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Help for consumers
Graham asks council to revive protection effort
(Published May 2, 2005)

By KATHRYN SINZINGER
Staff Writer

A D.C. City Council committee is recommending that the city create two new agencies before the end of this year to begin restoring active enforcement of the District's consumer protection laws.

The new agencies, called the Office of Consumer Protection and the Office of the Tenant Advocate, would be located within the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA).

If approved by the full council and the mayor as part of the District's fiscal 2006 budget, the action would be the first step toward phasing in the revival of consumer protection functions of the government that were eliminated in 1995 when city officials and the congressionally created financial control board decided to stop funding them.

A spokesman for Councilman Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, who chairs the committee with oversight of DCRA and is leading the effort, said Acting DCRA Director Patrick Canavan and Mayor Anthony A. Williams have agreed to support the restoration of funding for portions of the District's Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

During the council committee's markup of the DCRA budget on April 29, Graham called the restoration of the department's focus on consumer protection "long overdue."

Earlier this year, Graham's Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs launched an investigation into alleged irregularities at DCRA. Graham charged that "the department has lost sight of its mission -- to protect citizens" by appearing often to serve the interests of the businesses it is supposed to be regulating. The District's inspector general also has launched an investigation into the allegations at DCRA.

The proposed Office of Consumer Protection would focus its first-year efforts on consumer education, especially targeted against unfair trade practices of home improvement contractors and automobile repair service providers. The proposed $807,840 budget for the office also would fund mediation services in these "key problem areas," according to the council committee's report.

The proposed Office of the Tenant Advocate, to be headed by a chief tenant advocate who would report directly to DCRA's director, would be empowered to represent "the interest of tenants in legislative, executive and judicial issues" and to help tenants organize. The office's initial budget would be $348,000.