Sinclair Skinner was the driving force behind the failed donation of a firetruck and ambulance to the Dominican Republic, according to a D.C. Council investigation that shows the power Mayor Adrian Fenty’s fraternity brother wields within the administration.
But Skinner, a controversy magnet for the D.C. mayor, has struggled in his government-related endeavors. A taxpayer-funded fraternity party, parks and recreation contracting, and a failed D.C. Lottery bid — all connected to Skinner — have run into trouble.
“It’s one thing to be friendly, but it appears as though sometimes he actually makes decisions,” Ward 3 D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh said of Skinner’s role in policy. “When you get to that point, you certainly should worry, because he’s not accountable to anybody.”
The council’s judiciary and government operations committees found Skinner’s “level of decision making authority” in the firetruck and ambulance donation to be “disturbing.” The vehicles, shipped to Sosua in late March, were recalled by Attorney General Peter Nickles shortly after The Examiner reported on the deal.
“I don’t know if he has any influence on the executive,” Nickles said of Skinner. “He certainly has no influence on me.”
Fenty and Skinner are close friends, Howard University alumni and members of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Skinner was Fenty’s campaign field director in 2006, but controversy followed him throughout. A lower Georgia Avenue businessman, Skinner owed $17,000 to the city for lease payments and was linked to posters depicting Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham as “Gramzilla the Black Business Killa.”
Skinner did not join the administration, but his sway and connections there are undeniable. That said, when his role in virtually anything Fenty-related is publicly revealed, it often implodes.
“I expected [Skinner] would just get a government position,” said Taylor Chesnik, a longtime Georgia Avenue corridor resident who created dumpskinner.com during the 2006 campaign. “But he quit as soon as Fenty was elected … and ever since, he’s just been involved in one scandal after another.”
A. Scott Bolden, Skinner’s attorney, said his client merely supports the administration as a private individual.
“It is fundamentally an unfair assessment by anyone that when his name appears somehow there’s something inherently wrong with his involvement,” Bolden said.
— In the case of the Sosua donation, e-mails show Skinner ruled out publicity and chose the Peaceoholics as the pass-through nonprofit. Bolden said Skinner was a private citizen who “played a supporting role to help a poor city.”
— Skinner was directly involved in the $100 million parks and recreation contracting scandal now under council investigation. The administration funneled the deals through the D.C. Housing Authority, evading council review. Skinner’s firm was a Banneker Ventures subcontractor. The deal was killed in December.
— Skinner is believed to have organized a party last August for Kappa Alpha Psi members, a gala funded with a $37,000 city grant. Nickles ordered the money reimbursed.
