The D.C. Council’s long summer recess started weeks ago, giving the city’s overpaid legislators a head start on all sorts of leisure. In the past, our reps have made the most of their two-month leave, including junkets to Africa, ballgames on their PAC’s dime, and, of course, the classic Rehoboth break.

But At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown remains at work, in a way that yesterday yielded huge PR benefits. Brown was conducting an anti-violence forum at the Verizon Center, an event that just happened to precede Beyonce’s much-anticipated appearance in the same venue. Well, the pop star, it turned out, had a few spare minutes before taking the stage and dropped in for a visit with the girls at the forum. According to the Washington Post, Beyonce was wearing “silver high heels, skinny jeans and a gray blouse and sporting Barbie-doll hair.”

Brown was wearing a big smile. None of his previous stunts—like riding with the recycling trucks, for instance—could challenge this one for publicity. Washington Post put the story on the front of its Metro section, and the Examiner ran a piece as well.

On Tuesday, during its last session of the summer, the D.C. Council quickly passed dozens of resolutions and laws, including two “emergency” bills designed to resuscitate major real-estate developments: a Center-Leg Freeway air-rights project that was originally approved almost two decades ago, and a West End project that involves the city selling fire, police, and library property to a private developer. Neither proposal is by any measure an emergency, but treating them as such allowed the Council to skip the messy public-hearing phase of representative government.

The West End bill came as a shock to many in that community. At the Tuesday session, members of the Council congratulated themselves on having held “public roundtables” on the two bills last week, but those meetings were scheduled so quickly and publicized so poorly that few citizens knew they had occurred. The Friends of the West End Library scheduled a public meeting with the potential redeveloper, Georgetown-based Eastbanc, for 10 a.m., Saturday, July 14—unaware that the project would be a done deal by then.

Technically, neither deal is complete. Both proposals, which were sent to the Council by Mayor Adrian Fenty, are planned unit developments, which means the final designs will require Zoning Commission approval. They’ll also need a second Council vote. And in the West End case, the price of the three city parcels (at 24th and L, 23rd and L, and 23rd and M NW), minus Eastbanc’s cost of building a new fire station and library, must be negotiated and submitted to the Council for final approval.

The inaccuracy of the Council members’ remarks on Tuesday, however, didn’t offer much hope that the legislators will be informed or vigilant when the projects require further review.

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At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown can chalk up a win for female power in the District government. Along the way, he got some sweet payback on a political rival as well.

On May 31, at the request of Mayor Adrian Fenty, Council Chairman Vincent Gray introduced a confirmation resolution for Narda Newby to serve on the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission.

Her nomination means that lobbyist and Fenty money bundler Max Brown can give up on his efforts to be nominated to the commission. In February, the lobbyist was nominated by Fenty to the powerful and perks-laden sports panel. But Councilmember Brown refused to hold a hearing on lobbyist Brown’s nomination, saying that he wanted more females to be named to commissions under the jurisdiction of his Committee on Economic Development.

Of course, Max Brown’s leading role in the campaign of former At-Large Councilmember Harold Brazil had absolutely nothing to do with Kwame Brown’s aversion to Fenty’s original choice.

“Max is a good guy who I’m sure has a lot to offer the city,” says Kwame Brown, sticking to his original story on why Max Brown was never considered by his committee. “We just want to make sure we have a diverse group on a board of directors,” he says. “I’m excited that the mayor is so committed to advancing diversity.”

You might think At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown and Mayor Adrian Fenty have reason to be political rivals. After all, Brown was a co-chair of the Linda Cropp for Mayor campaign. His father was a field operative for Cropp. Brown also spiked the nomination of one of Fenty’s fundraising wizards, lobbyist Max Brown, who was up for a plum post on the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission.

But relations between the mayor and Brown can’t be too bad. Fenty’s campaign strategist, Tom Lindenfeld, is among a select group of voters to have planted a Kwame Brown in ’08 sign in their yards.

Lindenfeld calls reports of tension between the two young politicians “overblown.” He doesn’t consider any differences between the mayor and councilmember so intense that he would back off from his political loyalties. “I’ve supported Kwame from the beginning,” says Lindenfeld. “Why should anything change now?”

Photograph of Sign (Not Lindenfeld’s) by Darrow Montgomery

When Vincent B. Orange Sr. was the councilmember from Ward 5, he never tired of talking about his biggest success. Orange claimed to have wrangled the Brentwood Home Depot during a trip to Las Vegas. For at least five years, the councilmember was part of the city’s delegation to the gambling mecca for the annual conference of the International Council of Shopping Centers.

But Orange’s departure from public life via a trouncing in the 2006 mayoral contest hasn’t meant his Vegas streak was broken when reps from Target, Kmart, and JCPenney gathered in Sin City this week

Orange was sighted in the D.C. Economic Partnership booth yesterday, representing his new employer, Pepco.

Orange could not be reached for comment, but At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown, who is in Vegas this week, confirms that Orange was shaking hands and slapping backs in the Partnership’s 2,000-square-foot booth. It’s one job his new bosses didn’t have to train Orange for.

A damp and chilly Emancipation Day meant the big parade down Pennsylvania Avenue NW didn’t turn out to be the crowded meet-and-greet event candidates and visibility-seeking politicos had hoped for. Parade participants outnumbered spectators, and most of the pols choose the cozy comfort of waving from an automobile over mixing with the nearly nonexistent crowds in a cold rain.

The at-large D.C. Council race was the only contest that prompted serious crowd-working commitment. Incumbent Phil Mendelson stalked the parade route with an umbrella and campaign T-shirt. He followed closely on the heels of challenger A. Scott Bolden, who also opted for the close-to-the-people approach.

A car carrying a sign bearing the name of At-Large Councilmember David Catania was so fogged up it was impossible to see who was inside. Catania was indeed in the car, according to Mendelson, who says his 5-year-old daughter Adelaide accepted Catania’s offer to keep her out of the rain. She did snag a ride on daddy’s shoulders for part of the route.

The parade’s unofficial sponsor, Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange caught an unlucky break that turned out to be pretty lucky in the end. He was supposed to ride solo in a horse-drawn carriage near the front of the parade route, complete with a sign identifying him taped to the side—an appropriate gesture for the sponsor of the bill that established Emancipation Day. But as Orange tells it: “My horse got scared, and they had to take the carriage out” of the parade lineup.

Instead, Orange rode out front with Mayor Anthony A. Williams in a fancy white carriage decorated with flowers. Williams has taken to giving Orange a freebie now and then. Three times in recent months he’s allowed Orange to present what amounted to campaign speeches at his weekly press conference.

Even though he lost his sign because of a skittish horse, Orange seemed to enjoy the lift from Williams. Why not? It’s likely to be the only time he rides in a parade float that includes a sign identifying him as mayor.

Council Chairman Linda Cropp, who is running for mayor, smiled and waved from heated comfort for most of the parade and then bailed out around 10th Street to walk the final four blocks. She’s figured out that a strong finish is what really matters when it comes to campaigns.

You can’t blame Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown for driving themselves on the route. Neither is running for re-election in the fall. Give them credit for just showing up at D.C.’s unique holiday celebration.

The parade also featured a couple of phantom candidates. Mayoral hopeful and Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty ran a truck with a sign in the parade, but the candidate himself was nowhere to be found. The same goes for Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray. His red, white, and blue sign calling on voters to choose him to be the next D.C. Council chair graced the side of a van packed with campaign volunteers but no candidate.

The other major candidate for chair, Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson, waved from the comfort of a black Saab.

The Gray boosters did nail one time-honored technique for cementing a solid reputation among parade-watchers: They made sure to hand out lots of candy.