This edition of The Collins D.C. Council Report comes at the end of a tumultuous year during which the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, as the oldheads say, turned the District every which way but loose.
As revealed during the council’s Dec. 16 legislative meeting, there’s much more to come with historic mayoral, congressional and down-ballot races in 2026.
During their nearly two-hour meeting, council members approved ceremonial resolutions in recognition of the Coolidge Colts’ 2025 Turkey Bowl victory, Riggs Park centenarian Fannie Robinson, and the late educator-church leader known as Joan A.T. Kelley. The council also tackled several serious matters, including the fiscal year 2027 budget, ranked-choice voting, and Ward 8 recreation centers.
This report includes information about those issues. Other elements of this write-up include D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s (D-Ward 2) take on the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) alleged crime statistic manipulation, and D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s exit from council chambers.
D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie Exits the Council as a Champion for the Black Male D.C. Native
Shortly before the start of the council’s final legislative meeting of 2025, D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large) announced his resignation, effective Jan. 5, 2026. Later, in his last-ever remarks on the dais, McDuffie reflected on his more-than-13-year journey.
“If there’s one thing I’ve tried to model during my time on this council is this: We owe residents seriousness,” McDuffie said. “We owe them preparation. We owe them honesty in what [the] government can do, and we owe them the urgency to do it better.”
Not long after, McDuffie made what some would consider a confirmation of his ambitions for higher office.
“While this is my last legislative meeting, I am not done serving the residents of the District of Columbia,” McDuffie said. “I love this city. I believe in this city, and I believe that our best days are still ahead. If we’re willing to do the hard work, if we’re willing to tell the truth, and if we’re willing to bring people together around a shared commitment for our city’s progress.”
McDuffie, a former council and mayoral staffer and civic association leader, acquired his bachelor’s degree and juris doctorate after a stint as a U.S. postal worker. He came onto the council in 2012 as a Democratic Ward 5 representative, replacing Harry Thomas, Jr. in a special election in the aftermath of his resignation and federal prison conviction.
Throughout much of his tenure on the council, McDuffie garnered a reputation as a champion for economic development, racial equity, and violence interruption. In 2022, after an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the D.C. attorney general election, McDuffie changed his party affiliation to Independent and defeated then-D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman in a race that brought to light questions about race and class.
During Council Period 25 and this portion of 26, McDuffie continued to weigh in on matters involving public safety, economic development, and more recently, the District’s designation as a sports capital.
In the weeks leading up to his announcement, rumors circulated about McDuffie’s jump into the 2026 D.C. mayoral race. That race currently includes his council colleague Janeese Lewis George, and a hodgepodge of other candidates. While he has yet to officially announce his mayoral run, McDuffie took his time on the dais to address the yet-to-be-done work in making the District that, long before the second Trump administration, faced a unique set of challenges.
“Residents are feeling the pressure of rising costs. The federal administration and Congress have together posed the greatest threat to our autonomy since the establishment of home rule 50 years ago,” McDuffie said. “Families are worried about their safety, not just from criminals, but from the deployment of federal…officers and militaries from other states. Small and local businesses are navigating uncertainty and we’re competing for investments in our city’s growth against other jurisdictions in the most challenging of economic times.”
All 12 of McDuffie’s colleagues sang his praises on Dec. 16 as they recounted his penchant for mentoring freshman council members, bringing levity to the dais, and acknowledging other council members’ staffers. As Ward 5 resident Silas Grant pointed out, a common thread in all the accolades was McDuffie’s passion for uplifting Black male native Washingtonians.
“As we look back at his broader legacy, I think it’s just always reminding his colleagues and other people he works with that we are a city that can produce people from in-house, people that deserve opportunities just like anyone else that comes here looking for opportunity,” said Grant, a former council staffer and advisory neighborhood commissioner. “And I think he’s been a champion of that.”
In 2016, the D.C. Council approved the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act, a slew of measures representing a pivot from punitive anti-crime measures to a public health approach. The legislation, which McDuffie shaped in collaboration with Grant and several other residents, established the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, through which the District operates its violence interrupter programming.
In thinking about the meetings at Busboys and Poets in Brookland that birthed the NEAR Act, Grant called McDuffie a pioneer in a space that, for decades, has vilified Black male native Washingtonians for the violence they’ve experienced in what was once Chocolate City.
“In some instances, people don’t understand the progress,” Grant said. “Some of it may not be documented. Some of it may not be able to be told, but the relationship building, the truces, the squashing of beefs, those things have happened. I’ve seen it firsthand. And I think a lot of that is due to [Councilmember McDuffie] reinforcing the importance of bringing violence interruption into the 21st century with the NEAR model, and I think a lot of people have benefitted from it.”
