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 Elinor Hart


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


(January 30, 2008 Hearing 




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



	1.  My name is Elinor Hart and I have lived in Mount Pleasant since 1974.  I live at 1651 Hobart Street. 



	2.For eleven years, between 1993 and 2004, I served as president of Mount Pleasant
	Main Street (MPMS), an organization dedicated to promoting a healthy and vital commercial 
	corridor.  I was also on the board of Historic Mount Pleasant for about 10 years. Recently, 
	I served on two neighborhood steering committees. One was for PlayStart, the organization 
	that provided a much needed playground for preschoolers at Bancroft Elementary School and 
	throughout the neighborhood. The other was for the group that gathered the historical 
	material and photographs for the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail.




	3.  During my early tenure as MPMS president, our organization focused on public 
	drinking and intoxication on Mount Pleasant Street, a serious problem during this 
	period.  MPMS undertook research in 1994 to better understand the problem so we could 
	address it. Researchers interviewed people who drank on the streets and learned that 
	most of them wanted to be sober but lacked the services and supports they needed to 
	stop drinking and achieve lasting recovery. Based on this research Mount Pleasant Main 
	Street founded Neighbors Consejo in 1995 to help connect the people with addiction 
	problems in Mount Pleasant with much needed public services. MPMS incubated Neighbors 
	Consejo in its early years.  Now 13 years later, it is a neighborhood institution 
	serving hundreds of clients with addiction problems in Mount Pleasant and surrounding 
	communities.  It is one of the few service providers in the city that provides treatment, 
	street outreach and services in Spanish.


 
	3.  I joined the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance (MPNA) around 1995 because of a 
	shared interested in crime and effective policing.  I paid dues until two or three 
	years ago. I do not know if I am still listed as a member. 



	4.  MPNA leaders knew of my work in the neighborhood aimed at researching and addressing the 
	issues of alcoholism and its effects on the community, and in part for this work, honored 
	me with a .Community Service Award..   



	5.  Despite my leadership and experience in matters relating to alcohol abuse in Mount Pleasant, 
	MPNA never consulted me about Voluntary Agreements (VAs) and liquor licensing.  



	6.  I was never informed of any MPNA membership meetings except the annual meetings that 
	were held every year. 



	7.  The annual meetings were public events and usually included guest speakers.  There was 
	no membership discussion of MPNA policies at these meetings and I don.t recall any 
	decisions being made or voted upon by the members during those meetings. 



	8.  Even though I was a member of MPNA for nearly decade, I only learned about what 	
	was in the MPNA.s VAs from talking to the licensees and other residents upset about 
	the restrictions they contain. 



	9.  In spite of being a longtime member of the MPNA, I never knew that MPNA was 
	responsible for banning all live music in Mount Pleasant establishments until 
	I talked to a neighborhood musician who had tried to organize an event at 
	Haydees and was told by the owner the restaurant was not allowed to offer live 
	music because of an agreement she had to sign with neighbors.  As a result of that, 
	I learned that MPNA had similarly banned music in every Mount Pleasant establishment.  



	10.  As a member of MPNA, I was never invited to vote on whether the MPNA should 
	protest a license application, a license renewal, or a substantial change application. 



	11.  Notwithstanding that I was a member and MPNA purports to act on behalf of its 
	members when it protests a license and when it enters into a VA, I never saw the 
	text of a proposed MPNA VA for any restaurant before it was signed.  Nor did MPNA 
	distribute to me copies of the final VAs of Mount Pleasant restaurants.  I only 
	found out about them through other concerned people in the neighborhood.




 	12.  I was never invited to vote to authorize particular officers or directors to 
	file a protest or negotiate a VA.  I was never informed how it was decided that a 
	protest would be filed.  I was never informed how it was decided who would negotiate 
	the VAs.  I was never informed how the organization decided on what would be in a VA.  
	As a member, I was not privy to any of that.  I believe that, outside of the core 
	group of a few individuals, the membership as a whole was not included, as was the 
	neighborhood as a whole.



	13.  To my knowledge, there has never been a vote of the members on any issue 
	pertaining to any R or T license in Mount Pleasant.



	15.  I do not recall ever having been informed how many members there are in MPNA.  
	I have never been provided a roster of members.  Without a roster of members, there 
	was no way for me to know who my fellow members were, nor to communicate with them 
	about matters of concern, including the MPNA VAs and the ban on live music.
 


	16.  While I agree that  it is very important for ABC establishments in our neighborhood 
	to comply with DC laws and regulations governing the sale of alcohol, I strongly 
	oppose achieving this goal through the secret, exclusive, and harsh Voluntary Agreements 
	imposed by MPNA.  There was no justification for excluding the membership and the 
	neighborhood at large from any role in this important public policymaking activity. 
	Nor is there any  rationale for banning music, which can and should enrich the social 
	and cultural life of our community..  MPNA.s draconian voluntary agreements have 
	polarized our community. I urge the Board to terminate the MPNA VAs, and adopt in 
	their place a new VA that brings music back to our neighborhood, restores the 
	prerogatives of licensees and their patrons, and gives the neighborhood the 
	opportunity to play a constructive role in the enforcement of ABC laws and regulations.     



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


		
							_____________________________								 	Elinor Hart



_________________________________
Notary Public
My Commission Expires: