jonetta rose barras: DC’s summer of significance

Typically, at this time of year, it’s mostly crickets around the John A. Wilson Building: the DC Council has recessed, and its members have scattered to their various vacation spots. However, deep into July, Chair Phil Mendelson is facing major challenges that will have a profound effect on the city’s future.

Next week, the legislature is expected to take its final vote on the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and Financial Plan, along with the Budget Support Act that could include authorization to repeal the tipped wage law known as Initiative 82 while increasing the capital gains tax. How legislators handle these issues, among others, will demonstrate whether they have the discipline needed to address the city’s fiscal crisis. The current council is rife with spendthrifts; curbing their natural far-left, tax-and-spend tendencies may be impossible.

Interestingly, public and press scrutiny of DC’s $22 billion budget likely will take a back seat to the $3.7 billion Washington Commanders stadium deal, proposed earlier this year with great fanfare by Mayor Muriel Bowser and team owner Josh Harris. That’s particularly true now that Mendelson has announced that he and the team negotiated significant financial changes to the deal that could mean nearly $950 million in additional revenue for the city over the next 30 years. 

Council hearings had been scheduled for July 29 and 30. Mendelson said those will still be held; however, the legislation on which the public and government officials are expected to comment will be rewritten over the next several days. 

A vote on that bill will be taken on Friday, Aug. 1. Mendelson may choose to push it through as emergency legislation so that it can take effect immediately; the mayor and the team had both pressed for council approval by July 15. “The Commanders … have thought it’s really, really, really important that the council get to a vote by the end of the month,” Mendelson explained about the change in timetable. “The Commanders’ need for urgency actually worked to our benefit.”

Mendelson’s announcement came as the pressure on him was mounting and people were becoming concerned about potential federal interference. “Phil should have got this thing done weeks ago,” said one highly placed government official. “Now he’s allowed [President Donald] Trump to get into it. Who knows what he will do? Just look at the whole name change discussion.”

Most DC residents don’t seem to care that much about the name. They care about the money — money the city needs — and getting the team back into town. 

There were also concerns about the amount of affordable housing and retail that the Commanders promised to develop on the 180-acre RFK campus in Ward 7. None of those elements, part of Bowser’s original deal, were changed. However, the council version installs penalties if the team falls behind schedule. According to Mendelson, the Commanders have given assurance that the project will be completed as planned. 

That positive news about the Commanders may not be enough to offset the Ward 8 special election fallout, however. Come Aug. 8, the DC Board of Elections is scheduled to certify the results. Unofficially, Trayon White Sr. has been declared the winner with 2,386 of the 8,646 votes counted so far.

However, the majority of ballots were marked for his three opponents: 2,129 votes went to Sheila Bunn; 2,098 were received by Mike Austin; and 1,930 went to Salim Adofo.

To expel again or not to expel again? That is the question Mendelson and his colleagues will need to answer. 

The issue is not solely limited to the desires of Ward 8 residents. Ward pols make decisions that affect the entire city. And all DC taxpayers support the financial operation of the council, including providing money for the salary of each elected official. What’s more, all DC taxpayers have a stake in the council’s integrity and high ethical standards for officeholders. Consequently, the voices of all residents should be heard and considered.

“Phil should move to expel him, regardless of what Janeese [Lewis George] and Zach Parker do,” said Chuck Thies, a longtime political consultant and former communications director for recently retired Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray.

“If they don’t vote to expel, when he comes up for trial [in January], we’re going to be in the spotlight. It’s going to be Marion Barry 2.0,” added Thies.

“If Mendelson doesn’t have the votes to go forward, he’s not going to go forward,” said one political operative who requested anonymity. “But we should be asking ourselves, ‘At what point does the Republican Congress say enough is enough?’”

Good question. 

Call this DC’s summer of significance. If Mendelson permits the issues to bleed into one huge controversy, then call this the summer of massive discontent.

Most people in DC likely will focus on money and pigskin, or perhaps the Commanders vs. Redskins debate. However, I think the more crucial maneuver will be how the legislature manages the White conundrum, which may be the true test of Mendelson’s leadership and the ultimate gauge of the legislative branch’s moral core.  

Does it have the fortitude to do the right thing?

Some councilmembers telegraphed the strength of their character in early July during one of the legislature’s administrative meetings. Mendelson had opened a discussion with his colleagues about clarifying the institution’s ethics rules, including in the case of a second expulsion. He made clear that the focus wasn’t just White, who in February was unanimously expelled for multiple violations of the Code of Conduct and DC financial disclosure laws — to say nothing of being indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly agreeing in 2024 to accept $156,000 in bribes from someone who claims to have previously given him a bribe in 2020, according to federal court documents. 

