County Council President responds on hiring dispute with County Executive

SALISBURY, Md –  The dispute between County Executive Julie Giordano and the Wicomico County Council over the hiring of two administrative positions is in a holding pattern after a judge this week denied an attempt from the county executive to expedite the process of getting a lawyer for the case.

The dispute stems from the appointment of Giordano as the Assistant Director of Administration and Deputy Director of Public Works.

“There’s a legal process in place and the council has followed this throughout time,  the council is not trying to be obstructionist,  we actually approved back in one meeting in January, we approved seven positions of directors and deputy directors because we knew they were qualified,  this is a case where we found two individuals we didn’t feel they were qualified and that should be it,” Cannon told 47ABC.

He says the issue does have an end date, as the Council voted to remove the funding for the positions starting this fall.

“The drop dead date is probably November, around November 5th,  at that point in time the position will no longer be funded,  and the individuals, from our perspective, will have to step down,” Cannon said adding ” The executive has characterized this as a charter language dispute, It isn’t a charter language dispute,I think the executive truly just misread the charter,  and I think that that’s the and now we’re being put through an awful lot of turmoil because of that.”