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Nepotism. Cronyism. Excessive salaries and bonuses. Perjury.

These are all acts that a D.C. Council committee has found were committed by the Gray administration earlier this year, which are outlined in a 47-page report (with hundreds of pages of accompanying documentation) detailing how former failed mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown got himself a $110,000-a-year government job despite scant qualifications for it. The report, which will be officially released and voted on tomorrow, also investigates how the children of senior Gray aides landed plum city jobs and criticizes the standing practice of paying certain senior officials excessive salaries.

“Based on its review, the Committee has concluded that there is clear evidence that children of senior officials were illegally hired, that the Gray administration engaged in cronyism, that senior officials in the Gray administration received salaries that exceeded the legal salary cap, and that standard personnel practices were not followed. There is also strong evidence that Howard Brooks, a senior member of the Gray campaign, provided funds to Mr. Brown during the Mayoral campaign and that senior officials in the Gray campaign promised Mr. Brown a job in the Gray administration,” reads the meat of the report’s executive summary, which was authored by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3). For the sake of ease, let’s bullet-point the report’s main findings:

• Of the five adult children of senior officials that got D.C. jobs under Gray, two — the sons of former Chief of Staff Gerri Mason Hall and former director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services Rochelle Webb — were likely brought on in a way that was “improper and likely illegal.”
• Fourteen mayoral appointees received salaries that exceeded standing salary caps, though only by a few thousand dollars at a time. The most egregious examples were officials whose salaries had been set by Mayor Adrian Fenty — D.C. Medical Examiner Marie Pierre-Louis, D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson and D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier — the latter two of which made between $50,000 and $95,000 above their respective salary caps. Banks also got herself a raise during her interim appointment, taking in $17,000 more than her predecessor and 42 percent more than her normal job as the personnel director for the Washington Convention and Sports Authority.
• City Administrator Allen Lew was improperly given a $65,750 bonus by the Fenty administration (he served as schools modernization czar under Fenty) that was paid by the Gray administration in February 2011.
• A criminal background check was never completed for Cherita Whiting, who took a job at the D.C. Department of Parks and Rec, despite the fact that she had been convicted for a felony.
• Sulaimon Brown did receive $1,160 in payments from Howard Brooks during the 2010 mayoral campaign, though the committee finds Brown’s allegations that Gray knew of the payments “not credible.” The report says that Brown’s “tendency to exaggerate, seek the limelight, and embellish his story for dramatic effect” made it impossible to verify claims of other payments or a direct involvement by Gray.
• Payments or not, Hall and Green clearly made an effort to get Brown a job in the government — one which he was ultimately unqualified for.

But despite the report’s damning findings after months of hearings and heated controversy, Mayor Gray seems to come off as either well-insulated from the questionable and sometimes illegal acts of his closest aides or completely oblivious that any of the acts were actually taking place.

“Although Mayor Gray was aware that salaries that exceeded the statutory salary cap were being paid, there is little evidence in the record to suggest that he was aware of nepotism and cronyism, or that standard personnel practices were being violated. There is also scant evidence, other than Mr. Brown’s own uncorroborated testimony, to suggest that Mayor Gray knew that senior members of his campaign gave money to Mr. Brown. Mayor Gray acknowledged that during the campaign he made a promise of an interview for a position in his administration to Mr. Brown, but there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Mayor Gray actually promised Mr. Brown a job,” the report concludes.

The majority of the blame is put on three Gray confidantes — former Chief of Staff Gerri Mason Hall, former Interim Director of the D.C. Department of Human Resources Judy Banks and Gray campaign and transition chairwoman Lorraine Green. And though Hall and Green come off badly, only Banks may well face criminal charges — the report accuses her of a “very clear material instance of outright perjury” during the hearings. Brown is also singled out for violating the District’s false statements statute.

Whether or not Gray is directly to blame for the Brown scandal or not, the report’s conclusions still weigh on the Mayor’s administration and his judgment. Moreover, as the report notes in its conclusions, the entire investigation was largely a distraction from more important issues and sapped what goodwill may have existed towards the new mayor, especially after a divisive election. And despite the seeming finality of the report, the entire ordeal isn’t yet over — the U.S. Attorney’s Office is still investigating and can still prosecute any violations of the law.

“The damage created by these errors is not irreparable, but it will take time for the District to heal from them,” ends the report.

Indeed.

Final Draft Report