"The Washington Post" columnist Courtland Milloy argued that Gray's action occurred because Ward 5 council member Harry Thomas, Jr. had recently gone to prison and his successor, Kenyan McDuffie, had only been in office a few months.At trial, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Victor L. Hoskins admitted that the city did not know what environmental or health laws or regulations it had to meet to relocate the bus parking, and that the cost of the temporary parking lot had never been estimated.