jonetta rose barras: Where is the forward motion in the DC Council?

While I was working many years ago as a community organizer in Jackson, Mississippi, my colleague Marie Ory tried to teach me a few things about the tender care a car needs under its hood. I was, of course, a lost cause. I have always had a driver’s license; however, I’m a true urban animal, and DC is the perfect town for an unrepentant bus aficionado like me. 

Still, even I know something is wrong when the scene through the front windshield of a car is the same as the one in the rearview mirror. That’s the best description of the DC government as 2020 opens. Things seem stuck without any apparent forward movement. 

“The public policy issues are not much different going into the new year than they were in 2019,” at-large DC Council member Robert White told me in a recent phone interview. He cited the scarcity of affordable housing, the need for “real results in our schools for children of color,” and significant workforce unemployment issues.

“There is no way to fix crime without addressing those other [three issues],” said White, who seemed especially passionate about the large percentage of people who “want to work” but haven’t found employment. 

“We have residents going through government-sponsored programs and they can’t get jobs,” White said. “Their dignity is hurt, their confidence is hurt and their faith in the government is hurt. 

“There are ways to solve this. But, we just haven’t figured [implementation] out yet,” he added. White admitted, however, that the intransigence of these public policy problems — not just from 2019 to 2020 but over a decade or more — does suggest that elected officials also may not be “working hard enough.”

It’s not about how much sweat is being expended, in my view. It’s about the absence of innovation or radical socioeconomic initiatives. DC’s elected officials seem caught working only inside the lines with the traditional eight-pack of crayons. The solutions they have offered — scattering new low-cost housing throughout the city or reauthorizing rent control, for example — may seem revolutionary, but they are essentially reiterations of past policies that were either poorly designed, poorly implemented or poorly enforced.

During the eras of Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, District residents witnessed more innovation, although, truth be told, some of their plans crumbled before us. Current officials continue to nibble on the leftovers from those administrations. No one is developing any new recipes. 

I am not sanguine about that reality changing over the next few months. Expect the same dull template: The council will convene oversight or performance hearings of various government agencies. Even if some harsh questions arise, little or no change in executive branch management will result. Mayor Muriel Bowser will submit her fiscal 2021 budget and financial plan, in which she undoubtedly will attempt to satisfy the demands of various special interest groups, without any clear vision of the future beyond some catchy slogan plastered across the budget books. 

The council will proceed to pontificate about how the proposal doesn’t get at important issues. Then, the majority of members will vote to approve that document with modest changes, largely giving the executive what she sought. 

There may be a slight glitch in that scenario, since Ward 2’s Jack Evans will presumably have been expelled by then due to past ethics violations. The council has invited him to appear next week, on Jan. 7, to present reasons he should not be booted out of the legislature. A final vote to remove him could occur on Jan. 21. 

With Evans on the outside, the business community and upper-income residents may take a fiscal bruising as some legislators propose changes to tax and fee structures to secure more money for outdated programs that repeatedly have failed to change the lives of people depending on government help to reach the next socioeconomic level.

In other words, 2020 will seem an awful lot like 2019 — maybe even 2018.

Robert Brannum, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 5, blamed a lack of ethics as the culprit for the public policy repetition — and he’s not talking about Evans. “Council members are reluctant to deal with each other honestly; it colors how they take on other pressing issues in the city. 

“A lot of people [in the community] don’t think they are coming with clean hands,” Brannum continued, adding that elected officials often “talk with the same, small group of people they know.” It becomes an echo chamber, where the issues are presented the same way and the same fixes are proposed. What’s more, Brannum said, elected officials also have seemed unwilling to have tough conversations with residents, particularly around crime, including the community’s responsibility to assist police in identifying perpetrators and reducing or eliminating it.

Political skirmishes between so-called moderates and progressives will be replayed this year during the special election to fill Evans’ seat. As I noted in a previous column, some people have urged him to run again for office, which DC law does not prohibit. If he chooses that course of action, the Democratic primary and special election in Ward 2 may be hot and interesting — although overall the results in the June contests could be quite predictable. 

All of the council incumbents seeking reelection — Vincent Gray (Ward 7), Trayon White (Ward 8), Brandon Todd (Ward 4) and Robert White (at-large) — will face challengers who are not so new to their particular communities or the city in general. Progressive groups urged Janeese George to run against Todd, whom they have characterized as a mayoral pawn. Todd is a moderate with a strong base, particularly among one of the city’s most reliable voting blocs: senior citizens. The upcoming fight isn’t very different from the 2015 special election, when Todd battled a slew of candidates hoping to fill the seat left vacant when Bowser moved into the mayoral suite. He repeated that feat in the following year’s regular election to secure a full four-year term.

Normally, whoever wins the Democratic primary sails through the November general election. Once again, that  may be the case in the ward races. However, the at-large race could be a wildcard: David Grosso, one of two independents who currently hold at-large seats, has announced his retirement at the end of the year. Already there are several announced candidates vying for his spot, including State Board of Education member Markus Batchelor; former DC government executive Eric Rogers; and Christina Henderson, a former Grosso staffer. Ed Lazere, executive director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, may also jump in the race, according to political operatives.

The dynamics of that race may further split an already divided council. Grosso has publicly announced his support for Henderson and was present at her campaign launch. Rogers served in 2018 as the campaign manager for DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson’s reelection, which he won decisively against Lazere. That could mean Mendelson would stand with Rogers. 

If Lazere runs for the at-large seat, is it a back door to another effort to unseat Mendelson? When I reached out to Lazere last weekend, he declined to talk to me about his intentions.

The general election machinations are risky enough that Robert White determined the need for a warchest. Consequently, he decided not to participate in the DC Fair Elections or public campaign financing program. That decision did not sit well with some progressives, causing a few of them to suggest privately that they might throw their support behind Lazere, should he run. He is perceived as having deeper roots in that community than White.

In DC, voters in the general election may choose two at-large candidates among those on the ballot, with political parties limited to one nominee. While White is expected to win the Democratic primary (he doesn’t currently have a challenger), the November election could still be up for grabs even if President Donald Trump’s appearance on the ballot spurs Democrats to show up in droves at the polls. Quite frankly a lot can happen on the local scene between now and November.

White said a major flaw in the public financing law as currently written caused him not to choose that route, although he voted for the legislation and continues to profess support. “You don’t get a pot of money for the general election,” White explained. (Last year, I cited my own problems with the fair elections law.)

Candidates who agree to accept only small donations receive a match of $5 from the public coffers for every $1 raised by a campaign. There is also so-called “base funding” that can range from $10,000 to $160,000 depending on the office sought. It is distributed in two payments: one at the time the candidate is approved for the program, and the second when the candidate is certified by the DC Board of Elections as an official candidate to appear on the ballot.

“With so many candidates running hard for David Grosso’s open seat, I have to be ready to run two campaigns — one for the primary and one for the general election,” White said. 

Asked who he considered his stiffest competition, he demurred: “I don’t prejudge any candidate. Next year, we will have new blood on the council. Who it will be … it’s too early to tell.”

Brannum, in Ward 5, admitted that there is a “transition of intellectual power underway in the city.” He said it’s evident in the media where there are younger reporters, as well in the business community, within the government and among community activists. He noted the change in style from face-to-face work to the use of social media platforms to reach people.

However, Brannum pointed out that voters have supported White before. “The high voter turnout will help him,” he said. And though he noted that independents or “no party” voters make up the fastest growing sector of DC voters, he said it’s certain “this city will go Democratic” come November.

So, maybe the political arena will be like the management and public policy areas — the view forward, the same as the one behind. 

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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.