Seen above being sworn in by Attorney General Eric Holder, today City Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown tendered his resignation facing felony bank fraud charges brought by the Attorney General’s office. In a document released this afternoon by the Justice Department, Brown is charged with inflating his income on unsecured loans worth tens of thousands of dollars, in order to purchase a boat (ironically named Bullet Proof).
After an afternoon of activity at the Wilson Building – including a broken door in Brown’s office, damaged when NBC 4’s Tom Sherwood jammed his foot in it attempting to get comment – Brown tendered his resignation to Council Chair Pro Tempore Mary Cheh (Ward 3).
So what happens now? Well, Brown will be in Court on Friday to answer these charges, and likely plead guilty. Mary Cheh will be Acting Chair of the Council until Wednesday when the council will elect an Interim Chair from the five At-Large council members. The Chairman’s position requires no outside employment, which would likely mean that David Catania and Michael A. Brown would not pursue it, leaving Vincent Orange and Phil Mendelson to pursue the interim appointment.
This is a tricky situation for the Council. District Curmudgeon has a pretty detailed dissection of the potentialities. It’s entirely possible that the District will be facing a November election – coincident with Presidential election – for a more permanent replacement for Kwame Brown. Should that person be Orange or Mendelson, we would be looking at yet another special election thereafter to fill their then-vacant At-Large seat.
Confused yet? Reads a bit like the playoff scenarios from Baseketball?
Yeah, us too.