By Suzanne Herel

Critics of Exelon’s proposed acquisition of Pepco Holdings Inc. on Wednesday questioned the timing of a $25 million naming rights deal that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser finalized with Pepco days before dropping her opposition to the merger.

Pepco agreed in July to sell district property in the Buzzard Point area for the construction of a soccer stadium for D.C. United. On Sept. 18, Pepco signed a sponsorship deal in which it will pay the district $25 million for the right to rename a street near the stadium “Pepco Place.” The agreement also gave the company the option to install “Pepco Park” signs near a proposed practice facility for the NBA’s Washington Wizards in Southeast D.C.

On Oct. 6, Bowser announced that her administration had reached a settlement with Exelon and Pepco and would support the merger. She previously had praised the D.C. Public Service Commission’s unanimous rejection of the deal in August.

In a press conference at the site of the soccer stadium, representatives of Public Citizen and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network released a letter calling on the District Board of Ethics and Accountability to “evaluate these two high-stakes situations to ensure that there was no impropriety, collusion or unethical conduct of any kind.”

That office did not respond to a request for comment on how the appeal would be handled.

The groups also shared a Freedom of Information Act request they had submitted to the mayor’s office asking for all internal correspondence among the administration, Exelon and Pepco.

“D.C. residents deserve to know if pay-to-play politics or quid pro quos played any role in advancing this massive corporate merger,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with Public Citizen.

Bowser was on a trade mission in China. In response to the allegations, her communications director, Michael Czin, said, “Pepco, as a majority land owner at Buzzard Point, has been in contact with the district government regarding a soccer stadium for years. The sponsorship agreement stemmed from that negotiation, which was unrelated to the merger.”

Pepco has said discussions involving the naming rights began in 2013.

“It’s clear the small vocal minority who continue to oppose the merger are becoming increasingly desperate in their last-ditch attempts to disrupt it,” Pepco spokeswoman Myra Oppel said. “They are deliberately ignoring the facts and will say just about anything to distract from the substance of the merger and to serve their special interests.”

The PSC is reconsidering the merger under the agreement brokered by Bowser’s office. (See DC PSC Rulings Give Exelon-PHI Merger a Shot in the Arm.)

Members of the public who aren’t a party to the case will have a chance to speak at hearings before the PSC Nov. 17-18.

At the press conference, the groups also pointed to the pro-Bowser “FreshPAC” as evidence of “pay-to-play” politics. Officials with the independent political action committee told The Washington Post last week that the group, while legal, had become a “distraction” and would be disbanded.

The Post reported that Pepco has declined to say if the company had been asked to contribute to the PAC.