The D.C. Council has demanded that Mayor Vincent Gray justify the higher-than-legal salaries he’s asked the council to approve for top administration members including the police and fire chiefs. Former Mayor Adrian Fenty had to make the same request when he raised Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s salary above the limit and when he hired Michelle Rhee as the city’s first schools chancellor with a salary of $275,000. This time around, though, Gray is embroiled in a scandal over salary and hiring decisions made in the early days of his administration. While the council is likely to back Gray’s request, members have also demanded human resources director Shawn Stokes dig deeper for justification for the salaries that in some cases are the highest in the region.
“This is absolutely inadequate,” at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson told Stokes at a recent council hearing after Stokes presented her case for the council to approve the higher-than-legal salaries. “We look to your agency for guidance on what ought to be the salary. The salary of an agency director is important because of the symbolism of what we’re paying them.”
Stokes took over the job in April after Gray’s interim human resources director ended her three-month stint in the Gray administration and returned to her job with the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
“The salaries were set prior to my arrival … I do think they’re fair,” Stokes told the council.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said there appeared to be little thought given to the salaries.
“The salaries are the same as those from the past,” Cheh said. “It appears to be automatic.”
After the hearing, Stokes promised Mendelson and Cheh that she would return to them with more details to justify the salaries Gray has requested.
“We have to act on [the request] in some form,” Cheh said.
