The Bowser Administration’s Record
Throughout her re-election campaign Muriel Bowser has pointed to her record as part of the reason why voters should support her again this June. But Bowser’s record is full of agency failures, favors for friends, and using DC resources to maintain her power. To help voters remember what has happened over the last eight years, here is a look back at twelve of the most troubling stories from the Bowser administration’s history.
1. Awarding housing contracts to low-performance developers
“The administration of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) awarded tens of millions of dollars to affordable housing developers even though evaluators scored their proposals poorly, according to an audit released Thursday.” (Washington Post, May 30, 2019)
2. DC Crime Lab “deliberately concealed information,” loses accreditation
“A national forensics board suspended the D.C. crime lab’s accreditation over the department’s deliberate concealment of information and fraudulent behavior, according to the suspension letter issued by the board and obtained by WTOP.” (WAMU, April 7, 2021)
3. Intentional misrepresentation of COVID data
“Emails obtained from the office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser suggest that city officials took down unflattering data from a COVID-19 dashboard in mid-June, rushing to reopen even as the data showed the city failing to meet one key metric for containing the spread of the pandemic.” (WAMU, September 14, 2020)
4. Losing teachers at rates “far above the national average“
“Imagine if each year a company lost about a quarter of its staff, and after five years over half the employees were new. That’s what’s happening with teachers in public schools in D.C., according to a new report commissioned by D.C.’s State Board of Education.” (WAMU, October 3, 2018)
5. Opposing the tipped minimum wage
“Along with Mayor Muriel Bowser, a majority of D.C. Council members currently oppose or are leaning against Initiative 77. The ballot measure would phase out the tipped wage paid to many workers in bars and restaurants and instead require that employers fully pay them the minimum wage.” (WAMU, May 17, 2018)
6. Obstructing Paid Family Leave
“[T]he mayor’s disdain for the policy (and some of its supporters) has contributed to a series of similar flare-ups in recent years. Bowser tried last year to redirect the extra money in the paid leave fund to cover a variety of expenses, including a payroll tax cut and other refunds for businesses, though the Council blocked those efforts.” (Washington City Paper, March 2, 2022)
7. Safety violations lose funding for Head Start
“D.C. Public Schools will lose millions of dollars in federal money for Head Start, which helps provide preschool for the city’s low-income students at no cost…the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees Head Start, has reported multiple safety violations in pre-K programs operated by the school system in recent years.” (WAMU, April 16, 2020)
8. Agency immobility means no one knows how many apartments in DC are rent controlled
“The Council mandated the creation of such a “clearinghouse” back in 2015, and it was supposed to be finished a year later, but the effort to develop the database has been plagued with delays ever since then.” (Washington City Paper, June 1, 2022)
9. Inhumane treatment of residents experiencing homelessness
“[A]ctivists and lawmakers argued it is unnecessary to impose strict timelines to close encampments. They also pushed back on no-tent zones established after an encampment is cleared — concrete barriers were placed alongside the sidewalks of the underpasses in NoMa, preventing future encampments.” (DCist, November 26, 2021)
10. Hypocrisy on Black Lives Matter
“The 194 protesters arrested the night of June 1 on a Northwest D.C. street are still waiting for the D.C. Attorney General’s Office to decide whether they will be prosecuted. They were arrested during a controversial police tactic known as ‘kettling.’ That’s when police seal off streets and alleyways – surrounding protesters before a mass arrest.” (WUSA 9, August 27, 2020)
Black Lives Matter DC issued a formal statement Sunday denouncing Mayor Muriel Bowser’s handling of recent protests and asking for her to instead “invest in the community” and decrease the budget for D.C. police. (WUSA 9, June 7, 2020)
11. Appointees who resign in scandal
“Albert…is allowing the city to take over DCHA’s public housing portfolio and spin it off to Bowser’s friends in the developer community.” (District Dig, October 6, 2021)
“Joshua Lopez, a close ally of Mayor Muriel Bowser, resigned from the D.C. Housing Authority’s board of directors on Tuesday morning. His sudden resignation came only hours before the D.C. Council was set to send Bowser a letter asking that he be removed for his role in organizing a rally last week outside the Wilson Building where a speaker referred to Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large), who is Jewish, as a ‘fake Jew.'” (WAMU, May 1, 2018)
12. Creating loopholes to allow campaign contributions
“It was probably to be expected that someone would figure out how to do an end run around the new limits the D.C. Council placed on political campaign donations. What was not to be expected is that it would be the official who was elected on the promise of a fresh start for the scandal-weary city.” (Washington Post, October 18, 2015)
