Chairman Phil Mendelson

DC to Move Forward with Marijuana Legalization Despite Congressional Ban – I don’t feel that I have any choice,” Mendelson said. “The voters have spoken.”  [RT]

Phil Mendelson Says It’s His “Duty” to Send Marijuana Law to Congress – D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson is ignoring the “Super City Council.”  Mendelson says he will submit Initiative 71, which would legalize marijuana possession for personal use in D.C., to Congress, arguing that it’s his duty under the Home Rule Charter to do so.  “The duty to transmit is not discretionary in my view,” he said at a press conference today. “There’s no money involved on our part in whether a person commits a crime or not, so I’m not sure what Congress was intending with their language.”  [Washington City Paper]

DC Council Chairman: Marijuana Rider Doesn’t Block Transmittal to Congress – “I’m not trying to defy anybody. I’m responsible for transmitting the initiative,” Mendelson said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I have a very clear requirement in the Home Rule Act to transmit the legislation. Congress has the ability to step in when that legislation is transmitted, so I don’t see anything that’s provocative here and I certainly don’t intend any provocation.”  [Roll Call]

DC Jail Health Care Contract Raises Activists’ Ire – The concerns were enough to give Mr. Mendelson pause over the issue.  “Corizon has a reputation for attracting a lot of lawsuits in the area of inmate care,” Mr. Mendelson said Tuesday. “Until 2006, when the model for health care changed at the D.C. Jail and the current contractor was brought in, the city suffered huge, huge losses from lawsuits as a result of health care.”  [The Washington Times]

DC Council Gives Final Approval to Soccer Stadium Deal – Bowser and Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) acknowledged that hundreds of millions of dollars of needed capital improvements remain but said the stadium would not prevent the District from finding the money for other priorities.  [The Washington Post]

Borrow It: How DC Will Fund Its Share of the DC United Stadium – Gray also proposes to shift $6 million in operating funds to cover debt service on the stadium borrowing, which is expected to run $7 million annually starting in fiscal 2016.  “I would be surprised if there was any significant debate,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said Tuesday.  [Washington Business Journal]

Bowser and Chaffetz Agree: 2024 Olympics Would Be Great for Washington, DC – Still, the marijuana issue threatens to become a flash point in city-federal relations.  Bowser has signaled that she will support efforts to keep pushing the pot initiative forward. And Chaffetz said he believes the budget language clearly blocks the city from moving forward with legalization. “That issue has come and gone,” he said.  D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said he plans to send the referendum to Congress for a mandatory review period, but Chaffetz said he would not seek to intervene at that point. “It’s already been dealt with,” he said. “It’s crystal clear in the law.”  [The Washington Post]

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                 Phil Mendelson, Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, issues the following statement regarding pending Congressional action that would prevent the District from implementing Initiative 71.  Initiative 71, adopted with just under 70% of the vote, would legalize the possession and use of marijuana by individuals in the District.  While the Congressional rider, attached to a must-pass appropriations bill to fund the entire Continue Reading

DC Concealed Carry Fight Could Provoke Congress, Contempt of Court – There are at least 14 sensitive locations and circumstances where carrying would be banned, and other changes related to the bars and restaurants that serve alcohol could be coming Tuesday, Mendelson said during a Monday briefing. The city wants to keep its restrictive gun culture in place, despite the challenges.  [Roll Call]

DC Council Set to Remove Tax Breaks from Soccer Stadium Deal, Borrow $62 Million – At a news conference Monday to discuss the agenda, Mendelson said he planned to discard a proposed 10-year sales tax abatement worth roughly $7 million while leaving in place the more extensive 20-year property tax abatement worth $43 million.  Mendelson said he was more dismayed by the sales tax break because it was “hard to see how it would have a direct economic effect on the team.  Cutting all of the abatements might be a wonderful idea, but what is before us is the result of negotiations,” he said.  [The Washington Post]

DC Council Approves Soccer Stadium Deal, Paving Way for Games in 2017 – But Mendelson employed an unusual legislative maneuver, financing the stadium by resurrecting a budget bill Gray had submitted in June, which city lawyers and finance officials suggested was improper. The council passed the bill.  “The point is to force the mayor to fund the stadium,” Mendelson said.  [The Washington Post]

DC to Move Primary Election Back to September After Dismal April Turnout – Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), who had repeatedly tried to move back the April date last year, saying it would benefit incumbents, called this year’s experience “horrible.” He downplayed concerns about the first Tuesday in September, saying students would be back to school and it would be only a week from the city’s traditional second-Tuesday-in-September primary date.  [The Washington Post]

DC Council Advances Permanent Gun Bill Regulating Concealed Carry – “It permits carrying in ordinary restaurants,” said DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson of the latest version of the bill. “Unless of course the owner says no.”  [The Washington Times]

Citizens and Civic Leaders Turn Out to Remember Former Mayor Marion Barry – Mendelson called it a “sad day” for the District government, of which Barry was a reigning figure for nearly five decades.  “It is fitting that we are here to bring Mr. Barry to city hall one last time,” Mendelson said.  [The Washington Post]

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Tweaked Concealed Carry Bill to be Considered by Full Council – “I don’t like the sign, either,” Mendelson said, but the city needs a “compelling reason” for flipping the presumption, he argued.  Mendelson said the issue was discussed with D.C.’s attorney general before emergency legislation was passed in October. “What this would do is significantly restrict the ability of a person who has received a license to carry a gun from being able to go anywhere,” he said. “In the drafting of this legislation, we have been constantly mindful of the fact that the requirement to carry is a requirement that the courts have interpreted … as a constitutional right.” [DCist]

DC Council to Act on Legislation to Build Soccer Stadium for DC United – Mendelson said he had “a pretty good sense of how to fund this,” but he also said any plan might require Gray to send a supplemental budget request — something the council cannot do itself.  “I have to say I think it’s odd that, as important as the administration says this is, there’s been radio silence about funding since the legislation was sent down in May,” Mendelson said. [The Washington Post]

Mayor for Life — and Then Some – Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who noted that Barry served on the Council for as many years as he was mayor, added, “I would say that each of us learned from Marion Barry.” [Washington City Paper]

Marion Barry to be Memorialized with Citywide Procession, Public Viewing – “His passing is hard on the institution,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said Wednesday. [Roll Call]