THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL BOARD

______________________________________
						     )
						     )
Applications for License Renewal and for	     )
Termination of Voluntary Agreements between          )		   		
and Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance,            )
Inc.and the following Licensees:		     )
						     )
Jaime T. Carrillo t/a Don Jaime.s Restaurant;        )		License No.  21915
						     )
NHV Corp. t/a Haydee.s Restaurant; and	             )		License No.  24663
						     )
Don Juan Restaurant Inc., t/a Don Juan 	             )		License No.  15934
Restaurant & Carryout       			     )  
_____________________________________                )

Affidavit of David Bosserman

(January 30, 2008 Hearing 
on Licensees. Motion to Dismiss MPNA.s Protest for Lack of Standing)



	I, David Bosserman, having been duly sworn in accordance with the law hereby depose and say:

	1.  I have lived in Mount Pleasant at 1739 Irving Street NW since 1985.  I am currently an Advisory Neighborhood  Commissioner for Single Member District 1D05.  I.ve always used Mount Pleasant Street to shop, walk and eat at local restaurants. 

	2.  Mount Pleasant used to have the only neighborhood mariachi music secne on the East Coast.  Hearing music in Mount Pleasant restaurants was an important part of my life and something that made my neighborhood feel unique and special. 

	3.  I began to notice in the late 1990s that the mariachis had disappeared. I learned from talking to neighbors on the street that the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance (MPNA) had used the Voluntary Agreement system to ban live music from all our neighborhood restaurants. 

	4.  In 2005 I joined the MPNA because of the ban on live entertainment.  I wanted to have a voice and influence within the organization.  I expected that I would have an opportunity to participate in pertinent aspects of the organization.s activities, to meet and work with other members, and hopefully to influence them to change the MPNA.s position on live entertainment. 

	5.  Once I joined, however, I never received notification of meetings or gatherings to meet other members.  I never learned how, when, where or why decisions were made about any aspect of the organization.  Although at one of their public meetings, when I paid my dues, I was told I was on the MPNA.s membership list I never received an email, phone call or mailing informing me of meetings.

	6.  I never got an opportunity to meet other members or even learn who they were.  I was never informed how many members there are.  Nor was I ever provided with a roster of members.  Because I do not have a membership list, I have no means on my own of contacting other members or even knowing who they are.

	7.  I attended MPNA.s Annual Meetings. As a member, I never received an announcement.  I only heard about them because they were advertised in the neighborhood. The three Annual Meetings I attended since 2005 were open to the community and usually included a guest speaker from the city.  The meetings included a brief report from MPNA leaders.  There was no discussion, there were no votes.  There were no board elections at the Annual Meetings I attended since 2005.  

	8.  The only personal email I received from an MPNA leader was in June 2007, when I received an email from Marika Torok asking if I.d volunteer to be a chaperone at some MPNA event.  I replied with the dates I.d be available but was never engaged. 

	9.  Only in this last year, since the controversy over these latest license renewals heated up, have I received some newsletters from MPNA by email. 

	10.  Though I know from some neighbors that the MPNA has recently begun to hold some open meetings, I have not been notified when and where these meetings are held.  The November 2007 newsletter included an announcement for a .monthly meeting. to be held on January 22nd with a location to be announced.  I never received a follow up email, phone call or mailing notifying me where the meeting would be held. 

	11.  The MPNA.s November 2007 newsletter also referred to a unanimous decision having already occurred on protesting the Entertainment Endorsements of Haydee.s and Don Jaime.s at a meeting held on October 23rd.  I never received notification of that meeting., despite having received two newsletters from MPNA earlier that month. The September newsletter also included no announcements of the October 23rd meeting.  Nor was their any notification in the couple of newsletters I did receive that such a decision was to be made.  To the best of my knowledge, there was no written notice to members, no vote of the membership, and no participation by the membership.

	12.  I have had no opportunity to participate with any MPNA decisions about the use of the VA process, which was the impetus for my decision to join. I have never been to a meeting where VAs were discussed.  I have never been included in any discussion about what should be in a VA.  I have never even been provided copies of the final VAs. 

	13.  I was never invited or permitted to vote on whether the MPNA should protest a license application, a license renewal, or a substantial change application.  I was never invited or permitted to vote to authorize certain officers or directors to negotiate a VA.  I was never informed how it was decided that a protest would be filed.  I was also never informed how it was decided who would negotiate the VAs.  I was never informed by MPNA leaders that they were negotiating on behalf of the MPNA membership, including me, with Marx Cafe, Tonic and Radius all within the past year.  I was not informed that persons claiming to represent MPNA.s membership threatened to protest Marleny's application unless the applicant signed a VA with MPNA.  I understand that the applicant did sign an MPNA VA.  I was never informed of the reason for or content of that VA and am unaware of any membership participation in it.
	14.  To my knowledge, there has never been a vote of the membership on any issue pertaining to any licensee in Mount Pleasant.  I never saw a vote or a discussion.  I believe that, outside of a core group of a few individuals, the membership as a whole has always been excluded from anything having to do with the VAs which control our community, as has the neighborhood as a whole.  The VAs have served as a means of imposing only the desires of the core group, while excluding both the members on whose behalf the organization supposedly acts, as well as the neighborhood at large.



Subscribed and sworn to before me this ____ day of January, 2008.

		
							_____________________________									David Bosserman

_________________________________
Notary Public
My Commission Expires: