In a D.C. Council that members have called a dysfunctional family, the councilman who many expect will be voted into the interim chairman’s seat has often stayed out of the fight.
Many council members have said they plan to support at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson when they vote Wednesday for a temporary chairman to replace Kwame Brown, and Mendelson also plans to run for Brown’s seat in November. Brown resigned last week and pleaded guilty to lying about his income on a bank loan application and for not reporting money spent in his 2008 re-election campaign.
Mendelson, 59, has his old-school quirks: He’s the only council member who doesn’t have a Twitter account and he likes to have legislation filed by paper rather than electronically.
Politically, he’s known to be one of the more liberal council members. He was one of the biggest proponents of same-sex marriage in the District and was among the first to speak out for it.
If he were to be selected to preside over a legislative body reeling from the downfall of its last leader, Mendelson said he would be anxious to steer the body away from the drama of this year.
“Right now things need to settle down and the council needs to go about building trust,” he told The Washington Examiner. “But I don’t think there’s an easy answer [to that] because you can’t rebuild trust overnight.”
But Mendelson isn’t conflict-free, either. Police union President Kris Baumann has repeatedly admonished his leadership as chairman of the council’s Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department. And when news broke of a federal investigation into prolific campaign contributor Jeffrey Thompson, Mendelson’s office acknowledged his campaign had been issued a subpoena. Mendelson received 15 checks solicited by Thompson for $1,000 each.
If elected temporary chairman, Mendelson would also take on the former chairman’s committees, which include education. Mendelson has been a critic of DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. In January, Mendelson accused DCPS officials of covering up a report on an allegation of child sexual abuse to the Child and Family Services Agency.
The four-term councilman told The Examiner he saw no point in shaking up committee assignments if elected interim chairman. But if voters selected him to the job in November, he would make changes to the chairman’s committee.
Mendelson was an advisory neighborhood commissioner for 20 years before being elected to the council in 1998.
