This time last year, during the waning days of the primary election season, then-candidates Vincent Gray and Kwame Brown pledged to usher in a new era of transparency and ethics reform. Since then, we’ve learned the saying “talk is cheap” is more than an adage. It’s a daily reality in the District. Chairman Brown permitted the D.C. Council to recess without passing any ethics bill — not even an emergency measure. Worse, when his good buddy Harry Thomas Jr. was caught with money in his wallet apparently belonging to underserved youth, Brown failed to call for the Ward 5 councilman’s resignation.
There’s still time for the chairman to demonstrate he means business. When the legislature returns next month, he could, at the very least, vote to formally censure Thomas and aggressively push for passage of the various ethics bills before the council.
