After a year in which the D.C. Council and Mayor’s office have been rocked by scandals, a leading House Republican on Monday introduced legislation that would put more limits on the city’s hiring of mayoral appointees and tighten controls on filling all city government jobs.
The move immediately had D.C. lawmakers telling California Rep. Darrell Issa to butt out.
Issa’s bill came the same day the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman issued his final report on former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown’s allegations regarding Mayor Vincent Gray’s 2010 campaign.
| More trouble ahead |
| D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and two council members were ordered late Monday to give depositions as part of a lawsuit filed against the city’s chief financial officer by a former contracting official who claims he was fired for raising questions about a $38 million D.C. Lottery contract. In his whistleblower lawsuit, former procurement director Eric Payne claims CFO Natwar Gandhi asked him to alter a controversial contract by adding a friend of then-council Chairman Gray to the deal. Councilmen Jack Evans and Jim Graham have also been deposed. Payne says they had a personal stake in the lottery contract award. |
“This bill will help prevent past failures by ensuring that District of Columbia leaders are held accountable for conducting and reviewing the results of background checks when making hiring decisions,” Issa said in a prepared statement. “Unless or until District leaders stop apologizing for outrageous abuses in government and adopt measures to address these problems, congressional action is the only way to implement needed standards as a bulwark against cronyism.”
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh called Issa’s legislation “offensive” and “redundant.” Cheh chaired a special committee that conducted its own investigation of former mayoral candidate Brown’s allegations that the Gray campaign gave him money orders and cash to stay in the race and bash former Mayor Adrian Fenty.
“I don’t think this would have any traction, I’d hope not,” Cheh said of Issa’s proposal. “At the time we’re trying to establish autonomy in the District, it’s more than unwelcome to the District — it’s obnoxious.”
Gray said through a spokeswoman that Issa’s bill “shows a total disregard and disrespect for the citizens of the nation’s capital.”
The bill would amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to require criminal background checks for mayoral appointees and establish the same standards the federal government uses in screening all prospective District government employees.
Nearly one dozen ethics bills have been introduced in council this fall, including one from Cheh that addresses administration appointees, vetting and hiring practices.
Issa’s committee report on Monday found Brown had little credibility and that Gray’s campaign had poorly vetted him for the position to which he was hired in January. But the report said there was no evidence Gray promised Brown a job.
Cheh’s committee report, issued in August, found Gray’s campaign was wrought with cronyism and nepotism that said it was likely Brown was promised a job by Gray’s campaign staff.
The Office of D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton issued a statement calling the bill a “significant escalation of Republicans’ relentless attacks on the District’s right to self-government.”
Terry Lynch, a civic activist and executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, said losing financial control shouldn’t be a concern. At least not yet.
“I think it’s unlikely but at this point I don’t think you can rule out anything,” he said.
