Newly elected D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has called on the city’s top law enforcement officer to investigate allegations by former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown that Gray gave him a high-paying job in exchange for Brown’s support during the election. Gray vehemently denied the charges, but did concede he has made some big mistakes early in his tenure.
“We have made missteps,” Gray said. “We have taken steps to address those missteps.”
The step taken Sunday was to ask D.C. Attorney General Irv Nathan to get to the bottom of the charges so, Gray said, he can get on with the city’s business.
As for Brown’s charges, the mayor said he only promised Brown an interview for a job, something that was promised to hundreds of people seeking employment.
“I am not in the business of giving out jobs,” Gray said. “I can’t even imagine engaging in such reprehensible behavior. … There was no quid pro quo.”
Brown said Gray promised him a job if he continued acting as a stalking horse to incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty. After Gray won the election, Brown was hired at a salary of $110,000 a year as a special assistant in the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance.
The allegations were first reported Sunday on the front page of the Washington Post. The newspaper also reported that Gray’s campaign gave Brown a series of cash payments to help finance Brown’s own mayoral campaign, but the Post acknowledged that it could not substantiate the allegations of cash payments.
Gray said Sunday that he also accepted the resignation of Talib Karim, a Gray supporter who got a $133,000 job as chief of staff for the Department of Health Care Finance and may have helped in the hiring of Brown.
Brown was fired last month and had to be removed from his office by city police after questions arose about his qualifications and about a restraining order against him.
The mayor said he met Brown during the election and that he believes Brown’s attacks on Fenty may have hurt his own campaign.
Brown used a line during the campaign — that Gray said he found offensive — in which Brown told citizens to “Vote for any color — Brown, Gray or Green — but do not vote for Fenty.”
Gray said he has also asked D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown to look into Sulaimon Brown’s allegations.
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, who appeared in a Fenty commercial last summer supporting the then-mayor’s re-election campaign, said the council should not get involved.
“The investigation should be done by the attorney general, the inspector general and, if need be, the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Evans said. “I do not see as an appropriate role the council conducting an investigation.”
