When the dust settles on Nov. 3, hundreds of District residents will be elected and re-elected as advisory neighborhood commissioners — hyperlocal government officials who represent their neighbors and advise the local and federal government on community issues.
Markita Bryant, an advisory neighborhood commissioner who decided against a re-election bid, won’t count among that number. However, as she makes her transition out of public office, she has a bit of advice for those taking on the mantle of local leadership.
“Whatever you do, you do it from the goodness of your heart,” said Bryant, albeit with a caveat.
“It can become a challenge, especially in this economy where some people have to take two or three jobs,” she continued. “They may have wanted to run for office, but they got to pay the bills, they got to have somewhere to live, or they have children to feed. It’s choosing between serving our community or going to get that second or third job.”
Bryant’s single-member district (SMD), 6/8F02, was birthed out of a redistricting process in 2021 that created nearly 50 new advisory neighborhood commission (ANC) seats and expanded the boundaries of Ward 8 west of Anacostia River, where Bryant and her colleagues in ANC 6/8F currently live.
In 2024, at the end of a hotly contested ANC race, Bryant, a Navy Yard resident, came out on top by fewer than 70 votes against now-Transporation Security Administration investigator Elissa De Souza and WMATA project manager Antonio Rossi.
Rossi, the lone candidate on the Nov. 3 general election ballot, is anticipated to succeed Bryant in 2027.
In early 2025, shortly after entering office, Bryant stood as the only woman elected official in her commission as she tackled the fallout from Trump administration-induced federal layoffs and, soon after, mass youth gatherings at Navy Yard and the president’s federalization of the local police force.
“I had community members walk up to me not as their best selves, but I tried to give them hope or reach out to our council or the mayor to see what we are doing,” Bryant told The Informer. “We still had the violence that we had to deal with. We still had other issues of affordability. A lot of businesses were, in a way, suffering and I wanted to hear them out on how best to move forward with them.”
As she nears the end of her term, Bryant has under her belt the passage of ANC resolutions to: install stop lights for bike lanes and earmark funds from the Capitol Riverfront Parks Foundation to Van Ness Elementary’s parent-teacher organization. She also assisted in the Bowser administration’s launch of a multiagency effort toward crime prevention and youth intervention.
Bryant’s crown jewel, however, is what she describes as an even-keeled response to the so-called teen takeovers in Navy Yard. In her role as commissioner of SMD 6/8F02, Bryant often spoke with young people congregating on the streets and collaborated with D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation to coordinate late-night teen activities in Navy Yard throughout the summer, as well as secure time slots at Arthur Capper Recreation Center for young people and families.
As she recounted, she did so while working with the D.C. Council and Executive Office of the Mayor for the passage of permanent curfew legislation and creating a direct line of communication with MPD’s First District Headquarters to get information about hotspots.
“My baseline for making these hard decisions coming into the situation of the teen takeover was that I didn’t want anyone to die on my watch,” Bryant told The Informer. “I know some of the things were not popular, but…in due time, people understand how severe it was. It was getting to a point where we were going to lose lives on any side, and I didn’t want that to happen.”
A Civic Duty During Perilous Times
For more than 50 years, advisory neighborhood commissioners have weighed in on matters involving: traffic, parking, recreation, liquor licensing, zoning, economic development, public safety, sanitation and the District’s budget. For nearly half that time, they’ve had the support of the Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (OANC).
Amid commission seat vacancies, and questions about how the government can spur civic engagement, longtime Ward 8 resident and community leader Wendy Glenn says that it’s incumbent upon community members to take matters into their own hands.
“Civic engagement is for you to decide that you care enough about your community, your neighborhood, your residents, your neighbor, and your city to say, ‘I want to be involved.’” Glenn told The Informer. “Being an ANC commissioner is hard work and it’s thankless work. Are you willing to do that? If nobody ever pats you on the back, if nobody ever says thank you, are you still willing to be committed to what you signed up to do?”
For Glenn, Bryant best exemplifies how Ward 8 residents, on both sides of the Anacostia River, can utilize their lived experiences and bridge gaps while serving on the ANC.
“Markita is a single mom raising a magnificent young man,” Glenn said. “She has her own career that she’s fostering, but she doesn’t forget her civic engagement. Yes, she’s ANC commissioner for Navy Yard but she also stays engaged in other things that are going on east of the river. She’ll share that information so that we’re not separated.”
