Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans is a man without a chair.

The D.C. Council voted to remove Evans as the chairman of the powerful Finance and Revenue Committee and to hire law firm O’Melveny & Myers to investigate any real or perceived conflicts of interest for Evans from 2014 to the present day.

But a day dedicated to trying to restore a sense of public trust to the D.C. Council was dogged by accusations of backroom dealing from some members.

Rather than naming a new chairman to the Finance and Revenue Committee, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson’s resolution instead doles out the oversight and responsibilities from that committee to others, largely to the Committee on Business and Economic Development. That committee is chaired by Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, and Evans is a member. Other portions of the Finance Committee’s portfolio are going to the Committee on Government Operations, which is chaired by Ward 4’s Brandon Todd, and the Committee on Facilities and Procurement, chaired by At-large Councilmember Robert White.

At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman asked Mendelson directly whether there was a connection between the reorganization of committees and a vote on sports betting that was also slated for Tuesday. She said the arrangement “seems to reinforce the idea that everything has a price at the Wilson Building, even committee assignments.”

While Mendelson said he was “offended” by the contention, he did not directly answer her allegation. He also declined to answer questions from journalists about whether he exchanged votes on the sports gambling contract for committee assignments.

“If I get into refuting it, then I get into talking more about this stuff, and I’m not gonna go there,” he told NBC Washington’s Mark Segraves. “I told you I talked to members. I told you I’ve talked to members about four or five different issues.”

An amendment from Silverman, Ward 1’s Brianne Nadeau, and Ward 3’s Mary Cheh that would have pushed back the timeline to reorganize the Finance Committee’s portfolio until after the D.C. Council’s summer recess failed, as did an amendment from At-large Councilmember David Grosso to immediately establish an ad hoc committee to investigate Evans on the council. (Grosso is the only councilmember who has called on Evans to resign.)

Mendelson’s timeline is different. The law firm’s investigation will occur over the summer. If the probe returns with findings of misconduct when it concludes in September, the D.C. Council will then form a five-member committee to vet those conclusions and determine the appropriate discipline for Evans.

By far the tightest vote on the subject was an amendment offered by Grosso that would kick Evans off all of the committees on which he serves—Business and Economic Development, Facilities and Procurement, Judiciary and Public Safety (which oversees the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability), and Transportation and the Environment. Listing a slew of recent times in which Evans had provided misleading statements to other members of the council, Grosso said that “I’m not sure we can trust Mr. Evans to serve on any committee.”

Mendelson advised members not to vote in favor of the measure. He called it unprecedented and said it would “disenfranchise the Ward 2 voters almost entirely” and represent a lack of due process.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen disagreed with Mendelson, saying that elected officials do not have due process rights to chairing or sitting on committees. He then listed some of the committees on which he doesn’t serve. “Is Ward 6 disenfranchised?” Allen asked. “No … This is not about punishment. This is about safeguarding the public trust.”

Nadeau added that many Ward 2 residents already feel disenfranchised, and many of them are calling on Evans to resign. “We’re past the point of interim measures. We’re past the point of baby steps,” said Nadeau. “We have to protect this body.”

Cheh said that she was initially not in favor of the idea of kicking Evans off all of his committees, but had a change of heart after seeing the manner in which Mendelson reorganized the Finance Committee’s responsibilities. Evans would still get to vote on those issues as part of the Business and Economic Development Committee, a situation Cheh said she “can no longer support.”

Ultimately, though, six members voted against Grosso’s amendment, including Evans himself. With Ward 8’s Trayon White absent (he’s having a baby), the vote ended in a tie—meaning the amendment failed.

Evans and Grosso were the only two councilmembers to vote against the final resolution to strip Evans of his chairmanship, though they had nearly opposite motivations. Evans has maintained that his colleagues should wait until the conclusion of the investigations to take action, and Grosso said that he took issue with how Mendelson has handled the process.

The move comes after the release of a 20-page memo in late June, written by a law firm hired by the Metro board’s ethics committee to investigate allegations of impropriety related to the longtime legislator, who was then serving as the chairman of the Metro board. Evans resigned that same day. The following morning, federal agents conducted a raid on Evans’ Georgetown home.

Evans has faced accusations that he used his public roles for private gain for more than a year. The D.C. Council reprimanded him in March for proposals sent from his D.C. Council office, in which he sought business for his private consulting firm and touted his experience as an elected official. At that time, the council took away some oversight responsibilities from the Finance Committee, but Evans remained its chairman.

In addition to the new investigation established by the D.C. Council, there is also an ongoing federal inquiry into Evans’ business dealings. Five people have already filed to challenge him in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Previously:
First D.C. Councilmember Calls On Jack Evans To Resign
After Asking To Tell His Side Of The Story, Jack Evans Declines To Answer Questions
Jack Evans Resigns From Metro Board After Doozy Of A Report About His Ethics Violations
Council Votes To Strip Jack Evans Of Some Finance Committee Responsibilities In Wake Of Ethics Scandal
D.C. Councilmembers Receive Subpoenas For Their Conversations With Jack Evans
Notes On A Scandal: WTF Is Going On With Ward 2’s Jack Evans?