Investigation Faults Ehrlich In Firing of State Workers

Md. Governor Calls Report 'Farcical' and Expensive

The firings of dozens of mid-level state workers early in the tenure of Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. may, in some instances, have violated those employees' constitutional rights and run afoul of state law, a 14-month investigation has concluded.

An attorney hired by leaders of the majority-Democratic legislature to oversee an investigation of the Republican governor's personnel practices wrote a 130-page draft report and shared his findings yesterday with lawmakers.

Among them:

· The governor dispatched loyalists into state agencies to identify people to fire.

· Several employees were fired for no reason other than their political views.

· Officials in the Ehrlich administration were evasive or not credible in defending their personnel decisions while testifying before the legislature's Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections.

"The sudden and random terminations exacted a considerable human toll," committee counsel Ward B. Coe III wrote in his draft.

Ehrlich described the document as "farcical" and mocked the legislative committee, which consists of eight Democrats and four Republicans, for spending as much time as it did to produce it. "I think the people of Maryland need to hear what they paid over a million dollars for," Ehrlich said.

Republicans on the committee issued a "minority report," which determined that the investigation had been partisan and consumed money and time that could have been devoted to more pressing concerns.

"There's nothing substantive there," said Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus (Somerset). "There is no definite finding. There was nothing proven that demonstrated that the law was broken."

Under Maryland law, "at will" employees -- about 6,000 of the 50,000 state workers -- may be hired and fired by the governor without explanation. With rare exception, though, the law requires that personnel decisions be made "without regard to the employee's political affiliation, belief, or opinion."

Coe's report, which will be released formally this week, marks the conclusion of a saga that began in early 2005, when Ehrlich fired a longtime political operative for boasting about a whisper campaign against the governor's chief political rival, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D).