A Baltimore County judge has ordered a fired assistant secretary of the state Department of General Services restored to his job pending a lawsuit that his termination by the O?Malley administration was illegal because it was for political reasons, but the state plans to file a motion today to reverse the ruling.
In a brief order on Sept. 26 not filed till last week, Circuit Judge Patrick Cavanaugh ordered that Nelson Reichart, of Towson, be given back his job as assistant secretary for real estate, a position overseeing land purchases for the state.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 29 and the state had 30 days to respond to it, but the judge granted the motion to give him back his job temporarily before the state could file its response.
“We will be filing a motion to reconsider the court?s order,” Deputy Solicitor General William Brockman said Monday.
Reichart, a 29-year state employee, was fired by DGS Secretary Alvin Collins June 29, the day after The Baltimore Sun published his comments that his office might have tried to negotiate a lower price for a $5 million Open Space land acquisition on Kent Island.
In his lawsuit, Reichart alleges that not only was he illegally fired for the comments he made to a reporter, but that it was part of a pattern of firings at DGS “for no other apparent reason than their political affiliation and/or race and/or age/approaching retirement.” He says the governor?s appointments office directed his firing.
Reichart?s attorney, Kathleen Masterton, said her client was ready to go back to work, although his old job and office have already been filled by someone else.
Reichart wants his job back at least temporarily because he?s been denied unemployment compensation by the state, and he “is without means to support his family” or pick up his $1,500 monthly health insurance. He said he supports a “handicapped adult daughter,” as well as a wife with “serious and chronic health problems.”
The termination 12 months shy of his 30-year mark will cost him “at least $136,000” in retirement benefits, Reichart said.
Brockman would not discuss the substance of the case. Reichart is also pursuing an appeal of his firing through the state?s administrative law office, but those proceedings are confidential.
At a glance
Circuit Judge Patrick Cavanaugh ordered that Nelson Reichart, of Towson, be given back his job as assistant secretary for real estate, a position overseeing land purchases for the state.
