County Council overturns County Executive Veto, moves to defund positions in County Government

SALISBURY, Md – In a 6-1 vote Tuesday night, the Wicomico County Council voted once again to defund the positions of two employees hired by County Executive Julie Giordano.

Those positions defunded included the staffed Deputy Director of Public Works and Assistant Director of Administration, as well as the vacant Director of Public Works position.

Giordano had previously vetoed the measure but the County Council had enough votes to overturn it.

“In doing so, we reaffirm the fact that the Council does not want to fund the three vacant positions, and we do not expect those individuals who are currently in in those roles, in those positions to be paid with the taxpayer’s money,” said County Council President John Cannon.

Giordano tells 47ABC she believes she had the right to appoint the position can is calling the action an overreach by the County Council.

“Their reasoning for defunding this was that I didn’t name people in six months, first of all, that’s only a provision, secondly, one of the positions wasn’t even vacant until April 28th,” Giordano said adding “They feel justified in doing this, but they’re really not justified, it is an extreme abuse of power there have to be guardrails on what they can and cannot do and defunding positions because they’re mad about something just can’t be allowed.”

Council President John Cannon says the council did not find the candidates qualified but they were hired anyway, in what he calls a violation of the county charter by the County Executive.

The council also voted this week to deny Giordano outside counsel in the case to the tune of 150,000.

“We thought it just wasn’t the right thing to do to spend this kind of type of money and the resources that the executive would sue the county council,” Cannon said.

The two roles will have their funding cut by November 15th, the defacto firing date for the two employed by the County, but Giordano tells 47ABC her office is heading back to court to prevent that outcome.

“We actually plan to file an additional lawsuit and then a stay, so our hope is with the stay that it will that the judge will rule in favor of us for the stay on the legislation, meaning that it puts the legislation on hold until the lawsuit is heard,” she said.

The stay would preserve the roles and the funding until the court cases are resolved if approved by a Circuit Court judge.

Giordano tells us she believes the county should not defund the positions and plans to argue in the lawsuit that they do not have that power.

“The county council cannot have the power to defend positions, I have employees who are scared to death right now that if they don’t say what the council wants them to say or if they don’t do with the council says that they’ll just defend their position, that they could just pass another legislative bill and defund it,” she said.

Counsel President Cannon tells us he believes the defunding option was the only recourse available to the council.

“The executive has chosen to pay these particular individuals who the Council does not consider to be employees of Wicomico County in their respective roles, once you realize the executive has taken that position and the executive is actually using taxpayers’ money to pay their salaries, which are six-figure incomes here, then the council feels that there’s they have to take stronger measures and the stronger measures were to pull the funding,” he said.

The mechanics of how to properly submit a staffing request now threaten to further complicate the dispute, with both sides offering competing legal theories and arguing over the language of the County charter and the reading being applied by the Wicomico County Attorney Paul Wilber who represents both the County Executive and County Council.

“After the last election cycle, the charter was changed, so now, Mr. Wilber, at any point in time, at will, could be fired by the executive, and I’m concerned as to whether that forces Mr. Wilber into a bit of a compromise or a bit of a compromise when he’s dealing directly with the executive,” Cannon said.

Giordano tells us Wilber would not be able to represent her in any court case and tells 47ABC that if the council believes he is conflicted, then they should not have denied her outside counsel request.

“He doesn’t want to represent me because he works with the council as well, he’s the county attorney, not my attorney, but he’s going to take that back to his partners and see what they think, and if they feel conflicted, then we’re kind of stuck,” she said.

County Executive Giordano tells us she wants greater clarity in the process, and believes the 2 roles at the center of the dispute should be allowed to remain as a clearer process acceptable to all is codified.

“I do agree that we need to communicate a lot more, but this could be over if the council said, you know what, there was some disagreement about the appointments, but these appointments stand, but from here on out, this is the process that we’re going to follow,” Giordano said.