Councilman, AG clash over D.C. crime bill
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
May 19, 2009
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles chastised a D.C. Council member on Monday for what he deemed an unacceptable delay on an enormous crime bill that the Fenty administration wants enacted by summer.
Rather than discuss Mayor Adrian Fenty’s omnibus crime bill provision by provision, Nickles used most of his 10 minutes before the council’s Public Safety and Judiciary Committee to slam the committee’s chairman, Phil Mendelson. Mendelson, Nickles said, wants to “deep-six” the bill by dragging out the legislative process.
“I don’t want the record to have a lot of namby-pamby about this issue,” Nickles said. “I’m not a politician. I don’t expect to mince words … of what needs to be done by this council in order to have more process. We are processed to death.”
Mendelson organized the hearing so that a series of panels would debate the most controversial provisions of the legislation, with a member of Nickles’ staff on each to answer questions. Nickles and Police Chief Cathy Lanier were scheduled to testify last.
But Nickles ordered all executive witnesses to stay away. Mendelson was furious.
“The council has always had in its prerogative how it’s going to structure its hearings,” Mendelson said before adjournment. “The council cannot begin to allow the executive branch, or anybody in the executive branch, to dictate how the council will structure a hearing.”
Nickles called the hearing a “regurgitation of many of the issues that have been under discussion for months.”
Fenty, Nickles and others have urged Mendelson to move the crime bill out of his committee immediately. The council on June 2 is expected to consider Fenty-backed emergency legislation that includes key provisions dealing with gangs, guns and drugs.
Mendelson reiterated Monday that he would move the full bill out of committee in June and “if there is consensus, move to enact some provisions on an emergency basis.”
“It is not acceptable to me or the mayor to have you mark up this bill at the end of June,” Nickles said. “We have problems with the summer coming up. Action is necessary.”
