A report commissioned by the D.C. Council raised some red flags about the Washington Commanders stadium deal on the table, though it’s unclear if any of them are too serious to overcome.

The Council commissioned three reports ahead of public hearings July 29. The report from business management consultant The Robert Bobb Group dated July 15 — the deadline Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Commanders set for the Council to act before the team can resume shopping around for a new location. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson shared the report on X late Friday.

It brought up several questions about the proposal to develop the RFK Stadium campus.

There’s uncertainty about who will be responsible for maintenance. The report recommends D.C. set a cap on how much will be covered by a maintenance fund and ensure the Commanders cover any overruns.

The report found construction delays could reduce tax revenue. If the stadium is going to open by 2030 as the team wants groundbreaking needs to happen next year.

Another concern about tax revenue is that riverfront development might not happen quickly enough. The report recommends a provision for the team to return control of some land to D.C. if it stays undeveloped for too long.

The report also raises concerns about transportation and parking and cites a lack of a comprehensive public safety plan. News4 reports there have been discussions about adding a new D.C. Fire and EMS station.

Earlier Friday, News4 asked Mendelson about the pressure on the Council to quickly approve the deal.

“The bottom line is, I want to emphasize, we’ve had this for less than seven weeks,” he said. “And instead of ‘how can we all work together, answer questions, see if we can make the deal better,’ there’s been this almost daily mantra of ‘the Council needs to act quickly, act without a hearing, act without any analyses, act without any due diligence.’ And that has not been helpful.”

Comer urges Council to act before August recess

Some of that pressure came from the head of the House Oversight Committee Thursday.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is urging the council to act quickly on the RFK Stadium redevelopment.

U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, wrote a letter to Mendelson urging city leaders to vote on the new stadium before their August recess.

“Congress has already spoken on this matter through the bipartisan H.R. 4984, which was signed by President Biden on January 6, 2025. The law was designed specifically to enable the District to advance expeditiously with this transformational opportunity,” Comer said in the letter.

While the Council has made a preliminary vote on the financing of the deal, Mendelson removed the bulk of the stadium legislation from the upcoming budget vote and has said it’s unlikely the Council will vote on that before September.

President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he might intervene on behalf of the Commanders if the Council fails to approve the stadium deal.

The mayor’s office said it needs more time to review the report before commenting.

News4 also reached out to the Commanders and awaits a response.

The second of the three reports could come next week.

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A D.C. police commander is under investigation for allegedly making changes to crime statistics in his district.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Michael Pulliam was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-May — just a week after Pulliam filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief and the police union accused the department of deliberately falsifying crime data.

The union claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year.

Pulliam — the former commander of the 3rd District that patrols Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights — was placed on leave with pay and told he was under investigation for questionable changes to crime data, five law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told News4.

That came about a week after he filed a complaint against Executive Assistant Chief of Police Andre Wright, according to three law enforcement sources familiar with the complaint.

Pulliam denied the allegations against him.

“When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that will show up on that scene and direct those members to take a report for a lesser offense,” Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton said. “So, instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification.”

The police department’s command staff is focusing on two categories in order to get the numbers to fall, Pemberton said: armed with a dangerous weapon and injured person to the hospital.

“When management officials are directing officers to take reports for felony assault, or if they’re going back into police databases and changing offenses to felony assault, felony assault is not a category of crime that’s listed on the department’s daily crime stats,” Pemberton said. “It’s also not something that’s a requirement of the FBI’s uniform crime reporting program. So, by changing criminal offenses from, for example, ADW bat or ADW gun to felony assault, that would avoid both the MPD and the FBI from reporting that as a part one or a felony offense.”

The union has been gathering evidence for some time now by looking at reports and talking with officers all over the city, Pemberton said.

“What we’ve heard through our members and through members of management that were willing to talk with the union is that this is a directive from the command staff, is that they wanna make sure that these classifications of these reports are adjusted over time to make sure that the overall crime stats stay down,” Pemberton said. “And this is deliberately done.”

