At-Large D.C. Councilman Vincent Orange Sr. unveiled some heavy-hitting bills Monday afternoon bound to generate some real pushback from his colleagues. And before you read on, you should know this: Orange is up for re-election in April.
Here’s the summary:
1) Term limits: Orange plans to submit a bill that would impose a limit of two consecutive four-year terms for council members. The limits would not be retroactive, meaning everyone on council now could run two more times for their seat. A council member could then run for council chair, mayor or step down for a term and run for their old seat after four years (riiiiiight).
Orange said at his announcement it is hard for people “to break into this government when you run against an incumbent.” His theory is basically to keep the council fresh.
2) No outside employment: This would bar members of the council from having any outside employment while increasing their salaries to $20,000 less than the council chair. This would up their salaries to $170,00 annually from $125,583.
Currently, council members are the second-highest paid big-city legislators in the country, according to a Pew report. The proposed increase would put the District just behind Los Angeles, where the average council salary is $178,789 and officials are considered full-time and do not hold other jobs.
3) Jobs Czar: Orange is proposing establishing a new appointed office responsible for coordinating with major city projects, area schools and employment programs to help prepare and promote D.C. residents for District projects.
4) Ethics: Need we say more? Orange is hopping on the September Ethics Bandwagon and proposing a task force and act on ethics and accountability. This will likely be combined with other ethics bills making their way to the Committee on Government Operations.
A couple things to note. When asked Monday afternoon if he planned to run for mayor next he ducked the question, saying he was running for council in April.
Another thing: Orange said a few times during the announcement that his legislation would at least get the conversation started, also noting “what is presented today may not be what gets approved.” Translation? Looks like even he knows this stuff is a stretch.
We’ll see how far the rest of council lets it go this fall.