D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto Weighs in on MPD Crime Statistics Controversy
Not long after Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith announced her resignation, the U.S. Department of Justice and House Committee on Oversight on Government Reform released reports alleging that the MPD leader compelled subordinates to manipulate local crime data to fuel the narrative that crime has been falling in the District.
As the federal government and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) play tug-of-war in the control over the crime narrative, Councilmember Pinto calls local crime statistics a matter that she’s— in her capacity as chair of the council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety— often addressed with the Metropolitan Police Department.
“There is a public dashboard that reports crime statistics every single day,” Pinto told The Informer. “There are reporters who come to crime scenes. There are dozens of eyeballs on all of these issues, and it’s something that we ask about in performance oversight and in regular conversations with the chief.”
Even so, Pinto, who’s gearing up for an agency oversight hearing in February, acknowledged the work to be done in assessing the data.
“We do need to have a deeper understanding into how all decisions are made around what gets classified as what,” she told The Informer, “and we’ll be following up with MPD around that so the public can understand that too.”
Earlier this year, President Donald J. Trump (R) federalized MPD, despite what members of the local public safety ecosystem heralded as a 30-year decline in crime. By that time, an MPD senior official had been on leave for what was alleged as manipulation of crime statistics, including: frequent use of lesser charges and requirements that certain crimes be reviewed by her office.
The House committee report, compiled with the use of interviews with commanders of all seven patrol districts and a former commander who’s currently suspended, said that Smith used “fear, intimidation, threats and retaliation” in her crusade, all while lowering officer morale.
Earlier in the week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), who’s currently in the midst of selecting Smith’s replacement, blasted congressional and federal officials for their accusations. In a letter, she pointed out that the House committee didn’t reach out to neither her nor Smith. She also hinted at what she called an overarching motive in release of the House committee report.
“Rather than letting the investigation proceed and risk losing the opportunity for attention grabbing headlines if it were released after Chief Smith’s retirement after nearly three decades of law enforcement service,” Bowser’s letter read, “the Committee stooped to ad hominem attacks using cherry-picked quotes without providing additional relevant context.”
The Work Begins on the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
In adherence to the D.C. Home Rule Act, the council unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Submission Requirements Resolution of 2025 on Dec. 16. This legislation, which includes an amendment correcting two technical errors in the original language, mandates that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser submits her fiscal year 2027 budget proposal no later than April 1, 2026.
As D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) explained to his colleagues, he and City Administrator Kevin Donahue will conduct regular meetings between January and April 1 to track the progress of the budget compilation.
Also on Mendelson’s radar is the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s February 2026 revenue estimates, which the council and Bowser administration would need to guide them in budgetary matters. For him, fidelity to the budget deliberation timeline is a matter of addressing yet-to-be-reconciled problems.
“I think that we are going to be concerned with the forthcoming budget… with issues like access to health care, affordable housing, and education,” Mendelson told The Informer. “Affordable housing has seen cuts. Access to health care has seen cuts. Education, although in the past it’s seen growth, the financial plan indicates that there would be reductions.”
Earlier this year, the council approved the fiscal year 2026 budget several weeks later than planned, due to a continuing resolution that a Republican-dominated House passed to reduce fiscal year 2025 spending levels to what the District had during the 2024 fiscal year.
That situation, in tandem with declining revenue projections spurred by federal government layoffs, inspired a Bowser budget proposal that narrowed health care eligibility and reduced allocations toward emergency rental assistance and other safety net programs.
Despite the council’s best efforts, some of those funding wouldn’t be fully restored.
During a council breakfast earlier this month, D.C. Auditor Kathleen Patterson’s revelation about an Events DC budget surplus sparked discussion about how to best allocate those resources in alignment with a list of priorities council members compiled during fiscal year 2026 budget deliberations.
Mendelson said that issue, and that of the continuing resolution, would have already been reconciled during the 2026 fiscal year with a reset already put in place.
“The next step is the annual financial report on Feb. 1, which will indicate how much of a surplus we ended the year with,” Mendelson told The Informer. “On Dec. 31, we will receive revised revenue estimates. And again, on Feb. 28, we will receive revenue estimates. And the budget will be based on the Feb. 28 revenue estimates.”
Weeks prior to the council’s meeting with Patterson, the council decoupled its tax code from the federal tax code shaped by what Trump calls the Big Beautiful Bill. In the same breath, the council approved emergency legislation that D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) advanced to allocate those cost savings toward the child tax credit.
On Dec. 16, Parker told The Informer that maintaining the child tax credit— up to $1,000 per child for qualifying families— should be a matter of the highest priority for Bowser.
“I just reject this premise that we don’t have the resources and the funds,” Parker said. “There was a lot of energy to get an RFK deal passed. I’m not here to re-litigate that issue, but I think the same urgency and attention should be paid to our young people in the District.”
