Bills to protect mid-level state workers from being fired for political reasons were signed into law Thursday, but the rancorous partisan investigation that produced them is technically not over.
A special legislative committee is investigating perjury charges against top aides to Gov. Robert Ehrlich, and trying to take testimony from three other aides, racking up nearly $390,000 in legal bills for its special counsel.
The legislation to spell out who is a political appointee and who isn?t came out of an unusual investigation into the Ehrlich administration by the Special Joint Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections, which began work 20 months ago. The panel found some state Democratic bureaucrats were fired solely because of their party affiliation ? a charge the Ehrlich administration denied and Republicans on the committee disputed.
The co-chairman of the committee, Sen. Thomas Mac Middleton, met with the attorney general?s office Thursday to discuss pending lawsuits about testimony in the case and whether Ehrlich?s top appointments aides committed perjury last year.
“That?s all confidential” in regard to the discussion, Middleton said. “Perjury is a very serious case.”
Employees? “political and constitutional rights have been violated,” Middleton said. The cost of the probe “could have been reduced” if the Ehrlich administration had been more cooperative, he said; “they won?t take any responsibility for extending the life of the committee.”
The committee finished its report in October, but still wanted to take sworn testimony in depositions from three Ehrlich staffers. The committee said it would officially end its work after special counsel Ward Coe took the final depositions.
The committee also told Coe to investigate possible perjury charges against former Ehrlich Appointments Secretary Lawrence Hogan and Deputy Secretary Diane Baker. According to Coe?s last invoice to the committee, on Jan. 30, Coe?s associate, Ranak Jasani, billed 4.5 hours for reviewing the testimony of Hogan and Baker and drafted a letter to the co-chairs of the special committee regarding “Hogan perjury.”
“To me it?s a foolish waste of money,” said Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus, of Somerset, the former Republican leader who served on the special committee. “This was a witch hunt; I don?t understand what?s to be gained by continuing it.”
