Maryland’s jobs agency replaced a downbeat jobs report with another, slightly more positive outlook — then hid all evidence of the original, according to e-mails among
the agency’s top officials.
The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation says the original Web site posting on July’s economic outlook was a draft not intended for publication.
“It was posted in error,” said DLLR spokesman Bernie Kohn. “It was not an official document. It was not our position.”
Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich and other Republican leaders on Monday painted the episode as a cover-up by the O’Malley administration, saying the internal e-mail exchanges show misconduct.
Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is running for re-election against Ehrlich, says he was not aware the report — available on the DLLR Web site for five hours in August — had been pulled until after it was removed.
The original was nearly identical to a list of “talking points” DLLR employee Mary Jo Yeisley compiled after analyzing the July employment numbers, according to e-mails between Yeisley and Kohn. Kohn said officials use Yeisley’s “talking points” — which she compiles monthly on each new set of jobs data — to craft a public presentation on the state’s economic outlook.
Five hours after the original report was published, Kohn notified DLLR Secretary Alex Sanchez that he was trying to remove the report, which characterized Maryland’s economy as stagnant.
Sanchez shot back a reply one minute later, asking: “Is it down? Call me as soon as we know who posted outrageous info on the site.”
The revisions axed negative-leaning language, including the original’s first sentence saying, “Maryland’s economic recovery faltered in July.” The new report opens with a 500-job gain over the prior month, but no numbers were changed.
Kohn later e-mailed DLLR webmaster Michele Williams, saying, “Are we sure that removing that post removed all traces of it that anyone could pull up on a search engine? Whatever we can do to make it disappear, we need to do it. That’s coming straight from the top.”
Kohn told The Washington Examiner “the top” referred to Sanchez.
Kohn then sent another e-mail to a DLLR staffer saying Sanchez, Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary Christian Johansson, “as well as the governor’s senior staff, were very upset to see this posted on our Web site.”
Republican minority leaders Sen. Allan Kittleman and Del. Anthony O’Donnell said they are calling for a “formal inquiry” into the agency’s decision to remove the report.
“It appears at this point that this was cooked to shed positive light on the O’Malley administration,” O’Donnell said. “We need to make sure the bright light of sunshine is placed on the O’Malley administration for making things up.”