Earlier this week, Parker and nine other council members sent a letter to Bowser requesting that she maintain funding for the child tax credit in her fiscal year 2027 budget proposal. Parker noted that the child tax credit, a policy with bipartisan support, has successfully navigated the legislative process with the support of advocacy organizations and advisory neighborhood commissions.
“I don’t know if many of the measures we pass here on council can match that type of record,” Parker told The Informer. “I challenge any assertion that this was rushed, that it shouldn’t have been done on an emergency basis.”
With the 2026 budget season to soon start, Parker said he has his eyes on how best to help District residents, especially with the exacerbation of so many quality-of-life issues.
“The focus now is how do we address the fact that we have rising poverty, rising displacement,” Parker told The Informer. “Utility bills are up from last year [by] roughly 35%. Childhood poverty is at a staggering 17-plus %. We have juvenile delinquency on the rise. Now is the time that we need to be advancing solutions that are proven and broadly supported, and that’s what the Child Tax Credit is.”
Ranked-Choice Voting and Ward 8 Recreation Funding: Conversations with No End in Sight
During the council’s Dec. 2 legislative meeting, D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder (D-Ward 7) withdrew legislation that, if passed, would have mandated a D.C. Board of Elections-conducted needs assessment for ranked-choice voting. D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8), at the behest of his colleagues, also delayed deliberation about a disapproval resolution aimed at the transfer of capital dollars from Ward 8 recreation centers to the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center.
On Dec. 16, the council would once again address the aforementioned issues while weighing in on White’s disapproval resolution and legislation that Felder and D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At large) introduced to delay implementation of ranked-choice voting until 2027.
Bonds called the proposal, as outlined in the Ranked Choice Voting Implementation Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2025, a move made in consideration of what she called the Herculean act of reaching and teaching the District’s oldest residents.
“It takes usually more than a year to reach out…at least [to] the general public [but] I’m concerned particularly about reaching our seniors,” Bonds told The Informer. “Being an older person, I know, if there’s too much confusion, I’m not going to do it. So then, if our seniors, which are one-fifth more of our population, and they are consistent voters, do not participate, what will the outcome be?”
The majority of the council didn’t share that sentiment. The legislative body struck down Bonds and Felder’s resolution by a 5-8 vote with only D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and D.C. Council members Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large) and Trayon White (D-Ward 8) standing alongside Bonds and Felder.
D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), an opponent of resolution, decried what she called an effort to scapegoat District elders.
“I often see our seniors educating us so let’s just put a pin in the idea that seniors can’t figure out how to vote by ranking the candidates,” Nadeau said on the dais. “I urge those who want to see [ranked-choice voting] implemented here in the District of Columbia to vote against this measure and instead to work together with the Board of Elections and civic engagement groups, with ANCs, with candidates to help with voter education.”
Moments before casting his vote in support of the Ranked Choice Voting Implementation Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2025, McDuffie, in deference to Bonds and Ward 5 D.C. Democratic Party Committeewoman Hazel Thomas, warned his colleagues against dismissing Democratic Party leaders who’ve expressed concern about the integrity of the voting process.
“I’m not trying to engage in any hyperbole. If the [D.C. Board of Elections] feels that they’re prepared, I just hope that they are able to execute for the sake of our local democracy,” McDuffie said. “But when I hear a former party chair like Anita Bonds, somebody who has been engaged in our democracy in the District of Columbia since before we had.. Home Rule and and after it, and been championing things that help our system of voting, I’m going to side with her on this vote.”
During the earlier part of the Dec. 16 legislative meeting, Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember White withdrew the Ward 8 Recreation Facility Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2025— which would’ve designated the removal of net-zero requirements from Ward 8 recreation center construction as an emergency. Before doing so, however, White expressed his qualms about the circumstances he said jeopardizes the District’s obligations to Ward 8 youth.
“I consistently work to put money in the budget so the community can get what they need,” Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember White said. “We’ve been working on this since 2017. It is now 2025. We’re still having the same discussions, and the executive is figuring out ways not to give the community what they want and deserve. And so we’ve come to a place where there’s new legislation, meaning net zero, that impacted this.”
Moments earlier, the council struck down what’s formally known as the Department of Parks and Recreation Funding Reprogramming Request No. 26-0097 Disapproval Resolution of 2025, with only D.C. Council members Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3), Lewis George, and McDuffie standing alongside the Ward 8 council member.
Felder voted “present.”
In the moments leading up to that vote, White questioned the Ward 8 community’s fervor for Southeast Tennis and Learning Center. In response to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson’s inquiry about his engagement with the Executive Office of the Mayor and D.C. Department of General Services, White later identified what he called the Bowser administration’s endgame.
“To be quite frank, the mayor and her administration is against net zero and [are] using this as a casualty to push the council to take it out of the law because they don’t support it,” White said. “They don’t believe it. That’s the foundation of this whole argument.”