D.C. ethics bill to address constituent services spending

dcogcadmin | September 13, 2011

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown on Monday pledged to revisit open-ended laws that govern how city legislators can spend money from constituent service accounts as part of a sweeping ethics reform bill that he says is decades overdue and intended to diffuse mounting distrust of city government.

There are expenses “that just don’t make any sense, that just shouldn’t be,” Mr. Brown said of recent disclosures that council members have spent money from the lightly regulated constituent service accounts for catering, rent payments and professional sports tickets. “But I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bath water either.”

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown on Monday pledged to revisit open-ended laws that govern how city legislators can spend money from constituent service accounts as part of a sweeping ethics reform bill that he says is decades overdue and intended to diffuse mounting distrust of city government.

There are expenses “that just don’t make any sense, that just shouldn’t be,” Mr. Brown said of recent disclosures that council members have spent money from the lightly regulated constituent service accounts for catering, rent payments and professional sports tickets. “But I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bath water either.”

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