The Council Committee on Government Operations and the Environment can’t find Sulaimon Brown.

Chairwoman Mary Cheh sends word to her colleagues that Brown won’t be at Friday’s hearing on the hiring practices of the Gray administration because the company hired to serve him a subpoena can’t find him. Also missing in action: former Gray political hire Cherita Whiting who recently resigned after questions surfaced about her past criminal record.

The process server says Brown and Whiting “appear to be intentionally avoiding service” of their subpoenas.

Cheh’s scheduled another hearing for May 13 (also on a Friday, where news goes to die) and has instructed the process server to keep trying.

Meanwhile, mystery man Howard Brooks, who Brown said was gave him cash money in exchange for saying nasty things about former Mayor Adrian Fenty on the campaign trail, has told Cheh that he’ll be exercising his fifth amendment rights to keep his mouth shut at any hearings. His son Peyton Brooks, who landed a city job with the Gray administration, plans to exercise that same right.

Cheh says the committee ought to consider whether to challenge the Brooks’ “privilege claims” in Superior Court, but in the meantime it would be “unethical” to have them go through the charade of sitting before the committee not saying anything while the TV cameras are rolling.