D.C. Council passes ethics reform

The D.C. Council on Tuesday passed a sweeping ethics reform bill after a year that saw five of the city’s council members — and the mayor — touched by scandal. But some say the reform doesn’t go far enough and question how long it will take to implement changes that include establishing a new city board at a time when the District is tightly managing its budget.

Council Chairman Kwame Brown, whose 2008 campaign is under federal investigation, had been adamant about passing ethics legislation before the end of the year. But when asked whether he’d institute a similar deadline for establishing the Board of Ethics outlined in the bill, he was vague.