Immediately when the case at the court of appeals was dismissed voluntarily by all parties, Counsel-member Jim Graham issued a press release celebrating the “dismissal” of the case by the court of appeals, and which failed to note the significant concessions won for the residents most affected by the Hotel. CSN put out a press release to address this issue. Mr. Graham had been reprimanded for overly-cozy relationships with developers, and lost the next election by a substantial margin.

By June, 2014, the basic outline of the structure for the Forget-Me-Not fund had been created. Community members found the official zoning process which approved the hotel to be extremely alienating. The Fund would be different: It would be organized on a horizontal structure, with all decisions to be made by consensus whenever possible. A careful structure was created so that no person could block action, but that everyone could be heard. There would be no traditional board of directors, rather, there would be multiple levels of participation available based on interest in the Fund’s goals.

Great care was taken to avoid both the trappings and substance of traditional nonprofit governance. The day-to-day operations would be handled by a Primary Participant Circle (PPC), and the PPC would hold regular meetings

There was a lot of energy in the days and weeks after the settlement, but it took quite some time to get systems in place to handle the money. CSN didn’t have a bank account. Nobody in the community groups had experience in nonprofit administration.

By June of 2014, a group of community members had volunteered to help with the Fund. These people were Yasmina Castellanos, Teresa Lopez, Chris Otten, Martin Martinez, Malik (Tienda), and Daniel Hornal. Only Mr. Hornal didn’t live in Adams Morgan, the rest were longtime residents. Ms. Lopez and Mr. Malik both owned small businesses in Adams Morgan.

On June 26, 2014, Chris learned that the owners of 2384 Champlain Street, a XX-unit rent-controlled building that was almost next door to the hotel had not paid their D.C. taxes, and the property was being put up for a tax lein auction.

This presented a possibility to use the first part of the settlement money to save a low-income building from being torn down, right next to the hotel.

The tax sale auction happened on July 14, 2014, and the Champlain Street Neighbors won the sale, for $84,000 (+$15,000 for the tax debt.) The celebrations were short-lived, however, as we learned on the 17th that the building owner had paid the tax at the D.C. Cashier on the morning of the sale. CSN had paid $20,000 in deposit for the bidding. The money would be refunded, and the Fund would go back to the original plan. Of course, this being D.C., the refund took many months and D.C. made it very difficult to get a check issued correctly.

In the meantime, Yasmina and Martin worked to activate a tenant’s association at 2384 Champlain street. With support from CSN, the 2384 Tenants Association was formed officially on July 22, 2014.

Shortly after, on July 29, CSN received news that the tenants at 2388 Champlain Street had received a “TOPA” notice and had formed a tenant’s association. “TOPA” is the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act, a D.C. law that gives tenants the right to purchase their building when the owner puts it up for sale. Daniel met with the tenants to inform them of their rights and of the existence of the Fund.

Near the end of July and through August, Daniel and Chris exchanged several more drafts of the articles and bylaws. Discussions about instant runoff, “bonda,” consensus and various structures went on through September. On September 30, 2014, the proposed articles for the new nonprofit, the Adams Morgan Forget-Me-Not Fund, were sent to the Hotel for approval.

The Hotel provided no feedback, nor approval, nor disapproval on the articles despite repeated requests in the following weeks and months. On November 11, 2014, the attorney for the hotel assured us that “Jake is alive and well, and has his draft on his to do pile.” Finally on December 16, 2014, CSN gave the Hotel 5 days to either give feedback or forever hold their peace.

However, we did not hold them to their deadline. Chris and Daniel made a few more detail edits to the bylaws in late February, 2015, and sent a new version to the Hotel for their approval on March 3, 2015.

Also in early March, 2015, Chris drafted a petition for review for the Ontario Theater project. Chris drafted a petition for review which was reviewed by Daniel.

