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“I certainly understand the mistrust some may be feeling about this contract. I had skepticism about the scope, skepticism about the cost,” said Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At Large) before casting her vote in favor. “I kicked the tires as much as I could… there are great benefits in the structure.”

“It’s going to be directly distributed to educators and I want to give a shout out to OSSE, who has actually stepped up in terms of their commitment here to distribute $53.9 million in the next year as direct supplemental payments to educators separate from their existing salaries,” council member Christina Henderson said.

“D.C. is already a leader in these issues, and we would be taking it a step further in terms of our competitiveness in the region, not just with the federal government but with our neighboring jurisdictions,” Henderson said, “and to at least try and offer the same type of benefits that we’re already providing the private sector.”

“Given the state of where the District is, we can offer our employees medical leave. We shouldn’t have a situation where, if someone has to get a surgery, they either have to take their sick time or their annual leave or go ask their colleagues to be able to use some of their leave in order to recover,” Henderson tells DCist/WAMU. “Our government is completely capable of providing that time off.”

“The whole idea there was: There are occasions and situations that happen, you know, before a child arrives, where expecting parents might need to take time off for a procedure or something else. And so, we wanted to make that available to them because the way that parental leave is set up, you’re not able to actually access that until a delivery happens,” Henderson said.

DOES Director Unique Morris-Hughes has claimed such actions have contributed to backlogs. But delays have been an issue long before Silverman and others got involved to resolve said delays. Moreover, at Council meetings last spring, Morris-Hughes took issue with councilmembers sharing their own information on unemployment. But Silverman, At-Large Councilmember Robert White, At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson, and Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George said they never received DOES information in layperson’s terms, wondering aloud how residents were expected to navigate the UI system if they basically had to be experts to do so.

At-large Councilmember Christina Henderson, who wrote the letter, said, “Right now, we have no part of our system that is running to one hundred percent capacity and no part of our system where I feel like the average D.C. resident feels one hundred percent confident that they’re going to show up to a platform or bus stop and it’s going to show up on time.”

“Last night, I had a little bit of a breakdown,” said At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson during a call with fellow councilmembers and D.C. health officials on Friday. “I was like, we tested all of these kids for one day in school. And now, if somebody goes out this weekend, we are literally starting from zero again on Monday. … Why can’t we ask folks to do this again on Sunday night? Swab your kid again, upload the results.”

“Many people believe that redistricting is over now that the new ward boundaries are in place,” said D.C. Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large), a member of the redistricting subcommittee. “We still have to draw advisory neighborhood boundaries and that is a little bit different from the wards.”

“Today, I am proud to share the Council voted to pass both my emergency and permanent legislation requiring students and early childcare workers to be immunized against COVID-19,” At-Large Council member Christina Henderson tweeted.

“There are absolutely no consequences for paying the tickets. Therefore, there is no desire on the part of a driver to slow down,” said Henderson. She said legislation will be introduced later this week, calling for serious infrastructure changes around schools. Henderson added that the District needs to “refashion our roads in such a way that they are no longer highways and freeways around schools.”

At-Large Council Member Christina Henderson in a letter said she wants an update on pending regulations that would give the Department of Energy and Environment, or DOEE, authority over mold remediation enforcement and fines.