Harry Jaffe: D.C. Council passes a toothless ethics code
By: Harry Jaffe
Examiner Columnist
September 23, 2009
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| D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray (Examiner) |
Up on the dais, there were huzzahs all around Tuesday when the D.C. Council passed its new "Code of Official Conduct."
I use the term "new" very loosely; the code passed yesterday is an amalgamation of various rules and regulations and suggestions that have been around for some time. I would have at least added "don't talk on your cell phone during meetings." I have seen council members questioning a witness with a cell phone to their ear.
Nevertheless, many of the 12 members praised Chairman Vincent Gray for his "leadership" in trying to assemble a "new" ethics code. Gray's code reads like the one you can find on the city council's Web site; but like all the old codes, it lacks one crucial component -- consequences, as in penalties, as in pain.
Gray's code spells out what council members should and shouldn't do; it includes not one word about what happens if council members cross a line -- let's say, give contracts to lovers. But I am getting ahead of myself.
There was not one mention of sanction or censure or expulsion, let alone impeachment. Imagine how your kid would behave if you said "bring the car back at midnight, but if you come home after that, say 3 a.m., just don't wake me."
When Washington Examiner reporter Mike Neibauer asked Gray why his code contained no sanctions, the chairman responded: "These are steps in the right direction, we believe."
Perhaps the code's lack of penalties prompted the council members to rhetorically pat Vince Gray on the back as they passed the code unanimously. Ward 8 council member Marion Barry was especially effusive. He made sure he commended Gray for his progressive leadership.
It was Barry's ethical lapses, of course, that moved Gray to reassess the council's code. In a public spat that you couldn't make up, Barry was discovered to have put a couple of girlfriends on contract to do stuff. He also funneled money to supposed nonprofit groups that seemed to have been run from his office.
Barry laughed off any suggestion that he might have crossed an ethical line or broken a code, because he knows the city council has no lines, no code with penalties. Didn't Monday, doesn't today, after it passed its "new" code.
Gray has said a newer, better code is in development. It might even have penalties for bad behavior. When can we expect it? "No deadline," Gray said.
CORRECTION: Last Thursday's column about who might become the next United States attorney for D.C. contained an error. I wrote that the U.S. attorney prosecutes everything from terrorism to drug cases to folks who drive tipsy. As many readers pointed out, the city's attorney general handles drunken driving and traffic cases.
I also neglected to mention that D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has repeatedly introduced a bill to give D.C. the right to elect its own chief prosecutor.
But I stand by the column's main point: Veteran prosecutor Channing Phillips deserves to be considered when President Obama chooses our next U.S. attorney.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at hjaffe@washingtonexaminer.com.
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