Media coverage of D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s recent committee shake-up focused on his removal of Councilman Tommy Wells, D-Ward 6, as chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, describing the unusual midyear reshuffling as a vengeful payback for Wells’ investigation of the chairman’s order of not one, but two “fully loaded” Lincoln Navigators on the city’s dime. But Brown’s revenge doesn’t explain why 11 members of the 13-member council meekly agreed to exile Wells to the Committee on Libraries, Parks, Recreation and Planning. As head of the Transportation Committee, Wells should have been well aware of a District law that specifically prohibits the D.C. government from leasing “a sports utility vehicle,” except for those used for security or public safety purposes. Yet Well’s own preliminary report, released in February, showed that the city had been routinely violating this law since 2004.
Forty-two SUVs are pretty hard to hide in just 61 square miles, but Wells’ committee failed to exercise its oversight responsibilities until Brown and Mayor Vincent Gray ordered the same kind of luxury rides that Adrian Fenty, Michelle Rhee and Allen Lew were using to tool around the city while the entire council looked the other way. Ignoring the law just because your predecessors did is no excuse, but prior selective enforcement is the main reason government officials think they can get away with doing so, and Wells and his fellow council members deserve at least part of the blame.
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The committee reshuffling also moves Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, out of the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment in the middle of its investigation into the Sulaimon Brown scandal. Cheh will continue, at least officially, to head a special committee to complete work on explosive personnel issues, such as nepotism and excessive salaries, that have sullied D.C.’s image. Just don’t expect much progress on ethics reform legislation, particularly involving campaign finances, from the same council member whom Brown promoted to president pro tempore.
Cheh’s promotion, Wells’ public humiliation and Brown’s decision to keep public schools, planning and economic development — and the billions of dollars they represent — under his firm control as chairman of the Committee of the Whole sends an unmistakable message to the rest of the council: Chairman Brown has the power — and he’s not afraid to use it. Cross him at your own risk.
