The way that Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier has handled the decision not to appoint Inspector General Kelly Madigan to a second term is the most inept and ham-handed management of a high-profile decision by a county official that I’ve ever seen.

But it is more than that. As the editorial board of the Baltimore Sun observed, Klausmeier’s mismanagement of the decisionmaking process and her appointment of Khadija Walker “feels like a continuation” of efforts made by her predecessor, Johnny Olszewski, to weaken the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

In my opinion, the reason why it feels like a continuation of those efforts is because it is. The only remaining questions are whether Olszewski played an active role in persuading Klausmeier to pick up where he left off, and why Klausmeier chose to end her long political career in disgrace by trying to get rid of Madigan.

Regardless of the answers to those questions, we already know this:

The only reason to weaken the OIG is to reduce the likelihood that it will continue to reveal the extent to which Baltimore County government is dominated by cronyism, the favored treatment of various special interests and the abuse of authority by elected and appointed officials for their own advantage.

During Madigan’s tenure, the county finally made some progress in curtailing the fraud, waste and abuse that has plagued the county for decades. A 75-year-old state legislator at the end of her career, appointed by the County Council to fill the remaining two years of Olszewski’s term, is now jeopardizing that progress.

A lot rides on whether the Council, at its 6 p.m. public meeting tonight in the Historic Towson Courthouse, allows Klausmeier to succeed in weakening the OIG by confirming her appointment of Walker.

A Deceitful Campaign

The evidence clearly establishes that Klausmeier intended to replace Madigan from the outset. That evidence begins with Klausmeier ignoring Madigan’s requests to speak with her about her position.

It continues with the flimsiness of the reason that Klausmeier gave for conducting an “open search process” before deciding whether to reappoint Madigan, who has earned praise from council members and the public for her performance.

When she announced the commencement of the open search process, her office released a statement implying that she had no other recourse under county law. Lawyers, including me, quickly came forward and pointed out that an open search process was required only if Klausmeier had decided not to appoint Madigan to a second and final term, subject only to confirmation by the Council.

Given the clarity of the law on the subject, I refuse to believe that Klausmeier or her staff – especially County Attorney James Benjamin – misunderstood her options.

• Link to The Brew’s full coverage of Kelly Madigan’s non-reappointment and search for her replacement.

The only reasonable conclusion is that she had decided not to reappoint Madigan, but didn’t want to have to explain her decision to county residents. She may have hoped that the purported justification for her actions would go unchallenged and mollify Madigan’s supporters.

It didn’t – and the public backlash was even more intense than the one precipitated by Olszewski’s ill-fated attempt in 2021 to strip the OIG of its independence and powers.

An Unqualified Candidate

Any doubt about Klausmeier’s intentions was resolved, at least in the court of public opinion, when she appointed Walker to succeed Madigan.

A federal auditor who has spent most of her 22-year career at the Environmental Protection Agency, Walker is not a lawyer and has no experience in state or local government.

The most important mission of the Baltimore County OIG is to investigate potential abuses of legal authority by county officials and employees. It requires a detailed understanding of the laws that regulate the conduct of those officials and employees.

Walker would be tasked with identifying improprieties in a complex system of governance about which she admits she has no knowledge. Her steep learning curve would be compounded by an absurdly long commute from her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Klausmeier says Madigan has done a “good job.” Appointing Walker to replace her confirmed suspicions that the open search process was a charade and raised a perplexing question: why Klausmeier, a seven-term state legislator representing the county’s 8th district, chose to conclude her political career this way?

Her legacy would have included being the first woman to hold the county’s highest office. Now her legacy will be the first woman county executive who, upon taking office, tried to undermine the progress made in reducing fraud, waste and abuse in county government.

There had to be a compelling reason for Klausmeier to go down this path. There’s been considerable speculation that it had something to do with Olszewski.

The “Puppet Master”

Former state Senator Jim Brochin told Fox45 that Olszewski had confided to multiple people that he regretted establishing the OIG as a “watchdog” agency. Brochin accused Olszewski of being the “puppet master” behind Klausmeier’s decision.

Olszewski appointed Madigan in 2020 and was county executive during the five years of her initial term.

It was no secret that the relationship between Olszewski and Madigan became strained after she publicly rejected Olszewski’s claim that his 2021 bill that would have weakened the OIG was drafted “in collaboration” with her.

Her criticism and his quick withdrawal of the bill was the biggest embarrassment of Olszewski’s political career.

Nevertheless, Olszewski recently stated that, had he made the decision, he would have appointed Madigan to a second term.

Indeed, it would have made perfect sense for him to make that decision before he left office. Instead, he left the task to an unelected caretaker chosen with his blessing to fill out the last two years of his term after he moved on to Congress.

A spokesperson claimed that Olszewski “had absolutely no involvement in this process,” referring to the process of replacing Madigan with Walker. He may not have been involved in “the process,” but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t talk to Klausmeier before she made her decision.

Olszewski has refused to criticize Klausmeier for her decision, deferring to her authority “to make the choice she feels is in the best interest of the people of Baltimore County.”

Does he really believe her decision was motivated by the best interest of county residents? The sequence of events and the explanations given by Olszewski sound like a feeble exercise in plausible deniability.

What’s At Stake

The Council’s obligation is to protect the OIG from being marginalized

At the present moment, it matters not whether Klausmeier is doing Olszewski’s bidding or is independently pursuing a shared interest in weakening the OIG and keeping prying eyes away from the inner workings of Baltimore County government.

What matters is that the Council stops her before it’s too late.

Yes, the process dictated by county law places the decision whether to appoint an inspector general to a second term in the sole discretion of the county executive.

But nothing in the law compels the Council to confirm the appointment of a particular candidate, and lawmakers have a moral obligation to their constituents to reject the result of a process corrupted by considerations contrary to the best interest of residents.

The evidence is overwhelming that Klausmeier never had any intention of appointing Madigan to a second term, and that the open search process was never about finding the best person for the job. It was all about undermining the effectiveness of the OIG.

Giving credence to the process employed by Klausmeier would make council members complicit in the harm done to a vital watchdog agency.

The “we must honor the process” dodge, most recently trotted out by Councilman Pat Young, insults the intelligence of residents and is a sign of how desperately the political machine is trying to circle the wagons.

The Council’s duty is clear, and they hold all the cards. Under county law, Madigan will continue to serve as IG until a successor is confirmed by the body.

• David A. Plymyer retired as Anne Arundel County Attorney after 31 years in the county law office. To reach him: dplymyer@comcast.net and Twitter @dplymyer.