MarylandReporter.com

List: Maryland state employees making $100,000 per year or more

Len Lazarick — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:04:29 +0000

$100,000+ Maryland Salaries 2012 (PDF)$100,000+ Maryland Salaries 2012 (Text)

List: 212 state workers made $100,000 with overtime pay

Len Lazarick — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:57:45 +0000

Overtime Pay $100K or More (PDF)Overtime Pay $100K or More (Text)

State Roundup, May 17, 2013

Cynthia Prairie — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:10:21 +0000

BILL SIGNING, SERENADE: Gov. Martin O’Malley on Thursday signed bills to give Maryland some of the strictest gun laws in the nation and hike the state’s gas tax, writes Alex Jackson for the Capital-Gazette.

The gun law bans the sale of assault-style rifles, including the AR-15 used in the Newtown killing of six educators and 20 first- and second-graders, the Sun’s Erin Cox reports. The law limits gun ownership for people with mental illness, outlaws the sale of high-capacity magazines and establishes the nation’s first new handgun licensing scheme in two decades.

As he signed legislation Thursday raising Maryland’s gas tax, Gov. O’Malley identified an initial $1.2 billion in new road and transit projects that he said the new revenue will make possible, including several in the Washington region, the Post’s John Wagner reports. Erin Cox of the Sun lists 10 projects that officials announced immediately after the gas tax bill was signed.

A $1 billion plan to replace aging schools in Baltimore City, signed into law Thursday, went from ridiculous to reality because of hard work by scores of people in both Baltimore City and Annapolis, and a host of political forces were in play. But three stand out, reports Michael Dresser in the Sun.

The Carroll County Student Government Association members went to Annapolis Thursday to watch Gov. O’Malley sign into state law the bill they helped create – SB 428 adds the position of a non-voting student representative to the Carroll County Board of Education into the education article of Maryland law, writes Alisha George for the Carroll County Times.

For much of the two-hour bill signing, barn dance music was piped into the governor’s reception room as he and legislative leaders signed more than 250 bills into law.

TAKING AIM AT GUN LAW: Christian Schaffer of WMAR-TV reports that gun rights supporters in Maryland agree they would like to fight to overturn the state’s new gun law. But not all of them agree on just how to do it. On Thursday, hundreds of gun owners and advocates gathered in Carroll County to hear details on the gun restrictions and to plan their next move in their attempt to repeal them.

JAIL SCANDAL HEARING: Maryland lawmakers have rescheduled a hearing prompted by problems at the Baltimore City Detention Center for June 6, two weeks earlier than previously announced, writes John Wagner of the Post.

NO. 2 FOR SEXUAL CONTACT: Ian Duncan of the Sun reports that the Baltimore City Detention Center had the nation’s second-highest rate of sexual contact between jail staff and inmates, according to a U.S. Department of Justice study released less than a month after federal prosecutors accused corrections officers at the jail of sleeping with gang members.

TAX APPEAL CASE DELAYS: The Maryland Tax Court, which hears appeals in cases involving state and local taxes, must hear and decide residential property assessment cases within 90 days. But, reports Jamie Smith Hopkins of the Sun, 41% of the cases heard between July 2010 and mid-February took longer — as much as a year past the 90-day point, the Office of Legislative Audits said.

OT A BOON FOR SOME STATE WORKERS: Some Maryland state government workers more than doubled their salaries with overtime payments in 2012, and more than 3,300 topped $10,000 in overtime payments, writes Meg Tully for MarylandReporter.com.

BAKER STICKS WITH MGM: Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker is holding pat on his support for MGM Resorts International’s casino plan at National Harbor, despite a surprise bid from a Pennsylvania-based gaming company, reports Michael Neibauer for the Baltimore Business Journal.

PROPER NOTICE: Alison Knezevich of the Sun reports that a state panel that rules on open meeting complaints has found that Baltimore County officials gave proper notice of its meeting where residents could testify about a new stormwater fee.

