A bill requiring D.C. Council approval of all deputy mayor appointees is likely to set up the first battle between Mayor Vince Gray and the council members he once led as chairman. Councilmen Jim Graham and Marion Barry are co-sponsoring the emergency bill and plan to introduce it on Tuesday. It’s meant to immediately require Gray to submit for council confirmation his Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services B.B. Otero and his Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Paul Quander. The two positions aren’t required by District law and weren’t filled by Gray’s predecessor Mayor Adrian Fenty. They were created by Mayor Anthony Williams. Gray has asked the council to approve a total of about $1.5 million to fund the offices for both jobs.
When asked about the bill, Gray told The Washington Examiner: “We don’t need that.” He added, “We don’t have confirmation for the chief of staff. We don’t have it for the city administrator.”
That’s Gray’s first direct opposition to a council proposal and makes the expected Tuesday vote on the bill a test of the pull Gray still has with the 13-member body.
Gray is the first council chairman to be elected mayor. In the months following his win in the September Democratic primary, even those council members who were Fenty allies appeared to be falling in line behind the mayor-elect. Since taking office, though, Gray has become mired in scandal.
And, despite a unifying moment last week when Gray and six members of the council got themselves arrested in the name of D.C. rights, there have been signs that his ability to swing the council with him has begun to fade. Council Chairman Kwame Brown has said he won’t support Gray’s proposal to raise income taxes on the wealthy and Graham said at a recent council hearing he believes Gray fired Department of Employment Services Director Rochelle Webb because she was unlikely to get council approval.
Graham wouldn’t get into the political give-and-take of the deputy mayor confirmation bill he’s proposing with Barry.
“I don’t think anything untoward is going on,” Graham said. “We need to make it uniform that anyone who holds the position of deputy mayor should be subject to council confirmation.”
There are four deputy mayors in the Gray administration. Those for education and economic development are already legally required to get the council’s approval.
Barry said he was surprised Gray didn’t favor the bill.
“He campaigned on accountability and transparency,” Barry said. “What’s he object to?”
