Midway through a biting, three-hour debate during the D.C. Council’s first meeting since its summer recess, at-large Councilman David Catania turned to Chairman Kwame Brown to ask: “Who is the chairman here?”
The thinly veiled assault Tuesday on Brown’s leadership capabilities — and for the public record — was indicative of a council that observers say lacks control and direction. It’s an unruliness that will grow without someone stepping up to stop the mayhem, they say.
This week’s debate that ended in an income tax hike on the District’s high earners might be a preview of what’s to come.
| Ethics nominee challenged |
| > D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s nominee to head the Board of Elections and Ethics is facing questions about his eligibility. According to a 2009 law, board members must live in D.C. for at least three years before their appointment. Robert L. Mallett was a 17-year resident of D.C. but lived in New York from 2001 to 2010. |
“You’re going to continue to see the rancor and divide that you saw [Tuesday],” said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. “Every time an effort is taken I think there will be maneuvering to roll it back. We’re in trench warfare here.”
The haphazard way the council balanced this year’s budget epitomized that, others said. Earlier this year, Brown said he wouldn’t support Mayor Vincent Gray’s funding cuts and proposed income tax increase on residents earning more than $200,000 a year. So the council came up with taxing income on out-of-state municipal bonds instead.
But that squeezed retirees on a fixed income who bought those bonds as a tax-free investment.
“Clearly many council members didn’t understand what the bond tax was and who it impacted before putting it in place,” said Elissa Silverman of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. “That’s the peril of making last-second decisions on major public policy.”
Gray vetoed the council’s 2012 budget in the summer, leaving legislators to tackle it again in the fall. But even with an extra $89 million on hand thanks to revised revenue estimates, the council still ended up narrowly passing an income tax increase similar to Gray’s original proposal.
The council is clearly dividing along the old order of tax and spend and the new order of spending within the city’s means, said Lynch, and it’s getting personal.
Tuesday’s debates included mocking, name-calling and bickering over protocol such as who got to speak first. Those outbursts should be reigned in by the chairman, said political consultant Chuck Thies. But he said Brown, whose 2008 campaign is under federal investigation, might have lost his authority to lead.
“It certainly doesn’t set the tone for a productive council session,” Thies said. “The biggest [upcoming] issue is the ethics reform, and I don’t see how a council that is swearing at one another, I don’t see how they can tackle something like this.”
