Lawmakers May Reopen Investigation After Ruling

State lawmakers might reopen an investigation into firings by former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration after an appeals court held this week that two administration officials were without grounds when they declined to answer questions before a legislative committee.

In 2006, Craig B. Chesek of the Public Service Commission and Gregory J. Maddalone of the Department of Transportation appeared before a panel investigating whether the dismissals were politically motivated.

Chesek and Maddalone argued that subpoenas issued by the panel, the Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections, were invalid and that they therefore were appearing voluntarily and could not be compelled to answer questions.

Chesek refused to answer any. Maddalone answered some but not others, including questions of who was paying his legal bills.

The state's highest court ruled Thursday that the committee had subpoena power and that Chesek and Maddalone were required to answer its questions.

Since the ruling, legislators and their attorneys have been discussing how to proceed, said Del. Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), co-chairman of the committee.

"We have a charge to fulfill," said Jones, who went to court in 2006 to compel testimony from Chesek and Maddalone.

Dan Friedman, counsel to the General Assembly, said several options for obtaining information from Chesek and Maddalone are under consideration.

One possibility is to hold a hearing of the committee; another is to take depositions from the two officials.

During Ehrlich's four-year term, Democrats criticized him for firing hundreds of employees thought to be Democratic loyalists.

The firings prompted a 14-month investigation by the Democrat-led General Assembly, which concluded that the governor dispatched loyalists, including Maddalone, into state agencies to identify people to let go.

When Maddalone worked for Ehrlich (R), he was accused of gleefully draping a T-shirt that read "You're Fired!" over his chair, angering Democrats who said they were being purged from state government for political reasons.

The ruling by the Court of Appeals turned on the question of whether the subpoena power of the assembly's Legislative Policy Committee transfers to the special committees it creates.

Chesek and Maddalone argued that subpoena power was not conferred on such committees until a change in the law last year, after they appeared in front of the committee.

The court found that even before the change, the ability to delegate subpoena power was implied in the power to create a special committee.

"Without the full force of investigative powers, the Special Committee would have been unable to fulfill its mandate," wrote Judge Irma S. Raker, who heard the case before her retirement this year.