HOWARD RAIN TAX CALCULATOR: Thanks to a new web-based impervious surface estimator created by Howard County’s Geographic Information Services, county residents and businesses can now calculate how much Maryland’s new storm water management fees or the “rain tax” as it is known, will cost them on their July property tax bills, writes Red Maryland’s Mark Newgent for Watchdogwire.

DEL. KACH TO RUN FOR COUNCIL: Long-time Baltimore County Del. Wade Kach has formally announced he will challenge Baltimore County Council Todd Huff next year, writes Alison Knezevich of the Sun.

DEL. SCHUH TO CHAIR: Del. Steve Schuh was elected Thursday morning to serve as chairman of the Anne Arundel delegation in the House of Delegates, replacing Del. Nic Kipke who resigned from the role after being elected House minority leader last month, reports Alex Jackson in the Capital-Gazette.

RAIN TAX: Homeowners already implementing measures to deal with stormwater runoff say they are being double-taxed by new fees, Kevin James Shay reports in the Gazette.

MoCo DEMS: A union protest limited attendance at a Montgomery County Democratic party fundraiser last weekend , but it hasn’t stopped donations from rolling in, Kate Alexander reports in the Gazette. County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Gabe Albornoz said that pledges made in the wake of the party’s May 11 Spring Ball have helped the party exceed its fundraising goal for the event.

HOSPITAL CHARGES: Two patients in Maryland go to the hospital for an identical procedure. If they both go to the same hospital, they will face the same charges. But if each goes to a different facility, the charges for that procedure could differ, sometimes by thousands of dollars, Daniel Leaderman writes in the Gazette.

MoCo BUDGET: The Montgomery County Council will enhance services and reduce energy taxes through its fiscal 2014 operating budget unanimously agreed to Thursday morning, reports the Gazette’s Kate Alexander. The council reached a tentative agreement on the $4.8 billion spending plan and will take a final vote on the budget Wednesday.

RACE FOR GOVERNOR: Gazette columnist Blair Lee handicaps the Democratic race for governor.

Some state workers doubled their salaries into six-figures with overtime

Len Lazarick — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:12:43 +0000

By Meg Tully

Meg@MarylandReporter.com

Some Maryland state government workers more than doubled their salaries with overtime payments in 2012, and more than 3,300 topped $10,000 in overtime payments.

MarylandReporter.com analyzed overtime payments in a database from the Maryland Comptroller’s Office as part of its third annual state government salaries series.

Government workers who got paid overtime had total earnings of up to $160,000 annually, though only 212 out of tens of thousands of employees making overtime made more than $100,000 total from the state. That is about 4% of the 5,663 employees who earned $100,000 or more in 2012.

Here is the list of the 212 employees whose overtime put them over $100,000 a year.

Overtime Pay $100K or More (PDF)Overtime Pay $100K or More (Text)

24-hour facilities require more overtime

“Any facility that’s open 24-hours, a hospital, a prison, a jail, there will be a lot of overtime because if someone calls in sick, they have to have coverage,” said Warren Deschenaux, director of the Office Policy Analysis in the Department of Legislative Services.

His office reviews overtime budgets as part of the review for each agency’s annual operating budget. Recently, the office found that two departments were not budgeting enough for their actual overtime expenses.

One of the things the state does to save money is not filling vacant positions, he said, but that can increase the amount of overtime needed when people are entrusted to the care of the state – such as at hospitals, juvenile facilities or prisons. As a result, agencies with vacant positions will pay time and a half for the same work, but might have savings because they don’t have to pay benefits for extra workers.

Overtime can also be higher in agencies where jobs are unpleasant or difficult and workers take more leave, he said.

MarylandReporter.com’s analysis shows the top 100 annual overtime payments in 2012 went to employees who worked for the following departments, many of whom offer around-the-clock services: Health and Mental Hygiene, Human Resources, State Police, Transportation, Public Safety and Correctional Services, State Universities and Colleges and the University of Maryland.

