This message is from a reader who says that the Wicomico County Executive is disregarding the vote by the County Council not to approve Mr. Leitzel as the Assistant Administrative Director and the vote not to approve Heather Lankford to run the Public Works Department. She has a history in the County and with Salisbury. Mr. Leitzel was a police officer in York, PA until recently.
In February, Julie Giordano tried to hire Daniel Cox who ran for governor to be the special attorney for Wicomico County, but the Council rejected him.
It’s an effort by subterfuge to engage someone as Wicomico County’s Assistant Director of Administration without submitting an appointment to the Council for its confirmation or rejection under Charter subsection 315.A. Unless notice of an actual appointment or request for confirmation has been duly submitted to the Council, that subsection does not become operative.
This is very clear from its language: “Appointment by the County Executive …” and “confirm or reject an appointment,” not just the title of section 315 (“Confirmation of Appointments”).
A request to meet with the Council to discuss and/or meet a potential appointee does not constitute an appointment within the meaning of that term in section 315. Both Ms. Giordano and her handyman are aware of this – see their attached confirmation requests regarding the appointment of the handyman and the County Attorney. Unless the Council has previously received something
similar to those, section 315 does not become applicable until her statement that she has appointed Mr. Leitzel (or that he is now working for the County in that position) is submitted to the Council.
The Council would be wise to inform the trickster, her handyman, and Ms. Oland that:
1. Maryland’s Express Powers Act* – specifically section 10-303(c)(3) of the Local Government Article of the Maryland Code — authorizes the County Council of a charter county to “enact local laws to … provide for penalties, including removal from office, for a violation of the local laws or any regulations adopted under the local laws.”
2. Section 12-101(b) of the Local Government Article states that “[t]he governing body of a county may provide for the appointment and removal of any county officer or employee” who is not elected.
3. The Wicomico County Code, Chapter 59 Personnel Rules, contains these potentially pertinent provisions:
Article III Positions for Which Confirmation by Council Is Required
§ 59-16 Prohibited service in a position.
§ 59-17 Penalties for prohibited service and authorization thereof; removal.
§ 59-18 Payment of salary prohibited; sanctions for payment.
§ 59-19 Liability for prohibited salary.
Article IV Removal From Office
§ 59-20 Procedure.
§ 59-21 Finality of decision; nonappealable.
§ 59-22 Post-removal sanction.
Article V Other Rules
§ 59-23 Payment of unauthorized salary; penalties, removal and liability.
I’d like to know the real reason {where’s the transparency council??} why this “viewer writes” council member and some other council members are so against the executive hiring the people they wish to work with? Why are these members working in secrecy, why cant they be transparent about WHY their so against hiring these people?
It’s NOT that they refuse employees, it’s the fact that there’s a process in which must be followed and in this case the council states it was not followed. The rules of the charter are there for a reason.
Done correctly for the 30 previous recent recommendations – not done correctly for these two.
That may or may not be the reason these two were disapproved – but the action appears to have been taken to prevent a default hiring anyway.
Meanwhile, these people are filling positions in violation of the County Charter and should be informed of their illegal employment and have their pay stopped.
If the Executive wants these positions filled successfully, she should start by submitting new names to the Council per the process documented in the Charter and previously successfully used!
This power struggle is causing progress to stop!
You clowns are of the same majority party – work together and act like it – you’ll get a lot more done.
If the council is acting like Democrats – that’s a different story…they were not elected as democrats!
Wrong
Council are not approving her desired candidates therefore she is looking for ways around it.
lol, really? They were not elected as Democrats? Did you not know their party affiliation before you voted? Do you not know its party above all else when it comes to politics?
Dan Cox is a disgrace and most certainly should not be hired.
Tell us the facts as to why Cox is a disgrace.
?? 10:19
Julie can do whatever she wants because like Trump she is an elected God…’murica
…because your girl lost??
Wannabe dictator Julie has increased county spending, meaning our tax dollar costs, by 11% this last budget, and now she wants to get the county council to hire an additional expensive lawyer so she could sue the county council for not getting her illegal hires put on the payroll…. Total train wreck, failure.
Did council approve and pass this increase?
They can only cut it…which they did…they actually shuffled around most of her insane pet projects…but they can because we have laws and a county charter for a reason….unlike the two scum she tried to hire behind the taxpayers’ back…
Hey 10:53, another way to look at it is, Julie Giordano held inflation to only 11%. I guess you haven’t noticed the increase in the cost of living yet.
