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Council authorizes legal steps to obtain agency budget 'Form B' documents
Summary
After prolonged debate the Council approved a resolution (PR26-521) authorizing the Office of General Counsel to initiate or join litigation to secure agency budget enhancement requests (Form Bs) that the executive has withheld despite court rulings.
Chair Phil Mendelson presented PR26-521, a resolution authorizing the Council's general counsel to initiate, defend, intervene in, or otherwise participate in litigation to assert the Council's interest in obtaining agency budget enhancement requests (Form Bs) required by D.C. Code 40-7-318.05A. Mendelson said the executive branch had declined to transmit the requested documents despite trial-court and Court of Appeals rulings ordering production and that litigation or related actions were now necessary to protect the Council's appropriations role.
Council Member Parker and others supported the resolution on principle and cited the courts' prior rulings rejecting deliberative-process and executive-privilege claims as a basis for non-disclosure. Several members, including Councilmember Freeman and Councilmember Lewis George, opposed the resolution or expressed concern that forcing disclosure could chill executive deliberations and make future budgeting more cumbersome. Mendelson said the authorization gave general counsel flexibility to protect the Council's oversight role. The resolution was moved, debated, recorded with several 'no' votes, and adopted.
The resolution cites D.C. Official Code 40-7-318.05A as the statutory basis for requiring transmission of Form Bs and seeks to preserve the Council's ability to obtain those documents for budget oversight.