The top three workers for annual overtime payments, and 15 of the top 40, worked at the C.T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup for DHMH. The hospital houses the mentally ill who are also dangerous and accused or guilty of violent crimes.

Top overtime payment nearly $80,000

The highest overtime payment in 2012, excluding correctional officers, went to Harold Lynch, a Psychiatric Security Technician (Nursing) at the C.T. Perkins Hospital Center worker who brought in $79,647 in overtime. His salary was $46,911 and his gross payment from the state was $128,902.

Some individual correctional employees’ overtime payments are higher than the analysis reveals because of an accounting change as the department reorganized in 2012. Payments to those employees were recorded separately before and after the reorganization. However, the total overtime payment to all Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services employees was $42.7 million.

The overtime data presented by MarylandReporter.com is not available on the governor’s StateStat website at present, but it could be included in the governor’s new data.maryland.gov website once it is fully up and running, said Takirra Winfield, a spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O’Malley.

That website, launched May 8, is intended to act as an open data portal for researchers, citizens and others to support transparency and innovation in government, according to a news release.

How StateStat tackled overtime costs

Overtime earnings was one of the costs tackled by O’Malley’s StateStat program, a data-based management approach.

Numbers provided by O’Malley’s office show that overtime payments have decreased since he took office, dropping from $155 million in fiscal 2007 to a low of $124 million in 2010. Since then, overtime numbers have crept up to $139 million in fiscal 2012 – which is still $16 million less than fiscal 2007.

The database provided by the comptroller’s office recorded calendar year 2012, which spans fiscal year 2012 and 2013. Overtime payments totaled $126 million in that calendar year.

One agency where O’Malley targeted overtime payments was the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), according to Winfield.

In fiscal 2008, the state spent more than $30 million in overtime for the MTA. As the StateStat team tracked overtime spending for all agencies and looked for causal factors by isolating divisions and types of overtime used, MTA was flagged for having long-term absenteeism.

By creating a long-term absenteeism policy and a specific “return to work” managed program, employees on extended leave were encouraged to get back to work more quickly, she said.

“The results of these efforts have meant big savings for the State of Maryland,” Winfield said. “Overtime spending has been cut by 41 percent since FY08, saving more than $42 million in overtime expenses over the last four years.”

Top earners in key departments

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Harold Lynch, psychiatric security technician (Nursing), salary of $46,911 and $79,647 in overtime, for a gross payment of $128,902.

Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services: Anthony Osandu, correctional officer sergeant, salary $53,359 and $82,284 in overtime, for a gross payment of $137,911

Department of Transportation: Joseph Carter, salary of $83,798 and overtime of $70,011.20 for a gross payment of $152,374.

State Universities: David Elliott, CORRECTION: ~~maintenance chief 1~~ mechanical trades chief II, Towson University, $50,565 salary and $62,838 in overtime, for gross payment of $114,466

Maryland State Police: Scott Russell, salary of $64,642 and overtime was $47,681.71, for a gross payment of $144,547

University of Maryland: Harold Pitts, $66,854.09, overtime $47,019.46, gross earnings $114,680

Department of Juvenile Services overtime is Everett Taylor, community detention officer, salary of $54,380 and overtime of $52,414.19, for a gross payment of $107,557

DJS public information office Eric Solomon said Taylor works “with our kids in the community around the clock.”

The Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) has seen a decline in overtime hours since 2011, Solomon said. The agency saw a peak during 2011 as a new administration began to implement updated facility staffing policies and redirect existing resources to make DJS’s facilities safer and more secure.

DJS has added 49 direct care workers using existing resources, which has helped drive down the use of overtime, Solomon said. The legislature just funded 24 additional direct care positions, and these new positions will assist the agency in further decreasing the need for overtime.

