More than six weeks after a legal deadline passed for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to name his picks for the city’s new ethics board, the panel remains empty and a District resident who applied for an appointment says the mayor “doesn’t care about filling it with anyone that’s not personally in his pocket.”
Earlier this month, Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said the mayor planned to name his three appointees to the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability by mid-April.
Under the law establishing the board, which will probe allegations of unethical conduct in District government and craft ethics guidelines for city employees, Gray’s appointments would have been tardy in mid-April. The law set a March 14 deadline — 45 days after the law took effect — for Gray to submit his three nominations to the D.C. Council for approval.
One senior administration official said the mayor hadn’t made his appointments because no residents were willing to serve on the high-profile panel. “Everybody turns us down,” the official said. “No one wants to serve.”
But Ward 1 resident Alan Crouch told The Washington Examiner that’s not the case.
“They actually have applicants,” said Crouch, who added that he helped run James Madison University’s ethics and judicial boards as a graduate student. “It makes me think that they’re trying to place cronies in office who don’t really care about the ethics.”SClBRibeiro declined to speak about Crouch specifically but said Gray is seeking legal professionals for the posts.
“We’re looking for experienced leaders in the city with legal experience who can really help the board carry out its mission,” Ribeiro said.
Crouch said he applied to the board on March 8, one day after Gray issued a public call for applications.
“I’m asking eligible, committed, civic-minded residents to consider applying to serve on this board,” Gray said then.
The law sets out minimal qualifications for ethics board service: Prospective members must be registered voters who have lived in the District for at least a year. They also cannot be lobbyists, convicted felons, or officeholders in city government or District political organizations.
