News comes today from the office of Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown that the council chairman has enlisted the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute to “make recommendations regarding the best means by which the Council can stay within the boundaries of ethics rules.”
The GPPI will also “review the effectiveness of the Office of Policy Analysis (OPA) for the Council,” according to Brown’s news release.
Consider it a (smartish) move in the ongoing Kwame Brown image rehabilitation tour. Yesterday, Brown told reporters he’s eager to put the Navigatorgate scandal behind him and “make the legislative branch move forward.”
“That’s what I’m going to continue to do, that’s what I’m getting back to, and that’s where I’ve always been. It’s been an unfortunate situation that’s taken place, and I’m moving forward, the residents have said it’s time to move forward and that’s what I’m looking forward to do. And you gotta go back and win the trust and respect of all those people that was disappointed in what took place. And that’s what I’m prepared to do: spend every single day doing that,” says Brown.
Part of that rehabilitation effort seems to be taking a big whack at UDC President Allen Sessoms, who is under fire after a FOX5 investigation into his pricey travel. In a letter to Sessoms fired off yesterday, Brown says he was “troubled” by Fox5’s report and found it “disrespectful” that Sessoms hadn’t produced information about UDC employee travel that Brown requested a month ago.
Fox 5’s Tisha Thompson had the good sense to ask Brown whether he had any leg to stand on when it came to critisizing Sessoms.
Replies Brown: “The trucks are back. The trucks have been returned. I said I would compensate for the time I used the vehicles, which means there’s no taxpayer dollars being spent further. We’re moving on. I think that’s how you take responsibility. You own up, you make sure it goes up. You don’t throw anyone under the bus. You take full responsibility.”
That’s all well and good. Except yesterday Brown did the exact opposite. When asked by the Examiner‘s Freeman Klopott about what he would do differently, Brown promptly threw Department of Public Works Director William Howland under the bus.
“If I could go back and do it over again, I would made sure that Bill Howland did exactly what he told me he was going to do and send that truck back at no cost to the District of Columbia government,” says Brown.
Now, it could very well be that Howland did in fact tell Brown that he was going to return the first luxury Lincoln (which displeased Brown because of its gray interior) without any cost to the District. But even if he did, that sure sounds like some bus-tossing-under language coming from Brown.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery