“Asking a little something out of people that are weathering this so well … is the right thing to do,” Councilmember Charles Allen tells DCist.

The position of chief financial officer is one of critical importance for D.C., having been created as an independent office after a federal control board helped bring the city out of financial insolvency in the mid-1990s.

A flood of federal aid and better-than-expected property and income tax collection left D.C. with more than half-a-billion dollars in leftover money last year, catching many lawmakers off guard.