State Roundup, May 16, 2013

Cynthia Prairie — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:04:50 +0000

GUN CONTROL BILL SIGNING: Gov. Martin O’Malley will sign into law one of the nation’s strictest gun-control measures today, a major victory after months of contentious debate during this year’s legislative session, reports Aaron Davis in the Post. But the signing of the law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, isn’t the end of the fight. A new battle begins to convince judges and voters that it was the right response to last year’s school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

The new law, writes Andy Brownfield for the Washington Examiner, would outlaw the sale of 45 assault rifles, require licensing and fingerprinting for new handgun purchases, restrict ammunition magazines to 10 rounds and outlaw gun ownership by the mentally ill. It would become effective Oct. 1.

In a related story, Brownfield writes that groups have long ranked Maryland among the strictest states when it comes to gun ownership — both the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence rank Maryland seventh among states with the strictest gun laws.

Advertisements praising Maryland’s new gun control law will appear on Baltimore-area televisions soon after the measure is signed — the first volley in a two-pronged effort to defend the legislation and the politicians who voted for it, writes Erin Cox in the Sun.

OTHER BILLS TO BE SIGNED: Gov. O’Malley plans to sign more than 250 bills into law today, including one to raise taxes on gas to yield more money for transportation projects, writes John Wagner of the Post.

TAX COLLECTION FEE: A Pennsylvania collections firm has pried Maryland back taxes out of delinquent taxpayers so well that the comptroller’s office just got approval for $300,000 more from the Board of Public Works to pay the agency’s commissions, writes Christopher Goins for MarylandReporter.com.

$271 FOR O’MALLEY: For once, Gov. O’Malley got a pleasant surprise from Comptroller Peter Franchot at the start of a Board of Public Works meeting, according to an AP report in the Daily Record. Franchot presented the governor with a check for $271 from the comptroller’s unclaimed properties division Wednesday.

The check — apparently a royalty from O’Malley’s cameo appearance as Baltimore’s mayor in “Ladder 49″ (a 2004 film starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta) — made O’Malley the 7,001st Marylander to find unclaimed property this year, blogs Alexander Pyles for the Daily Record.

CASINO BID: Greenwood Racing’s bid to build a Parx Casino in Fort Washington came as a surprise to many following Maryland’s gambling saga, but company officials say the move had always been in the cards, reports Matt Connolly for the Washington Examiner.

ECONOMY’S FUTURE: Eileen Ambrose of the Sun writes that the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is saying that Maryland for years benefited from its close proximity to the nation’s capital, but the mandatory federal spending cuts called sequestration will be a drag on the state’s economy for the next couple of years.

DEM PART PROTEST FOLLOWUP: David Moon of Maryland Juice has been following the labor union protest of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee’s annual spring fund-raiser, which was Saturday, and provides a range of photos, videos, and newspaper commentary describing and reacting to the conflict.

BROWN TO PRESENT PREAKNESS TROPHY: John Wagner of the Post reports that Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who announced his campaign for governor last week, should get some national television exposure Saturday: He is scheduled to present the trophy to the winner of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.

DEL. MYERS’ FUTURE: Del. LeRoy Myers announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2014, ending a run as a state legislator that began with an upset victory in 2002 over longtime House Speaker Cas Taylor, a Western Maryland Democratic heavyweight. Kaustuv Basu of the Hagerstown Herald-Mail reports that Myers is getting ready for a second act in politics.

TUITION HIKE: Maryland’s in-state undergraduates will pay a few hundred dollars more per semester this fall under a new tuition-and-fee plan approved Wednesday by the university system’s Board of Regents, reports Tricia Bishop in the Sun. Out-of-state students will be hit a little harder, paying as much as $1,060 more, for example, at the University of Maryland, College Park.

LOBBY FIRM MERGER: The Annapolis-based law firm Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver LLC has acquired and is merging with the Law Offices of Arnold M. Weiner, located in Baltimore. The merger will go into effect on July 1, according to a statement from the firms released Wednesday, writes Steve Kilar in the Sun. (A much more detailed story is in the Daily Record, but behind its paywall.)

NO SIGN WAVING: Anne Arundel County Councilman John Grasso said he’ll introduce legislation to allow people to wave signs along Anne Arundel roadways after he got cited for doing so early Wednesday morning, reports Allison Bourg for the Capital-Gazette.

