In these toxic ethical times here in the city behind the monuments, it’s clear that our elected politicians are not reacting with the proper outrage. Mayor under investigation? Love Vince. Love him.
City council chair’s campaign under investigation? Whatever.
Harry Thomas Jr. pleading guilty to stealing public funds? If he had not agreed in his plea to step down, I wonder whether his colleagues would have required him to quit.
What’s up with the Okie Doke on repugnant behavior?
Could it be that so many council members have been implicated in unethical behavior? I am hard-pressed to come up with one who can proclaim, “I am ethically pure,” with a straight face.
Muriel Bowser took an honest stab at ethics reform in her recent legislation, but it did not go far enough. She played within the council’s comfort zone, tightened some rules, strengthened others. But she did not tackle the major pollutant to politics: money, in particular, campaign contributions.
Failing to see the council taking serious steps to fight corruption, a small group of citizen activists began to meet a month or so ago. Among them were Bryan Weaver, a longtime good-government activist in Adams Morgan who has run for city council; Elissa Silverman, former Washington Post reporter who works for the Fiscal Policy Institute; Sylvia Brown, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from Deanwood; and Kathy Patterson, former council member from Ward 3 who now works on early childhood issues for the Pew Charitable Trusts.
They discussed the corrupting influence of money, the lack of transparency in the current political contribution system, the fact that contractors who donated heavily to council members got both access and contracts.
“There appeared to be a clear pay-to-play system at work,” Weaver tells me.
Weaver had testified before the city council and decried, among other problems, the bundling of money by corporations to skirt the $2,000 limits on contributions. No love. No action. When Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells suggested a ban on corporate contributions, he was the lone voice.
Weaver and the activists joked about banning corporate money by referendum. Now, as we know, it’s no joke. This week they announced their group — DC Committee To Restore Public Trust — was filing papers to stop corporate contributions by referendum.
It’s a long shot. They have to be blessed by the Board of Elections & Ethics. They hope to receive the OK by March. They then have 180 days to collect 22,723 signatures of registered voters. They will start in earnest at polling places for the council’s primary elections in April. They will continue through the spring and summer, in hopes of getting on the November ballot.
The day after the group announced its referendum, Weaver says he was flooded with emails from people who offered to volunteer.
“We will hit farmers markets and school parking lots, and Metro stops,” Weaver says. “Our biggest obstacle will be getting on the ballot.”
“Then,” he says, “the fun begins.”
Sign up.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