Over the course of the previous year, frustration had grown among all stakeholders over the slow pace of progress in getting articles approved. Unbeknownst to other board members, Teresa sent a letter in February of 2015 to Holland & Knight, the law firm for the hotel, complaining that they were holding up approval of the articles, and asking for the preparation of financial statements.

Jake from the hotel responded to the letter, claiming that the Hotel had made the decision not to give input on the articles to avoid being accused of interference. (This directly contridicted the November email where his attorney stated it was on his “to do pile.”) Chris wrote a careful and generous email to everyone try and head off the fracture that was coming. Daniel wrote a letter to all stakeholders summarizing the financial status of CSN, the progress on the Articles, getting contractors paid, and future matters.

In early April, CSN brought concerns about construction dust (a 50-foot wall of dust) to the Hotel, who committed resources to dust abatement in response. Finally, on April 20th, 2015, the DC government issued its refund check for the Tax Sale auction.

On May 15, a meeting was set up between community members, CSN and the Hotel at Potter’s House to deal with community construction concerns. Here are meeting minutes from Chris. Teresa was invited but did not come.

On June 23, 2015, Teresa sent an email to everyone stating that she was asked by some of the merchants about “the issue of miscommunications,” and threatened to “request an audience with Judge Washington,” for the businesses to hire their own lawyer or to file a bar complaint. Chris replied with confusion. Because the hotel construction had not started, none of the money had been paid yet by the hotel except the initial $100,000 to CSN.

On or about June 24, the Hotel received its building permit.

On June 25, Teresa sent an email requesting an “up date copy” and an updated financial statement. Daniel replied that the situation was basically the same as it was when the 2014 letter was written.

On July 2, 2015 Daniel sent a copy of all completed nonprofit paperwork, final articles and bylaws, to all members. The articles are innovative and covered almost all possible situations. Perhaps they would have been proven to be innovative, but unfortunately in the end our reach exceeded our grasp; we never were able to get the community engagement necessary for all those dispute resolution methods to become relevant. The material was submitted to the IRS for approval.

On July 7, the Fund, with its new “Primary Participant Circle” of Chris Otten, Daniel Hornal, Teresa Lopez, Yasmina Castellanos, and Mr. Malik, had their first meeting. These people were carefully chosen to represent the various interests of the Fund: Teresa and Malik were business owners, Chris and Yasmina were community activists for Tenants, and Daniel brought legal and administrative expertise.

Unfortunately, this first meeting was a disaster. Despite instructions to keep the meeting to only members of the PPC, Teresa brought another community member, Blanca, who had participated in organization of the community group that brought the lawsuit against the hotel. Once the meeting started, Blanca started yelling at everyone, and refused to listen to anything. She accused everyone at the meeting of stealing money, and demanded payment of money for her volunteer organizing work.

Despite this, the PPC continued trying to work. Chris developed a plan for the final disbursement of the first $100,000. $27,500 was granted to the 2384 Champlain St. Tenants Association, $12,500 was set aside for tenant organizing, $15,000 was set aside for small business organizing. $15,000 would go to Daniel and his firm for legal work to-date. $7,500 would reimburse Chris for his expenses and time. (This probably amounted to a wage of $4/hr.) $5,500 was to go to Teresa, and $2,750 was to go to Jeannie Amado. The remaining $14,500 was reserved for operating expenses for CSN and reserve funds. All CSN principals approved of the plan.

On 8/4/2015, the hotel provided feedback on the articles. Daniel replied that he’d be happy to look at amending the articles but they had already been submitted to the IRS. Chris raised issues about construction involving dust, accessibility and parking with the Hotel.

The hotel’s building permit was appealed, so any further disbursements from the Hotel were paused.

On August 12, Teresa again requested more money for Blanca. Daniel replied that he wasn’t authorized to disburse money other than according to the signed plan.

