ANC6C, from left, Christine Healey 01, Mark Eckenwiler 04, Karen Wirt 02, Heather Edelman 06, Scott Price 03, Chris Miller. The Commission meets in space made available by the Heritage Foundation near Union Station.
ANC6C Elects Officers/Weighs in on Youth Rehabilitation Act/Lawyers Up in Whole Foods Protest
by Larry Janezich
Last night, ANC6C elected officers as the first order of business in the 2017 session. Chair Karen Wirt, 02; Vice Chair Scott Price, 03; Treasurer Chris Miller, 05; and Secretary Christine Healey, 01 were all elected unanimously.
Commissioner Mark Eckenwiler proposed that the ANC send a letter to Charles Allen and other city council members expressing concern over the efficiency of the Youth Rehabilitation Act and urging consideration of the ANC’s interest in participating in the process and the legislation. The proposal was agreed to unanimously.
In other business, the ANC authorized expenditures of up to $5000 to retain legal counsel to assist in its protest of a liquor license for Whole Foods coming to H Street, NE, in 2017. The ANC is battling Whole Foods’ liquor license attorney Andrew Klein who is resisting the ANC’s attempt to require Whole Foods to sign a Settlement Agreement regarding their plans to feature wine tastings. Klein is a familiar figure before ANC6B as a frequent opponent of their attempts to use liquor license applications to require best operating practices for restaurants on Barracks Row.
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
Wine tastings are a serious threat to our community. They lead to cheese, and cheese leads to rats. This is just extortion by the ANC so it can feel like it’s more than just an advisory body. All the problems in this city and they are going after wine tastings? Seriously? What you’ll never see is any real restrictions on the Heritage Foundation, who gives them cushy meeting space for free.
The issue isn’t with wine tastings, it’s more about fairness to long time small businesses in the area and their ability to compete with the Fortune 500 newcomer. All of the existing small businesses have signed settlement agreements, and Whole Foods can certainly afford to comply with similar restrictions.
No doubt, the Whole Foods PR department should want to demonstrate that the “whole”-some aspect of its brand extends to the Whole Neighborhood.
If they are so concerned about the rat community in the NE area, they should start combatting them, and getting the office of Rat infestation of the Fed Gov to take this job seriously. Then maybe, once this “infestation” gets taken care of, maybe they can take care of the crime issue and the breaking in issues we have been having on the hill. But seriously, being concerned about the wine tastings in our community, when ‘everyone’ enjoys Schneider’s tastings.
Incredible that the ANC would waste time on this.
“One must sign all must sign” is flawed to the core.