Glenn, Bryant’s friend and colleague of a decade, worked closely with the advisory neighborhood commissioner throughout her tenure. In her former role as Ward 8 manager of the D.C. Mayor’s Office on Community Relations and Services (MOCRS), Glenn often spoke with Bryant about how best to ensure the wellbeing of Navy Yard’s elders, children, and public housing residents.
As Glenn recounted, she and Bryant also spoke extensively as Bryant, against the wishes of some of those on both sides of the issue, gelled together a balanced, multiagency response to the mass teen gatherings at Navy Yard. That work, Glenn told The Informer, required Bryant to reach out to MOCRS, the Executive Office of the Mayor, Metropolitan Police Department, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, civic associations, and local nonprofits.
“Markita really wanted to make sure that people understood that if young people had safe spaces, if there was enough police presence, that it could work,” Glenn said. “She fought really hard to have that happen. That wasn’t a popular decision to have them down there in that area, but she didn’t want to make it that young people were vilified. But she also didn’t want to make it so that the police were vilified.”
Navy Yard resident Tori Collins echoed Glenn’s sentiments, telling The Informer that Bryant made the tough decisions in the collective interests of youth, businesses, and residents.
“She took a straightforward and very diplomatic approach, making sure that everybody was considered,” said Collins, a Navy Yard resident of more than a decade. “So yes, residents deserve to come home to a safe, clean environment. Teenagers who live in the neighborhood, but also live throughout the DMV, deserve to be able to come to have spaces where they can develop as long as they’re doing that in a way that’s safe for everyone.”
Collins, a resident of SMD 6/8F05 who met Bryant on a neighborhood safety walk shortly before the pandemic, said she mulled an ANC run in 2024 when Bryant threw her hat in the ring. As the Chicago native recounted, she instead launched a write-in bid in solidarity with Bryant, her platform centering on the preservation of historically Black communities undergoing change.
In speaking about the ANC role, Collins called it something not quite like what she’s seen back home, in that it facilitates direct community involvement in government. Even though she didn’t live in Bryant’s commission, Collins said she continued to engage her while attending monthly commission meetings and helping her elder neighbors.
Collins said that Bryant handled her role well, even with other responsibilities on her plate.
“It’s a huge time commitment, especially depending on where you are, because the Navy Yard is a growing and developing community with a lot of new development projects,” Collins told The Informer. “You’re going to have a lot of issues that come up. Also you have new members of the community of diverse backgrounds, politically, socially, and economically. Those things have to be dealt with.”
In Navy Yard, as well as other parts of the District, economic development has increased the cost of living, creating a demographic shift where white, more affluent residents have replaced historically Black populations. Collins, perhaps out of concern about ANCs’ racial and socioeconomic diversity, questioned whether OANC could better compel residents from historically marginalized communities to run for public office.
“There should be some compensation, but not compensation that’s going to replace your normal job,” she told The Informer. “I understand why OANC doesn’t do it. They want to keep that grassroots feel to it, also making sure that…it’s really a role where you can learn more about the city that you’re in and make changes directly in your neighborhood.”
Collins also questioned how far ANC 6/8F and other commissions are looking into the future. “I feel the commission could…reach out to younger generations and get them ready for those roles,” Collins said. “That would be helpful.”
OANC’s Executive Director Provides Clarity
Out of 345 ANC seats on the Nov. 3 ballot, 70 are currently without candidates. However, OANC executive director Kent Boese says that history has shown that there’s little cause for concern.
“Sometimes it’d be a single write-in, sometimes two people will write in, and write-ins usually have very low vote tallies, but they ultimately do result in [seats] being filled,” Boese told The Informer. “The second cut of the apple is seats that aren’t filled with write-ins at the general election that are vacant in January. People will often step up and say, ‘Hey, I didn’t realize this seat was vacant. I went to my ANC meeting. I should fill in,’ and then they go to the Board of Elections in January and they’re probably seated by February or March.”
As Boese explained, the first couple months of an advisory neighborhood commissioner’s two-year term often involves attending meet-and-greets with colleagues and participating in training sessions. Boese told The Informer he often takes those events as opportunities to help new commissioners best understand how to handle the demands of the job.
