Judge Rules in Favor of County Executive Julie Giordano over hiring dispute with County Council

SALISBURY, Md – A Judge has ruled in favor of Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano against the Wicomico County Council on the hiring of Mathew Weitzel in his role as assistant of Administration within the county, saying that the County Executive followed proper procedure in his hiring.

The ruling also reversed the defunding of the position by the County Council as of November 5th and allows for the Weitzel to return to his role, which Giordanos says will take place this coming Monday, with back pay.

The other two positions as the center of the lawsuit, currently vacant, were ruled to be allowed to be defunded by the County Council, but would not be allowed to remain so if a person was hired for those positions.

Giordano says the ruling offers great clarity for hiring disputes between the Executive and Council moving forward.

“That the council has to adhere to the charter first and foremost, that is the law of the land, and so therefore, we really need to make sure that we are following it,” Giordano said adding” it puts into perspective that we really should listen to our county attorney, the county attorney works with us both sides of government, and because the council didn’t like his opinion, they decided to go off, you know, kind of off script with their own attorney, and it just didn’t fare well.”

“It does go to show that the council will not be able to zero out positions, they couldn’t say that they don’t like this person or don’t like this person and can zero something out, it must be vacant,” Giordano said.

Giordano tells 47ABC they are in active hiring to fill the two rules, of Director and Deputy Director of Public Works.

“We have actually had an interview for director of public works and we actually have three candidates that are interested in the deputy director of public works, so I’m hoping by the end of the year we will have those positions filled,” Giordano said