A District of Columbia Superior Court Judge denied a last-minute request Monday by a Ward 4 Council candidate seeking to stop today’s scheduled vote on Mayor Adrian Fenty’s controversial school takeover bill.
Judge Bruce Mencher ruled Monday that Ward 4 council candidate Lisa Comfort-Bradford’s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the council from voting as a political matter, not a judicial one.
Comfort-Bradford, a Howard University fundraiser who lives in Petworth, filed the motion late Friday. She would not say whether she favors Fenty’s bill but argued that “it’s not about the substance of the vote as it is about the democratic process.”
Fenty and council Chairman Vincent Gray have endured criticism from many Ward 4 and Ward 7 residents and activists for scheduling a vote on the mayor’s school takeover bill before the May 1 special election scheduled to fill the seats vacated by both men. Gray has countered the criticism by saying the council’s four at-large members — as well as himself as its leader — represent all voters, a sentiment that Mencher shared in his ruling.
“The council does not come to a halt if somebody is not there,” saidMencher, a Ward 4 resident.
Today’s council vote could have little legal effect on the future of the legislation. The Council’s Committee of the Whole will vote today on whether to put the school takeover bill on the panel’s full legislative session, which is set to immediately follow its morning meeting. Council members, who are expected to offer several amendments to the bill, must pass the bill a second time and the U.S. Congress must also pass it before it becomes law.
Comfort-Bradford is one of 19 candidates seeking election to the Ward 4 council seat Fenty vacated earlier this year. Many Ward 4 voters have not seen her as a leading candidate, but she said the court proceedings were not an attempt to gain visibility for her campaign.
“I’m showing action,” Comfort-Bradford said. “I’m not talking about it.”
