D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray opposes legislation that would give the chairman of the D.C. Council the authority to name one member of the city’s new ethics board, a mayoral spokesman said Monday.
With Gray more than seven weeks late on a legal deadline to name his picks for the three-member board, which will craft ethics guidelines for city workers and investigate allegations of misconduct, Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser is set to introduce legislation to strip the mayor of one of his appointments.
Under her proposal, Council Chairman Kwame Brown would make one of the nominations.
“We’re really looking to get this board up and running,” she said. “The mayor will still have the majority of appointments.”
Still, that’s not sitting well with the executive branch.
“We don’t support it,” said Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro. “This is not about speed. It’s about quality. It’s not about appointing people as fast as you can. It’s about appointing the best people possible.”
Ribeiro declined to say if Gray would veto the legislation if the council approves it, but he said he expects Gray to announce appointees “very soon.”
