EXCLUSIVE: Former Pocomoke City Manager’s attorney speaks out
POCOMOKE, Md. – On Wednesday, we sat down with former City Manager Bobby Cowger’s attorney, Robin Cockey, after Cowger announced that he wants to be reinstated by Pocomoke City. If the city denies Cowger’s request, he plans to ask the City Council to schedule a public hearing.
Bobby Cowger’s attorney Robin Cockey said, “His hope is that cooler heads on the council will prevail and the city will decide to proceed with him.”
Bobby Cowger released a statement on Tuesday, saying he is grateful for the public’s support over these past few weeks, and that this has inspired him to try to get his job back.
Cockey said, “Basically, he wanted to thank people for their support and to assure them that it’s not in vain, that he heard heir voice, that he wants to go back to work for Pocomoke City. Bobby is kind of Mr Pocomoke.”
The city claims they let Cowger go because of “unsatisfactory performance.”
Cockey said, “Unsatisfactory performance is one of those inflatable terms that can expand to assume the dimensions of whatever space is available.”
On Tuesday, we reached out to the city council for a comment on all of this, but they declined saying it’s a “personnel matter”.
Cockey said, “Apart from crazy lists of semi-literate accusations and here-say we don’t really have much to go on.”
The list that Bobby Cowger’s lawyer is referring to suggests that Cowger did things like: fail to show invoices regarding tree and sidewalk repairs to council members, demolish a building without council approval and create a new department without council approval.
Bobby Cowger’s lawyer says this list was confusing, informal and hard to interpret.
Cockey said, “It was a very strange document, it didn’t have complete sentences.”
Bobby and his lawyer responded to each of the accusations on that list and now they say they’re ready to take their defense in front of the City Council if need be.
Cockey said, “So if he has to he will request a public hearing to give him and the other folks in town who are concerned about this the opportunity to be heard and to be heard in City Hall.”
If Cowger requests a public hearing, he has to get that request into the city sometime within the next fourteen days.
After that, the soonest the city can schedule a public hearing is 20 days after the request is made.
