D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s son, Carlos, a “team captain” on his 2010 mayoral campaign and a business development and marketing coordinator at the D.C. Housing Authority, is no longer moonlighting as a “brand specialist” for a New York firm that represents top-shelf liquor labels, D.C. officials said.
The younger Mr. Gray, an $88,565-a-year employee at the housing authority, where he has worked since 2007, had turned up on various social networking, marketing and partying websites posing with event hosts or local celebrities while employed by MKTG Inc., an integrated marketing communications agency with additional offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company markets several top labels, including Ciroc vodka, Don Julio tequila and Nuvo sparkling vodka liqueur.
Two days after a July 29 report by The Washington Times on Carlos Gray’s second job, he reportedly left the company. Housing authority spokeswoman Dena Michaelson said in an email last week that the younger Mr. Gray “is no longer working for MKTG because the marketing program ended nationally for all brand specialists” working for the firm. In an Aug. 10 response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the housing authority said Carlos Gray was employed by the firm “from November 2010 through July 2012.”
A MKTG representative would not confirm that the younger Mr. Gray has left the firm and asked for questions to be submitted in writing. The firm has yet to respond to an email from The Times.
According to Ms. Michaelson, every employee must complete a financial disclosure form when initially employed by the authority to disclose any conflict of interest, including outside work, and the employee must notify his or her supervisor if he or she engages in outside work.
“If it is determined that an employee’s outside work interferes with her/his performance or ability to meet the requirements of the position, the employee may be asked to terminate outside employment to remain employed” by the housing authority, she said in an email.
The D.C. Housing Authority rejected a FOIA request to make public Carlos Gray’s financial disclosure forms, citing privacy issues. But Ms. Michaelson said the younger Mr. Gray had “orally disclosed” his second job to his immediate supervisor and received approval. His supervisor also determined that his position with MKTG “posed no conflict of interest with his employment at DCHA,” she said.
Recently, The Washington Post connected the younger Mr. Gray with the latest allegations of wrongdoing against his father when it reported that the Gray campaign obtained a database of confidential voter information about public-housing residents from the housing authority and distributed the information to campaign “team captains.” Carlos Gray, reportedly identified as one of those “team captains,” denied knowing about the database, The Post reported.
In response to emails and messages left at his office by The Times, the younger Mr. Gray referred questions about his employment with MKTG to Ms. Michaelson.
The elder Mr. Gray’s office did not respond to questions about his son’s outside employment.
A friend of Carlos Gray, who declined to be identified by name, said he and others had spoken with the mayor’s son about the “public perception” of working for an agency that manages housing projects while also promoting alcoholic beverages and being photographed on his second job with Brazilian supermodels, NFL stars, celebrity rappers, disc jockeys and other partygoers.
“He’s a good kid, a young guy who just doesn’t always think about who his father is,” the friend said.
Note: A previous version of this story contained a typographical error on Mr. Gray’s salary. The mistake has been corrected.
• Jeffrey Anderson can be reached at jmanderson@washingtontimes.com.
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