Three D.C. Council members — including Chairman Kwame R. Brown — accused of violating local laws, engaged as their legal representative a lawyer who also lobbies the legislature and is affiliated with nonprofit organizations receiving District government contracts. Yet none of the other legislators has publicly raised any questions, providing indisputable evidence of the council’s malfunctioning ethical compass. Frederick D. Cooke Jr., registered as a lobbyist in 2010 and 2011 with the Office of Campaign Finance. He represents Clear Channel Outdoor, which bills itself as the “world’s largest outdoor advertiser with over 800,000 out-of-home displays.”
Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2010, Cooke earned about $25,000 lobbying for Clear Channel Outdoor, according to documents filed with the OCF. By his own admission, he lobbied the council on June 30. In a January 2011 report, he said he earns $450 an hour from the company.
Cooke has been a near permanent fixture in city politics for more than two decades. In 1987, then-Mayor Barry appointed him the city’s corporation counsel. During the brouhaha over funding for the baseball stadium, Cooke carried water for BW Realty.
According to the profile published by his law firm, Cooke currently is a member of the board of Unity Health Care — an administrator of the city-funded health insurance program. He’s on the board of Individual Development Inc., a nonprofit that has received multimillion-dollar contracts from the District to operate group homes for the disabled. IDI has been criticized for providing poor services. Last year, then-Attorney General Peter Nickles sought to put two of its homes in court receivership.
By law, both contracts, which were worth more than $1 million, had to be approved by the council.
Government sources told me the council has never discussed Cooke’s representation of certain of its members. “There has never been an opinion issued,” said one source. “How is Cooke being paid?”
Vladlen David Zvenyach, the legislature’s general counsel, said his office “had not released any publicly available opinions.” When pressed about whether there had been any opinion — public or private — he said he “had no further comment,” offering that his job is “to provide legal counsel to the members and the staff.”
He’s wrong. His obligation is to District residents, ensuring the integrity of the legislative branch is unimpeachable. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
The Office of Campaign Finance hasn’t done any better. Last week, as part of its continuing investigation into Brown’s use of 2008 campaign funds, it took the chairman’s deposition — not at OCF’s office, as is customary, but at Cooke’s private office.
Cooke didn’t respond to multiple emails requesting a comment. Brown said Cooke “represents the Committee to Re-elect Kwame Brown” as opposed to him personally — a distinction without a difference.
OCF’s general counsel, William Sanford, refused several times to speak with me about either the off-site deposition or the issues raised by Cooke’s representing the three members. Wesley Williams, the agency’s public information officer, defended going to Cooke’s office for the deposition — never mind that Cooke is a lobbyist who has been paid for the past two years to influence the very people who now are depending on him to defend them.
You don’t have to be a genius to see the conflict in all of this.
Jonetta Rose Barras’ column appears on Monday and Wednesday. Email her at [email protected].
