Analysis Suggests Changes for State Personnel System

Maryland should take a cue from the federal government and create a "plum book" of political appointments available with each incoming administration and consider offering new job protections to some mid-level workers, according to a new report by legislative analysts.

Those recommendations and a half-dozen others aim to demystify the state's personnel system more than two years after lawmakers largely wrapped up an investigation of the hiring and firing practices of former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

The report, mandated by legislation passed in 2007, presents the most comprehensive picture to date of Maryland's patchwork of laws that determine which state employees serve at the pleasure of the governor and other top government officials. Democrats accused Ehrlich, the state's first Republican governor in a generation, of abusing that prerogative upon taking office in 2003.

Although a 14-month legislative investigation led to modest changes, the report produced by the Department of Legislative Services details what it calls several questionable aspects of Maryland personnel law that persist under the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

More than 7,000 Maryland employees are designated as "at will," with limited job protections, a practice the report says "continues to be controversial in state government." Abolishing such appointments "is not a realistic or even a reasonable option," the report concludes, noting that governors rely on many of the positions to help put their agendas into effect.

But the report points to several at-will jobs that even government department heads acknowledged were difficult to justify, including prison chaplains. At one state prison, social workers, sociologists, physicians and psychologists are also classified as at-will employees.

In some instances, jobs similar to those considered "at will" in one department have merit protections in others, the report says. In one agency, the Department of Business and Economic Development, all 276 staff members hired after 1995 are considered "at will," while 30 longtime staff members in the department retain merit status, according to the report.

The report recommends that the O'Malley administration reassess whether mid- and lower-level jobs classified as at-will appointments should continue to have that designation.

It also suggests dividing the ranks of state managers, all of whom are considered "at will," into "policy managers" and "program managers." The latter category of workers, largely responsible for implementing rather than developing an administration's agenda, could be given additional termination and appeal rights, the report said.

The report's final recommendation is the creation of a state version of the "plum book." The federal government's most recent edition, published last month, inventoried more than 8,000 positions that will soon be vacated by the Bush administration. It has 209 pages.

The Maryland legislative analysts say similar information would be useful during the state's next gubernatorial transition. Ehrlich was criticized by the legislative investigative committee two years ago for sending loyalists into state agencies to determine who could be fired.

Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), who co-chaired the investigative committee, said the recommendations by legislative analysts would be carefully reviewed. Some suggested reforms probably can be carried out by the administration, he said, and others might need to be addressed in the upcoming session of the General Assembly.

"If legislation is required, we'll certainly put it in," Middleton said.