Wow: Revisiting DC's Corruption Caucus

The Washington Post has been covering the ongoing investigation into ethics violations by DC Councilmember Jack Evans.

The most recent articles report on WMATA's, the area transit agency, investigation of ethics complaints against DC Councilmember Jack Evans, currently the Chairman of the Board.

-- "Jack Evans to resign from Metro board after probe shows he 'kniwingly' violated rules"

It's damning--not so much because of the WMATA ethics committee, which didn't produce a report of its own or write anything down, but because of the investigation that WMATA commissioned.

Evans' actions didn't involve tons of money--maybe $100,000/year in consulting fees--but definitely are replete with multiple glaring conflicts of interests, since the fees were paid by firms that wanted to do business with the transit agency.

Interestingly, Jim Graham, the now deceased and previous DC Councilmember chair of the WMATA board had similar conflicts and had to step down from the board in 2012.

-- "Bringing Jim Graham to account," Washington Post
-- "More legal woes for Metro and Jim Graham," Washington Post
-- Full text of "WMATA board report on Jim Graham", Internet Archive

The difference is that Graham didn't personally benefit, although he tried to steer contracts to benefit campaign donors, but wasn't receiving income for doing so, while Evans received consulting fees directly from clients for whom he tried to help in getting WMATA contracts, without disclosing this.

The ethics charges are what ultimately led to Graham going down to defeat in the 2014 primary election.

These days Evans is facing at least four announced challengers and a recall campaign, although the election isn't until next year. Plus, the FBI has an ongoing investigation.

I figure he probably will decide not to run.  And that more prominent people than the current candidates will enter the race--you know the thing about sharks smelling blood in the water.

(That didn't happen with Graham because the bombshells didn't come out til very close to the primary election, and by that time most people had passed on the opportunity to enter the race, except for Brianne Nadeau.)

Corruption is about systems, not so much about individuals.  This problem derives from how the DC Councilmember job is considered part-time. It creates a structure supportive of conflict of interest.

Evans is hardly the first to work hard at earning outside income from firms that have business with DC Government or other agencies.

In the wake of the issues around Evans, Council is considering legislation to ban most forms of outside income, except for teaching ("Jack Evans scandal revives push to ban outside jobs for DC Council members," Post).

Years ago, blogreader EE shared with us a book published by the World Bank, Corrupt Cities: A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention and I wrote about it in this 2011 piece, "DC ethics legislation misses the point: focus on what produces corruption as a regular outcome, not monitoring."

While the book focuses on "developing nations," the reality is that corruption in government works the same way where ever it occurs.  As the authors write:

Corruption equals monopoly plus discretion of public officials minus accountability.

My piece listed 9 particular issues (although there are more) with the way things work in DC.  Even though legislation was passed to reduce conflicts, most of the areas I identified as rife with the potential for conflict weren't addressed.

IACA is the International Association of Crime Analysts, and they provide technical assistance and training world-wide.  This particular issue of their alumni magazine focuses on local government and features an interview with one of the authors of the book Corrupt Cities and his work in La Paz, Bolivia.  One quote: "The problem is not corrupt individuals.  It's corrupt systems.

Other ways to restructure certain aspects of DC Council and other areas to increase accountability and "competition." Over the years I've made a bunch of suggestions besides making the job full-time, which if enacted would increase accountability, representation, and make council districts a little less like satrapies.

1.    [This happened] Create an independently elected Attorney General and build the capacity of this office to take control of local prosecution of crime (this responsibility is currently handled by the Federal Government);

2.   Create a public planning and budgeting process for capital improvements, sale of civic assets, and alley closings;

3.   Create a public and transparent process for tax abatement and eminent domain requests (see "Make eminent domain fair for all" from the Boston Globe; the recommendations pertain to both issues);

4.    Increase the number of wards;

5.    Increase the number of councilmembers (thereby making it harder to pass legislation), but also having two representatives for each ward, each elected in a different election cycle;

6.    Move the legislature to part-time service and reduced pay or to full-time service with a slight bump up in pay;

7.   Strengthen the capacity of councilmember staffing;

8.    Increase the research capacity of local government in developing policy and practice;

9.    Institute term limits for elected officials (Council as this already applies to the Mayor);

10.  Change the date of the primary election to extend the electioneering period;

11.  Institute ranked choice voting for local elected officials;

12. Institute additional campaign finance limits for local elections;

13. Create an elected public advocate/ombudsperson/Inspector General (and a civil jury process to investigate government agencies);

14. Reconstitute a school board with oversight over pre-K to 12 public education, traditional and charter schools;

15. Use participatory budgeting methods for appropriating constituent services funds requests and grants to nonprofit organizations ("More on ethics: discretionary funding-constituent funds");

16. Build civic capacity and infrastructure ("Neighborhood planning meta-website);

17. Strengthen the capacity of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions to be better and fairer representatives (""Networked solutions" for some problems with ANCs in DC" and "A neat solution to (some of the) petty corruption in DC government-related civic organizations");

18. Change the planning process to include the production of formal sector and neighborhood comprehensive land use plans ("Planning process failures generally and the upcoming DC Central Library planning process," "Rethinking community planning around maintaining neighborhood civic assets and anchors," and "A key problem in "community" planning: not simultaneously defining community-wide and neighborhood goals and objectives").

