As Report into Jack Evans is Released, Council Business Continues

On a day where public attention was largely drawn to the release of a report detailing the investigation into Councilmember Jack Evans, the Council proceeded with a routine agenda during its most recent Legislative Meeting.

The Council approved a long list of nominations, contracts, and ceremonial resolutions, mostly by unanimous votes. An omnibus package of sexual assault victims’ rights measures received its second of two required votes.

Early in the meeting, Ceremonial Resolutions were passed recognizing:

  • James W. Baldwin, who fought in World War II, studied at Howard University, then spent more than two decades in DC government service, including in the cabinet of Mayor Walter Washington
  • Noted makeup artist Derrick Rutledge, who has reached the pinnacle of his occupation, providing makeup services to Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey
  • Maybelle Bennett, who provided decades of service to Howard University and the communities surrounding it, as well as on the Zoning Commission
  • DC-based internet service provider DC Access for their 20 years of service to the District of Columbia

Measures introduced at the most recent meeting, if eventually passed, would:

  • Allow government housing subsidies to count towards a housing applicant’s listed income
  • Create a certificate of stillborn birth, to better memorialize such an event
  • Reserve rent-stabilized units for persons with lower monthly incomes
  • Allow government employee unions to use other American cities as points of wage comparison, not just those within the DC area
  • Ceremonially designate a road on the Howard University campus in honor of William Montague Cobb, the first African American to earn a PhD in anthropology
  • Ceremonially designate a road on the Howard University campus in honor of Lucy Diggs Slowe, the first Dean of Women at Howard, and a championship tennis player
  • Improve Lyme disease testing and reporting
  • Label all drugs that include any opioid ingredients
  • Require the Department of Employment Services to study veteran employment
  • Encourage co-living among senior citizens in order to improve affordability (AKA the Golden Girls bill)
  • Ceremonially designate a road in Ward 8 for community activist Elaine Carter
  • Create a Commission on Recreation
  • Improve mental health care services and coordination for individuals under Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services’ jurisdiction

For a full list of all votes taken at the most recent meeting, please click here.

The Council’s next regularly scheduled Legislative Meeting will occur on December 3, although an Additional Legislative Meeting may be scheduled for November 19.