Singer Discusses Concerns Over Firings and Demotions

Acting D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer said she was not misleading. (Gerald Martineau - The Washington Post)

Last month, Acting D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer said in an interview that she was "aware of" but did not direct a flurry of high-level staffing changes made in the weeks before she took office.

This week, she gave another answer to the chairman of the D.C. Council's Judiciary Committee, which is to hold an oversight hearing today on the performance of the attorney general's office.

In written responses to questions from council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Singer said she was behind the firings and demotions that were carried out after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) named her to be the city's top lawyer. The changes created anxiety and strife at the city's law office.

The chief administrative officer and one deputy attorney general were let go. Demoted were two deputy attorney generals and the city's chief ethics counselor, Polly Rich, who was replaced by Thorn Pozen, formerly Fenty's chief of staff on the D.C. Council.

In an interview last month with The Washington Post, Singer seemed to distance herself from the moves. "I was aware of them," she said, "but beyond that I really don't want to talk about personnel decisions. They certainly weren't mine to make."

Singer told The Post in the interview that she was consulted by interim attorney general Eugene A. Adams but that he made the decisions.

In her statement to Mendelson, Singer shed more light on the process. She said it was her decision to have Adams fire or demote several top officials before she started work in January.

"I was convinced that I wanted to go in another direction," Singer wrote of the decision to fire Michael Hailey, the chief administrative officer.

Deputy Attorney General Darryl Gorman was dismissed, Singer wrote, because "there were no readily apparent positions for him to fill in the agency . . . given the changes I anticipated making in the office." Gorman had overseen rulemaking and legislative affairs.

Singer said yesterday that she was not misleading in her earlier characterization of her role.

"What I was saying . . . was I wasn't in office. I couldn't execute any changes in personnel. But I certainly acknowledged I was involved," she said. Singer acted because she wanted to hit the ground running, she said.

Although turnover was expected with a new administration, many inside and outside the office were surprised that Singer acted before she began work and saw its operations firsthand. She is awaiting D.C. Council confirmation.