Phil Mendelson

In presenting his recommended Fiscal Year 2022 Budget and Financial Plan to colleagues, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called the $17,962,963,587 spending proposal and the attached Budget Support Act (BSA) “transformative.”  (Photo…

Long-held criticism of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs — which manages everything from licensing plumbers and other professionals to enforcing housing safety codes and issuing building permits — led to a new law in April…

DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson may have outdone himself this time around with his proposed organization for the legislature as it enters its 24th session. Every two years, with the arrival of newly elected members and what is supposed…

The worry is palpable. At the post office, at the supermarket where I shop, inside my own apartment building — really wherever I went over the weekend — DC residents wanted to talk about President Donald J. Trump’s order to use a…

Some education advocates have started describing Mayor Muriel Bowser and sections of her administration as “Trumpian.” They have joked, for example, that Paul Kihn, the deputy mayor for education, continues to suggest that the 2018 Master…

DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said on Monday there is “broad support for the breakup” of the large and frequently criticized DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the subject of legislation he plans to move forward…

While the expulsion of Jack Evans from the DC Council moved a step closer this week with the approval and submission of the ad hoc committee’s final report and recommendation, the ethics saga is not yet in the rearview mirror. The formal…

Around 9:30 Tuesday morning, as DC Council members ended their breakfast before the scheduled legislative meeting, some lawmakers seemed uncertain about what would happen when the special committee — created to examine the Jack Evans…

After hours of testimony, DC lawmakers seemed doubtful about city agencies’ reform efforts in the wake of a deadly fire in the Brightwood Park neighborhood. Monday’s DC Council hearing was scheduled after Fox 5 and The Washington Post…

DC Council’s handling over the past year of allegations of ethics violations by Jack Evans has been a wholly messy affair. Legislators engaged in rash behavior, twice punishing the Ward 2 representative before conducting their own…

During one of his four interviews with investigators at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, Ward 2 DC Council member Jack Evans was asked to identify the specific circumstances that would trigger a conflict of interest. He reportedly…

Don’t expect the DC Council to hold charters to the same transparency and sunshine standards as traditional public schools. That was the unmistakable message I heard telegraphed last week by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and at-large…

Demonstrating a brand of strong-arming that could rival any seen at the national level, Mayor Muriel Bowser and some in her administration have tried for the past several months to muscle members of the DC Commission on the Arts and…

They’re back — almost. DC Council members won’t officially return from their recess until Monday. The heat and controversy are already building over the public policy and political issues that await them. Unfortunately, based on their…

A few weeks after the DC Council voted, with enthusiastic guidance from Chairman Phil Mendelson, to disapprove the DC Public Education Master Facilities Plan 2018, Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter indicating her “disappointment” with the…

When at-large DC Council member Elissa Silverman publicly challenged Chairman Phil Mendelson last week, asking whether he traded parts of the Committee on Finance and Revenue’s portfolio in exchange for certain members’ affirmative votes…

At first glance, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson may appear to have achieved a complete victory last week in his efforts to maintain or even maximize control of the legislature. Despite strong objections from several colleagues,…

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,…

It’s understandable that some DC residents might feel as if they’ve been cast in a remake of Groundhog Day. In that 1993 film, Bill Murray’s character keeps waking up to the same day, replete with the same remarks and the same behavior by…

The DC Council held its encore vote Tuesday on the $15.5 billion fiscal year 2020 budget and financial plan, with members providing unanimous support; they also approved revisions to the current fiscal 2019 budget. The 13 legislators don’t…