D.C. Mayor Vince Gray has called for immediate background checks of political appointees at all levels of the city government — whether they were made by him or previous administrations. “While a vetting process was implemented, it is clear that the approach was not thorough enough to address all relevant issues and questions for Excepted Service appointments,” Gray said in a statement. “Moving forward, I want to make sure that we check and double-check all current and future Excepted Service appointees by also engaging our own Metropolitan Police Department.”
Over the past two weeks, Gray has had to address appointments of mid- and upper-level city employees with questionable backgrounds. A spokeswoman for Gray said by including the police department in background checks for appointees, the mayor is taking an “unprecedented” step.
The statement said the Gray administration did check criminal histories, bankruptcy filings and civil litigation for appointees. They also covered education, legal and business affiliations. The checks were performed by an “outside entity” and paid for by private donations through the transition team.
But they didn’t catch a misdemeanor conviction nor a restraining order filed against former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown. Last week, Brown was fired from his $110,000 a year job in the Department of Health Care Finance after questions were raised about his criminal past. Questions have also been raised about the background of other appointments and have mired the Gray administration in a series of miniscandals as it tries to find its footing less than three months into running the city.
Gray conceded that there was not “the same degree of vigor” used in top-level appointments as for those farther down. He said the vetting process that was in place didn’t “identify all of the challenges that maybe be experienced by potential hires.” Gray concluded, “while it is hoped that candidates for jobs such as these would voluntarily reveal significant aspects of their history that could influence the decision to hire them, clearly that has not always occurred.”
