ANC3D04 Commissioner Finney's Retirement Announcement

Dear Fellow Commissioner s and Palisades Neighbors:

Time, age and health combine to dictate that I retire from ANC3D when my term as an individual commissioner representing ANC3D04 comes to an end in December.

It has been a rewarding, challenging experience to be an elected official representing the needs and desires of a neighborhood, and I appreciate immensely your support, your suggestions and at times your criticisms. I would like to think I have acquired a greater wisdom about the democratic process that would have been useful when I was the self-assured reporter and editor. I retire with mixed feelings about the novel concept of "grass roots democracy" that was incorporated into the D.C. home rule through the ANC's. The advice of the ANC's is not always listened to by the D.C. agencies, the Mayor's office and the D.C. Council. But even with that, the ANC does provide a forum for a neighborhood to speak out, and in the process bond as a community.

I encourage you to consider running for the ANC post should you have the time (and it can be a time-consuming job) and are moved by a sense of civic contribution. The jurisdictional lines of ANC3D04 run roughly from Potomac Avenue , up Loughboro to Arizona, and down Arizona to MacArthur and Galena and back to Potomac. To get your name on the November ballot, you pick up a petition from the D.C. Board of Elections at 441 4th St. NW, starting August 4. The petition must be signed by 25 registered voters who reside within ANC3D04. The deadline for submitting the petition is September 3.

Again, my sincere thanks for the opportunity to serve as your neighborhood representative.

John Finney