(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has an unofficial rule not to give freshmen councilmembers committee chairmanships.

But when the new legislative period begins on January 2, 2017, some of the people being sworn in challenge the definition of what, exactly, makes a freshman.

Take Vincent Gray. It’s certainly won’t be his first go-around at the John A. Wilson Building when he returns to represent Ward 7. He’s been Council chair and mayor, but Washington Times columnist Deborah Simmons guessed before the June primaries that, should Gray win, “his victory would relabel the Ward 7 seat as ‘rookie’—and rookies get no committee chairmanships.”

This prediction did not come to pass. At today’s administrative meeting, Mendelson announced committee assignments, naming Gray the chairperson of the Committee on Health.

Another councilmember who could have gone either way is At-large Councilmember Robert White. He bumped off Vincent Orange in the primaries, who then accepted a job as the head of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and ultimately resigned from the council in August. White took over Orange’s seat in September.

Unlike Gray, though, White did not get a chairmanship. He and incoming Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, the only true freshman, are the only members without their own committees.

That means that this council period will have 11 committees, compared to last period’s eight. And so they’re split differently. For example: While Yvette Alexander chaired the Committee on Health and Human Services last period, Gray will now chair the Health Committee and Ward 1’s Brianne Nadeau is set to chair the Committee on Human Services.

“In assigning these, I’ve tried to match committee assignments & chairmanships to requests, as well as respect continuity and experience,” Mendelson tweeted.

While Mayor Muriel Bowser will lose two of her allies on the council—Yvette Alexander and LaRuby May—in the next session, remaining Green Team member (and former Bowser staffer) Brandon Todd of Ward 4 was named the chair of the Committee on Government Operations, which did not exist last period (though it has in previous council periods).

“It primarily overlooks the executive office of the mayor,” says Keiko Yoshino, Todd’s legislative director. But which agencies specifically remains a work in progress until January 2, when the council will vote whether to approve of the committee assignments and the council rules.

For instance, in the past, the Department of General Services has fallen under the Committee on Government Operations. But without said committee last period, it became part of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, chaired by Ward 3’s Mary Cheh.

That committee has been investigating allegations that DGS employees were fired in retaliation for not awarding high-profile development bids to a Bowser donor. Considering that the Committee on Transportation and the Environment currently has the exact same make-up as it did last period, it seems unlikely that DGS would be moved.

Also of note, Ward 5’s Kenyan McDuffie moved from chairing the Judiciary Committee to the Committee on Business Development and Regulatory Affairs (which was previously known as the Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs but had recently been folded into the Committee of the Whole upon Orange’s resignation). Ward 6’s Charles Allen is set to chair the Judiciary Committee, which he said he was “thrilled” about in a statement.

Councilmembers have until January to try to make the case to Mendelson for why their committees should oversee certain agencies.

Filed Under: committee, d.c. council, dc council, dc politics, phil mendelson, vincent gray,