Dan Gelfand/The Hoya Mayor Williams discussed education, crime and the Kennedy Recreation in Northwest Washington, D.C., last Thursday.

District Mayor Anthony Williams defended his public record and proposed new policies to provide quality education, reduce neighborhood crime and reform the health care system during the Ward Two Neighborhood Citizen Summit at the Kennedy Recreation Center Thursday evening.

In a Powerpoint presentation featuring statistics, charts and graphs, Williams outlined the state of the District and his vision for the future. He stressed the importance of citizen input in developing his proposals.

“We’re looking to meet those tough choices and challenges we face,” Williams said. “We take ideas from the Citizens Summit to make plans and from that we form a budget.”

The main focus of his speech was the improvement of public schools whose current state he deemed unacceptable. Williams highlighted reports that showed the District’s educational programs to be far behind those of Boston and San Francisco, which are similarly sized cities.

“Every study has shown that when you provide good quality education, your children do better in their jobs and in their lives,” he said.

Williams proposed initiatives to expand early childhood education, improve the quality of teachers and provide social service support within schools. As mayor, he considered his three roles with respect to education as “executor, leader and funder.”

He cited the current management of public schools as a major impediment to proposed improvements. According to Williams, the fractured accountability of the mayor, city council, school board and superintendent leads to large problems in management and efficacy.

“The point is not whether the mayor should be accountable: anyone in public office is,” Williams said. “Therefore, we must give authority to those who are accountable.”

This month, the D.C. Council announced that they would oppose the mayor’s plan for expanded authority over the system. Williams expressed his desire to have a stronger superintendent who reports to the mayor instead of the School Board, which would be relegated to an advisory board under his plan.

The crime rate, though lower than it was five years ago, is still proportionally higher than other major cities in property crime, violent crime and homicides. The mayor called this an “inexcusable position.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress but we still have major challenges ahead of us,” he said. “I take responsibility for this because I am your mayor.”

Williams outlined his plan to add 100 new police officers to the streets and reduce the neighborhood and social conditions that breed crime. He also strongly supported increased enforcement of low level crimes and an overhaul of the juvenile justice system.

“I believe that if a child or youth commits a serious crime, they should have serious consequences, not a slap on the wrist,” Williams said.

The state of health care in the district was also an area of concern for the mayor. The infant mortality rate is twice the national average, HIV-AIDS is 10 times the national average and the rates of heart disease and hypertension are much higher than other cities.

Williams’ solutions to the problem included expanding health care for the uninsured and increasing the number of education, outreach and prevention programs. Nevertheless, he also cautioned that limited funds in the budget could hinder the passage of sweeping reforms.

“This is the wet blanket on peoples’ ideas, that we do have limitations imposed on us through funding,” Williams said. “If this [city] was a restaurant, I could not charge half [of the customers] for food, so half of you would end up paying twice as much.”

The mayor is currently embroiled in a recall effort by citizens angry at the lack of improvement in the city and Williams’ public scandals involving the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, Washington Teachers Union and the D.C. Office of Property anagement.

This was evident at the Citizens Summit where there was a noticeable police presence as a small group of protestors held “Recall Williams” signs.

The mayor, who is now in his second term, has already formed an exploratory committee to begin raising funds for a possible reelection campaign in 2006.