'If they don't choose to confirm Black women which seems to be a trend' | DC Mayor defends rehiring former embattled agency director

WASHINGTON — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is defending her decision to re-hire an agency director who is accused of retaliating against employees and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

In 2018, Melinda Bolling was the head of the former Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA).

Bolling left the agency after our yearslong investigation. The D.C. Council said DCRA was run poorly and was so dysfunctional, it was putting residents at risk. The Council voted to dismantle the agency now split into two: DOB and DLCP.

WUSA9 obtained recently unsealed court records that detail a culture of retaliation and blatant violation of D.C. law. We poured through the 647-page document that includes an investigation into the former Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs and its then-Director Melinda Bolling.

“I think Melinda is great she’s a great public executive,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser.

WUSA9 caught up with Bowser at the D.C. Convention Center Thursday. The mayor recently rehired Bolling to lead the Department of For-Hire Vehicles.

But back in 2018, Bolling left D.C. under a cloud of controversy. Her leadership of then-DCRA was under scrutiny and the D.C. Council called the agency dysfunctional and a danger to residents. Now the unsealed court documents found Bolling violated the D.C. Whistleblower Act by firing the agency’s FOIA officer. That officer oversaw the release of documents to reporters through the Freedom of Information Act. 

The employee lost her job just as WUSA9 had received internal documents for our investigations. She sued the city to get her job back and taxpayers shelled out $200,000 in the civil settlement. According to the court records, when the FOIA officer’s boss tried to defend her, he was fired too. His wrongful termination suit is still pending.

“The District is sued a lot unfortunately and there are settlements done a lot,” the mayor said, “and I don’t agree with all of them, and I wouldn’t have agreed with that one.”

WUSA9 tried to contact Bolling but could not reach her. Bolling must be confirmed by the D.C. Council.

“If they don’t choose to confirm Black women which seems to be a trend lately and not even give them a hearing, I think there are lot of questions about the process,” said Bowser.

In a bold accusation, the mayor alludes to the former Acting Director of the Office of Unified Communications Karima Holmes. The mayor also rehired Holmes after she left D.C.’s 911 center amid a series of mistakes leading to late ambulances and the deaths of some residents.