D.C.’s top ethics official said she will release her findings on former City Administrator Rashad Young’s conduct ahead of a crucial vote on the Howard University hospital deal he helped broker.
Mayor Muriel Bowser requested the ethics review earlier this month shortly after she announced that Young would leave city government after more than five years to pursue a job at Howard. That move raised some eyebrows around the city, given that Young helped negotiate a deal to send the university a $275 million package of tax abatements and other public financing for a new hospital to replace the current Howard University Hospital on its campus.
Young has not responded to messages seeking comment on the matter, and a Howard spokesperson declined to comment.
D.C. Councilwoman Elissa Silverman, I-At large, has begun calling for the delay for the deal’s second and final vote until the ethics review wraps up. But Rochelle Ford, the acting director of the city’s Office of Government Ethics, said Friday there will be no need for any such delay, adding her staff has plenty of time to conclude their work before a planned vote sometime in the fall.
