O'Malley rebuked in back-pay case

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By Timothy Warren

A Maryland judge ordered Gov. Martin O'Malley to give a former state employee more than $400,000 in court-ordered back pay and rebuked the governor for failing to pay last year.

"No satisfactory explanation has been offered by defendant Martin O'Malley for the failure to include money to pay the award in any state budget, a failure which continues," Baltimore County Circuit Judge Susan M. Souder wrote in her decision last week to award the former employee $404,862 in back pay, interest on back pay, retirement funds, and sick and vacation leave. "The law requires the governor to budget for the award. He has failed to do so."

The judge also described the governor's refusal to pay as "unprecedented."

David Reier, an employee in the Carroll County office of the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, was fired in October 1996 for sloppy job performance, including misfiling building permits. Mr. Reier, a five-year state employee, then filed suit against the state for wrongful termination, claiming the agency had not given notice of his termination within 30 days of the beginning of the investigation, as required by Maryland law. The case lasted nearly 11 years in the legal system, including the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, before an administrative law judge in June 2007 decreed that Mr. Reier, 57, was due the roughly $404,000.

Two months later, Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat and member of the Board of Public Works, voted against paying Mr. Reier.

Comptroller Peter Franchot, another member of the board, also voted against paying Mr. Reier. The third member, Nancy K. Kopp abstained.

O'Malley spokeswoman Christine Hansen said the money was not paid because it was not included in the state budget, and she suggested that Mr. O'Malley will again defy the courts.

"The court has now ruled and, with the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General, we are considering all of our legal options," she said.

Judge Souder dismissed the lawsuit's claims against the co-defendants, including Mr. Franchot and Mrs. Kopp, saying "there does not appear to be any basis for action" against them.

However, the judge was critical of the fact that Mr. Reier's money was not included in the 2007 and 2008 state budgets, and said failure to include it in the 2009 budget was "inexplicable."

"The law requires the governor to budget the award. He has failed to do so."

Mr. Franchot could not be reached Tuesday. His spokesman told the Daily Record of Baltimore on Monday that the comptroller was "standing up for the Maryland taxpayer" by not approving the administrative law judge's award.