Evans, whom I met in 1991 when he was an advisory neighborhood commissioner running in a Ward 2 special election and I was a Post editorial board member, ran into a spell of trouble during his tenure which ultimately led 12 of 13 council members to recommend his expulsion in December 2019. Evans, the 13th, demurred. Seeing the writing on the wall, however, Evans resigned before his colleagues could take a final vote.
Leaving the council on which he had served for nearly three decades was hard to take. When his Ward 2 seat was up for election in 2020, Evans made a bid. In a Democratic primary field of eight candidates, Evans landed in seventh place with 3.8 percent of the vote and thus involuntarily faded from public service. He also ended up paying $55,000 in fines by the district’s ethics board for violating rules restricting public officials from using their offices for private gain and for violating Council conflict of interest rules.
I got to know Michael Brown’s father, Ron Brown — who served as U.S. commerce secretary and chairman of the Democratic National Committee — years before I met his son. (Who in Washington’s political and journalistic circles didn’t first know the senior Brown?)
But as a council member, Michael Brown also made quite a name for himself. Journalists wrote reams about his exploits in office, but none topped his appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in May 2014.He was sentenced to spend more than three years in federal prison for accepting $55,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents.
Washingtonian magazine reported that Brown declined to answer questions exiting the courthouse, but his lead attorney, Reid Weingarten, said D.C. politics had likely seen the end of the Brown family’s involvement. “Michael Brown is done in public life,” Weingarten said. “That is for sure.”
I take this short trip down memory lane because on Tuesday, Brown announced he is running for D.C.’s nonvoting delegate seat, held by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) since 1991.
With this move, Brown joins Evans, who returned from political purgatory Monday when Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) appointed him to the influential D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Evans also reportedly enjoys a place on a team of consultants retained by Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to perform a study aimed at bolstering pro and recreational sports in the District. Though no longer a star player Jack Evans is back in the game. And Michael Brown wants in as well.
Undoubtedly, moans, groans, and maybe some cheers will be heard as Brown and Evans parade back into public life. But for the moment, their pasts are not at issue. The question, which is for District residents to answer, is what difference the ex-council members will make in their current endeavors.
Evans knows his way around the arts commission, having overseen that generously funded agency when he chaired the council’s finance committee. He glided around aisles of the Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, and other D.C. venues, hailed as a patron of the arts. Saw it for myself. Evans can’t be allowed to carve out that role. His knowledge of the commission’s history makes him an asset. But playing favorites between established and well-wired arts groups versus community-based arts organizations is corrosive behavior. If Evans behaves as member, and not master, then the arts commission will remain on the right course.
In the same vein, the sport study could benefit from Evans’s public financing experience. However, shilling for the idea of turning 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 high on Evans’s agenda as the council’s finance committee chair. The public’s interest should come first; the owners’, second. The deputy mayor for planning and economic development must see that it does, consultants notwithstanding.
Meanwhile, Brown’s entry into the delegate’s race has the benefit of forcing voters to focus closely on other candidates, including the incumbent, Norton, who has picked up her petitions but has yet to formally declare her candidacy. Brown’s fitness should be measure by comparing him to others in the contest. At this stage, there are others, including Kymone Freeman and Kelly Mikel Williams, competing in the June 4 Democratic primary. Get to know them, their records and positions on issues that mean most to you. Norton, at least for some of us, is a known quantity — both her strengths and challenges. The rest of the field deserves attention. Brown told the Washington Informer, “I may not be perfect, but I’m perfect for the job.” This is what campaigns are for.
And regardless of how they reached this point, ex-council members Evans and Brown are watchlisted.
Credit: Source link
