By Dorothy Rowley
WI Online Editor
Six months into his administration, City Council Chairman Kwame Brown is still defending his preference surrounding a city-issued vehicle.
During a recent radio interview, Brown responded to new allegations that he ditched a 2011 Chevy Tahoe he had been driving for about two months prior to his January swearing-in ceremony, for a fully loaded, black-on-black Lincoln Navigator – just like the one Mayor Vincent Gray has been assigned. But Brown maintains that he rejected the Tahoe because it bore Maryland tags.
"I refused to ride around in a car with Maryland tags on it," an exasperated Brown told the show host.
On the other hand, Brown – whose black-on-black Tahoe resembled the one Gray drove when he was Council chairman – said he never specifically requested a Navigator like the mayor’s.
"First of all I never asked for a Navigator comparable to the mayor's," Brown told the radio show host. "Let me be very, very clear what I asked for. I said I want a black-on-black SUV. And they said 'What do you mean black-on-black?' I said, ‘Look at the mayor’s car, it's black-on-black. Black interior, black exterior.’ That's the only thing I asked for."
The Washington City Paper reports that at least one newly-discovered e-mail from the Department of Public Works suggests otherwise.
However, "It’s an email basically saying that he said that he said that she said that I said something,"Brown was quoted as saying.