On September 1, 2015, Chris sent an email to everyone, noting that there were unknown withdraws from the Fund’s BB&T account, including a check for $1000 to Blanca and a $1,200 purchase from Best Buy. This is the attached spreadsheet. Teresa was asked to account for the money. On September 16, Teresa requested a copy of Daniel’s retainer agreement with CSN and the Tax ID number for the Fund. On September 21, Daniel gave the requested information and asked again for her to account for the money missing from the account.

On September 14, Daniel had received the money from the BB&T account and issued disbursement checks in accordance with the plan, except on advice from Chris he witheld the check to Teresa until an accounting was received for the missing money.

On October 28, Daniel and Teresa exchanged emails. Teresa demanded more paperwork from the fund (which had already been sent to her), and Daniel insisted that she account for the missing money. In retrospect, we should have frozen her out at this point rather than encouraging her to run for the board of the Fund. Lessons learned.

Through November, Chris and Daniel continued to request payment from the Hotel. Finally, in mid-November, Jake claimed that the money couldn’t be paid because the building permit had been challenged in court, and because the IRS had not yet approved the nonprofit application. Chris wrote a strong response. Daniel followed up with a legal demand.

On February 16, 2016, Chris wrote and Daniel edited and filed an appeal for the Ontario Theater zoning project. On February 17, the IRS finally approved the Fund’s nonprofit application.

While the first meeting went well, discord started nearly immediately. Out of the blue, Teresa sent an email to Chris accusing him of “playing games” by not including small businesses, but did not explain what she meant. Chris made a measured and helpful response.

For the PNC account, Hornal, Otton and Malik were set as authorized signers, and checks required two signatures.

Various emails were sent back and forth to set a meeting, but people couldn’t get together. On November 2, 2016, Hornal sent the following email:

Hi Chris and Co.,

I deposited the $1,600 for the small business association on the 20th. I deposited $20,000 into the AMFMN fund on Sept. 29. My trust account currently reflects a ledger balance of $35,214. That includes the money set aside for the tenant’s association, as I never received disbursement instructions.

In late November, instructions were given and $27,000 was dispersed to the 2384 Tenants Association.

On November 23, Chris sent an email to the group relating a request from Malik for an emergency $15,000 loan. Chris suggested that $5,000 remaining from Champlain Street Neighbors be granted to Malik immediately, because the Fund was having trouble meeting and could not disperse money without a meeting. This was quickly approved, and Hornal sent a check on the 30th.

Also on the 30th, Seth from the Hotel stated that the first payment had been wired from the hotel. This caused a row because Hornal couldn’t confirm receipt as he was not a signatory on the account, and Chris was out of town (at Standing Rock). Teresa went to the bank to try and verify the money, but she was not a signatory. Blanca sent an email asking for Teresa to be added as a signer on the account and for half of the money to be given to the Columbia Road Business Association. Teresa continued to make noise, and finally on December 13, Malik was able to verify a deposit of $865,000 from the Hotel.

2017

On January 11, Chris circulated this document as a vision for the fund, and the fund met on the 12th. No notes survive for this meeting.

Malik, facing foreclosure, withdrew $32,500 from the Fund account over the course of a couple months via ATM withdraws. He admitted this as soon as he was confronted, and requested to convert the stolen money into a loan, to be paid back with interest.

On February 15, 2017, the fund met, here are the notes. The board approved the loan along with Malik’s resignation. Yasmina resigned due to time commitments. The board approved in principle a grant of $100,000 to the Columbia Road Small Business Association, upon submission of a budget for the grant.

On 2/20, Teresa submitted a proposed budget for the ColRdSBA. She also continued to stir shit. It caused friction.

On March 8, the Fund had it’s first public meeting at Potters House. Approximately 15 people were in attendance. A committee was formed to create a website and grant forms.

The Fund approved the ColRdSBA grant in the amount of $126,500. The amount was paid out in a lump sum (although there was disagreement among the board of the propriety of this), and the ColRdSBA agreed to produce quarterly reports and deliver them to the Fund. Teresa Lopez was appointed as the liaison between ColRdSBA and the Fund.

