Former Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans was fined last week for breaking the District Council’s code of conduct by supporting legislation that benefited companies for which he was consulting at the time. The $35,000 fine is the largest penalty the Council has ever imposed, the Washington Post reported.
The fine ends the years-long ethics investigation that caused Evans to resign from his Council position earlier this year after serving for three decades. Evans, who also served as chair of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board, is currently a candidate in the primary election to be held on June 2, seeking to get his Ward 2 seat back. He is not on the ballot for the June 16 special election to fill the current vacancy for the remainder of what was Evans’s term.
Evans said the fine has shown nothing new with regard to the ongoing investigation into his alleged conflicts of interest and that he hopes to move past it. He has agreed to pay the fine.
Even if Evans wins the primary, his colleagues have made it very clear that they don’t want him back. The Council issued a joint statement earlier this year criticizing his decision to run.
Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) tweeted on May 22 that “the settlement isn’t a resolution to the gross ethics violations by Jack Evans.”