Future Mayor Tommy Wells? Photo by Amber Wilkie

Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) spoke about ethics reform at a meeting of the Ward 3 Democrats last night, and one of his proposals directly targeted the ward’s representative on the city legislature. As part of a broader speech on the ethics crisis sweeping the D.C. government, Wells said yesterday that councilmembers should not be allowed to have second jobs. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), you might remember, has a second job as a law professor at George Washington University.

“To ensure that our elected officials make known that public service is their number one priority, we need to prohibit outside employment for all Councilmembers and make their work on behalf of the District their one and only focus,” said Wells in prepared remarks.

In his speech, Wells, who has said he’d be interested in running for mayor, also said that corporate contributions to local campaigns should be banned (he’s loudly supported a ballot initiative that would do just that), that registered lobbyists should not be able to give money to campaigns and that constituent services funds should be abolished.

Warning that he and his colleagues were “losing our legitimacy to govern,” Wells said that he would fight to add those provisions to a campaign finance reform bill proposed by Mayor Vince Gray and Attorney General Irv Nathan earlier this summer.

“[T]he legislation does not go far enough. To be sure, it is a thoughtful step in the right direction, but it represents the least that this Council must do. Anything less would be a failure of leadership. We cannot afford to punt on ethics reform again. Now is the time the Council must step up to make the tough decisions needed to restore the public trust,” he said.

The debate over outside employment for councilmembers is a recurring one. As part of a package of ethics reforms passed last year, Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) tried to insert a provision that would prohibit legislators from having second jobs.

Three of the councilmembers that have outside jobs—Cheh, Ward 2’s Jack Evans and At-Large Independent David Catania—fought back, arguing that full-time legislators aren’t necessarily ethical legislators and that councilmembers should be encouraged to keep a foot in the real world. The issue has even divided Cheh’s constituents—last year the Ward 3 Democrats passed a resolution on ethics that included a ban on outside employment, though it admitted that its members were split on the issue.

Wells’ announcement indicates that the discussion over campaign finance reform will be a fractious one; Gray and Nathan have opposed outright bans on corporate contributions, for one. It also portends a wide-ranging debate on how the city’s legislators raise money, including a new bill proposed by Councilmember Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) that would allow for public financing of campaigns.