{"id":187,"date":"2019-03-23T16:16:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T16:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=187"},"modified":"2019-03-23T16:41:29","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T16:41:29","slug":"as-d-c-leaders-tout-reforms-latest-ethics-scandal-evokes-citys-history-of-corruption-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/187\/","title":{"rendered":"As D.C. leaders tout reforms, latest ethics scandal evokes city\u2019s history of corruption – The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/dc-politics\/as-dc-leaders-tout-reforms-latest-ethics-scandal-evokes-citys-history-of-corruption\/2019\/03\/22\/bc6dd13e-4bf3-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?utm_term=.d19…<\/a>
\nAs D.C. leaders tout reforms, latest ethics scandal evokes city\u2019s history of corruption Paul Schwartzman D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) expresses contrition as the D.C. Council votes to reprimand him on March 19, 2019. (Bill O\u2019Leary\/The Washington Post) As the D.C. Council enacted reforms to reduce public corruption, federal prosecutors were probing whether its longest-serving member used his office for private gain.
\nThat split-screen moment from a few months ago is evidence that even as the city\u2019s political culture has evolved since the scandal-tainted reign of Mayor Marion Barry, the District can still further tighten its ethics rules.
\nCivic groups chided the council as being too lenient when it reprimanded Evans last Tuesday, instead of stripping him of powerful committee posts.
\n\u201cThey have an ethical scandal staring them in the face and they need to do a lot more to show they take it seriously,\u201d said Zach Weinstein, a community organizer with Jews United for Justice, a social advocacy group. \u201cThey are broadcasting that selling your public office for private gain is not that big a deal and you can get a slap on the wrist.\u201d
\nBy his own admission, Evans violated the council\u2019s code of conduct when he repeatedly used his government email account to offer potential clients the benefit his political connections and the influence he amassed over three decades as a city lawmaker and as chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
\nIn September, a federal grand jury subpoenaed records from the city administrator concerning Evans to determine whether Evans had used his council office to improperly help a digital-sign company. Earlier this month, prosecutors subpoenaed records from the office of Mayor Muriel E Bowser (D) and the 13-member council pertaining to Evans and a number of other businesses and entities, suggesting that the probe had widened.
\nA day after Evans was reprimanded, another council member, Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4) was fined $4,000 for misusing government resources to influence a state Board of Elections political campaign. It was his second violation of campaign law in four years in office.
\nBryan Weaver, an activist who has pushed for campaign-finance reforms, said Evans\u2019s actions \u2014 and the council\u2019s response \u2014 evoke the worst aspects of the District\u2019s long history of official misconduct, one that has triggered periodic crises engulfing mayors, council members, government appointees and employees.
\n\u201cDespite all the trumpeted changes to ethics in D.C., the reality is lobbyists can still serve as council members without real penalty,\u201d Weaver said of Evans. \u201cThe danger is that the lure of private profit will always trump the commitment to public service.\u201d
\nCouncil Chair Phil Mendelson (D), in a statement before the unanimous vote to reprimand Evans, said the rebuke would \u201cmake clear to the public that Mr. Evans\u2019s actions do not reflect the council\u2019s values.\u201d He also said that the council could take additional action against Evans, depending on the outcome of the federal inquiry.
\nAt the same time, council members acknowledged that further reforms may be needed. For instance, lawmakers are paid about $140,000 a year but are permitted to hold outside jobs, with the proviso that they recuse themselves from official action if their involvement presents a conflict of interest concerning their private employment.
\nOnly two of the 13 council members reported significant outside income in their most recent required disclosures \u2014 Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), a law professor at George Washington University, and Evans, who operates his own consulting firm.
\nBut Evans is not required to disclose his clients and has refused to do so. He privately confirmed to his council colleagues that at least one of his clients had received a federal subpoena in the ongoing federal probe, according to two people who were present.
\nAnother area flagged by critics as ripe for abuse is the constituent services fund, a largely unregulated pool of money that council members raise from private donors and is meant to be used to help constituents in need.
\nFive council members \u2014 all elected in recent years \u2014 do not maintain constituent services funds, saying they do not think lawmakers should accept money from donors who may be trying to curry their favor.
\n\u201cI think they\u2019re political slush funds, and I don\u2019t think they instill confidence,\u201d said council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), a leading advocate of campaign-finance reform who has failed to get the support necessary to end the practice.
\nWhile most members tap their funds to help constituents with emergencies such as an overdue rent payment or funeral costs, Evans over the years has used money from his fund to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars in tickets to professional sporting events.
