well-known Democratic elected leader who had been in his job for five months,
leaving unresolved who ordered his termination and why.
The state treasury issued a six-figure check last week to Baltimore County
Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, ending a lawsuit in which he said he was
removed from a low-level position at Maryland Environmental Service solely
because he is a Democrat.
The not-for-profit independent agency assists with dredging, waste
treatment and related tasks for organizations such as the Maryland Port
Administration.
Gardina, 49, has a master’s degree in environmental engineering and science
from the Johns Hopkins University and was hired as a project manager in April
2003 – several months after Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. took office. He got the
job after responding to an advertisement on the agency’s Web site and was
working under a contract of unspecified length.
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Gardina received a favorable evaluation that August, he said. But he said
he was ordered to leave about a month later, having earned a total of $25,000,
after the governor realized he was on the payroll.
He sued the governor in November 2003, claiming his constitutional rights
had been violated. The lawsuit said the councilman was fired on the
recommendation of “Governor Ehrlich, himself and through his agents and
employees.”
Responding to Gardina’s suit last year, the administration acknowledged
that some personnel decisions were being made outside usual hiring channels.
The environmental agency director “discussed with an individual employed in
the Governor’s Appointments Office the plaintiff’s employment status,”
Ehrlich’s legal response said.
The appointments office vets nominees for a variety of patronage positions,
such as membership on the state University System Board of Regents and the
parole commission. It typically is not involved with low-level posts such as
Gardina’s.
But lawyers for the agency denied in the response document that the
governor had directly ordered the firing.
Offer to settle
The Ehrlich administration offered to settle the case last November, a day
before the scheduled depositions of several agency officials who were to be
asked why Gardina was let go.
Lawyers had asked three agency managers to bring documents to the
depositions, including “copies of any and all documents reflecting the
political affiliation and political activities of state government employees
employed by Maryland Environmental Services as of noon on January 15, 2003 or
at any later date,” a reference to the date of Ehrlich’s swearing-in.
Gardina and his lawyers agreed to talk about the case only after the
settlement check cleared, which happened late last week.
“There are only two remaining questions: Who ordered the firing of Vince
Gardina, and why is the Ehrlich administration paying $100,000 to protect this
person?” said Daniel M. Clements, Gardina’s attorney. “This is quintessential
hush money.”
Gardina said yesterday that he was troubled he has not received those
answers.
“The fact that somebody would order me to be fired from a low-level job
that I was qualified for indicates there is some political opportunism there,
and some vindictiveness,” he said.
Asked whether he thought the settlement was a good use of taxpayer dollars,
Gardina said no. “It leads me to believe they were trying to keep this thing
as far from the people who were to be depositioned as possible, and to divert
the trail and to stop the investigation,” he said.
Ehrlich’s office would not answer questions about the case.
“We will decline to comment as this is an individual personnel matter,”
said Henry Fawell, an Ehrlich spokesman.
Told that Gardina had signed a waiver of his right to privacy last week and
submitted it as part of the court file, Fawell said, “We will nonetheless
honor our policy of not commenting on personnel matters.”
Sean Coleman, an assistant attorney general and counsel to MES, also would
not comment on why Gardina was fired or who asked for his firing. He said the
case was settled because “the costs of litigation were greater than the
settlement, so we thought it would be appropriate.”
If the administration had waited a year and told Gardina it was eliminating
his position as part of a reorganization, he would have received about $56,000
for a year’s worth of work. Instead, he got $25,000 for his five months on the
job, plus the $100,000 settlement.
In the 2002 election, Gardina defeated a close Ehrlich ally for his County
Council seat. Former Republican state Del. James F. Ports Jr. – who gained
notoriety challenging former Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch
Ruppersberger on land condemnation issues – ran against Gardina.
Gardina defeated Ports in a hard-fought contest, but Ports then was hired
to a $112,000 position with the state Department of Transportation. Ports has
been promoted since then.
Protected free speech
Clements, the attorney, said that both the U.S. and state constitutions
recognize political party affiliation as a form of speech protected under the
First Amendment. Gardina could legitimately have been fired for a number of
reasons, he said, but not because he was a Democrat.
Top aides to Ehrlich – who took office in January 2003 as the first
Republican elected chief executive in more than three decades – have overseen
turnover in a variety of state agencies as the administration exercises its
patronage power.
Still, leading Democrats have grown increasingly concerned about turnover,
and several say personnel decisions are being made based on political
affiliation instead of qualifications.
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During a budget hearing last week, Democratic lawmakers learned of the high
level of turnover – 10 of 17 positions – in the Maryland Energy Administration
under Ehrlich.
“They are bringing in individuals who have no background in energy
conservation, which is the mission of the agency, and they are replacing
people who did have the background,” said Del. Peter Franchot, a Montgomery
County Democrat and member of the House Appropriations Committee.
“The director of the Maryland Energy Administration testified that he took
four to five weeks off in the past year to campaign,” Franchot said. “You
could hear a pin drop in the room after he made that statement. People were
just stunned.”
Ehrlich seems to be extending his influence into independent agencies not
normally subject to authority from the governor’s office. Gardina’s former
agency is one, as are the Maryland Insurance Administration, the Public
Service Commission and the state elections board – other agencies where hiring
decisions have made headlines.
“It’s raw politics,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said yesterday.
“Anybody who happens to be from the other party is on the hit list.”
“Independent agencies, who are there to protect the citizens of Maryland,
the consumers of Maryland, are now becoming political pawns of this
administration,” said House Speaker Michael E. Busch during news conference on
insurance matters earlier this month.
Sun staff writer Ivan Penn contributed to this article.