On some days, for hours at a time, employees at the D.C. Public Library could not seem to reach their director of human resources — and in one instance she went fully AWOL.
The investigation, the outcome of which was released Thursday, found that Graves was not only performing side work as a doula but also working a totally separate full-time remote human resources job for another company on city time for years — ethics violations that resulted in a $17,500 fine and Graves’s resignation this week.
“None of the above referenced conduct was authorized by the District of Columbia and [Graves’s] conduct offends the very fabric of the government’s integrity and accountability,” BEGA officials wrote in the disposition.
Graves submitted her resignation Sunday night, and it was effective Monday, said George Williams, a spokesman for the library system.
Graves did not immediately respond to a phone call and a text message seeking comment. As part of a negotiated settlement with BEGA’s Office of Government Ethics, Graves acknowledged that her actions amounted to an “egregious violation” of D.C.'s code of conduct.
According to BEGA, Graves began working for the D.C. Public Library in November 2021, a 9-to-5 job in which she was responsible for recruiting, managing payroll and other employee relations. But at that time, Graves already had two other jobs: working full-time as a senior HR manager for Blackstone Consulting, a job she held since 2020, plus a contract job working as a doula at Doulas of Capitol Hill.
She didn’t disclose any of those jobs to her supervisors, according to BEGA. As of Monday, her LinkedIn page describes the multiple jobs.
Blackstone and Doulas of Capitol Hill didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about Graves’s employment status.
Initially, Graves told officials with the Office of Government Ethics that she worked the additional jobs outside of D.C. government hours, but investigators soon found that was false. For example, through Doulas of Capitol Hill, she offered consultations during D.C. government work hours, and as investigators began hearing that she was frequently difficult to reach during work hours, they took a closer look at the day she was reported “missing from the office.”
They found an $800 contract showing she was scheduled to assist in a birthing delivery “and confirmed that [Graves] was delivering a baby on that day.”
According to BEGA, she earned $7,200 to $12,000 per year working as a doula and aided in three to five births per year. In 2021 and 2022, she made about $98,000 and $144,000 at Blackstone, a Los Angeles-based contractor providing such services as security and food service. She was salaried at $148,000 in her D.C. government job, records show.
In other instances, Graves sent Blackstone emails or met with Blackstone employees during D.C. government work time, or used her government email to communicate with Blackstone employees, BEGA reported. She also submitted a claim for 2½ days of telework compensation to DCPL while she was attending a Blackstone leadership symposium for five days in the summer.
The conduct amounted to four violations: using government time or resources for nonofficial business for consulting and doula work, using government property for those purposes, and receiving compensation for outside activities during working hours without using allotted time-off or leave, according to the disposition.
Graves agreed to pay the $17,500 fine by May 2025, with the bulk of it owed starting next month.
