The District’s mayor and city council members spent nearly $34,000 on food for themselves and their constituents last year, a Washington Examiner analysis has found.
The tally makes food the single largest expense in 2011 of all the Office of Campaign Finance‘s specified filing categories for the constituent services funds. But two-thirds of the total $366,153 spent was reported under a catchall “other” category that includes expenses ranging from personal reimbursements to sporting event tickets.
Of the $33,791 spent on catering and refreshments, one-third went to Mayor Vincent Gray‘s birthday party last November, which was also a constituent services fundraiser.
| Ya gotta eat | |||
| A sampling of some larger food expenses | |||
| Council member | Cost | Payee | Event |
| Muriel Bowser | $1,700 | Sala Thai | Salute to women in ward |
| Jack Evans | $698.60 | staff | Funeral expenses for Evans aide Jeff Coudriet; staff retreat |
| Mary Cheh | $452.28 | Costco | Constituent/community event |
| David Catania | $862.50 | Sugar Upscale Soul Food | Mayor-council breakfast |
| Michael Brown | $370.50 | Geppetto Catering | Interfaith Housing Summit |
| Vincent Orange | $2,250 | Franciscan Monastery | Holiday event for constituents |
| Yvette Alexander | $2,150 | Imani Catering | State of the Ward address |
| Source: Office of Campaign Finance, council member offices | |||
Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro noted that the fundraiser netted more than $55,000 for the mayor’s fund, a 5-to-1 return.
“Sounds like a pretty good return to me — I’d take those odds,” he said.
Half the food expenses went to events attended by constituents, according to a tally by The Examiner and based on information provided by council offices.
Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander, for example, paid $2,150 from the fund for her State of the Ward address.
“It’s just what we do,” Alexander said. “A lot of events are in the evening, so it doesn’t give people the opportunity to go home. It’s also an attraction that gets people out.”
Other food expenses include breakfast before some legislative sessions. At-large Councilman David Catania spent $862.50 on the council-mayor breakfast in January 2011, a higher cost a Catania spokesman attributed to it kicking off the 19th council period. Similarly, at-large Councilman Vincent Orange spent $960 on the first council breakfast after the summer break.
Alexander paid $500 from her fund for Denny’s to cater a council breakfast in November.
Water was also a big expense as the council last year combined for nearly $2,700 from the funds to Deer Park water.
Constituent services funds have been criticized for what can be expensed. Each council member is allowed to raise up to $80,000 a year in private donations for his or her fund, and council members can legally spend the dollars on nearly anything they want.
Some say council members filing a total of $241,460 in expenses under the “other” category brings up more concerns about transparency. Payees in that category range from the Washington Wizards to Pepco to nonprofits. Many checks are cut as reimbursements to staff who paid for something from their personal credit cards.
“Certainly when you look at numbers like that, it’s easy to side with the critics in calling them slush funds,” said political consultant Chuck Thies. “Because that’s what a slush fund is, it’s for … anything you’d label as ‘other.’ ”