Your problem here is Oland! She is the real dictator and is telling the handyman and the queen what to do. Maybe the county needs to do the same as the city did and send her goofy laughing a$$ packing.
she’s part of it but remember NO ONE wants to work with this moron Julie….I know a half dozen liberal dem teachers who voted FOR her because they wanted her out of Bennett so she could go be someone else’s problem. She paid pam a huge salary increase to stay because if Pam decides to walk away the county’s finances will collapse..not enough educated people want to stay around Julie and her childish meltdowns…..the buck stops with that deranged RINO Julie….
From what I understand the executive did submitted both names to the council, and the council (in closed chamber) said no, but never officially voted no. So the county council didn’t do its job. Love or hate the executive, the council, lead by Cannon, are the biggest problem.
You are so WRONG! You know, sometimes I really wonder about you people locally. Let me explain this one more time. The executive and staff DID present their proposal in a CLOSED CHAMBER meeting. That meeting was NBOT public, therefore it is meaningless, like it never happened because they PUBLIC was not aware. It has to be in a LEGAL OPEN meeting.
… and all these ridiculous comments are the reason no one with a brain wants to get into politics here.
You all slandered the previous executive, and the one before that and now the new one.
When reading all the articles, both the city and county governments come across as clown shows, with uneducated, unprofessional people on a power trip
The truth is, elected officials are often uneducated. Not necessarily uneducated in specific careers and/or trades, but uneducated in the roles of operating, maintaining, providing sevices to a population and doing so under the host of federal, state and local laws. The truth is, Julie is WAY over her head in managing a local, State of Maryland, country. She needs these added individuals to do the work for her that she’s incapable of doing herself. You now have a school teacher trying to manage and run a $175,000,000,000 budget with 23 departments and agencies and near 500 employees and she doesn’t know what to do. Besides, elections are nothing more than a popularity contest anyways. Anyone stupid fool can run for the County Executive or a County Council seat.
lol, and how is that ANY different than any other business
Do you think Trump is running every dept in his business, no he hires people to handle it.
This is no different.
This is how a business is run.
What a narrow understanding some of you have, to think she is handling everything.
Whats the point of a department head , if they are not handling their department.
You typed $175 billion.
Did you mean $175 million?
There are good points in the rest of your post, as well as some obvious strong opinions.
I would like to know of what f’ing progress you clowns speak?? Salisbury/wicomico county is a shit hole now. This is how stupid your leaders are Jake day and the city council ban plastic bags in the name of climate change then the county does away with recycling station at civic center forcing people to either drive further away or just say screw it and fill up the landfill with recyclables. YOU CAN’T MAKE This S*** UP
Once again you are uneducated. The Civic Center is within the Salisbury City Limits and the City has their own CURB SIDE pickup. The Civic Center is constantly being abused by local residents throwing their regular household trash into the recycling bins. They throw away mattresses, couches and even kitty litter. The County was KIND enough to provide these bins but they’ve been abused to a point even hypodermic needles are being dumped in them, all of which have to be removed and separated by inmates. It was a smart move.
Joe, the problem is that the civic center is COUNTY property and its the only central location that provides this service to county residents…….the bigger problem no one wants to talk about is that 3 employees left the dept. last week for higher paying jobs elsewhere…..Julie’s winning just never ends I guess….
I am sure pay rates were set LONGGGGGG before Julie came onboard.
LOL – more liberalism for the small town that use to be great. I guess the old saying from the old Governor – Eastern Shore is the toilet of Maryland was correct. Liberal politicians care about one thing – How to make money or make their friends money. They do not care about GREEN agenda, it’s just a platform.
example – Cow Urine – it’s the DEF Fluid, guess who pushed that – Hellary Clinton. Guess who has stock in it. ?????
People – being Liberal, being a Demoncrap is a mental illness. What to stop population growth? start there.
lmao at the shitshow salisbury has become! all the same ol people squabbling over what? scraps falling from the table of evil doers!
chasing the almighty dollar! better get yourself and your own houses in order! times short!
Salisbury and Wicomico county have become shit holes. Mostly due to you liberals in charge. You have made Salisbury crack alley. Can’t get thru town without a homeless person asking for money. Or trash all over the roads. And the roads themselves are pathetic. We’ve got great bike lanes tho and soon we will have a crack park downtown. And then there’s the crime. 2nd worst city in Maryland for crime. I have lived here my entire life and have only 1 year left before retirement. And then I am getting the hell out of shit city.