One of the first moves by interim director Robert Hildum of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services apparently has been to promote a former Peaceoholics board member to one of the agency’s top positions.

Linda K. Harllee-Harper will serve as the new head of internment when David Muhammad leaves the agency at the end of the month, three sources with knowledge of the move said.

Harllee-Harper came under fire last year after the D.C. Council looked into the agency’s no-bid contracts with Peaceoholics because she served on the nonprofit group’s board and might have had a role in awarding those contracts. It turned out she resigned her board position in 2007 when she was hired by DYRS, and officials concluded there was no conflict.

As director of interment, Harllee-Harper will play a pivotal role in determining contracts for community-based organizations hired to rehabilitate juvenile criminals. One of those is Peaceoholics, which received $5.1 million from the city in 2009 to work with the city’s young criminals.

Muhammad, whom Harllee-Harper will replace, resigned last month after the Fenty administration fired the agency’s head, perhaps to take some political heat off a mayor who is running for re-election. Hildum, a former deputy attorney general, replaced the fired Marc Schindler at the request of Attorney General Peter Nickles.

Peaceoholics was started by Ron Moten,  who stepped down as its executive director earlier this year so he could, in part, hit the campaign trail for Fenty. He still sits on the Peaceoholics’ board of directors.