Post #100 Is the fix in for a new IG in Baltimore County?

Kathy Klausmeier wants her out but who is pulling the strings?

Years ago, I worked at Citigroup, a position was posted I was interested in and decided to apply. About a week and a half later at 4:00 on a Friday, I got a phone call to interview for the job at 4:30 that afternoon by HR.

The person in HR was nice but her questions were weird. She asked how I got along with certain employees and never any questions really about the specifics of the job. By 5:00 that afternoon the e-mail went out announcing who got the job and it wasn't me.

Sometimes in business and government the fix is in. A company wants a certain person, and they will do whatever it takes to make that possible. Have the committee review a group of about 20 possible hires. Then narrow it down to three, pick one real good candidate, the one you want and two crappy candidates, who anyone would say, why would we hire that idiot. This happens more often than people realize.

About 20 years ago at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene they had a position open and picked the candidate they wanted over a more qualified male candidate. One person on the hiring board made the mistake of broadcasting that “it was a done deal” and they had planned all along to select the candidate they wanted. The male candidate sued the state and depositions were taken. The state settled out of court. He was very happy with the settlement and got to meet former AG Doug Gansler.

The hiring process for Baltimore County Inspector General is questionable at best. They're not looking for the best candidate for the job, they're looking for the candidate that follows orders best. Kind of like Germans in the 1930s and 40s. They don't want Kelly Madigan, the current Baltimore County Inspector General in the job, they want a lesser candidate, someone they can control. This is a poor reflection obviously on County Executive Kathy Klausmeier and the people in the hiring process.

The Baltimore Brew has reported Monday that County Executive Klausmeier appeared ready to bypass the Inspector General selection panel that she set up. Last week they did the first round of interviews. The second round of interviews will not be conducted by the full panel but by panel member Arthur A. Elkins Jr., who did not attend the first-round selection interviews, Baltimore County Ethics Commission member Mandee Heinl, currently an attorney at Saul Ewing, and Klausmeier herself. Last night I texted Kelly Madigan and asked her if she had any comment about this situation and she said, “They keep changing the rules.”

Heinl served as chief of staff to the chair of the Baltimore County Council, Vicki Almond, and she served as chief of staff to Sen. Shelly Hettleman in the Maryland House of Delegates. These are people close to Klausmeier. On the degree of separation between Vicki Almond and the Jim Smith Victory Slate it is a walk to the mailbox.

Most councilmen have said they want Kelly Madigan, the county’s current inspector general, to remain in that role, and Madigan did reapply for her position. In a moment of cruelty Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Cumming reported that Inspector General Kelly Madigan left Baltimore on Sunday to see her aunt with Stage 4 lung cancer for the last time in Seattle. Monday night she was told the second interview for her job is Wednesday, the day she flies home. Then she was given Tuesday as an option. After a lot of backlash about this Madigan's in person interview is now scheduled for Friday morning. This was cold, cruel and heartless at best by Kathy Klausmeier and the people around her pulling the strings.

What type of faith are voters supposed to have in their elected officials when you have a hiring process like this? The rules changed a few times, every time not to benefit Madigan. Baltimore County sadly has a rich history of ethically challenged elected officials Spiro Agnew, Dale Anderson, Kathy Bevins, the list goes on.

Over the past few years Klausmeier has had a very protective staff. Jennifer Staley her COS in Annapolis did that role very well. Her current staff of Valerie Roddy, Amanda Stakem Conn, and Erica Palmisano have also protected her, especially from the media. But that is the job of staff, to do what the boss says and protect the boss. Remember the boss is always right no matter how wrong they are.

Councilman Izzy Patoka’s staff email this to me Tuesday morning: Councilman Patoka has also said publicly that he will not be supporting any other person for the position except Ms. Madigan. So, if the county executive decides to appoint someone else to the position of IG, Councilman Patoka will be voting no on that confirmation. The only person Councilman Patoka has said he will vote to confirm at this time is IG Madigan.

Councilman Patoka will be proposing a charter amendment, which would be on the 2026 ballot, that would take the selection of the inspector general out of the hands of the county executive and instead leave it to an independent board tasked with appointing the inspector general, similar to the setup in Baltimore City. Councilman Patoka introduced this legislation at the County Council’s July 7 legislative session.

No one knows where this will play out, but I have yet to find anyone who has said Klausmeier made the right move or sees the political benefit from this. The whispering about Klausmeier’s decision making on this is getting louder, but this is a situation of her own decision making, maybe.