D.C.'s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, formed in 1983, has been tasked over the years with a wide range of responsibilities: issuing construction permits and business licenses, inspecting reports of housing code violations and ensuring the city’s buildings are up to code, to name a few.
But as of Saturday, after years of critiques from residents who said the department had fallen short in some of its assigned duties, the agency long known as DCRA will no longer exist. It is being split into two separate entities: the Department of Buildings (DOB) and the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP); the former agency will focus on building inspections, zoning administration and code compliance, and the latter will crack down on unlawful businesses and issue licenses.
City lawmakers say the transition, which was approved by the D.C. Council over repeated protests from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), will streamline services by dividing responsibilities between two smaller, easier-to-manage agencies.
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Late Friday afternoon, just hours before the transition became official, Bowser appointed DCRA’s current director, Ernest Chrappah, as the acting director of the new DOB. Bowser selected DCRA’s current deputy director, Shirley Kwan-Hui, to lead DLCP on an interim basis until she nominates a permanent director. Chrappah’s appointment will require confirmation by the D.C. Council; per D.C. law, Kwan-Hui’s interim appointment does not require confirmation, but can only be paid for 180 days unless she becomes Bowser’s nominee.
D.C. Council chair Phil Mendelson (D), who pushed for DCRA to break up and has been among its harshest critics over the years, immediately pushed back against Bowser’s pick to lead the DOB. In a statement Friday evening, he commended Chrappah for his public service but said Bowser has shown an unwillingness to embrace a fresh start with the new structure.
“The new Department of Buildings is a chance to be transformative. It’s an opportunity to bring in or promote a change agent,” Mendelson said in the statement. “Simply moving over the head of the Department’s dysfunctional predecessor-agency misses that chance.”
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In D.C. Council oversight hearings and at public forums in recent years, Chrappah has been taken to task over some of the agency’s shortcomings. Scores of residents have complained about DCRA’s troubles with properly regulating vacant and blighted buildings (costing the city millions in tax revenue), and a 2019 D.C. Inspector General report found that the agency did not always track or collect fines related to building code violations.
These issues, among others, were part of the reason the D.C. Council in 2020 voted to separate the two agencies. In a memo at the time explaining her choice to veto the legislation, Bowser acknowledged that some people were dissatisfied with DCRA but accused the council of overlooking “significant progress over the past several years in improving processes and operations.”
Still, lawmakers voted unanimously to override her veto.
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Because so many residents engage with DCRA, individual complaints run the gamut. At a hearing last week to discuss the city’s progress with establishing the DOB and DLCP, which combined will have a bigger staff and larger budget than the former agency, several advocates spoke up about their hopes for the split and pressed Mendelson to closely monitor the transition.
“We believe this kind of continued oversight is needed to keep DOB on the right path,” said Christina Simpson, a policy attorney at the Children’s Law Center, which works with families to get landlords to repair housing code violations that threaten children’s health.
Lawmakers are taking additional steps to bolster operations at the new agencies. Mendelson and D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large) introduced a bill in July that would require the Department of Buildings to establish a tiered “proactive inspection program,” which would mandate more frequent inspections of multifamily rental properties that are old, in low-income areas or have a history of housing code violations or stop-work orders. It also would include those where the owner has failed to pay property taxes in the last two years.
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At the hearing, Chrappah noted that an explanation of the new agencies’ duties can be found on a dedicated transition website. He also promised that businesses and individuals who are currently engaged with DCRA on licensing or permitting matters won’t need to start new applications or reenter information. He said the transition would be “seamless.”
Chrappah said he has filled 285 out of the 379 positions available in the new agencies so far. He said his team is behind on hiring, but said many workplaces are facing similar staffing issues.
“When these challenges are coupled with splitting up one of the largest agencies in District government, there’s simply no getting around the fact that … we are probably looking at a couple of years of additional work beyond the immediate scope of our legislative mandate,” he said. “We just ask for some patience, because a transition of this magnitude usually takes a few years. We are on the brink of pulling this off in 90 days.”
In addition to his qualms over the new agencies’ leadership, Mendelson stressed the need for the staff of DOB and DLCP to have a clear sense of purpose and mission.
“There’s a chance to rededicate the employees to the mission of the new agencies,” he said in an interview. “But will that happen?”
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