Investigation Faults Ehrlich In Firing of State Workers
Md. Governor Calls Report 'Farcical' and Expensive

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

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).

During the first two years of Ehrlich's tenure, that operative, Joseph Steffen, worked in three state agencies, fostering a reputation as a hatchet man by placing a figurine of the Grim Reaper on his desk and telling co-workers he had a "death list" of people who were marked for dismissal. He signed e-mails "POD," which stood for his nickname: "Prince of Darkness."

Firings followed. Ehrlich's top aides put the count last year at 284. Ehrlich's predecessor, Parris N. Glendening (D), fired 65 workers during the first three years of his administration.

Ehrlich administration officials have said the turnover was a natural byproduct of the 2002 election, which put a Republican in the governor's office for the first time in a generation.

No one was singled out for partisan views, Ehrlich officials said.

But some changes were made to help Ehrlich move the state in a new direction. "The governor has said he wants people on the same page," his communications director, Paul E. Schurick, said in a June 2005 interview.

The turnover concerned Democrats in the legislature. And the investigation that followed has validated those concerns, said Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), who was one of the first to urge a review.

Coe, as committee counsel, interviewed more than 60 current and former state employees, taking sworn testimony from more than 20.

"It's not pretty for the Ehrlich administration," Frosh said yesterday. "It makes clear that many of the firings were illegal, and many more were inappropriate."

Coe's report makes its most direct case when addressing the termination of Vincent Gardina, a Democrat on the Baltimore County Council who was hired as a project manager at the Maryland Environmental Service.

Ehrlich aides learned that Gardina was on the payroll eight months after Ehrlich took office, the report says. Soon after, the report says, a deputy in the governor's appointments office called Gardina's boss and told him that "Gardina 'needs to go' because he is 'too political.' "

An e-mail exchange followed and ended with an e-mail from the governor's deputy, dated Sept. 9, 2003, saying: "you can let Vince Gardina go. We have signed off on this end." Gardina was dismissed by a letter dated Sept. 16, the report says. It concludes that "there is substantial evidence that the termination of Vincent Gardina was based on his political activities in violation of [state law] and his constitutional rights."

Other findings in the report focus on the dismissals' effects on the functioning of state government. In a number of instances, the report highlights dismissals of workers who had outstanding performance reviews.

At the state's Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, five workers were dismissed on one day. The chairman, an Ehrlich appointee, defended those moves, but the review found his explanation wanting.

"It is difficult to reconcile the Chairman's view that he was improving the Commission when he failed to consult with other commissioners regarding the terminations, failed to review personnel files and failed to consult with the supervisors of two of the employees who were terminated," the report says.

Stoltzfus said yesterday that although Coe was hired with support from both parties -- and had conducted a well-received review of the state's savings and loan crisis 20 years ago -- the lawyer was "snookered" this time by Democrats.

The investigation, based mostly on the testimony of disgruntled former state workers, was generated by Steffen's ill-advised boastings and the actions of a few other misguided aides, Stoltzfus said. "I saw some crass behavior by certain people who first came in to work for the governor," he said. "It was a new regime. They behaved in a way they shouldn't have. But you can't legislate for crass behavior."

Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (Montgomery), a Democrat on the committee, said he agrees that the investigation did not uncover "a reign of terror." But there were "serious abuses," he said.

"Unfortunately, the Republicans decided at the outset that they did not want to be bothered with the facts," Simmons said. "They do not understand . . . it was wrong to dismiss these people."

Coe's report found two major flaws with the Ehrlich administration's handling of personnel matters. The firings "were not reasonably calculated to improve the performance of State government," the report says, and the firings demoralized the state workforce veterans.

"Employees who were the primary providers for their families were suddenly without jobs through no fault of their own," Coe wrote.

Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.