John K. Evans III (born October 31, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1991 to 2020 before resigning due to numerous ethics violations.

[1][2][3] Evans served as the chairman of the board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) until its ethics committee found he violated conflict of interest rules.

[17] In January 2024, Evans was appointed by councilman Phil Mendelson to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to fill a vacancy left by Muriel Bowser for a period of five months.

[18] Evans has faced multiple ethics investigations, including using his position on the WMATA Board of Directors for personal gain.

Other investigations found Evans took payments from EagleBank, Colonial Parking, Wilco Construction, Exelon, and other companies with business before the D.C. Council and WMATA.

[20][21][5][22] In August 2019, the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability (BEGA) found that there was "substantial evidence" that Evans violated rules restricting officials from using their offices for private gains.

[23] At the conclusion of the investigation he received an additional fine in May 2020 for $35,000, the largest ever levied by the agency, for violating the council's code of conduct regarding conflicts of interest.

[32] The Washington Post calculated that Evans had spent $135,897 on sporting events and directed $101,564 toward charitable organizations over the previous decade.

[38] Among the clients of NSE Consulting were development and investment firms Willco and EastBanc and the parent company of Colonial Parking, all of whom stood to benefit from legislation Evans introduced.

[51] The council commissioned a report by a D.C. law firm, which found multiple instances when Evans took official actions which benefited his clients, none of which were disclosed.

According to the Washington Blade, "Evans has been the lead sponsor or co-sponsor of virtually every LGBT-supportive bill that has come before the legislative body."

[56] In 2016, Evans stated that he opposed proposed legislation that would impose a cap on public funding for a new Wizards practice facility.

Evans expressed concern that the city was not ready for the scheduled 2014 vote, noting among other things that no candidates had emerged for the position.

[64] In 2013, Evans co-sponsored introduced emergency measures to keep application-based services like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar street legal.

[67] As an alternative, Evans co-introduced legislation which would have afforded the same paid leave, but in lieu of a tax, would have required private employers to pay employees for the time off.

Although supported by the mayor and major business groups, the alternative failed, and the original proposal passed the council by a vote of 9–4.

[68][69] Evans has twice served as the primary director from the District of the Columbia on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), first from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2015 through June 2019.

[72] In November 2016, Evans urged that Metro's challenges should be addressed by a federal takeover, in an arrangement akin to the control board that rescued the District from financial crisis in the 1990s.

Evans also cautioned that establishment of a control board would face major legal and political challenges, and acknowledged that the proposal was unlikely to win much backing.

[75] It was also revealed that Evans attempted to pressure Metro General Counsel Patricia Lee and board corporate secretary Jennifer Green Ellison in order to conceal the ethics violation.

[12][88][89] Evans has been frequently criticized in the media and by the public for violating city parking regulations with his personal vehicle.