A series of D.C. Council hearings on hiring decisions made by the Vince Gray administration has led some council members toward the conclusion that formal mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown was promised a job by the Gray for Mayor campaign. “This has all the earmarks of a promise of a job,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who supported Gray in his election bid.
Brown was hired by the Gray administration in late January and given a $110,000 annual salary. When he was fired three weeks later, he claimed Gray and Gray for Mayor campaign chairwoman Lorraine Green promised him the job so he would keep up his attacks on then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. He also says Green passed him cash-stuffed envelopes for the same reason.
Green testified on Friday at a D.C. Council hearing into the hiring practices of the Gray administration and stuck to the same mantra the mayor has, saying repeatedly they only promised Brown an interview. She denied giving Brown cash “for any purpose.”
But the evidence mounting around Brown’s job-promise claim appears to be proving otherwise, Cheh and at-large Councilman David Catania said.
Green also led Gray’s transition team. She said among her tasks was managing the contract with Capitol Inquiry, the company the transition hired to vet potential job candidates. Last fall, Green sent the company the first batch of 19 names for background checks. Among them was Gray’s pick for attorney general, Irvin Nathan, several future agency heads, Gray’s girlfriend and Sulaimon Brown.
For those in the first batch of background checks “it seems Gray had made up his mind early on certain people and certain positions he was going to select,” Catania said.
“Brown needed a background check because of the possibility — because we promised him an interview,” Green said.
In January, Brown interviewed with the inspector general, but the job he wanted was already filled.
“It’s not really an interview if there’s no position available,” Green said.
“Maybe you have another term for that,” Cheh countered, “but that was an interview.”
Gray’s chief of staff then found Brown a job in the department of health care finance, which Brown was given without an interview, testimony and email records show.