19. Various tweaks as needed to planning and zoning processes such as a Big Box Review Ordinance ("Lessons from Walmart's foray into Washington, DC"), community benefits negotiations ("Community benefits agreements revised again" and "What community benefits are supposed to be versus what people think they are about"), and urban design requirements ("New years post #6 -- the crazy thing about U.S. zoning is that it's not designed to maximize overall land value" and "Changing  matter of right zoning regulations for houses to conform to heights  typical within neighborhoods, not the allowable maximum").

Looking at the list, I could come up with some more items, such as creating a "Transportation Commission," using participatory budgeting processes to involve citizens in grant making review, etc.

Wards.  I think that wards should be smaller, meaning a few more councilmembers, and that there should be two representatives per ward, to create intra-ward "competition" and more opportunity for different perspectives.

When I toyed with running for City Council a few years ago, I came up with "Outline for a proposed Ward-focused (DC) Councilmember campaign platform and agenda," which has more focused suggestions for how to represent a Council Ward, including the creation of a center in each ward where a "constituent services office" could be, but also space for community and nonprofit organizations:

Create a “Democracy House," a center for involvement in public and civic life in the ward. If the city provided ward council offices, such a facility could also offer space for community organizations, meeting space, etc., but space would be managed using participatory techniques independently of the Councilmember/Ward office

comparable to the "precinct and ward halls" and social halls that used to exist in the early 1900s in many US cities, but with a decided focus on civic engagement and participatory democracy.

Building civil society and local participation.  #16 concerns building more ways for citizens to participate locally, and opportunities for "do it yourself."

For example, my big complaint about "constituent services" operations in the Mayor and Council offices is that these functions aren't focused on building the capacity of citizens and organizations to represent and act for themselves, but more on creating dependent relationships that promote incumbency.

The participatory budgeting process, where groups of citizens act within ad hoc committees to make decisions about priorities and funding is a way to add more participation to grant making processes.

Other "neighborhood" and association focused programs in cities like Seattle, Calgary, and Minneapolis build the capacity of citizens to take action themselves ("Framingham Massachusetts creates Citizen Participation Officer position").

One element of the offerings of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods is the People's Academy for Community Engagement, which provides a specific training for two to three cohorts each year.

By contrast, organizations like the Federation of Calgary Communities or the Massachusetts Citizen Planner Training Collaborative have conferences and various trainings throughout the year open to all.

Another great example, although I think it's changed somewhat because the Main Street organization is now separated from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the training system that was offered in association with the Main Street commercial district revitalization initiative.  Programs are organized around four thrusts: physical design; business development and maintenance; promoting businesses and the destination; and internal organization and fundraising; and the "Four Point" trainings provided in-depth training on each point.

I did the training four times, some at national trainings, others locally, and I found it valuable each time, because of the different trainers providing different approaches, because I had learned more in the interim and had more experiences to bear, etc.

State Main Street support organizations typically provide this kind of training opportunity.  DC doesn't...  And the Main Street Approach is applicable to other types of organizations and issues.

Planning office trainings for citizens.  While I am not familiar with an agency that does this in the way I suggest below, another model is to have regular training exercises around community planning.

One example is the old "How to Turn A Place Around" workshop by Project for Public Spaces.  (I did this course twice.  An abbreviated version in DC, and once in NYC.)

-- Transforming Cities through Creative Placemaking, PPS presentation

 I think that city planning departments should offer this kind of program annually, moving it around the city, as a way to provide assistance to specific neighborhoods, while serving as a training program for citizens from across the city, in turn they can bring back improved skills to their involvements.

Similar opportunities exist in transportation planning, using workbooks like School Walk and Bike Routes: A Guide for Planning and Improving Walk and Bike to School Options for Students, Main Street: When a Highway Runs Through it, or the Smart Transportation Guidebook as the basis, or materials like the Pedestrian Road Safety Audit guide produced for the Federal Highway Administration.

(When I did the bike and ped plan in Baltimore County, I did do one safe routes to school workshop--on my own time, because my boss didn't approve, and I wanted to do one on trails planning too, but wasn't able to because it wasn't approved.  … and I wanted to have a community meeting on the weekend too, not just during the week at night, to expand the opportunity of people to participate.  Again, that didn't happen...)