By Ray Rivera
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Frustrated by the Ehrlich administration's refusal to turn over key personnel information, a legislative committee investigating the governor's hiring and firing practices authorized its special counsel yesterday to subpoena documents and to take the administration to court if it refuses to give them up.
The administration has handed over thousands of pages of documents, but missing are e-mails and other papers that might show the extent to which Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. considered politics in his personnel decisions, said House Speaker Pro Tem Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), the special committee's co-chairman.
"We would be finished with this if they would give us the documents," Jones said yesterday after a four-hour hearing.
Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said the administration has been highly cooperative in turning over documents, except those protected by "executive privilege." He would not say what documents those include.
"The administration has stated for 11 straight months its willingness to work together with the committee in a fair and nonpolitical way," Fawell said.
The documents sought include lists of state employees and show their political affiliations, including whether they supported Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Democrat whom Ehrlich defeated in the 2002 governor's race.
According to a source familiar with the subpoenas, the requests include 90 e-mails written by former Ehrlich aide Joseph Steffen. The administration also withheld those e-mails from public information requests by the media.
Steffen, who was fired last year for spreading rumors about one of Ehrlich's political rivals, has said he was dispatched to several agencies to identify employees who could be replaced by Ehrlich appointees. The 12-member legislative panel was formed in June to review whether these dismissals of at-will employees, who serve at the pleasure of the governor, were handled properly.
Republicans characterize the investigation as a partisan witch hunt by the Democrat-controlled legislature that will find nothing more than the usual turnover that takes place with a new administration.
The committee gave special counsel Ward B. Coe III authority to issue the subpoenas and authorized the state attorney general's office to enforce Coe's subpoenas with court action, if necessary. That would allow a judge to decide whether the administration has legal grounds to withhold the documents, Coe said.
"Hopefully, it won't come to that. Hopefully, they'll just give us the documents," he added.
Coe was also given authority to subpoena six more witnesses for a hearing set for Jan. 30.
During testimony yesterday, the committee heard from four former employees of the Department of Natural Resources who said that, after Ehrlich took office, they were let go without being given a reason. Three said they had been active in Democratic politics.
One of the witnesses, Bruce A. Gilmore, said his boss told him in March 2003 that his job as director of licensing and registration services was included on a list of positions sought by people active in Republican politics. One month later, he said, he was given the choice of resigning or being fired.
Another witness, Diane R. Evans, said she was also let go in the spring of 2003. She said her bosses assured her that performance had nothing to do with the decision, but when she asked if politics was involved, there was no answer.
Evans had been a Republican before switching parties in an unsuccessful bid for Anne Arundel County executive in 1998. She joined the state agency the following year.
Asked by the panel if she was given a job as a political favor from then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening, she said, "It's a safe bet."
The panel also heard testimony from an employee ousted during the Glendening administration. Former wildlife director Mike Slattery said he believes he was fired because of philosophical differences over hunting and trapping. As an at-will employee, he said, he believes that was the administration's prerogative.
"I believe what they were doing was what they believed was in their best interest," said Slattery, who was rehired by the Ehrlich administration and is an assistant secretary.
Republicans pointed to Slattery's and Evans's testimony to suggest that such hirings and firings happen in every change of administration.
"Just so everyone knows, this administration hires Democrats, and some of the people we've had in here [who have been fired] have been Republicans," said Del. George C. Edwards (Garrett).
Staff writer Matthew Mosk contributed to this report.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.