It takes guts to tell your boss that he?s inadequate.
But that?s exactly what two Baltimore County employees ? one a maintenance worker, the other a messenger ? are doing this election season.
They?re challenging the top rung of their corporate ladder, incumbent County Executive Jim Smith, for command of the county.
“I?ve caught a little bit of flak,” said Norman Cioka, who drives for the county?s police department. “But he doesn?t even know who I am.”
County personnel analyst Ronald Harvey, who faces Smith in the Democrat primary today, said he first met Smith when they vied for the endorsement of a local newspaper last month. When a reporter mistook Harvey for another county employee with the same name, it was Smith who spoke up.
“He said, ?No, that?s not the same Ron Harvey ? you?re the Ron Harvey that works in human resources, aren?t you?? ” Harvey recalled. “I said yes.”
Harvey, too, said he?s gotten grief from fellow employees who support Smith?s re-election campaign. While there have been no direct threats, he said his supervisors have asked him four times in the past several weeks to explain certain actions.
Smith welcomes the competition, his campaign said.
“I think it?s a testament to his integrity and fairness that two county employees are secure enough in their jobs to challenge him,” campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford said.
