HAA director Lydia Watts told a D.C. Council committee that news media reports that HAA spent $450,000 for just one day’s worth of events for World AIDS Day were misleading. She said much of the money went for the production of videotapes and other audio/visual material associated with a town hall meeting on HIV and women.
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LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, March 11, 2005
The D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration cut nearly $3 million in AIDS service and prevention programs this year after more than $3 million in funds from its budget last year went unspent, D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) disclosed at a March 3 hearing.
Catania, who presided over the hearing in his role as chair of the Council’s Committee on Health, joined Councilmembers Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) in questioning HAA director Lydia Watts about her decision to spend about $450,000 to produce and videotape World AIDS Day events last Dec. 1.
Watts said she would provide the committee with more details about all aspects of HAA’s budget and its spending priorities at a follow-up hearing that Catania has scheduled for March 17.
At the March 3 hearing, Catania and several witnesses from community organizations that provide health and AIDS-related services said Watts has made some improvements at HAA but the agency continues to face a number of serious problems. Watts began her tenure as head of HAA last September.
Catania said figures that HAA provided to the committee show that the agency reduced its budget for city-funded grants earmarked for local community-based groups that provide AIDS-related services to clients from $3.9 million last year to slightly more than $1 million this year.
Meanwhile, Catania said HAA figures show that last year, the agency was unable to spend at least $3 million of its budget due to what appears to be internal, administrative problems. He noted that this occurred before Watts began working at HAA last September. However, he called on Watts to provide the committee with a detailed explanation at the March 17 hearing on why this happened.
Catania also noted that at least 16 percent of HAA’s staff positions remain vacant, raising questions about whether the Council should eliminate those positions and use the funds earmarked for their salaries for other programs.
Patricia Hawkins, associate executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, told the committee that HAA’s failure to spend its budget was due, in part, to its longstanding inability to pay its bills on time to community-based groups providing services to people with AIDS under HAA contracts. Hawkins said delays in paying invoices to these groups sometimes result in unspent funds being returned to the federal government rather than being used for HIV-related programs.
“But, even more importantly, this meant clients often went months without cash-dependent services, such as rental assistance, and that many providers experienced or were at risk for overextending credit lines, missing payrolls, or ‘closing their doors,’” Hawkins said.
Bob Summersgill, treasurer of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, testified that GLAA believes that “the new management that’s taken over HAA has been quite refreshing.” But he said HAA programs remain inaccessible to the public and called on HAA to revamp its Web site, which he described as “severely lacking” in information on HAA’s services.
Watts told the committee that news media reports that HAA spent $450,000 for just one day’s worth of events for World AIDS Day were misleading. She said much of the $450,000 went for the production of videotapes and other audio/visual material associated with a town hall meeting on HIV and women. Watts said the tapes, including public service announcements for television and radio, would be used over the next two years as part of a public awareness campaign to help prevent women and girls from becoming infected with HIV in D.C.
But Catania, Graham, and Gray each disputed Watts’ claim that the videos would have a significant impact on reducing the incidents of HIV infection on women in D.C. They questioned the decision to spend that much money on videos as well as other events, such as an expensively catered reception.
Graham, the former head of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, cited studies showing that videos are far less effective in curtailing the spread of HIV than person-to-person peer outreach programs. Graham noted that HAA cut funding for peer-related programs.
Watts said the federal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, not the city, cut the funding for those programs in D.C. and other cities. But Graham and Jim Harvey, executive director of the HIV Community Coalition, who testified at the hearing, said the city should replace CDC funds by allocating its own money for at least some of these programs.
Sheila Brooks, president of the video production company that received a $409,000 contract from HAA to produce and videotape the World AIDS Day events, said criticism by members of the Council’s committee over the World AIDS Day spending damaged the reputation of her company.
“It is clear you failed to realize the negative impact your disparaging remarks in the media has had on a reputable, small business doing business with your government,” she said. “It is appalling that you are blinded at its potential to spiral in the wrong direction, blocking our company from ably competing for future contracts with the D.C. Department of Health and any other city government agency,” Brooks told the committee.
Brooks’ remarks drew a sharp response from Catania and Gray, who noted that members of the committee specifically avoided any mention of her company. The two said they faulted HAA for drawing up the contract and never questioned Brooks’ company’s effort to carry out its terms.
Catania pointed to records showing that Brooks’ company charged the city $59,300 for catering services for 200 people attending a World AIDS Day cocktail party and reception. He said that came to $296 per person for a single event, a figure that he called excessive.
“Talk about you wrapping yourself around some sanctimonious flag about what you’ve done and you’re spending $300 per person for food for an event,” Catania said. “That hardly rises to the level of necessity when we are facing what is an epidemic, when people’s lives are impacted — and everyone is dining on quiche?”
Brooks said HAA directed her company to spend that amount on catering services, saying she was obligated to follow the suggestions of her client.
“I think it is incredibly offensive for you to come down here today and suggest that this committee and this Council are the obstacles to you being able to do business in this city,” Gray said.
Gray said he was astounded to learn from HAA documents that Watts is making arrangements for HAA to produce a national conference on HIV later this year.
Coming on the heels of the World AIDS Day events, which Gray called a debacle, he said he would do all he could to prevent such a conference from happening.
Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.
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