The chairman of the D.C. Council’s Judiciary Committee told the incoming attorney general that he was concerned about her staffing changes, including the transfer of a seasoned counselor to make way for a less-experienced former aide to the mayor.
Council Member Phil Mendelson said he had heard complaints from agency insiders about the management style of Acting Attorney General Linda Singer, which played a role in the ouster of six of 12 deputies.
Three left on their own and three were reassigned to make the agency more efficient, Singer said.
The changes have created tension in the improving department, Mendelson said.
“There’s a lot of angst,” he said. “And I’m not understating that.”
Singer’s appearance before the D.C. committee of public safety and judiciary Thursday was the first of three hearings she’ll face before the D.C. Council votes on her confirmation next month. Singer, 40, comes to the government from the executive directorship of Appleseed, a nonprofit with 18 offices, 70 employees and a $7.5 million annual budget. With confirmation from the Council, she’ll take over an agency with 660 employees and an $87 million budget.
Mendelson questioned the transfer of chief ethics officer Polly Rich to make space for Mayor Adrian Fenty’s former chief of staff, Thorn Pozen, an attorney with little experience in D.C.’s ethics laws. Pozen will also take on added duties as the attorney general’s Freedom of Information Act officer.
Mendelson pointed out that Acting Police Chief Cathy Lanier hasn’t made any major changes at a department where many senior officers were worried that she’d make wholesale high-level personnel moves.
Instead, he said, Lanier has “calmed the waters,” and will likely make her changes after she has a firmer grasp of the department.
Singer said she made her decisions after talking to people inside and outside the attorney general’s office.
