that these states have a low prevalence of HIV in comparison with the District of Columbia and that there is a very small rate of interstate migration compared to the District. DOH also had concerns that if the District were to move away from a system based on Social Security numbers, it would jeopardize the District's ability to meet CDC performance standards that "no more than 5% of newly reported cases can represent cases that were previously reported." Based upon the District's high rate of HIV infection and interstate migration, I agree with the Department of Health's recommendation that the District maintain its current use of Social Security numbers in order to accurately survey and track the HIV-positive population.
7. Only one insurance company operating in D.C. offers domestic partner coverage to small businesses that wish to offer the benefit. Will you vote in favor of legislation requiring insurance carriers to make domestic partner coverage available for small businesses that want to offer this health care benefit to their employees?
Yes.
Human Rights
8. Despite significant improvements made in the operations of the Office of Human Rights (OHR) in the past several years, the OHR FY 2005 budget was not increased to hire additional investigators and other staff so that the case backlog will continue to drop. Will you support maintaining funding levels and aggressive oversight to ensure that the OHR case backlog continues to drop?
Yes, I fully support increasing the budget for OHR, so that it can have the staff and resources it needs to eliminate its case backlog.
9. Will you block ceremonial resolutions and otherwise decline to honor individuals or organizations that promote any sort of bigotry, including but not limited to the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God and the Boy Scouts of America?
I evaluate whether or not to support each ceremonial resolution on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, I will not at this time preclude the possibility that I will support ceremonial resolutions for private organizations such as the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God, and the Boy Scouts of America.
Defending Our Families
10. Will you support legal recognition of marriages between partners of the same sex?
Yes, I support legal recognition of marriages between persons of the same sex. There is no rational reason to deny same sex couples their right to live in a legally recognized union. I am also firmly opposed to writing discrimination into the Constitution through a federal ban on same-sex marriages, and I co-introduced the "Sense of the Council on Opposing a Federal Marriage Amendment Resolution of 2004"
11. Will you support legislation in the District to expand the domestic partner program to include all of the relevant rights and responsibilities of marriage in D.C. law?
Yes.
12. Will you support the legislative and/or regulatory changes necessary to ensure that the District recognizes marriages, civil unions, and domestic partnerships established in other jurisdictions?
Yes. I co-introduced the "Sense of the Council on Recognition of Same Sex Marriages Lawfully Performed in Other States Resolution of 2004"
Public Education and Youth
13. Will you oppose both federally and locally funded voucher programs that place students in religious schools and outside the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
I have been a strong supporter of D.C.'s public school system, and do not support a locally funded voucher system that will move students out of our public schools and public charter schools, and into private schools. I do not oppose federally funded voucher programs as long as the District is not required to match the federal dollars with any local funds.
14. Will you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote so-called "abstinence-only-until-marriage" sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that tells gay and lesbian students that they must be celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
I strongly believe that we need to teach our young people in the District a combination of abstinence and safe-sex education. I believe abstinence-only sex education ignores the reality that many young people will still engage in sexual activity regardless of what they taught. With HIV, STD, and teen pregnancy rates in the District of Columbia well above the national average, we need to have sex education that discusses the dangers of HIV and STD, the benefits of abstaining form sex at a young age, and the proper use of condoms and birth control as a means of preventing HIV and STD infections or unintended pregnancies. I do not believe teaching abstinence-only in the District of Columbia is the most effective approach to addressing these concerns in the District; therefore, I do not support using District local appropriations to fund such programs. I do not oppose private organizations obtaining federal grants to teach abstinence-only programs, as long as the District is not required to match the federal dollars with local funds.
Modernizing the Criminal Code
15. Will you vote to repeal the use of undefined and unspecified common law crimes and to repeal the laws criminalizing verbal solicitations of legal sexual activity?
Yes. I believe we need to repeal outdated laws that discriminate against same-sex forms of sexual activity or laws criminalizing verbal solicitations of legal sexual activity. I believe that federal, state, and local governments should not be attempting to interfere with sexual activities going on in the bedrooms of consenting adults.
Record
Your record is part of your rating. Please list any actions that you have taken that may help illustrate your record on behalf of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders.
Other actions that I have taken on behalf of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders include:
- I have consistently successfully moved an increased budget of the HIV/AIDS Administration from the prior fiscal year in the Human Services Committee's Budget mark-ups.
- I led the fight to implement both the HIV Ticket-to-Work Program and the HIV 1115 Waiver.
- I co-introduced the "Sense of the Council on Opposing a Federal Marriage Amendment Resolution of 2004"
- I co-introduced the "Sense of the Council on Recognition of Same Sex Marriages Lawfully Performed in Other States Resolution of 2004"
- I co-sponsored the "Commission on Human Rights Establishment Amendment Act of 2004."
- I also supported the following pieces of legislation:
- Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance 32nd Anniversary Recognition Resolution of 2003
- Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Weekend Resolution of 2003
- Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League Equitable Real Property Tax Relief Act of 2003
