|
ST. MARY’S TODAY
LEONARDTOWN --- The cloak-and-dagger
game, involving dollars, seems over.
A check of at least $408,000 has already
been cut as St. Mary’s newly-elected
Democrat-majority board of county
commissioners settled a legal suit with
former county administrator Al Lacer.
The sacked county administrator
had signed an unusually
long four-and-half year contract that he
hand-drafted as county attorney before
he rose to the highest paid job.
“The papers have been signed,”
Commissioner President Jack Russell (D.
St. George Island) told ST. MARY’S TODAY
as he emerged after a ten hour-long day
of meetings Tuesday evening.
Russell said, “Either side had several
days more to revoke the agreement.” He
said the deal would go through on
January 14.
He said he could not give out the
details of the deal as yet, but said the
agreement the county has signed with Al
Lacer would be an open document
available to the public.
Commissioner Dan Raley (D. Great Mills)
said signing of the agreement augured
well for the county.
“The check has been cut,” Raley told ST.
MARY’S TODAY. “It’s over,”
Raley said, adding it was a done deal,
but Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden
Beach) walked into his chamber at this
point and corrected Raley.
“There’s a seven-day period for either
party to revoke the deal,” Jarboe said,
and Raley concurred. “So it’s not a done
deal yet,” Raley agreed with the legal
technicalities.
Raley said the county had spent over
$90,000 in the legal battle with Al
Lacer, who was county attorney when the
contract for his future job as county
administrator was drafted.
“If this case was to continue on and on,
the county would have cost the county
$225 in attorney fees,” Raley said. He
said this was an awful lot of money that
he did not like to pay. “If you were to
look at the total financial impact,
prolonging the legal battle would have
cost a tremendous amount of taxpayers’
money.”
Raley and Commissioner Tom Mattingly (D.
Leonardtown) were the two commissioners
who voted against ending Al Lacer’s
contract when Tommy McKay took over as
the county’s Republican commissioner
president following the 2002 elections.
Raley said as far as he knew not all the
money would go into the pocket of the
former county attorney and
administrator. “Some of it, $75,000
would go to his lawyer,” Raley said.
Jarboe was the lone commissioner who
said was not delighted over the
settlement. “I am the lone nay vote and
opposed to the settlement as well,”
Jarboe said. “It was a four-to-one vote.
It’s documented,” he said.
Jarboe gave the reasons he had initially
voted for ending Al Lacer’s contract.
“Number one, a four-and-half-year
contract was far too long compared to
the standard two-year-contract.”
Jarboe confessed he did not have much
fond memories of Al Lacer’s tenure in
office.
But Jarboe conceded he did not believe
the county would have held up in the
Maryland Court of Appeals. “But I do
believe the federal Supreme Court would
have recognized the people’s right to
elect representatives and those
representatives chose the administration
that would represent their agenda.”
Jarboe said a classic example is how ST.
MARY’S TODAY was so successful in an
2003 appeal to the United States Court
of Appeals which eventually prevailed
all the way to the Supreme Court
“ironically in their case against the
county.” He was alluding to the rare
attack on the freedom of the press,
which was ruled illegal by the court in
a published opinion. The case stemmed
from a overnight raid launched by the
States Attorney Richard Fritz, then
Sheriff Richard Voorhaar and seven St.
Mary’s sheriff deputies. The group
raided newsstands on election eve of all
available copies of the Election Day
issue in order to prevent voters from
seeing critical articles prior to
voting.
Jarboe asked, “If you feel four-and-half
year is legal why not make it a 40-year
contract?”
Contending that in a democracy leaders
should be ready to pay the price to
uphold values, Jarboe said the county
would have footed the lawyer fees
regardless of the outcome of a prolonged
legal battle. “In my opinion, the other
four commissioners did not believe we
would have success (in court).”
Raley said a cloud would have hung on
the county government for a period of
three years of time had an out of court
settlement not been signed.
He said the unresolved issue would have
taxed the county’s affordability limits.
Die-hard Democrat Tom Mattingly (D.
Leonardtown), who was Tuesday evening
seen closeted in talks with Raley and
county administrative officer Donna
Gebicke, felt Al Lacer had been wronged
since day one.
“I voted against the motion that was
crafted to dismiss him. I am glad it’s
behind us,” Mattingly said. “I felt it
was handled poorly from the very
beginning.”
He said he was happy on two counts one
was to reach a settlement and the second
was to reduce the escalating cost of
litigation.
“I am certainly so,” Russell said, when
asked if he was pleased over the
agreement.
|
