Reform Slate
Find out about the CPCA and how to join Platform of the Reform Slate Who are the Candidates Other Information
Preamble:
Why we have organized		 We are Cleveland Park residents who have come together to transform the Cleveland Park Citizens Association (CPCA) into a 21st century organization committed to complete transparency, broad participation, and open decision making. We believe that the CPCA’s leadership has failed to represent the community, or even its own membership, as evidenced most recently by its opposition to the Giant redevelopment project and by its cancellation of the June elections in violation of its own constitution and of fundamental democratic practices. With your support, we can lead CPCA into a new era of engagement and dialogue among and between residents, the business community, and the District government. To meet these goals we will:

Why we are Revitalizing the CPCA

Many of us were for the development of the Giant on Wisconsin Avenue and were appalled by the way that the CPCA opposed this development.  Way back in 2001, it filed to declare the ugly Giant buildings as 'historic'.  It now says that was just a tactic to delay the building application, but it is the type of disingenuous acts that seem to continue to this day. See, for example, a description of the 2009 process to continue opposition to the Giant HERE.  At a meeting, described by the leadership as "well attended", but with well less than 10% of the membership present, they voted to oppose the Giant application. It now says that it was in favor of the development, but...

However, it was not the actual decision against the Giant that we found so disturbing as the process of making the decision. The Executive Committee had filed to oppose the application even before the meeting. The Executive Committee had drafted the resolution and framed the issues without input from the members. The only choice the membership had was to either ratify the actions already taken or to withdraw the application to speak at the Zoning Commission hearing. There was no middle ground.

So, we could have tried to destroy the credibility of the CPCA or to even form a rival organization that would supplant it. But that is not how we think. Instead, we decided to revitalize the CPCA and to get it to listen to and follow the direction of its membership.

We organized a recruitment program that has now resulted in more than a third of the CPCA members having joined since April.  The reaction of the current leadership was to cancel the elections in violation of the CPCA constitution.

We intend to change the processes of the Association by restructuring the organization and changing its culture. We will change the culture by opening up communication with the membership through using a listserv (that we already established and that has about 150 members), by introducing on-line surveys and polls, by having web pages for each committee and each committee being open to public participation using its own specialized listserv or blog. That is, we think that transparency is the key change that will generate more community participation and allow the CPCA to once more become a vital force in Cleveland Park.