Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large)

D.C. Councilmember Vincent Orange made his case in a Washington Post op-ed that the District needs a full-time council, proposing the Full-Time Employment for Council Members Charter Amendment Act of 2011. Orange argues that it’s nearly impossible for District residents to accept that outside employment doesn’t carry with it “conflicts of interest, unethical behavior, corruption and divided loyalties.” He noted that his proposal would be most effective if paired with term limits and ethics reform.

When Orange originally previewed the legislation, it included a pay raise for councilmembers that would have had them make $170,000 a year, around $45,000 more than they currently make, but he ended up scrapping the proposed pay raise. Last month, Mike DeBonis pointed out that D.C. councilmembers are the second highest paid municipal legislature in the country, second only to Los Angeles. In the same post, DeBonis compared the Los Angeles City Council, which has full-time members, with the D.C. Council, which has part time members, and noted that both are facing ethics problems. DeBonis mused that perhaps “the employment rules of legislatures are not the determining factor in whether a government is honest or not.”