Council chairman Phil Mendelson said his proposal to remove Council member Vincent C. Gray from the health committee was prompted by concerns many on the council share about Gray's health after a stroke.
Despite his constraints, Gray has maintained that his doctor has cleared him to work and that “my only limitations are physical and they are temporary.” In his letter to his colleagues, he wrote that seniority “is traditionally taken into consideration when assigning committees” and that his years on the council qualify him over any of his colleagues to chair the Health Committee.
a Ward 5 Democrat who is returning in January as an at-large independent, Trayon White Sr. and Anita Bonds , did not respond to requests for comment. The council member whom Mendelson has assigned to chair the Health Committee, Christina Henderson , also did not respond to a message seeking comment, nor did council member Brooke Pinto .
Yet, it is an open question how much support Gray has in Ward 7 regarding his dispute with his colleagues. An online petition started in the ward on Dec. 22 and calling on Mendelson to “reappoint” Gray as Health Committee chair had attracted onlyAntawan Holmes, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 7 who has supported Gray in the past, said residents have not often seen the council member out and about in the past year. “We have questions about how he’s doing,” Holmes said.