The Metro Board suddenly delayed any final action Tuesday on ethics issues facing Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans.
A planned closed session of the Metro Board was converted at the last minute into a closed session of the board’s Ethics Committee, which is responsible for the investigation. The closed session of the full board called by First Vice Chair Clarence Crawford was then pushed back to Thursday on Metro’s website.
Several people familiar with the matter confirmed the other board members had expected to act Tuesday until the last-second switch, which was only made on Metro’s website about an hour before the meeting was due to begin at 10 a.m.
Evans walked into Metro headquarters about 45 minutes before the closed session of the Ethics Committee started. Unusually, he apparently had a lawyer with him at the meeting.
Evans has already been reprimanded by his colleagues on the D.C. Council and is under federal investigation over allegations he used his official roles for personal financial gain.
While few on the current Metro Board may be familiar with it, another then-D.C. council member also got caught up in a Metro ethics probe when he was on the board.
The case involving Jim Graham attempting to trade support for a city lottery contract bid for a developer dropping out of a Metro project led to Metro beefing up policies and investigations, which could mean Metro’s ethics probe has turned up additional information in the Evans case that is not yet public.
