Pension For Police Appointee Debated

Baltimore Officials See Nothing Amiss

Just days after he was sworn into office, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) named Marcus Brown, a deputy police commissioner in Baltimore, to serve in one of Maryland's most senior law enforcement positions.

In recent days, the arrangement under which Brown left city service to follow his political patron, becoming the police chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority, has drawn intense scrutiny. At issue is a pension Brown received despite having worked for the city for fewer than the customary 20 years.

At age 42, with less than 15 years in Baltimore and credit for three in San Jose, Brown was awarded an annual pension from the city of more than $55,000. He took advantage of a relatively obscure provision in the city code -- the meaning of which has been much debated -- that allows an employee with between 15 and 20 years of service to collect a pension if he is "removed . . . without fault upon his part."

In a letter dated Jan. 29, three days after Brown's appointment to head the agency was announced, Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm told Brown he had notified the retirement system "of your layoff." The action, Hamm wrote, "makes you eligible for retirement benefits."

Steve Fugate, chairman of the police and fire pension board, said in an interview that it is "clearly not the case" that Brown was laid off. A spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) confirmed yesterday that Brown, who was appointed to the city job when O'Malley was mayor, had been invited to stay in the city post in her administration.

Brown was not available to comment yesterday, his spokesman said.

On behalf of Hamm, police spokesman Matt Jablow said: "He was advised and believed and continues to believe that the matter was handled in a completely aboveboard way and is consistent with prior practices of other commissioners here in Baltimore."

O'Malley would not comment on the propriety of the arrangement but said he was not involved in the decision to award it. "I think it was something between [Brown] and the police commissioner," he said.

The authority now headed by Brown has 500 sworn officers who provide law enforcement for state highways, tunnels, bridges and elsewhere.

After meeting with Hamm on Thursday, Dixon was satisfied that Brown's arrangement was appropriate but remained concerned about Hamm's letter, according to the mayor's spokesman, Anthony McCarthy. "The mayor has real questions about why that language would be used," he said.

Karen Hornig, chief legal counsel for the city's police department, acknowledged that the language in the Hamm letter is "obviously not accurate" but said it was included by accident. "Evidently someone in the administrative bureau just used a form that had been used before," she said.

Hornig said Brown qualified for the pension even though the job was not eliminated. She said the view, expressed in recent days by Fugate and others, that the term "removed" in the code refers to involuntary separation by layoff is mistaken. The confusion, she said, has been amplified by the admittedly misleading language accidentally included in Hamm's latter.

Hornig said the term "removed" has a different meaning in a paramilitary organization such as a police force, and that it encompasses voluntary resignation. Simply quitting a job in a police force, without permission, could result in disciplinary action, she said.

"When you're a commander, you don't get to just quit," she said. "You have to essentially be removed by your commander."

The provision has been used at least a dozen times in the past seven years, she said. In some instances, she and others said, it has been seen as a way for the department to negotiate a voluntary resignation for an unwanted officer without having to go through the demanding process of termination.

In Brown's case, an agreement signed when he became deputy commissioner in 2005 appears to specify that he be given the option of early retirement if he left without having served 20 years.

McCarthy said Dixon has asked the city solicitor, George Nilson, to brief her on the early retirement provision.

Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.