D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday stridently defended her nominee to head D.C.’s troubled 911 agency, Karima Holmes.

Holmes is facing an uncertain confirmation vote in the D.C. Council on Tuesday, where a key lawmaker says he plans to vote against the mayor’s nominee over longstanding concerns with how the D.C. Office of Communications handles 911 calls.

Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the council’s judiciary committee, said this week that he will Karima Holmes’s nomination to a full vote next week, and that he will vote against her and encourage his colleagues to do the same. That could set up a rare instance of the council rejecting one of Bowser’s cabinet-level nominees.

Allen’s announcement follows weeks of questions regarding Holmes, who headed OUC from 2015 to 2021 and returned as acting director earlier this year. During her two stints, OUC has been criticized for how it pinpoints and dispatches firefighters, ambulances, and police to emergency calls, and in September the D.C. Auditor said Holmes had made “minimal progress” in addressing those shortcomings.

Much of the drumbeat of criticism against Holmes has come from Dave Statter, a former journalist who uses his Twitter account to meticulously catalogue OUC’s responses to 911 calls and raise concerns around what he says are errors that have resulted in people dying. Some of those examples were on display during a September council hearing on OUC’s performance, where family members said mistakes by dispatchers had led to their loved ones dying.

On Friday Bowser aggressively defended Holmes and pushed back against Allen, saying that she was troubled that her nominee had not received a formal confirmation hearing in the judiciary committee before going to a full council vote. “This process isn’t right. The treatment of Karima Holmes isn’t right,” she said. “I nominated Karima in the spring. What’s wrong with giving her a hearing? She’s a nationally recognized expert.” (Bowser formally nominated Holmes in September, not in the spring.)

Holmes also spoke in her own defense, saying that OUC handles 3.5 million calls a year, a majority of which are dispatched properly. She also said the criticism she has received is “unbelievable.”

“I have answered every question, I have investigated every call. We are very transparent. And I have the backing of the industry, I have the backing of our public safety partners. I’m here to help. I know what I’m doing. I have the credentials. It’s embarrassing in my hometown that is not seen correctly because of external forces,” she said, obliquely referring to Statter. “There are mistakes. There were mistakes before I got there. I do think the criticism is unfair. It’s taken from one person or one group, and I have information from our system A to Z, but it is drowned out by lies and information in social media.”

D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III similarly defended Holmes, saying that she had not gotten a full confirmation hearing. “I know we’re a political city, but I’m not a political chief. Anytime we’re starting a conversation with not giving a mayoral nominee a fair shot to defend accusations that have been  made, I don’t think that’s fair or transparent,” he said.

Allen tells DCist/WAMU that he does not know how the vote on Holmes’ nomination will pan out, but Council Chairman Phil Mendelson also said Friday that he’d be voting against her. “The mayor has known for months there was significant opposition in the council,” he said on “The Politics Hour” on WAMU. “I think the mayor should… work with councilmembers to find another director.”

In his own statement on Friday afternoon, Allen reiterated his opposition to Holmes’ nomination.

“The public and many members of the council have had concerns about the leadership and operations of the Office of Unified Communications for some time, most recently stemming from multiple incidents where errors led to delays in emergency services arriving on scene and, tragically, loss of life. There is no requirement that the council hold a public hearing on a nomination, and the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety recently held an oversight roundtable with Acting Director Holmes to examine these incidents, and OUC’s performance, generally,” he said. “This is also Acting Director Holmes’ second stint with OUC, and Councilmembers and the public are familiar with her leadership. It is clear the Council is focused on agency operations improving and supports a different direction for OUC’s leadership.”

This post was updated with a statement from Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6).