Brazil Used D.C. Staff For Private Law Work

D.C. Council member Harold Brazil has used members of his city staff to do work for his private law practice, requesting them to appear on his behalf at scheduling hearings and a lawsuit mediation, according to interviews, court documents and District records.

Brazil (D-At Large), who runs his own personal-injury law firm, has used two lawyers on his council staff three times in the last several years to fill in for him in court and prepare documents for his cases.

The two council lawyers, James Abely and Aimee Occhetti, said in interviews that they used leave or vacation time whenever they did outside legal work for Brazil. Abely said he was not paid for the outside work, and Occhetti said she might have been compensated but was not certain.

Dora Rodrigues, a paid intern who worked in Brazil's council office for seven weeks in the summer of 1999, also spent part of that time working at the council member's former law firm.

The D.C. Code states that no public official shall use his or her official position or office "to obtain financial gain." The District's personnel manual also prohibits managers from "ordering, directing or requesting subordinate officers or employees to perform during regular working hours any personal services not related to official D.C. government functions and activities."

Brazil, who has served on the council since 1991, is seeking reelection this year as an at-large representative. He is chairman of the council's Committee on Economic Development. Council members, with the exception of Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), work part time and are paid $92,520.

Brazil declined several requests for an interview. In a three-sentence statement read by Shana Heilbron, spokeswoman for his council office, Brazil said: "Members of the council staff have always used public time for matters relating to the city council and the public good. Like many jobs, council staff earn vacation and leave time. Staff members use their vacation days as anyone else would."

Cropp said in an interview that any arrangement in which Brazil might have benefited from the work of council staffers would be "very disturbing."

"If that is what is happening, it is my opinion that it is an inappropriate use of government staff," Cropp said.

Cropp said she planned to look into the matter and "make sure that people here are aware of and comply with the rules and laws of the District of Columbia."

Neither Heilbron nor Brazil's campaign manager, Darden Copeland, would describe the extent to which Brazil asked members of his government staff to help him in his private business or why he needed city employees to assist him with his outside work.

Unlike protected civil servants in the District government, individuals who work for any of the 13 D.C. Council members serve at the pleasure of those officials, meaning they can be fired or lose their jobs should a member be defeated in an election or choose not to run for another term.

Abely, legislative counsel on the Economic Development Committee, said in a brief interview that Brazil has asked him four times to fill in for him in court. Abely said he did so twice, declining to explain why he did not on the two other occasions.

Abely's most recent appearance for Brazil was Nov. 19 in D.C. Superior Court, where he attended a mandatory mediation aimed at resolving a lawsuit without going to trial, according to interviews and court documents.