The 'Dilatory Behavior' of Sulaimon Brown

Even if Council member Mary Cheh hasn’t gotten to the bottom of Mayor Gray’s , at least she’s working to expand our vocabulary, and providing us some insight into her frustrations as she wraps up her special investigation.

Yes, you read correctly. She’s planning to wrap up the investigation, one that has yet to find a shred of hard evidence of nepotism, excessive salaries and all the things that are so common in politics.

Cheh she plans to hold a meeting Aug. 24 to update the investigation into hiring practices at the mayor’s office, allegations of nepotism and that crazy , Adrian Fenty-bashing, whistle-blowing public-display-of-crying Sulaimon Brown. Recently, I had a chance to ask Cheh about her take on the scandal, and what she had to say was revealing.

Since March, Cheh and her special committee have interviewed 19 witnesses, held over 25 hours of hearings, reviewed over 20,000 pages of documents and combed over 12,000 emails, text messages and the like--all pertaining to the investigation. It hasn't gotten the special panel very far.

Frustrated with the lack of cooperation from Sulaimon Brown, , Howard Brooks and other players in the scandal, Cheh has moved on a number of subpoenas and court orders to make people start talking. It still hasn’t worked. 

Another date has been set for next month in DC Superior Court in which Sulaimon Brown has been requested to appear. Don’t be surprised if Sulaimon fails to show up for that, either.

Now that the hearings are over, there’s not much the special committee can do until it gets hard proof of financials and documents Sulaimon Brown claims proves he was paid off. 

“On some level, they were frustrating, because you wanted to get clear answers. But in the end, Sulaimon Brown is still being resistant with the documents. You had Judy Banks, Howard Brooks, and you had the mayor’s chief of staff all being resistant,” Cheh said of her frustrations with the hearings.

Even if she can’t prove anything at this point, the Ward 3 representative was blunt about what she feels may have happened during the Gray mayoral campaign. 

“There was negligence, maybe even arrogance,” said Cheh. “It was kind of almost like the wild west. We’ll just do what we want, almost like a party,” she said, when asked about the vetting process at Gray’s office. 

“Someone offered him a job. It appears to me that he (Brown) was under the impression that he was being offered a job,” she told me. 

The missing link remains the financial documents, and Cheh went on to reveal even more. “I have a sense that Howard Brooks, that they may have paid him (Brown) improperly, evading election law requirements,” she said. “The only proof that I have are these three money orders.  The only thing to tie the mayor to that is Brown’s claims.”

With so little gained in the investigation, what’s a special committee to do? “Due to Mr. Brown’s dilatory behavior, it is unlikely that we will receive copies of his records until the Fall,” Cheh told her fellow Council members in a letter. She went on to recommend the panel issue a report on what it knows to this point. 

That’s right. Six months after the committee began its investigation, and the residents of the District of Columbia can eagerly expect a report that will reveal very little, essentially.

“I believe 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,” Cheh wrote.

It’s gotten to the point where we’re simply hoping Sulaimon Brown’s dilatoriness will end. Don’t hold your breath. That’s like expecting a political system without bribery, nepotism or excessive salaries.