Mayor Adrian Fenty last week withdrew his divisive nominee to the D.C. Public Service Commission, but restoked the appointment controversy by naming a pair of jogging buddies to sit on two key boards with oversight of libraries and elections.
Lori Lee, Fenty’s long-stalled nominee to chair the Public Service Commission, was pulled from consideration for that post. Lee’s appointment had sparked outrage among environmental groups who argued she got the nod because she is Michelle Fenty’s best friend, and despite a lack of experience in utilities law, regulation or management. The D.C. Council had refused to vote on the appointment.
A statement from Fenty’s office did not explain what sparked the change, only that Betty Ann Kane, a longtime member of D.C.’s utility regulator, was nominated to chair the body. Fenty resubmitted Lee as a member of the commission.
The rescinding of Lee’s nomination did not quiet questions about Fenty’s picks for various boards and commissions, which critics say have been liberally distributed to his friends. Two more such choices were named last week.
Omar Nour, chief executive officer of a Hyattsville-based call center and Web hosting firm, is Fenty’s pick to replace Lenora Cole on the three-person Board of Elections and Ethics. Nour majored in biology, French and Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, according to his resume. A quick Internet search brings up numerous local races in which he and Fenty have run together.
Max Maurice, Fenty’s choice for the D.C. Library Board of Trustees, is a clinical social worker for the D.C. Public Schools, a personal fitness trainer and consultant to triathletes. He and Fenty are both members of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. They also run together.
Both men are qualified under the statutes establishing the respective boards, said Mafara Hobson, Fenty’s spokeswoman. Neither could be reached for comment.
“It’s hard to just look at someone’s resume and say they’re not qualified,” said Hobson, who urged an up-or-down vote on both picks. “What’s the proper formula to get you prepared to serve on the board?”
Nour’s experience, or lack thereof, “doesn’t disqualify him per se,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who will consider the elections board nominee as chairwoman of the government operations committee.
Dorothy Brizill, who keeps close tabs on the elections board as co-founder of D.C. Watch, said Nour is “not in the ballpark” of being qualified to serve.
“My concern is they’re simply being appointed because they’ll be the mayor’s yes-men,” Brizill said of Fenty’s nominees. “That is not why we have so-called independent boards.”