In April and May, Jonetta Rose Barras (with her blog) and Paul Schwartzman (of the Washington Post) both started fishing around for stories. This section had a lot more information but the web browser crashed and I lost it twice, so we’re moving on. It was BS. Here is a an email thread with Schwartzman, here is one with with Barras (her site no longer hosts the article.)

On June 21, the fund held a meeting. PNC had learned that an unauthorized check payment had been made out of ColRdSBA’s bank account, and it had been agreed that all money would be returned to the Fund.

There was much back and forth and bellyaching and Teresa obstructionism, and we thought the money would just be returned, but then we got a letter from Coleman Foster in July of 2017, an attorney hired by ColRdSBA, who had been fed some crap by the association that was suggesting that the Fund owed settlement money to ColRdSBA beyond what had already been granted. Daniel sent a response and had some conversations with their lawyer, and explained that ColRdSBA was mistaken about their entitlements. We found it outrageous that ColRdSBA was using our money to try and sue us.

In August, 2017, the Fund resolved to purchase a laptop for Martin’s ED work, and resolved to hire an accountant.

On August 31, we learned that 2384 Champlain, a rent-controlled building next to the hotel, had been put up for sale and TOPA noticed had gone out.

Here is an update from Sept 5 with Martin’s concerns for the org.

On 9/5/2017, Chris submitted a request from Adams Morgan for Reasonable Development for $12,500 to cover legal expenses in their “Save Our Plaza” campaign. This was approved.

On 9/27, Martin hired Michael Howard as an accountant. He immediately began charging for things outside of scope of employment (here is his first timesheet.)

Here are the minutes from the October 18 meeting. Hornal was official retained by the Fund at $150/hr, and we agreed to sue Malik. Hornal was asked to help Chris with a subpoena he had received for his role in organizing the Plaza group.

In November 19, Martin announced he would flyer the area with Fund posters, and also told Chris and Hornal that he had stopped sending out small updates to Teresa because “she often chimes in and gives less-than-helpful remarks about the current progress of things. When it comes to large updates, I do forward to all, but things such as these; honestly it’s just saving me from aggravation.”

November 20 update from Martin:
The ColRdBa has responded to our demands for their quarterly report. The money has not been used, except for their attorney. This attorney has contacted Daniel and wishes for the two organizations to work together. There is a slight catch, however; some of the ColRdBa (mainly Blanca and those she’s brainwashed) still wish to sue us for… some reason. The other half of the ColRdBa does not wish to sue us. As a result there is a clause in the agreement that I would like to discuss with you all.

Hornal advised Chris on a protective order and represented Chris during the deposition, according to email records. I (Hornal) somehow have no memory of this.

In December, 2017, Martin learned that Michael Howard, the ex-accountant, had copied account information off a payroll check and began charging the Fund for his bills, car loans and student loans. We disputed the charges through the bank.

2018

On January 26, we learned that the 2384 Association had hired a new attorney, Paul Strauss. At his request, the Fund agreed to loan $150,000 to the tenants association in order to secure “earnest money” to stop the TOPA process long enough to attempt to extract concessions or find a better landlord buyer.

Teresa had stopped responding entirely to correspondence.

On Feb 20, 2018, Chris moved for the fund to grant forgiveness to Malik for his debt, to create a new scholarship fund, and for a small grant to help Helen Indale of the Adams Morgan Cafe a $2,500 grant for business improvement.

On April 11, Chris brought 3 further proposals fourth: $7500 for AM Ethiopian Cafe and Restaurant, which was behind on rent, $2000 for Christian W. Anderson, to help him stay in housing and pay utility bills, and that the fund forgive the $37,500 debt owed by Malik.

On April

On May 21, the organization approved the grant to the AM Ethiopen Cafe and made the payout. I believe (but have not confirmed) that