D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray announced Monday he has established an Office of Policy to advise the council on myriad issues, something akin to the Congressional Research Service.
The office, Gray said, “will add yet another dimension to our analytical abilities” by providing “unbiased, comprehensive and reliable advice” to the legislative branch. It will tackle such issues as the role of the council in public education, the use of emergency legislation and other issues that “transcend” standing committees, the chairman said.
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Donna Cooper, former clerk of the council’s Committee on Government Operations, was named office director. She will be supported by three additional policy analysts and a $311,141 fiscal 2008 budget.
The policy office will be aided by an advisory council led by Alice Rivlin, former chair of the D.C. Control Board. The new office was not created to “counter-balance” Mayor Adrian Fenty’s legislative affairs team, Gray said, just as the recent installation of $500,000 worth of high-tech equipment in the council’s meeting rooms was in no way a response to the city’s technology and media-savvy chief executive.
Rather, Gray said, he is simply building the capacity of the council “to do its job.”
