Details of Sulaimon Brown Scandal will be Released Aug. 24

Council members will soon know the initial details of the investigation into Gray administration hiring practices on Aug. 24, when the Special Committee on Investigation of Executive Personnel Practices will discuss the investigation and a draft report. The hiring and subsequent firing of Sulaimon Brown, a one-time mayoral candidate, sparked a series of queries into the hiring decisions of the new Gray administration.

During the mayoral campaign, Brown advocated for Gray nearly as often as he did for himself and frequently bashed the incumbent, Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Brown was removed from his $110,000 a year position in the Department of Health Care Finance after reporters questioned his qualifications and brought to light previous run-ins with law enforcement. Shortly thereafter, Brown began to speak out against Gray, saying he had been promised the job in exchange for his role on the campaign.

Lorraine Green, who served as the chair of Gray's campaign and transition, allegedly helped pay Sulaimon Brown to bash Fenty during the 2010 campaign. She later of her nomination as the chairperson of the Washington Convention Center and Sports Authority, in large part due to the scandal.

Gray has denied promising Brown a job or paying him during the campaign.

"My reputation, which I have built over the past 40 years, as you might imagine, is exceedingly important to me," Gray said to reporters during a press conference after Brown's testimony in June.

The special committee, chaired by Council member Mary Cheh, has examined 19 witnesses during more than 25 hours of public hearings and has reviewed some 20,000 pages of documents related to Gray administration personnel decisions, according to a letter from Cheh to her colleagues.

In the letter, Cheh wrote, "I believe that it is most appropriate for the Committee to issue a report on what is known now, with leave for the Committee to issue a supplemental report in the fall if new information becomes available."

The supplemental report would include any additional information obtained from Brown- information which he referenced during his June 6 testimony before the committee and was subsequently issued a subpoena for, but has yet to provide to the Council.

Brown has since failed to meet several deadlines and demands from increasingly higher authorities, most recently D.C. Superior Court, to produce documents, including copies of money orders. Cheh wrote that she has instructed the General Counsel and Brown to file pleadings, and there is a hearing scheduled on the matter for Sept. 15.