jonetta rose barras: DC Council ethics and the battle for control

They may have been at each other’s throats earlier this year during an acrimonious budget debate over relocating Benjamin Banneker Academic High School to the Shaw neighborhood. This week, however, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, Chairman Pro Tempore Kenyan McDuffie and other members who are considered the more moderate voices in the legislature were back together again, working in sync like a well-oiled political machine. 

Their unity frustrated the ambitions of those council members considered part of the far-left, progressive wing — Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1), Charles Allen (Ward 6), Mary Cheh (Ward 3) and at-large representatives Elissa Silverman and David Grosso.

Mendelson and his allies on Tuesday blocked attempts to delay reorganization and redistribution of oversight responsibilities under the Committee on Finance and Revenue. They pushed aside efforts to alter the protocol for investigating Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans. They ensured the current Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) board member Corbett Price retained his seat, at least until after recess — despite emergency legislation from Silverman, who had not supported his initial confirmation and now called for his removal based on accusations that he had lied about the results of the WMATA ethics investigation into Evans’ conduct. 

Mendelson and crew also won the day by securing passage, in a 7-5 vote, of the sports wagering contract. That means Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt can move forward with implementation of internet gambling through a dedicated District-owned mobile app. 

Overall, it wasn’t a good day politically for the far-left-wingers, even after they engaged in generous pontification and excessive demands for roll-call votes.

Their repeated defeats came during the last session of the council before its summer recess. There were significant pieces of legislation on the agenda, including amendments to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, labor agreements and disapproval of the public schools’ master facilities plan. However, public and press attention was focused mostly on the fate of the sports wagering contract and the issue of separating Evans from the finance committee, which he has led for more than 20 years, providing the perch from which he allegedly hustled employment and peddled his influence. That last bit is why Evans is under federal investigation. Already Metro’s board of directors, on which Evans sat until last month, has found he violated that agency’s code of conduct; now the council is launching its own independent probe.

It’s a huge mess for which Evans has no one to blame but himself.

It was interesting to watch progressives at Tuesday’s council meeting as they relentlessly sought to push through their agenda. It began with Cheh, Nadeau and Silverman introducing an amendment to delay Mendelson’s proposed reorganization of the finance committee.

They had left the behind-the-scenes council breakfast, held prior to the public session, seething because Mendelson had placed too much of finance and revenue authority — the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Lottery and Gaming, and Destination DC, for example — within McDuffie’s Committee on Business and Economic Development. In March, after Evans’ reprimand, the Ward 5 council member was given oversight of parts of the finance committee portfolio, including tax abatements; that early action and this week’s assignment have greatly enhanced McDuffie’s power and influence. 

Further, Mendelson gave at-large member Robert White oversight of Metro. That assignment, some believed, should have gone to Cheh, who oversees the Committee on Transportation and the Environment. However, many people forget that White chairs the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, a regional organization; from that position he interacts with officials from Maryland and Virginia, giving him an advantage in dealing with critical WMATA issues.

Interestingly, in January, during the first reorganization for the current Council Period 23, Cheh made a similar move, criticizing Mendelson’s recommendations and demanding the Public Service Commission be placed within her committee — not McDuffie’s. That effort failed, as did the one Tuesday.

It was downhill from there. Moderates froze Grosso’s attempt to force the creation of a five-member ad hoc committee immediately, rather than wait until after completion of the independent investigation of Evans by the law firm O’Melveny & Myers. Mendelson has said the ad hoc committee will be appointed after the recess in September and will have the opportunity then to receive the report from lawyers. Ultimately, the ad hoc committee of council members will make a recommendation to the full legislature on whether to censure or otherwise punish Evans.

Grosso took that loss. However, that didn’t stop him from proposing that Evans be removed from all of his committee assignments. White, an inconsistent member of the far-left wing, joined in that push. Six council members, including Evans of course, resisted; Ward 8’s Trayon White missed the meeting because his baby was on the way. With a tie vote, the progressives’ amendment failed.

The final blow came with the vote on the sports wagering contract. Much had been made in the press and by certain council members, including Cheh, about the subcontractors to be hired by Intralot — the Greece-based company that, with joint venture partner DC09, will help implement the new gaming system for the District. Those subcontractors had been accused of being politically connected and, therefore, unworthy of their jobs. Opponents had thought White was a dependable vote. However, he jumped out of the progressive class and argued that he was more concerned about providing opportunities for small businesses.

During the various scrimmages, open wounds and political ambitions were on full display. They have been visible and palpable all year long. Grosso has long coveted the finance committee. Cheh never really got over the fact that the Public Service Commission went to McDuffie. After all, she was the more senior official. Now she was bruised again by being passed over for the WMATA assignment.

Neither Cheh nor anyone else should be surprised by the robust political muscle demonstrated by Mendelson on Tuesday. He had permitted himself to be pushed around during the budget session earlier this year; then, he was caught off-guard by the rancor and lack of what he described as “decorum” by his members, including McDuffie. None of that happened this time around. 

Oddly, on Monday, the day before the council session, I asked Mendelson about whether he was concerned about the direction progressives seemed to be taking the council. There seemed to be a widening rift as a result.

“I am worried that they are shifting the council,” he told me candidly. “But I don’t see the rift playing out right now.”

He may want to look more closely. Summer recess won’t last forever, and other battles aren’t far behind. Can the center hold?

This post has been updated to omit Events DC from the list of agencies added to the Committee on Business and Economic Development. Events DC falls under the Committee of the Whole under a DC Council reorganization resolution approved April 2.

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jonetta rose barras is an author, a freelance journalist and host of The Barras Report television show. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.