Photo by ssteege1.

Earlier this year, a Ward 5 Advisory Neighborhood Commission learned that it wasn’t only Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) that was misappropriating public funds — William Shelton, representative of Single Member District 5B01, was accused of using close to $30,000 of ANC funds on himself. Though Shelton has since resigned, the money hasn’t yet reappeared.

Until now. Earlier this month, a city board decided to transfer $15,467.67 to ANC 5B to cover operating expenses that had been left unpaid due to Shelton’s alleged theft of the funds. The money comes from an insurance fund of sorts that ANCs can opt into; essentially, each ANC can set aside a certain amount of money each year to protect against these sorts of unauthorized expenses. (Hmm. Maybe we need one of these for the D.C. Council.)

The money will likely be welcomed — according to a report from the Advisory Neighborhood Commission Security Trust Fund, ANC 5B was left with $7 in the bank after Shelton was done spending the money on himself. Earlier this month, the Post reported that Shelton agreed to start paying the money back, though it’ll take a long time before the ANC sees all of it — Shelton will pay $5,000 up front, and then $200 a month thereafter.

All told, it’s been a tough year for local ANCs, some of which have been accused of questionable spending of taxpayer funds. Worse yet, as The Washington Times reported in September, there’s not much the city can do to police them.