[ad_1]
I met Mr. Evans in 1991 when I was an advisory neighborhood committee member running for the 2nd Ward special election and I was on the Post editorial board, but he ran into trouble during his tenure, and ultimately lost 12 of the 13 city council members. came to recommend Mr. Evans. 13th Evans demurred. But Evans saw the writing on the wall and resigned. before his colleagues take the final vote.
His departure from the City Council after nearly 30 years was unacceptable. When votes were counted for the District 2 seat in the 2020 election, Evans ran. In the eight-candidate Democratic primary, Evans finished seventh with a score of 3.8. Because he received only a percentage of the votes, he was unintentionally removed from public office. He also was fined $55,000 by the district’s Ethics Commission for violating rules restricting public officials from using their offices for personal gain and violating the council’s conflict of interest rules. became.
I met Ron Brown, Michael Brown’s father. person who served as Years before I met his son, he was U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. (Is there anyone in Washington political or journalistic circles who didn’t first hear about Mr. Brown?)
However, Michael Brown also made quite a name for himself as a city council member. Journalists wrote many articles about his accomplishments during his tenure, but none surpassed his accomplishments. He was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for accepting $55,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent.
According to a report in Washington Magazine, Mr. Brown refused to answer questions coming out of the courtroom, but Mr. Brown’s lead attorney, Reid Weingarten, said that D.C. politics should end with the involvement of the Brown family. He said it was likely that he was hit. “Michael Brown is done with public life,” Weingarten said. “That’s for sure.”
I take this brief trip because on Tuesday, Mr. Brown announced he would run for the D.C. nonvoting delegate seat held since 1991 by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D).
With this move, Brown joins Evans. On Monday, he returned from political purgatory when City Council President Phil Mendelsohn (D) appointed him to the influential D.C. Arts and Humanities Commission. Evans is also reportedly part of a team of consultants hired by the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Planning and Economic Development to conduct research aimed at enhancing professional and recreational sports in the area. . Although no longer a star player, Jack Evans is back in the game. And Michael Brown wants to be involved, too.
No doubt, you’ll hear groans, moans, and perhaps cheers when Brown and Evans return to public view.But for now, their past is is not a problem. The question, for district residents to answer, is what difference a former City Council member makes to a current one. I’ll do my best.
Mr. Evans is familiar with how an arts commission operates, having oversaw the well-funded arts commission when he served as chair of the arts commission’s finance committee. He glided the aisles of the Kennedy Center, Ford Theater, and other Washington, D.C., venues and was hailed as a patron of the arts. I saw it myself. I can’t trust Evans to play that role. His knowledge of the commission’s history makes him effective. But playing favorites between established, well-rooted arts organizations and community-based arts organizations is corrosive. Art commissions will continue to move in the right direction if Evans acts as a member rather than a master.
Similarly, sports research could benefit from Evans’ experience in public funding. But spending a shilling on the idea of handing over the RFK Stadium complex to a professional football team should not be in his job description. Reaching a stadium deal with then-Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder was a priority for Evans as the council’s finance chairman. The public interest should come first. Owner’s, second. Consultants notwithstanding, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development needs to understand that it will happen.
On the other hand, Mr. Brown’s entry into the delegate race has the advantage of forcing voters to focus on other candidates. This includes the current incumbent, Mr. Norton. Although Norton has received her petition, she has not yet formally announced her candidacy. Brown’s suitability should be measured against other players in the contest. At this stage, Kymone Freeman and Kelly Mikell Williams are also participating in the June 4 Democratic primary. Find out their records and positions on the issues that matter most to you. Norton is known for both her strengths and her challenges, at least to some of us. The rest of the field is noteworthy. “I may not be perfect, but I’m perfect for this job,” Brown told the Washington Informer. This is the purpose of the campaign.
And regardless of how they got to this point, former council members Evans and Brown are on the watch list.
[ad_2]
Source link
