Several top-ranking D.C. political appointees are being paid at a rate that would violate District law, it was revealed Thursday, yet another controversy in the scandal-marred first two months of D.C. Mayor Vince Gray’s administration. Gray is off to a rocky start, with federal prosecutors “assessing” charges of campaign abuses brought by a former mayoral candidate and accumulating concerns over nepotism, hiring of cronies and overspending on salaries for appointees.
The mayor has now turned to superlawyer Robert Bennett to defend him — the man Bill Clinton hired when charges swirled around his administration.
And city officials are starting to pressure him to jettison top advisers.
D.C. Council members, with David Catania leading the charge, called for Gray’s chief of staff, Gerri Mason Hall, to resign Thursday.
“I think the mayor has misplaced trust in a lot of people,” Catania, I-at-large, said after reviewing a report by Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh that cited legal issues with the high salaries of top members of Gray’s administration.
Catania said Hall should have known better than to allow her son to land a job in her boss’ administration. Hall’s salary is also among those the report cited as poised to breach the legal limit.
Other council members and political consultants privately agreed with Catania that Gray needs to clean house.
The most harmful accusations of ethical — if not legal — wrongdoing have come from former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown, who landed a political appointment in the Department of Health Care Finance with an annual salary of $110,000.
When Brown was fired after questions were raised about his past, he quickly claimed that Gray had promised him the job if he remained on the campaign trail last summer and continued his attacks on then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. Brown also says he was given cash payments by Gray for Mayor Chairwoman Lorraine Green and campaign consultant Howard Brooks, the brother-in-law of a D.C. Lottery contractor known to be close
with the mayor. The Washington Post reported it has phone records to prove Brown repeatedly contacted Green and Brooks last summer. The U.S. attorney’s office has confirmed prosecutors are now “assessing” Brown’s accusations. That is one step away from starting a criminal investigation, experts say.
Cheh’s report adds substance to the argument by Catania and others that top members of Gray’s administration have failed him.
| The players |
| Sulaimon Brown: The former mayoral candidate turned accuser-in-chief whose accusations that members of the Gray campaign gave him cash so he could stay on the trail and hound then-Mayor Adrian Fenty have led to an inquiry by federal officials. |
| Lorraine Green: Vince Gray’s long-time friend and adviser. She has been accused of passing cash to Sulaimon Brown when she was chairwoman of the Gray for Mayor campaign. |
| Howard Brooks: A Gray for Mayor campaign consultant also accused of passing cash to Brown. He is the brother-in-law of the D.C. Lottery contractor, who is close to Gray. |
| Gerri Mason Hall: Gray’s chief of staff whose son was hired by the Gray administration. Some officials and political insiders are now calling for her resignation. |
| Talib Kareem: The head of the D.C. Muslim Democratic Caucus who surprised everyone by throwing his weight behind Gray despite his brother being a close ally of the Fenty administration. He landed a $133,000 job in the Gray administration, and resigned last week after it became public. |
| A recap |
| Jan. 2: Gray sworn in. |
| Feb. 19: A month later it’s revealed he has hired close allies and family members of administration members to his staff, among them Sulaimon Brown. |
| Feb. 23: It’s revealed that Brown has a criminal history. |
| Feb. 24: Brown is fired. |
| March 6: Brown accuses Gray of a cash-for-campaigning scheme. |
| March 9: Other questions arise regarding high salaries and political appointees. |
| March 9: At-large Councilman David Catania, and others, push for Gray’s chief of staff, Gerri Mason Hall, to resign. |
The average salaries in the mayor’s and the city administrator’s offices have risen 10 percent since September 2010, the report said. Among those whose salaries are on pace to bust the legal cap are Hall, City Administrator Allen Lew, and D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson.
According to the report, the Gray administration planned all along to ask the council’s approval for the higher-than-legal annual salaries. There’s also the question of Hall’s son being hired along with the son of communications director Linda Wharton-Boyd.
Cheh’s report found no evidence of legal violations but cites the hirings as a “major concern.” Both resigned within the past week. Said Cheh: “I’ll likely be quiet [on Hall’s future] for the moment.” She said she’s likely to call a hearing to find out who approved the salaries and hiring of family members.
“[Mayor Anthony] Williams and [Mayor Adrian] Fenty did stupid things, too,” former Williams communications director Tony Bullock told The Washington Examiner. “What Gray has to do, without throwing people under the bus, is come out and say if people did something they shouldn’t have done, then it will be their problem, not mine.”