\n\u201cThere has been a steady stream marching us toward open government and better government,\u201d said council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1). \u201cBut there\u2019s more to do, because we keep ending up in this place.\u201d
\nIn 2014, Nadeau defeated Jim Graham, a 16-year incumbent who had been the target of an investigation for allegedly influencing a public land deal on behalf of a donor. Nadeau was part of a wave of newcomers \u2014 among them Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5), David Grosso (D-At Large), and Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) \u2014 who replaced lawmakers tarnished by scandal or whose ethics were questioned.
\nBowser captured the mayoralty in 2014 after defeating then-Mayor Vincent C. Gray, whose tenure was also clouded by a federal investigation into campaign finance violations. While Gray was never charged, guilty pleas were entered by six of his associates, including Jeffery Thompson, a city contractor who was accused of masterminding a scheme to funnel $653,000 in illegal donations into Gray\u2019s 2010 campaign.
\nIn her first State of the District speech after becoming mayor, Bowser said: \u201cAccountability is embedded in everything this administration does. Corruption at any level in our city is unacceptable.\u201d
\nBy the end of the year, she was fending off criticism for traveling to China with donors who took advantage of a loophole to pump large contributions into a political action committee managed by her campaign operatives. The PAC was soon shut down.
\nTwo years later, a council investigation concluded that a senior mayoral adviser had sought to steer a contract to Fort Myer Construction, a top donor Bowser\u2019s campaign.
\nRon Lester, a pollster who has advised Barry and Gray, said that the District\u2019s electorate is \u201cpast the point\u201d of being \u201ctolerant of corruption at all.\u201d
\n\u201cVoters are very impatient out here now; they\u2019re just not having it,\u201d Lester said. \u201cIt\u2019s a political environment where you have to be very careful.\u201d
\n Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry in July 2009. Barry died in 2014. (Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP) At the start of Barry\u2019s reign more than 40 years ago, the District\u2019s politics and demographics were far different from now, with a population that was majority black and more of its residents poor and working class.
\nBarry created opportunities for African American professionals through government contracting and development deals while helping generations of low-income residents through a summer jobs program for youngsters.
\nHe had forged enough goodwill that he was reelected mayor and later reelected to the council despite corruption scandals involving his top deputies, as well his own arrest by the FBI for smoking crack. \u201cHe did so much to empower the black community that voters were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,\u201d Lester said. \u201cIt was a different time and a different electorate.\u201d
\n[Marion Barry: A D.C. political icon]
\nIn 1994, District voters approved a ballot initiative to limit lawmakers to two consecutive terms. Seven years later, after Anthony A. Williams succeeded Barry as mayor, Evans was among the council members who voted to overturn the restriction.
\nBy then, Williams had helped solve a fiscal crisis, raised hiring standards in the city government and fostered public confidence that continued to grow when Adrian M. Fenty took office as mayor in 2007.
\nBut voters rejected Fenty after one term, in part because of a perception of cronyism resulting from his administration\u2019s granting lucrative contracts to his network of friends. Gray, his successor, found himself under federal investigation almost as soon as he took office. The scandal surrounding the financing of his campaign unfolded at a time when a trio of council members were forced to resign after separate incidents of criminal misconduct.
\n D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown, left, and Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown at a meeting in December 2011. In 2012, federal prosecutors charged Kwame Brown with bank fraud; he resigned the next day. He was also charged with violating campaign finance laws. In 2013, Michael Brown pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges. (Astrid Riecken\/For The Washington Post) All at once, the District government was awash in scandal.
\n\u201cIt broke the public trust, and that gave the opportunity for voters to examine what\u2019s broken with our system,\u201d Allen said.
\nIt was after Gray became mayor that a push for campaign-finance and ethics reform began in earnest, though it was not altogether successful.
\nWhile the council created an independent ethics panel, a coalition of activists \u2014 a group that included Allen and Weaver \u2014 campaigned unsuccessfully to place on the ballot a referendum on banning corporate contributions.
\nSeven years later, Allen is the lawmaker who spearheaded the most recent reform efforts, which include barring contributions from city contractors or those seeking government contracts worth more than $250,000.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a fringe group talking about these things anymore,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cIt\u2019s the new generation of the council.\u201d
\nBut Evans\u2019s scandal demonstrates that \u201cyou can\u2019t start celebrating a marathon victory halfway through the race,\u201d he said.
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Mary Bolton 202-390-1208<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/dc-politics\/as-dc-leaders-tout-reforms-latest-ethics-scandal-evokes-citys-history-of-corruption\/2019\/03\/22\/bc6dd13e-4bf3-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?utm_term=.d19… As D.C. leaders tout reforms, latest ethics scandal evokes city\u2019s history of corruption Paul Schwartzman D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) expresses contrition as the D.C. Council votes to reprimand him on March 19, 2019. (Bill O\u2019Leary\/The Washington Post) As the D.C. Council enacted reforms to reduce public corruption, federal prosecutors were probing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housingarchive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}