D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s former chief of staff played a direct role in placing former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown in an administration job paying a $110,000 annual salary, according to testimony during a D.C. Council hearing. Gerri Mason Hall, whom Gray fired earlier this month, continued to be cast as the “fall guy” Monday for early mistakes made by the Gray administration. Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh held the first of two hearings meant to get answers on how the administration became home to the children and political allies of those close to Gray.
Brown’s hiring took center stage during Monday’s hearing and likely will do so again when the council picks up with the questions on April 7, when Hall will get her first chance to testify. Brown’s accusations that Gray and members of his campaign offered Brown a job so he would stay on the campaign trail and attack then-Mayor Adrian Fenty are also the subject of investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s office and the House of Representatives.
D.C. Inspector General Charles Willoughby testified that his agency was the first stop for Brown on his way to the $110,000-a-year job at the Department of Health Care Finance.
Willoughby said he got a phone call from Hall on Jan. 1, when she asked him about an auditing position Brown wanted in the inspector general’s office. Willoughby told Hall there was no such job available. Hall, however, asked Willoughby that he meet with Brown anyway as a “courtesy” to her. She then personally scheduled a meeting with Willoughby on Brown’s behalf for the next business day, Jan. 18.
Talib Karim, a political ally of Gray who was appointed to the Department of Health Care Finance, testified that Hall then sent Brown to his department.
“I was notified by [Hall] that Sulaimon Brown was being appointed to work in our agency as an auditor and I was asked to identify an exact post for Mr. Brown, and assist with processing his hiring paperwork,” Karim testified.
Brown got the job, only to be fired a month later after Karim said female employees complained Brown harassed them and offered a “romantic” gift to an agency intern. Brown has said he was fired because at-large Councilman David Catania pressured the agency’s director, an accusation Catania denies.
