Why has Council Member Washington Halted Central’s City Prosecutions? I Don’t Get It!

Commentary by Dave Freneaux

    In June, Council Members Washington, Messina and LoBue voted to strip the City’s budget for legal fees down to just enough money to operate for two months.  The excuse they gave for intentionally under-funding the budget was because they wanted time to “study it”.  Well, three months passed, and no study results and no effort to restore funding.  Why was there no study done and acted on?  I Don’t Get It!

    And now guess what? The City has run out of money to prosecute Ordinance violations.  No surprise here, since Washington, Messina and LoBue budgeted for two months and almost three months have passed.  But it’s not like this just happened this week.  Council Member Washington asked the City Attorney in the Council meeting two weeks ago why prosecutions were not proceeding, and he was told it was because the two months of budget they had provided had been spent…in two months…and we were in month three…and there was no money left in the budget for prosecutions.  I Don’t Get It!

    Seeing the bankrupt line item, Council Member DeJohn moved at Tuesday’s Council meeting to begin the process of adding money to the budget so that prosecutions of Ordinance violations could resume.  Council Member Washington cast the only vote against adding the Ordinance to the agenda, which requires the unanimous consent of the Council.  I Don’t Get It!

    To avoid speculation or inaccurate reporting, I asked Mr. Washington firsthand after the meeting about the reasoning for his vote.  His response was, “Because I have a reason, and I’m not going to discuss it now.  You’ll find out.”  Coming from a Council Member who campaigned on “transparency in government”, I find Washington’s response puzzling.  I Don’t Get It!

    Lest anyone claim that the action was simply conservative fiscal policy, let’s remember that the introduction of the Ordinance simply would have meant that the issue could be CONSIDERED at the next Council meeting.  Any approval to restore funding to our prosecution budget would then require a majority vote of the Council on October 9^th.  Instead, Mr. Washington has made sure that no funding can be available for the prosecution of Ordinance violations until at least October 23^rd, four and one half months after the vote by Washington, Messina and LoBue to strip funding for Central’s legal fees.  I Don’t Get it!

    If Mr. Washington would like to clear the matter up and simply tell the people he represents his reasons, perhaps I WOULD Get It.  Without Mr. Washington just setting the record straight and giving his reason, I can think of at least three reasons for Washington’s refusal to begin the process of restoring funding for Ordinance prosecutions.  1) Washington does not want the City to prosecute Ordinance violations, but I don’t believe that is the case.  2) Washington felt the amount requested was too high. If so, the Council could have adjusted that amount at the October 9^th Council meeting, so that does not make sense either.  3) The decision to strip the legal fees budget to a two month supply was supported by Mr. Washington three months ago and has now become a problem for the City by halting all Ordinance prosecutions.  Perhaps Mr. Washington simply did not like the idea of DeJohn, who opposed stripping the budget in the first place, being the one to introduce an Ordinance to correct the problem.  If that is the reason, that would be Political Gamesmanship at the expense of the effective operation of our city.  I sincerely hope that this is not the case.  If it IS Political Gamesmanship, I don’t agree with it, but…I Get It!!!