Ken Allen doesn?t want his job back.
But when the former director of information systems for the Baltimore County Police Department felt he was unfairly demoted ? moved to a smaller office and stripped of his supervisory responsibilities ? he filed a grievance with the county?s Personnel and Salary Advisory Board. Quickly ruling Allen?s move was a “reorganization,” board members dismissed the case without a hearing.
“I had been marginalized and I could have no more positive effect there,” Allen said. “I left the county a year after that.”
Allen filed a complaint in Circuit Court and enjoyed a recent victory when Judge Patrick Cavanaugh ruled the board violated Allen?s right to due process. Cavanaugh remanded the case back to the advisory board.
A county spokeswoman declined to comment, citing personnel issues and the pending appeal of Cavanaugh?s decision.
Under county code, the board can choose to hear cases at members? discretion, but must hear grievances related to disciplinary actions and pre-employment examinations. The five-member, all-volunteer board meets in public once each month and includes one member elected by merit employees.
To Allen, the case indicates a widespread practice of using “reorganization” to demote and fire merit employees without the threat of challenge. And he?s not alone.
Ronald Harvey, a county human resources employee who opposed County Executive Jim Smith during the 2006 election, said he has filed four grievances with the salary board, but has yet to get a hearing. Both he and Allen chaired a 700-member group of bureaucrats known as the Supervisory, Management and Confidential Employees, andvocally opposed proposed changes to the merit system in the late 1990s.
In one case, Harvey said he challenged a poor performance evaluation after his boss explicitly called it punishment for his “disloyalty.”
“They didn?t see that as discrimination,” Harvey said. “They were retaliating because of our work with the employees group, and you can?t even get a hearing.”
Harvey said county officials use reorganizations to replace merit employees, which he called important to institutional memory.