As of last Monday when News4 spoke with Pemberton, D.C. crime data shows violent crime was down 28%. Thursday, the department’s website said violent crime is down 25% when compared to the same time last year, and overall crime is down 8%.

“That’s preposterous,” Pemberton said. “There’s absolutely no way crime could be down 28%. Last year they suggested that it went down 34%.”

In April, Pulliam’s wife, Capt. Rachel Pulliam, was transferred by Chief Pamela Smith from the Youth Division to midnights in the 7th District.

Subsequently, according to three sources familiar with the incident and the timing of everything, Wright ordered Cmdr. Pulliam to pack up his wife’s belongings from Youth Division and move them on his own to his wife’s new assignment in 7D.

He viewed the order as retaliatory and a misuse of authority, sources familiar with the complaint said.

About a week later, Cmdr. Pulliam’s police powers were revoked, five law enforcement sources told News4.

Chief Smith told News4 she can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.

As for the claims made by the union, Smith released this statement: “The Metropolitan Police Department is committed to upholding the trust and the confidence of the public. Any irregularity in crime data brought to my attention will be addressed immediately. I do not condone any official reclassifying criminal offenses outside the guidelines set in MPD policy. Any allegation of this behavior will be dealt with through our internal processes, which will ensure those members are held accountable. I have the utmost confidence in the command staff leadership currently in place across the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Wright declined to comment to News4.

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A new grassroots campaign has been formed in support of plans to bring the Washington Commanders back to the nation’s capital. The group is called “RFK Now!” and co-chair Tiffany Tate said their hope is to encourage the D.C. Council to green light the project.

“We needed that vote yesterday,” Tate said.

Tate, who’s a small-business owner in D.C., said she believes the project is a big economic development opportunity for the city and a way to bring in more jobs, affordable housing and the beautification of public areas.

She said the campaign, which is part of the advocacy group Opportunity D.C., includes business owners, nonprofits and their employees, and residents of D.C.

“That is what is so powerful about our group. It is really a snapshot into D.C.,” Tate said.

The $3.7 billion deal to bring the Commanders back to town could cost taxpayers more than $1 billion for the infrastructure of the stadium and the building of parking garages.

Some critics of the plan have raised concerns over the use of taxpayer dollars for the project. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration argued a large portion of the money for the deal, $500 million, would come from a ballpark fund, which was originally used to pay for Nationals Park, being redirected to the RFK Stadium site redevelopment.

Tax revenue for that fund comes from businesses that make $5 million or more each year in income.

Tate said she believes the project is the best way to bring housing, including affordable housing and jobs, to Southeast D.C.

“Right now, there’s nothing out there. There’s no renting, there’s no homes for purchase. There is absolutely nothing,” Tate said.

Tate said the members of the RFK Now campaign have been going door-to-door, hoping to drum up support for the project. She said the reaction to the project has been mixed, with some 100% on board and others believing this deal is about one thing only — bringing the Commanders back to D.C.

The D.C. Council added the funding for the project into its 2026 budget, which will receive a final vote on July 28. While the funding is in the budget, the terms of the deal aren’t, meaning there will be a separate hearing on the stadium, with the first hearing scheduled for July 29 and a vote expected in the fall.

Tate said her fear is that if the council waits too long, the team could look elsewhere.

“If Virginia or Maryland calls the Commanders back to their areas, we lose out on that, and who knows what that area will become in another 30, 40, 50 years,” she said.

Some of the council’s vocal critics of the project, among them Council member Charles Allen, argued that mixed-use development and affordable housing could be brought to the RFK Campus without the stadium as an anchor.

“You don’t need a stadium to be an anchor, but you need an anchor. And right now, we have a huge opportunity of billions of dollars to invest in revitalizing that area that is nothing now,” Tate said.

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