DC’s budget approval timeline expected to delay council’s Commanders deal decision

When D C Mayor Muriel Bowser stated a billion deal to bring the Washington Commanders back to the District she set a deadline for the council to approve the deal July Now with a timeline for approving the city s fiscal budget and supplemental budget out the mayor s office is indicating the mayor is OK with the council taking a little longer to decide On Monday Council Chair Phil Mendelson publicized a first vote on the budgets is set for July with the second vote set for July The mayor s office described WTOP that Bowser s position is that the deal to redevelop the RFK Stadium campus must be a part of the budget but explained she s fine with approval coming with a second vote on the budget In announcing the budget timeline during a media briefing Monday Mendelson announced he has had talks with the association and is anxious to carry through discussions as fleetly as doable but numerous issues still need to be addressed A couple of weeks ago I sat down with the Commanders leadership and demanded a number of questions of them to better understand the deal and inquired for documents or analyses And they have been very responsive he stated Mendelson commented Mayor Bowser hasn t been responsive and mentioned the council has not seen the facts about how much revenue the redevelopment of the RFK campus will bring in The mayor wants the council to act fleetly but she s not sharing information Mendelson commented The mayor s office did not comment on that claim but the mayor has announced in the past she is working closely with the council on the project For Mendelson he revealed his concerns include the more than billion price tag for taxpayers in the deal and also that the deal does not include the Commanders paying rent to the city something he announced the Nationals do for Nats Park and Monumental Sports the owner of the Wizards and Capitals does for using Capital One Arena I think the deal can be made much better for taxpayers Mendelson stated Mendelson also raised concerns about plans to turn to a private-public partnership for the rebuilding of the D C jail in which a private company would build the jail and the city would operate the facility There s no question in my mind that this is one of the capital projects that is being expended to accommodate for the RFK Stadium Mendelson explained Source