Attorney General Quits; Clash With Fenty Aide Cited

Although Singer was not slated to present the city's defense of the handgun ban to the Supreme Court, her office had hired the special counsel who will and was helping to oversee the planning.

The tension between Singer and Fenty's office came to a head last week, according to government sources, after Singer issued a friend-of-the-court brief in an effort by several states to get the Environmental Protection Agency to limit aircraft emissions. When Singer's staff informed the mayor, Fenty's aides were angered that he had not been consulted and instructed Singer's staff to run decisions by him first, the sources said.

Mayoral aides said yesterday that the mayor believes the attorney general position is not fully independent because the District's top lawyer is a political appointee. In most states, the attorney general is elected.

John Payton, who previously served as the District's corporation counsel, the precursor to the attorney general position, said Singer was right to demand independence.

"There ought to be independence, because it changes what you get as the end result," said Payton, who is a friend of Singer's.

"Linda Singer's resignation comes as a complete surprise and does not bode well for the office," D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), head of the Committee on Public Safety, said in a statement. "The abrupt resignation creates renewed instability and concerns me greatly."

From the start, Singer and Nickles clashed. At times, Nickles was so active that some in the city's legal community wondered whether he was overstepping his statutory authority. For example, in two lawsuits concerning the public schools' failure to provide adequate programs for special education students, Nickles appeared in court numerous times as if he were the attorney general.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman, who presided over those hearings, asked Nickles in one status conference why he was doing all the talking when he wasn't recognized as a lawyer in the case. In subsequent hearings, Nickles attended but did not speak. Later, he formally registered as the lawyer in the case.