This story will be updated.

Melinda Bolling, the director of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, is leaving her post, sources tell WAMU.

Bolling will be replaced on an interim basis by Ernest Chrappah, who currently heads the Department of For-Hire Vehicles, which regulates taxicabs and ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. The change of leadership at the $60 million, 437-person agency is being announced by Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner at an all-staff meeting at DCRA on Monday morning.

“Mr. Chrappah brings to this role his years of experience as a government executive as well as a successful entrepreneur with a reputation for finding innovative solutions to complex challenges,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration in a statement.

Bolling’s departure from a position she held since July 2015 marks one of the more significant changes in Bowser’s administration as the mayor prepares to enter her second term. DCRA’s broad mandate touches on everything from business licensing to building permitting and enforcement; it regulates trades running from barbers to electricians, and in 2017, issued more than 63,000 building permits and conducted more than 15,000 inspections of construction sites.

But, given its expansive portfolio, DCRA has also long been a source of frustration for many residents and business owners. Residents say it has been too slow to respond to complaints of illegal construction and vacant properties, and builders say the agency can be cumbersome and costly to deal with when it comes to get building permits approved.

Housing advocates also say DCRA has failed to police housing code violations, leaving low-income residents to live in perilous conditions. In September, the D.C. Auditor issued a report outlining shortcomings in how DCRA inspects properties for housing code violations, and how it sanctions owners to ensure compliance. The agency also still struggles with instances of corruption—in 2016, a DCRA staffer pleaded guilty to taking bribes to facilitate permits and licenses.

Those continuing challenges made DCRA a point of intense focus for Bowser, who in mid-2016 spent an entire week at the agency trying to find ways to best improve it. D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine has also gotten involved, beefing up his office’s consumer protection work. DCRA also became a target for members of the D.C. Council, who have introduced bills that would do everything from strengthen illegal-construction enforcement to splitting the agency in two.

Critics of the agency say that Bolling did make progress in reforming parts of DCRA, but broader problems still remain.

“The grade I would give her would be a C-minus,” said Mark Eckenweiler, an ANC commissioner in Ward 6 who regularly testified to the Council on issues relating to DCRA. “Overall, there’s still enormous problems with the agency—its lack of professionalism, its lack of responsiveness. That said, it’s less atrocious today than it was three years ago. They have managed to crawl a little ways up the hill.”

“It’s a little bit of lipstick on the pig,” he added, commenting on the reforms undertaken by Bowser and Bolling. “The long-term structural problems within the agency have not been resolved. This is tinkering at the edges.”

For At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, a central priority for the new director will be making DCRA more responsive and transparent.

“In terms of transparency of operations, I’d like to see an effort there. To use technology to make systems work better, looking at perhaps having an ombudsman who can help residents who have questions about construction or businesses that are unsure what is happening with their permit and feel that [DCRA is] a black hole,” she said.

As for possibly moving forward on the bill to split up DCRA into two agencies—one focused on consumer protection and permitting, the other on business regulations and licensing—Silverman said she would wait, but not fully abandon the idea.

“We want to work with the new director. We should give a chance to see what direction the agency is going to move in. I think there’s still interest in dividing the agency so that it has clear responsibilities and mission in building code oversight and in permitting,” she said.

Other recent changes in the leadership of key D.C. government have been announced since Election Day, including at the Department of General Services, which handles the city’s real estate portfolio and maintenance and construction of government buildings, and the Office of Planning, which handles issues related to development and zoning.

In other personnel changes announced on Monday, Bowser’s administration said Ahnna Smith, most recently the interim Deputy Mayor for Education, will take over the Workforce Investment Council, which advises the government on workforce development and job issues.

During a press conference after her re-election, Bowser said she was looking at every part of her administration to determine where things could be changed and where leadership changes might be needed.

“We are going into a fresh four years, and we regard that as an opportunity to do things better, do things faster, or to do things bigger,” she said. “We haven’t tried everything. We haven’t thought of everything. And we would be entirely arrogant if we had thought we had.”

This story was originally published on WAMU.