Md. Official Offends With Comments on Female Aide

"My heart goes out to that young woman, who I'm sure felt humiliated by the obviously sexist request and behavior on his part," Grosfeld said. "Even men from the comptroller's generation understand and appreciate the inappropriateness of the behavior and humiliation the young woman would feel."

Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, said her reaction to Schaefer's behavior was "pretty simple."

"I would consider this grossly inappropriate," Ness said. "We have been working a long time to eliminate that kind of behavior from the workplace."

Ness and other experts on workplace issues said Schaefer's actions may have fallen short of the legal definition of sexual harassment, which typically requires actions to be severe and pervasive and affect one's employment.

But "the threshold to violate reasonable employer rules is much lower," said Amy Oppenheimer, a California-based lawyer who helps train companies nationally about appropriate workplace conduct.

The state government policy defines sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature." Prohibited conduct includes "jokes" and "suggestive comments."

Louise L. Hayman, a longtime aide to Schaefer, defended his behavior, suggesting that Ehrlich's aide probably misinterpreted the comptroller's intent because she was not familiar with his joking nature.

"I think she overreacted, frankly," Hayman said. "I guess she was surprised by it. There's a generational issue here."

Hayman said that Schaefer has a well-established record of promoting women in the workplace and that those who have worked for him do not feel in any way offended by his habit of referring to accomplished women as "little girls."

"It sounds like he's demeaning you, but what he's really saying is he respects you," Hayman said. "I know that sounds odd."

Neither Kopp nor Ehrlich had much to say about the morning episode. Kopp said she did not witness it, adding, "I must have missed something interesting."

Ehrlich, who left immediately after the meeting, said Schaefer had effectively apologized.

"He ducked his head in the office and said obviously he didn't mean to offend anyone, and that was that," Ehrlich said.

Budget Secretary Cecilia Januszkiewicz, who was also at yesterday's meeting, declined to comment, telling reporters, "I'm not going to talk about that."

Schaefer said reporters' interest in his actions were a sign of the declining standards of the press. "I didn't think much of you before," he said. "But I think this is a low ebb."

Del. Peter Franchot (D-Montgomery), who is challenging Schaefer in the September primary, called the comptroller's comments yesterday "obviously inappropriate."

"I'm sure the comptroller, when he thinks about this, will feel badly about it," Franchot said.

Staff writers Ann E. Marimow and Matthew Mosk contributed to this report.