A growing sexual harassment scandal involving one of D.C.’s most powerful former city officials is sparking action in the D.C. Council, where lawmakers are proposing legislation to ensure future investigations are independent and others are promising to hold oversight hearings over the summer to better assess whether the current accusations might more broadly implicate workplace culture in city agencies.

The discussions within the city’s legislature come in the wake of now-sustained accusations of sexual harassment against John Falcicchio, the powerful former deputy mayor for planning and economic development and longtime chief of staff to Mayor Muriel Bowser. Those accusations were leveled by a woman who worked alongside Falcicchio; in a recent interview with The Washington Post, she shared graphic messages he sent her and described moments when he asked her for sex and once masturbated in front of her.

A second woman has come forward with similar accusations that are now being investigated by the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel, which similarly investigated and partially sustained the claims of the first woman against Falcicchio. And this week a third woman who did not work for the D.C. government told the Washington City Paper that Falcicchio propositioned her and denied her business opportunities when she turned him down.

The scandal threatens to engulf Bowser in the first year of her third term as mayor, with a growing chorus of concerns from lawmakers and some in the public around how many more accusations of sexual harassment against her former aide and political confidante will emerge, how much other senior city officials may have known, and whether there are broader systemic issues within city agencies that need to be addressed.

A first move by the council towards addressing the situation will come in the form of a new bill from Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) and nine of her colleagues that would require any future accusations of sexual harassment against senior city officials be investigated by an outside party chosen by the D.C. Inspector General. Currently, sexual harassment claims within city agencies are investigated internally, with an outside investigation triggered only of the mayor or her general counsel is accused of wrongdoing.

“One of the challenges we’re having right now is public trust in the mayor essentially investigating herself, so the idea is to make this more of an independent process to make sure we’re better protecting staff in the executive branch and make sure that everyone can trust the integrity of the process,” said Nadeau, who likened her proposal to the council’s current policy, which mandates outside investigations into most sexual harassment accusations against lawmakers or their staffs.

Nadeau says she is also pondering an emergency version of the bill that the council could adopt as early as July, so that any future accusations against Falcicchio are investigated independently, and not by the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel. She also says she is considering separate legislation to allow an outside party to review, though not repeat, the internal investigation that substantiated some of the first woman’s accusations against Falcicchio. Nadeau says the goal would be to ensure nothing was missed, rather than force the victim and witnesses to go through the entire process again.

“I don’t think there is much of an appetite” to redo the first investigation, she said. “This happened to someone and that person went through it again in filing their complaint. And that to me is at the forefront about how we’re thinking this through.”

Speaking publicly last week, Bowser said she trusts the internal investigation and process conducted against Falcicchio, and wondered aloud what an independent investigation would separately accomplish. “I believe in… the process that took place. There was a main allegation of sexual harassment against a deputy mayor that was substantiated. So I don’t know what else an investigation would would look into,” she said.

Some lawmakers have similarly said that they believe the internal investigation that took place was thorough and independent, but added that concerns about Falcicchio’s towering influence in the D.C. government and the public perception of the mayor’s office investigating one of its own was reason enough to push for independent investigations as standard practice.

On Wednesday, Bowser also wrote a letter to D.C. Inspector General Daniel Lucas asking his office to review city management policies and practices to see if any changes could be made to address accusations of bullying and retaliation in the wake of one of the sexual harassment accusations.

“We place tremendous importance on recruiting and retaining the best, most highly qualified staff of Washingtonians from all wards and backgrounds for government service. These accusations — even if perception—are taken extremely seriously and we will work to address them through training and updated human resources policies,” she wrote.

But Bowser’s request drew a cool reception from Deborah Katz and Kayla Morin, the attorneys representing the first woman to accuse Falcicchio of sexual harassment, who said in a statement that another office would be better placed to dig into workplace conduct issues.

“We strongly urge Mayor Bowser to consider an independent investigation by the D.C. Attorney General instead of tapping the Inspector General, whom she appointed, to investigate our client’s serious allegations of bullying, hostile work environment, retaliation, and sexual-based hiring and promotions. The OIG’s office is an executive branch agency, which touts its independence, but reports to the mayor. In sharp contrast, the D.C. Attorney General was elected by the citizens of the District of Columbia,” they wrote in a statement. “An external investigative party outside of the purview of the mayor would also have greater autonomy to make recommendations in the best interests of D.C. employees and facilitate a more robust review of the mayor’s policies.”

Relatedly, a pair of council committees could hold oversight hearings on workplace culture within the Executive Office of the Mayor and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development — and do so during the two-month summer recess that starts in mid-July. But during a meeting on Wednesday, some lawmakers said they wanted to make sure that any public hearings they hold don’t become a venue for people to level new accusations of sexual harassment or to revisit the details of the current investigations.

“There’s the stuff that’s our domain that talks about irregular hiring practices and promotions, allegations of bullying. Those things concern me and frankly those things could be living on. We should care about that, we should do something about that. I don’t want to cede the council’s role in oversight,” said Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At Large), who chairs the committee that has oversight over the deputy mayor’s office.

For her part, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) said the council’s hearing needs to take a broad look at any cultural issues that may have allowed sexual harassment to fester and dissuade people from coming forward with other accusations.

“It’s not just about John and his behavior, it’s about the system that allowed it. And if we don’t take a step to see ways we can fix the system, what harm do we do to D.C.’s government and the ability to hire employees, keep employees, and do the work of good government? That in my mind that’s the outcome I am looking at,” she said. “What do we say to 36,000 government employees who are witnessing this, and what do we say we are going to do or not do as a result of what we are hearing are abuses of power?”

McDuffie added that he wants to ensure that whatever the council decides to do does not create a “chilling effect” on other people coming forward. Similar concerns were raised by Katz and Morin, who objected to how the results of the internal investigation were made public — notably details they worried would identify the woman, and possibly dissuade others from reporting their own accusations.

“We have to be mindful of how our actions may or may not create that chilling effect, because that’s the last thing we want to do. We want the environment to be such that that anybody who feels they’ve experienced workplace harassment understands and are comfortable reporting it. We want to make sure that when they report it there is a thorough and complete investigation; and we want to make sure the investigation, if it yields some evidence or sustains some behavior, that there are consequences, that there are processes in place that remediate it so it’s not repeated,” he said.

Looking forward, some lawmakers said they are convinced that the existing accusations against Falcicchio won’t be the last. “I think there’s going to be more,” said Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.

This post was updated with a statement from Deborah Katz and Kayla Morin.