Mayor Adrian Fenty’s pick for the District of Columbia’s top lawyer faced little opposition during a hearing over her nomination before the council Thursday, instead receiving high marks for her first two and a half months on the job.
Topping the list of achievements, Acting Attorney General Linda Singer earned praise from Council Members Phil Mendelson, D-at large, and Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, for her sensitive brokering of a settlement last week between the family of murdered New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum and the city. The family agreed not to press forward with a $20 million lawsuit in exchange for the city’s assurance it would correct the culture within District agencies that led to his death.
Singer said the settlement will “likely produce positive changes in the District’s provision of emergency medical services.”
Singer, who led the nonprofit Appleseed until she left for the attorney general’s job, had endured criticism from some who questioned why she had not been a member of the D.C. Bar before her nomination. She also made a number of high-level staff changes that Mendelson, who chairs the Public Safety and Judiciary committees, said last month he feared would create tension within the agency.
Laura Hankins, a resident who testified on Singer’s behalf, described the D.C. Bar issue as a “red herring for people who don’t have any other critical things to say about Linda.”
The council expects to confirm Singer in coming months. She will lead an agency with 660 employees and an $87 million budget.
Singer said she wants to transform the agency into a “destination for great lawyers who want to make a difference.”
Singer also said she would be committed to domestic violence and environmental issues, adding that she would make cleaning the Anacostia River, which she called a “scar” on the District, a focus of her office. She said she met with Environmental Protection Agency officials about the river and plans to partner with other grassroots groups.
The Anacostia “reinforces notions of who matters [in the District] and who doesn’t,” Singer said.
