Both Sulaimon Brown and Cherita Whiting, who the Council spent serious time and effort subpoenaing to appear at a hearing on the hiring practices of the Gray administration, didn’t show up as expected at the Wilson Building today.
The show went on, of course. Committee Chair Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) kicked off the hearing with some real talk, noting that there were “false statements, misleading statements” and that the testimony of former interim Human Resources director Judy Banks, obtained during a previous hearing on the issue, “is shot through with perjury.” Then, former Gray campaign chair and confidant Lorraine Green had the stage in front of the committee to herself.
Over hours of dogged questioning from Cheh, David Catania (Ind.-At-Large) and others, Green — who, in her opening statement, said she would refuse to answer questions that she considered intrusive to her “private, personal friendships with others” — denied that she had promised a job to Brown in exchange for political favors during last fall’s mayoral campaign. Green testified that she did not supply any money to Brown or review his resume (or make any hiring decisions whatsoever, contradicting emails recently leaked to the press), but did admit that Gray promised Brown an interview for a job inside the administration if he won the election. Green also discussed the subject of several conversations she had with Brown during the campaign, which she claims were about Brown’s “second-tier” candidacy. She also said that she had given the Mayor notice regarding the hiring of her daughter to a six-figure position with the city’s public school system.
Green testified that she had “faith [that] the system” would have disqualified Brown from being employed by the administration.
As neither Brown nor Whiting appeared, and since Greene refused to answer questions regarding alleged bag man Howard Brooks due to an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office, Cheh recessed the hearing this afternoon with the intent of picking it back up when more information and witnesses were available. And so, the saga continues.