“If you allow the community to take every spare moment of your time, they will, and before you know it, you are working 80 hour weeks and burning out,” Boese said. “I know communities are reasonable. If you set parameters and they know when you’re available, they adapt and you can find a good balance.”
Four years ago, the D.C. Council confirmed Council Chair Phil Mendelson’s appointment of Boese to the helm of OANC. He brought to the job 12 years of experience as an ANC 1A commissioner and commission chair. Since taking on the OANC executive director role, Boese has focused on strategic cost savings and centralized technical support for commissions, including e-newsletters and the ongoing launch of commission websites.
As the District government gears up for a new mayor, new council members, and new council committee assignments, Boese is also leading the charge on the updates to the ANC handbook. He’s doing this while working with the Office of the Chief Technology Officer to make mandatory ANC compilation of quarterly financial reports more efficient.
This work, when completed, will build upon: OANC’s provision of legal counsel and photocopy services to ANCs; and the creation of a process through which OANC guides commissions in the use of funds and proactively vets grants doled out to the community.
“We’re kind of in a unique situation being in the OANC,” Boese said about the 10-person agency. “Sometimes we get individuals calling us, giving us ideas. When we look into it, it’s like, ‘Well, that could be really good in that community, but it’s not going to work in most communities,’ so we have to constantly consider things from a broader perspective.”
On Oct. 26, Boese testified before the council’s Committee on Housing during a hearing focused on the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Functions Modernization Amendment Act of 2026. This legislation, introduced by committee chair D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At large), allows OANC to evaluate proposals to establish new SMDs and requires the council to consider the agency’s findings when adjusting SMD boundaries.
The legislation, if passed, would also establish requirements for certain advisory neighborhood commission seats to be considered vacant. Per a Ward 8 advisory neighborhood commissioner, White, the Democratic candidate for D.C. delegate, decided to withdraw the bill upon learning that ANCs weren’t consulted. His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boese told The Informer about the eventual release of an OANC report aimed at informing the once-in-a-decade redistricting process. Boese’s pursuing this goal as OANC closely watches nearly a dozen SMDs that have been leaderless for at least two years. A couple of those seats—representing American University in Northwest and Joint Base – Anacostia Bolling in Southeast— were created during the 2021-2022 redistricting process.
“We know that sometimes SMDs are created with the best of intentions and the thought is that we wanna lift up communities and I’m absolutely supportive of that,” Boese told The Informer. “But after 10 years, if it’s not resulting in people ever stepping up, we have to rethink it. Having those vacancies becomes a significant liability to a commission who’s trying to achieve quorum and they need work to get done, so we’re just trying to find the right balance.”
Some Talk about What’s Next
The Nov. 3 general election in the District is one of several across the country that will dictate the balance of power in a Congress that has infringed on local laws for years and supported President Donald J. Trump in his exertion of executive power over the nation’s capital.
Bryant said that, as National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers continue to accompany local police officers and patrol District streets, the stakes are even higher for advisory neighborhood commissioners.
“A lot of people fear they don’t know what’s coming next for Washington, D.C., so if they step up, then what does that mean for them?,” Bryant said. “Some may say, ‘Oh, it’s just the ANC position,’ but you are the soul of the community. You work with your council members, mayor, police department, fire department and agencies. You have a tough job to keep that engine running.”
Bryant, an alumna of Catholic University of America, entered office early last year still reeling from the death of Ethel Bryant, her grandmother who served as a cafeteria worker at Anacostia High School for 30 years. Other members of her family include a retired MPD official and firefighter-paramedic. She said she kept her family legacy at the front of her mind as she navigated the politics of her position.
Part of maintaining the dignity of her family name, Bryant said, included doing everything by the book. In speaking about that, she gave kudos to Denise Wiktor, OANC’s general counsel and someone Bryant called an invaluable resource in navigating sensitive situations.
“Throughout this entire process, I had lots of questions. If I don’t know anything, or if something feels unethical, I want to make sure I get the right answer,” Bryant told The Informer. “I would just hope that they could expand on that [so] they’re there to answer the questions without you feeling as though you’re bombarding them. I would love to see more sessions where they can hone in on questions.”
