The likely next D.C. Council chairman says he’s leaving open all possibilities when drawing up blueprints for council committees and the members who’ll head them — including the high-profile education committee and Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry.
With deep cuts to agency budgets expected in the face of the District’s troubled financial status, it’ll be up to committee chiefs to help find the spots where cash can be saved. Kwame Brown will move carefully as council members seek to hold on to the power they have, or position themselves to win higher-profile committees.
“I’m going to look at all the possibilities,” Brown told The Washington Examiner.
Brown already has said he’ll give Barry a committee, but he hasn’t said which one.
Current Council Chairman Vincent Gray stripped Barry of his housing committee chairmanship in March after an independent investigator determined Barry handed a city contract to his girlfriend. Since then, Barry has been absolved of any legal wrongdoing, although the Office of Campaign Finance found he acted unethically.
Brown could also pull education from the Committee of the Whole, where it has sat under the chairman’s authority during Gray’s term. Whoever heads the education committee will likely have the closest relationship among council members with former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s replacement.
“There are all kinds of options at Kwame’s fingertips,” said political consultant Chuck Thies. “He’s restricted only by his own creativity and the political realties of getting seven votes to approve his plan.”
Historically, the committee boundaries have been adjusted by each incoming council leader. Gray followed the example set by John Wilson in 1991, and gave every council member his or her own committee. Brown could shrink the number of committees, adjust which agencies are packaged together, or both.
“It’s a delicate process,” and much of the maneuvering goes on behind closed doors, said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson.
The maneuvering has already begun. Mendelson said he’d like to keep his public safety committee. The council’s longest-serving member, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans wants to hold on to his the Committee on Finance and Revenue.
“It’s always been based on seniority,” Evans said.
But just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it always will be.
“The only one who will know what’s really going on will be Kwame Brown,” Mendelson said. “He doesn’t have the ultimate authority, though. If he doesn’t get consensus, he has nothing.”
