Ehrlich’s skater sticks a tough landing

Judge says worker was fired wrongly from state job

Maddalone did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari stands by his decision that the firing was allowed by the law, department spokesman Jack Cahalan said Thursday. The department’s lawyers were reviewing options.

‘‘We support Secretary Porcari’s efforts to bring professional, competent administrators,” O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said.

The decision drew strong responses from both sides of the partisan divide, particularly from Republicans still smarting from a 13-month investigation into Ehrlich-era firings that Democrats claimed were politically motivated.

‘‘Clearly, there is mismanagement evident very early in this administration with regard to personnel decisions, including illegal political firings,” House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell said.

‘‘I think [the decision] defies common sense, and I’m not sure on which planet this administrative law judge resides,” state Democratic Party spokesman David Paulson said.

Maddalone — a professional ice dancer who is four classes shy of an associate’s degree — took a job with the Republican administration shortly after Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. took office in 2003.

He began working at MDOT on June 30, 2005, and was fired six days after O’Malley’s inauguration along with his supervisor.

Maddalone was a mid-level administrator with MDOT’s Office of Engineering, Procurement and Emergency Services when Porcari told him that he was being dismissed as part of a reorganization aimed at hiring more qualified staff, according to the decision.

Judge Susan A. Sinrod ruled that Maddalone’s firing was illegal because Porcari’s statements showed he did not know enough about Maddalone to decide whether Maddalone was not qualified for a department that is being revamped to focus on homeland security.

‘‘By Secretary Porcari’s own admission, the only knowledge that he had of the Employee were news accounts that questioned whether he was commissioned by the Ehrlich Administration to target people in State agencies for hiring and firing, and questioned his qualifications for any state employment because he is an ice dancer,” according to the decision.

Further, Sinrod said, because Maddalone was not in a policy-making position, terminating him violated his First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights to freedom of assembly and due process.

Maddalone first worked in the governor’s office designing Web sites. He also was the chief of staff for the Maryland Transportation Authority’s general manager and legislative liaison for the Port Administration.

Job ratings for Maddalone in 2005 and 2006, respectively, said he ‘‘far exceed[ed] standards” and ‘‘exceed[ed] standards.”

Porcari did ask to review Maddalone’s personnel file, the decision said, but the file did not contain the job appraisals.

In 2005, Democratic lawmakers — through the General Assembly’s Legislative Policy Committee — seated a Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections. Maddalone was alleged to have been dispatched to the Transportation Department to identify state employees for firing.

Senate Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian E. Frosh, a member of the special committee, found it ironic that Maddalone sought protections he denied other state workers.

‘‘It turns the world on its head to say it was an abuse of the O’Malley administration to get rid of him,” said Frosh (D-Dist. 16) of Bethesda.

Republicans have repeatedly decried the time and money spent scrutinizing Ehrlich’s firings, without producing a documented illegal dismissal.

‘‘The General Assembly ... spent 18 months and $1.1 million and found nothing. Now that they actually have a proven case, the public has a right to know what they intend to do about it,” said Henry P. Fawell, an Ehrlich administration spokesman who now works for the former governor at his law practice with Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice in Linthicum.

O’Donnell noted the state lacks a personnel director, a position vacant since O’Malley took office.

‘‘I call on the governor to immediately cease his trips to Ireland, Las Vegas and New Hampshire and fill this position of personnel director,” said O’Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby. ‘‘This is not running a rock band. This is running a state. So let’s get to it.”

State residents deserve better than double standards and political games, Maryland Republican Party Chairman James Pelura said.

‘‘Martin O’Malley was in office for not even six days when his Administration unlawfully fired a state employee,” he said in a statement. ‘‘Marylanders should be outraged that $1.1 million was wasted last year on investigations and not one penny has been spent on real, documented cases of abuse under Martin O’Malley.”

‘‘If Jim Pelura thinks an ice dancer with a high school degree should be in charge of any aspect of this state’s homeland security, he is out of his mind,” Paulson said.

Senate Minority Whip Allan H. Kittleman said he believes other dismissed state workers would be filing similar suits. ‘‘I don’t think this will be the last time we’ll hear about this,” he said.

Kittleman said he wished the decision had come before Tuesday’s meeting of the Legislative Policy Committee, which meets rarely.

‘‘We could have asked the Legislative Policy Committee to have the hirings and firings committee to look into the actions of the current administration,” said Kittleman (R-Dist. 9) of West Friendship.

But Frosh said an order of magnitude separates the Ehrlich firings from the ones of the new Democratic administration. O’Malley has fired 30 to 40 people, he said; Ehrlich terminated 350.

‘‘When they get up to 350 ... then we’ll talk about it,” Frosh said.