Maryland Stadium Authority officials vigorously defended themselves to legislators reviewing an audit that accused them of making noncompetitive bids, granting excessive severance pay ? $104,000 in one case ? and failing to collect $1.7 million in back rent from the Orioles.
Delegates on a House appropriations subcommittee were particularly critical of the apparent lack of a policy on granting severance by the 20-year-old independent authority, which owns and operates the stadiums for the Orioles and Ravens, as well other sports and entertainment venues.
The Maryland Stadium Authority is “being very well-managed and very well-run,” said Robert McKinney, the unpaid chairman of the board whose term ends in June. He described some of the charges as “very salacious in press reports.”
Legislative auditors had highlighted the payment of $42,000 for one hour of consulting services to a former executive director. But Mc
Kinney said this was really a severance payment representing 13 weeks salary to a former executive director who supervised the restoration of the Hippodrome Theater.
“We felt we might need his knowledge base” to complete the project, McKinney said. “We did everything possible to avoid using his services. He was an insurance policy.” The authority also paid a senior management official six months salary, $104,000, when he left after 15 months of work. “It kind of stands out as a big meatball,” McKinney acknowledged. Overall, there was $282,000 in severance to 10 employees, while some got little, such as an eight-year maintenance employee who got only $1,100.
Subcommittee Chairman John Bohanan, D-St. Mary?s, told McKinney that the legislature had given the authority “a lot of autonomy, but it?s still a state agency,” and should have better personnel policies in place.
Authority project manager Gary McGuigan said that $7.6 million building renovation that auditors called noncompetitive had generated 19 letters of interest and five construction bids, following procedures approved by the Board of Public Works.
McKinney said the authority had tried to collect $1.7 million allegedly owed by the Orioles. But the Orioles organization disputes the amount, and the authority plans on taking the payment to arbitration, along with other issues related to the stadium. The Orioles sent the committee a letter maintaining that it did not owe anything beyond the $6 million in annual rents it has already paid.
