Even Republicans outraged at the alleged “hypocrisy” of the firings of at-will employees by Gov. Martin O?Malley?s administration see them as little more than business as usual.
“They have every right to do what they?re doing, and so did Bob Ehrlich,” said Carol Arscott, a longtime aide to Republicans who resigned as assistant secretary of transportation when O?Malley took over.
O?Malley and his fellow Democrats say the situation is nothing at all like what happened under former Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
O?Malley and his supporters say the current firings were ordered by Cabinet secretaries who are trying to make “government work again.”
Democrats say they are not being masterminded by political hacks reporting to the governor?s office, as they allegely were under Ehrlich.
Even the judge?s decision this week that Transportation Secretary John Porcari illegally fired Greg Maddalone for “political reasons”? the sort of heave-hos Maddalone was accused of facilitating ? is so far seen as an isolated case.
“I don?t think it?s arisen to anywhere the magnitude that it has risen to in the previous administration,” said House Speaker Michael Busch, D- Anne Arundel County. “Are there some improper firings, and you go through the proper procedure and they overrule the firing? That’s fine.”
The biggest difference in the firings is that the O?Malley team has only been in office five months. Some of the Cabinet secretaries are just now filling the top slots in their
agencies and reorganizing their staffs.
Several Cabinet secretaries said there will be no replacements for many of those being fired, part of the budget cuts O?Malley has mandated.
But the budget crisis Ehrlich confronted in his first two years was even more severe and immediate than the long-term structural deficit O?Malley must cope with.
The million-dollar probe by the Special Joint Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections began a full two and a half years into the Ehrlich administration.
The O?Malley administration has not yet released the number of people who were fired or resigned in the first six months, but it is undoubtedly fewer than the 264 at-will employees fired in Ehrlich?s first 24 months, a figure almost as high as all the firings in Gov. Parris Glendening?s two terms.
Under Ehrlich, the committee documented that there were clearly three or four rogue agents, such as Prince of Darkness Joe Steffen, who it says assembled hit lists for dismissal.
These agents were also reporting to the governor?s appointments office.
O?Malley?s aides insist that the appointments office has returned to the traditional role of selecting nominees and that there are no rogue operatives undermining Cabinet secretaries.
If that?s true, that makes the firings procedurally different ? but not for the unemployed ex-state workers still trying to find jobs and support their families.
What do you think of the governor’s firing of state workers? Respond below in our comment section.