By the time White was arrested last August, he had collected $35,000 and was already scheming with his partner to expand their potential criminal territory to include contracts that involved mental health services to District residents, thousands of whom were his own constituents, according to court documents.

Even before that, however, White was guilty of multiple violations of DC’s campaign finance laws. He had been fined but had not paid those fines, nor had he reimbursed the public for the money he received under the Fair Elections Act for which he was ineligible.

On July 10, five days before the special election, the DC Board of Ethics and Government Accountability sent White a notice of violation of the city’s Code of Conduct related to failing to file financial disclosure statements as required by law. He was given until July 25 to respond, according to the BEGA notification. After that deadline, a hearing on the matter will be scheduled before that board.

Despite that indisputable litany of offenses, Ward 7’s Wendell Felder seemed to deliberately thwart a full-throated conversation about how the legislature should deal with the possible return of an unconfessed and unrepentant crook to its fold. Felder said that by publicly exploring its rules and options prior to the special election, councilmembers could be perceived as interfering with the outcome. 

Ward 5’s Zachary Parker said the discussion could be seen as “teeing up” a second expulsion of White. Ward 3’s Matt Frumin recommended delaying the debate until after the election.

What had changed to prompt such asinine comments? Only six months earlier, each had voted to kick White out of the legislature. Are they unwilling to stand by their initial assessment of his behavior? Do they not believe in setting and defending ethics and moral standards for the legislative branch of the government?

“There comes a time,” as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once declared, “when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”

“Why didn’t the [councilmembers] get together and interview candidates?” asked Thies, noting that neither labor leaders nor members of the business community sought to identify a candidate they could help push to victory against White. “It was a gigantic missed opportunity.” 

Felder and others were once again articulating, albeit sotto voce, a belief or philosophy that for decades has trapped DC residents in a vise of victimization that is steeped in racial and class politics. It’s found among Black and white residents alike, especially those who consider themselves liberal or progressive.

Such purveyors of victimization politics have forced public policymakers, advocates, government managers and their own constituents to analyze everything through the prism and within the context of victimhood — a form of political calculation designed, rightly or not, to elicit favors and booty in the perennial wars of race and class. The more victims you can claim in your tribe, the more you can influence the dialogue around programs and money. These so-called leaders imply that they are protecting the interests of the “last, the least, the lost” or the most vulnerable. 

Most often, however, they are holding territory and political power. They and their allies perpetuate this approach while surrendering logic, integrity, morality and ethics, which eventually become roadkill in the game of politics.

This reality often has been exemplified by statements that some African American politician or group of people has been targeted. “The FBI set me up” appears to be White’s defense. And because during various periods in American history, the FBI certainly did set up Black people and other Americans, there is the conspiratorial belief that every encounter with them is some nefarious engagement. 

“Of the 2,300 people who will have voted for [White], 90% believe he is a victim of the Justice Department. They believe he was set up because he is Black,” said Thies, noting that many political careers and campaigns have incorporated that kind of racial and victimization messaging. He cited, as examples, former at-large Councilmember Vincent Orange; the Rev. Willie Wilson, who once ran for mayor against Anthony Williams; and, of course, Barry.

“White politicians are afraid of their own shadows. They fear being labeled racists,” continued Thies before offering an optimistic assessment. “The base of people for whom that is effective politics is declining.” 

Is it, really? 

During the council’s administrative meeting, it seemed to me that some legislators were advancing flawed thinking that suggests by considering whether to expel White a second time, councilmembers were deliberately attempting to disadvantage an entire group of District residents to the point of disenfranchising them days before an election.

Felder, Parker and Frumin seemed to lose sight of the fact that by violating local laws, breaking the Code of Conduct and allegedly taking bribes, White had already placed at risk the interests of his constituents and jeopardized their representation in the government. His actions seriously contradicted his oath of office.

Leadership, including political leadership, requires responsibility and accountability — not just for others but also for oneself.

What to do about White may be the most difficult aspect of this summer for Mendelson and his colleagues. They are not without choices, however. If they permit his return, Thies said they should prevent him from serving as chair of any committee or even serving on any committee. “They should exclude him from everything except the right to vote in the legislative session,” added Thies.

Undoubtedly, Mendelson will explore all the legal options at his disposal. What has been done by other state assemblies? What has happened in Congress? 

There is a strong case to be made, I think, for the council to refuse to seat White. Let him file a lawsuit. District residents who want a strong, honest and ethical government should demand that course of action and be ready to stand with the city in court.

jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.