We need a collective bath. Last week it was Sulaimon Brown accusing Mayor Vince Gray’s campaign of paying him off with cash to keep harassing Adrian Fenty during the mayoral race. And paying him off after the campaign with a fat job.
The week before it was Gray and D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown backpedaling over their leasing luxurious SUVs on the city’s dime.
This week we got hit with a special counsel’s report that said city contractors — who were friends of former Mayor Fenty — overcharged the city for contracts to build and refurbish recreation facilities.
And city campaign officials are expected to issue a report that questions hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to Kwame Brown’s 2008 city council campaign.
The U.S. Attorney’s office is already investigating Sulaimon Brown’s charges; the special counsel has referred its allegations about city contractors to the federal prosecutor, as well. It’s a good thing the FBI is focused on counterterrorism rather than public corruption.
And we’re still not sure Ward 8 city council member Marion Barry has paid his federal or local taxes.
Gimme a break! In more than 30 years reporting on the capital city, I can’t think of a time when our politicians were so deep in ethical muck. Even when Barry stood accused of cocaine possession and distribution in 1990, the city council was not implicated.
There are those who say “this too shall pass” or “better to get this behind us early in the four-year terms.” That wishful thinking might not be shared by conservative Republicans in Congress who read the headlines, convince themselves that locals can’t run the government and conjure up ways to put D.C. under federal control.
To those who doubt that Congress is poised to reassert its authority, I urge you to check in with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. She has witnessed an unprecedented power grab and disregard for her standing.
What to do?
Why not take a cold look at the ethical lapses and use the opportunity to take a dramatic step in the other direction?
Let’s challenge the city council to quickly write and introduce a serious and sweeping ethics reform law. It would order District politicians and high-ranking officials to disclose the following: every source and amount of outside income; every donation and freebee, from tickets and travel to meals and sweetheart deals; every meeting with city contractors; and every local and federal tax return. That’s just for starters.
Consequences for violating the rules should be quick and painful.
I know Kwame Brown has talked about ethics legislation, and he has asked Georgetown University to help draft it. Time’s up. The council needs an ethical bath, pronto, as in this month. Ward 3’s Mary Cheh, a lawyer and chair of the government operations committee, is an obvious author.
This might be one way to stave off Congress’s intrusive reach — and to make the city feel almost clean.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
