Bland struggles with high staff turnover, criticism

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Bland

Last month, Bland fired two employees, bringing her total to at least 12 terminations or resignations of full-time staff since she was elected to the council in December 2002. Her office has three full-time staff positions.

Of the other eight County Council members, the most turnover recorded is three full-time employees. The staff churn has raised concerns among constituents about her abilities as a council member.

‘‘Her staff and she have not been able to respond to requests over the phone or from letters or e-mails, ‘‘ said Joe Brice, president of the Prince George’s County Civic Federation who lives in Cheltenham. ‘‘She doesn’t have a staff there that’s been there long enough to know what the process is.”

Bland did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

A mother and daughter team, who resigned Aug. 24, were employed in the District 9 office for six months and were among the longest employed since Bland took office. In December, Bland fired two employees three days before Christmas and forced the resignation of another. Her brother, Carl Gordon, was among them.

In one instance, an employee was terminated while in the hospital for surgery. After the employee threatened legal action, she was allowed to return to work and her firing was delayed.

Former employees contacted for the story declined to comment on the record. Most said they were fired for ‘‘insubordination.”

The councilwoman has cited problems caused by the high turnover in her office. Bland blamed her former staff for her failure to complete a financial disclosure form she filed in April, in which the lone item listed for 2004 was a $50 gift basket from an unnamed benefactor.

‘‘During last year, 2004, I received several items that were sent to me by constituents and other parties outside of my district and instructed my staff to log each item ... My staff, at that time, did not log any of the items and also took the items received. Therefore, I do not have an accurate listing of those items,” she stated in an addendum.

‘‘Those are very difficult jobs, and they are limited in the amount of money you can pay people,” said M.H. Jim Estepp, the former County Councilman for District 9. Estepp spoke out against Bland during the 2002 election and supported someone running against her. ‘‘It would not be unusual for a person who’d been in office four years to have 100 percent turnover,” he said.

Controversial history

Bland has weathered several political crises in the past. As vice chairwoman of the county school board, she had to repay more than $10,000 charged to a school system expense account that paid for a family trip to Walt Disney World in 2000. She had also accused the Prince George’s County state delegation of racial discrimination for not fully funding county schools.

Days before Bland and the rest of the elected school board were replaced by an appointed board in 2002, she spent nearly $10,000 in public money to send a newsletter to 29,500 residents. Because she conducted the mailing just before filing for the County Council race, many in political circles saw it as a maneuver to promote her candidacy.

Bland has faced similar scrutiny and criticism as a council member.

At the start of each fiscal year, council members are equally allotted grant money to distribute at their own discretion. In fiscal 2004, while all of the other council members doled out $67,000 to $70,000 to nonprofit organizations, Bland gave out a little less than $49,000.

‘‘If a council member doesn’t distribute the money then it goes back into the general fund,” said Councilman Douglas J.J. Peters (D-Dist. 4.) of Bowie. ‘‘But we’re all made aware of how much we have at the beginning of each year.”

Civic leaders in District 9, geographically the largest in the county, said they have had great difficulty getting responses from Bland on varying issues.

When residents of a Clinton community needed help getting a builder to move soil left behind after homes were built, they contacted Bland, the Department of Environmental Resources and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, residents said.

‘‘We got a response back from everybody except Councilwoman Bland, who represents us,” said Eugene Boyd, a Clinton resident. Boyd described the councilwoman’s performance as ineffective and out of touch.

Bland’s staff did eventually contact residents — six weeks after the initial request and long after other departments had contacted them, residents said.

Community leaders said this has been a pattern since Bland took office in 2002 and that the heavy staff turnover in her office is a contributing factor.

Teena Green, president of the Villages of Camp Springs Civic Association, said Bland has made it to community meetings recently but added that her attendance was out of the ordinary.

‘‘I’d have to say that she’s been more responsive very recently but maybe that’s because the election is coming up,” Green told The Gazette. ‘‘But in the first few years, it was virtually impossible to get a hold of her. We had a meeting in June, and she came. We didn’t invite her, but she came. We had all but given up on her.”

Green said that the most help her organization has received has been from Councilman Tony Knotts (D-Dist. 8) of Temple Hills. Green’s community is very close to Knotts’ district.

‘‘He’s not even our councilman but Tony Knotts is more receptive,” Green said.

Brice, president of the Prince George’s County Civic Federation, said that he and other civic leaders tried to recruit Bland to help set up a business roundtable between local businesses and Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, the county’s largest employer, but that she did not show up for the initial meeting even though Knotts and county State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey did.

‘‘Things used to be falling through the cracks but now she doesn’t have cracks, she has fissures,” Brice said.

Mixed results

Frank Kahan, past president of the Greater Accokeek Civic Association, said he had positive experiences when dealing with Bland.

‘‘Whenever I called, I never had a problem getting a hold of her,” Kahan, who left office last year, said. ‘‘I went to her office several times, and she would sit down with me and she would always listen, even if she didn’t agree or wasn’t able to do anything about the problem.” Kahan said Bland had regularly attended his civic association meetings and was instrumental in helping clear a piece of property that had become a tire dump.

However, Judy Allen-Leventhal, the current president of the association, said there are still issues in the Accokeek area that have yet to be addressed by Bland.

In some instances, Allen-Leventhal said, Bland’s actions in her capacity as council member have weakened the quality of life for Accokeek residents.

‘‘We’re disappointed,” Allen-Leventhal said. ‘‘She’s responsive. She comes to meetings, but just coming to meetings doesn’t get it.”

Allen-Leventhal said recent bills introduced by Bland may allow developers to bypass special exception reviews that are normally required. She said opening the gates for increased development would put a strain on adequate public facilities in south county.

‘‘We just feel abandoned down here,” she said. ‘‘We have inadequate police, EMTs [emergency medical technicians] and our schools are underserved. These problems are countywide, but we’re at the end of the road down here,” Allen-Leventhal said.

A growing number of residents in District 9 had been discussing trying to find a candidate to run against Bland in the upcoming election in 2006, Brice said, hoping for more responsive leadership. ‘‘In the next election, Councilwoman Bland is probably in for the fight of her life,” Boyd said.

E-mail Tiesha Higgins at thiggins@gazette.net and Guy Leonard at gleonard@gazette.net.

Correction, Dec. 19, 2005:The mother and daughter team mentioned in this story resigned from County Councilwoman Marilynn M. Bland's staff. County government sources incorrectly told The Gazette they were fired. The reporter was unsuccessful in trying to contact them before the story was published.