Get to know DC Council at-large candidate Fred Hill

I am a Washington area resident of 50 years, a small business owner, and public leader. In 1998, I founded the Hill Group, a DC-based federal contracting firm. I have built it from a small 8(a) minority business into a competitive federal contractor — creating jobs and navigating the regulatory environment that shapes every small business in this city. For over ten years, I chaired the BZA, presiding over more than 2,000 cases and 400 public hearings across all eight wards. That work required managing competing interests — neighbors, developers, community groups, city agencies — and finding workable solutions under real pressure. I believe my background as a business owner and a decision-maker is exactly what the Council needs right now.

Economic diversification, housing, and defending home rule.

DC’s over-reliance on federal employment is a structural vulnerability we can no longer ignore — I will invest in small businesses, recruit emerging industries, and diversify our tax base.

On housing, I will cut permitting barriers and unlock underused land to build more homes across all eight wards.

On home rule, I will be a relentless advocate for DC’s right to govern itself and, ultimately, for statehood.

These three priorities are deeply connected: A city that grows its economy, builds enough market rate and affordable housing, and controls its own future is a city that works for everyone.

I support both fully staffing MPD and strengthening the oversight tools that build the community trust officers need to do their jobs effectively.

Public safety requires a fully staffed, well-trained MPD. It also requires serious investment in the conditions that prevent crime in the first place. Legislatively, I would push for: Fully staffing MPD, and competitive pay and retention incentives to close the vacancy gap.

I would also work with the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement on violence interruption programs with proven success.

I would know changes are working through a public, ward-by-ward safety dashboard — tracking response times, clearance rates, use-of-force incidents, and community trust surveys — updated quarterly.

The Council must lead on all three tracks simultaneously — prevention, intervention, and accountability —no one track is sufficient.

Prevention means funded youth employment, late-night rec centers, and school-based mental health services.

Intervention means violence interruption programs, credible messenger programs, and family support services that reach young people before a first arrest.

Accountability means that when serious crimes occur, there are real consequences — including for juveniles — because consistency matters for deterrence and for community trust.

On curfews: I support targeted curfew zones in areas where teen takeovers have created documented safety risks, paired with genuine investment in alternatives. Used with precision, curfews are an important tool.

DC spends more per pupil than almost any city in the country and still has enormous outcome gaps by ward and by income.

I would use our funding authority to require ward-by-ward performance reporting on both DCPS and charter schools, published annually. The Council confirms DCPS leadership — I will treat those confirmation hearings seriously, asking hard questions about strategy and accountability before casting a vote.

I support the current structure where the Mayor is accountable for school leadership, but the Council must be active in its oversight role. I will push for a joint DCPS-charter data transparency standard so families can compare outcomes across sectors on equal terms, and ensure per-pupil funding keeps pace with costs and reaches all students.

DC’s housing crisis is a supply crisis — we have not built enough homes to meet demand, and the result is rising costs. The fundamental fix is building more housing across all income levels, in all eight wards.

Specifically, I would: cut permitting timelines which currently add months and cost to projects; unlock District-owned land for affordable and mixed-income development; and update the Comprehensive Plan to enable more housing especially on transit corridors.

I would continue to educate legacy homeowners on the programs that enable them to stay in their homes.

Oversight is one of the Council’s most important tools. I will use the Council’s budget authority as a genuine accountability lever: Agencies that consistently miss service targets and cannot demonstrate that their appropriations are producing results, will be held accountable.

Budget decisions reveal values. When resources are constrained, I would apply two tests: Does this program produce measurable outcomes for residents and help grow the economy? Does cutting it shift costs elsewhere — to emergency services, courts, or healthcare — at greater expense?

Council members should be relentlessly assertive on home rule. Over 700,000 DC residents pay federal taxes, serve in the military, and are denied full Congressional representation and genuine self-governance. Using Congress’s constitutional authority over the District as a political weapon is an abuse of power.

I would pursue: consistent coordination with our congressional delegate, and regional congressional allies; use of the Council’s legislative platform to pass clear, defensible laws that make congressional override politically costly; and active coalition-building with other cities and states facing federal overreach.

Reliable transportation is both an economic issue and an equity issue — All aspects of our economy depend on a dependable system, and residents who can’t afford a car, or who live without good transit options, bear the highest cost of a dysfunctional system.

My priorities: First, advocate for WMATA and the District to restore and expand late-night bus and Metro service. Second, hold DDOT accountable for street maintenance through public ward-by-ward reporting on pothole response times.

Finally, I oppose congestion pricing in the current environment — downtown recovery requires reducing friction for people trying to access the city, not adding costs to workers and small businesses already stretched thin. Congestion pricing ends up hurting the people is it trying to help.

I spent ten years at the BZA — presiding over more than 2,000 zoning cases — so I have a detailed, practical understanding of what this balance requires.

Meaningful voice means: Early engagement before projects are designed; proactive notification; and community benefits agreements with binding commitments.

The Council and the Mayor have distinct constitutional roles — and both work better when they respect that distinction. The Mayor executes; the Council legislates and oversees.

Within our respective roles, I believe in acting as a collaborative partner. I want to work with the executive branch to get things done. The Mayor should expect a partner on shared goals and a rigorous check on how public money is spent.

The Council must set standards, publish data, and act when agencies miss them. I would push for: mandatory quarterly public reporting on call answer times, abandonment rates, and dispatch-to-response intervals by ward; a staffing plan with timelines for filling dispatcher vacancies; and a technology modernization roadmap with Council oversight and binding milestones I would also examine whether 911 is handling calls it should not be handling — mental health crises, noise complaints, non-urgent social service needs — and push for better call diversion to appropriate responders.

I will meet the highest ethical standard in my own conduct — full financial disclosure, no conflicts of interest, no use of public resources for political purposes — and I will support strengthening the enforcement tools that apply to every member.

When a Council member is found to have violated ethical standards, the sanction should be public, proportionate, and swift.

I also support mandatory ethics training for all Council staff. The Council earns trust by governing honestly and accountably.

The At-Large seat is uniquely valuable precisely because it can act in a less ward-focused way.

The issues where At-Large members add the most value are structural: housing production citywide, economic diversification that reaches every ward, home rule and statehood advocacy, and broad oversight functions that require independence from micro-political pressure.

I would balance citywide and neighborhood priorities through active presence — regular office hours and open meetings in all eight wards. Every ward’s needs are distinct. But the solutions — housing, safety, economic opportunity, good government — are the same. That’s what the At-Large seat is for.

When I renovated my building, I named it the Keckley Building — a deliberate act of remembrance. It honors Elizabeth Keckley, an enslaved woman who purchased her own freedom and established a dressmaking business at this very location. Through her talent and dignity, she became a close friend of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Naming this building after her is my way of insisting that DC’s history belongs to everyone who built it and helps make DC feel like home to me.

I am Asian-American. My mother comes from a country, now a state in India, called Sikkim, and that identity shapes how I think about community in ways that don’t fit neatly on a campaign website.