NO SMITH ISLAND BUYOUT: Tim Wheeler of the Sun reports that a proposed buyout of Smith Island homeowners to help them escape future damage from tropical storms and rising waters has been dropped amid vocal resistance from residents of the low-lying community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.

LOWER VOTING AGE: A national movement to grant more teens the right to vote scored its first victory this week with the passage of legislation in Takoma Park, to lower the voting age in municipal elections to 16. But momentum continued Wednesday as advocates in Massachusetts spoke at the statehouse in favor of allowing 17-year-olds to vote, reports Andrea Noble in the Washington Times.

The Takoma Park City Council also voted to allow convicted felons- who have served their time – to vote in city elections, according to a report at WBFF-TV.

GAZETTE SHUTS TWO PAPERS: The Gazette has shut down its Frederick and Mount Airy editions, the newspaper is reporting. Owner Post-Newsweek Media said the company will continue to publish community weeklies in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Fairfax (Va.) counties where the business models are strong.

Cara Anthony of the Frederick News-Post reports that 18 full-time and 12 part-time workers were laid off from the Frederick Gazette.

Success brings Pa. tax collection firm another boost in Md. commissions — but it loses new contract

Len Lazarick — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:00:49 +0000

By Christopher Goins

Chris@MarylandReporter.com

A Pennsylvania collections firm has done so well prying Maryland back taxes out of delinquent taxpayers that the comptroller’s office just got approval for $300,000 more from the Board of Public Works to pay the agency’s commissions.

NCO Financial Systems of Horsham, Pa. collected $33 million from delinquent tax accounts since 2009– 22% more than the original estimate of $27 million. The firm gets a 5.35% commission on any money it collects.

With the approval of the comptroller’s latest request, NCO will have received $1.8 million in commissions since 2009, according to the board’s summary of the request.(page 82).

However, at Wednesday’s meeting, NCO lost out on a new three-year contract for tax collections to another Pennsylvania firm, Penn Credit of Harrisburg, which bid a commission rate of 4.54% on similar terms. (page 35 or 5B in the summary) Penn Credit was also rated higher on technical factors. NCO had proposed a commission rate of 5.85%, .5% more than it is currently receiving.

Only one Maryland firm was among the seven qualified bidders on the new contract.

Third request this year

Under its current two-year contract with modifications, NCO has received $825,750–up from the $775,750 approved back in 2011. The latest request will be the third request this year.

The current contract expires June 30. The comptroller estimates the latest contract–which began in 2011–to have brought in $15 million.

NCO’s original contract from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011 paid $676,240 in commissions.

New request will pay for work already started

The new request would allow the Comptroller to continue to pay the outside firm for collection services it has already started.

“It’s essentially picking up the gap between what we thought they were going to be able to collect and what their commission would be to what they’ve actually collected and what their commission is now,” said Andrew Friedson, the comptroller’s communications director.

Asked why the estimates were so low, Friedson explained that the original estimate was a “good-faith estimate for how much the vendor would successfully collect from these delinquent accounts which are very difficult to collect, and as a result, hard to precisely predict.”

NCO Financial Systems could not be reached for comment.

“The fact that the contractor performed well-beyond expectations set forth in the contract is great news for the state — generating millions in unexpected revenue — and more importantly, it’s great news for the vast majority of taxpayers who do the right thing and pay their taxes on time,” wrote Friedson in a follow-up e-mail.

“Thanks to the diligent work of his compliance team, strategic partnerships and innovative tax collection advancements, the agency has successfully collected over $3.1 billion in heretofore essentially uncollectible taxes since Comptroller Franchot took office in 2007,” he continued.

Outsourcing since the 1980s

Comptrollers have been outsourcing collection services to private companies since the 1980s, handling delinquent tax accounts from taxpayers or businesses who are “entirely non-responsive for an extended period of time,” Friedson said.

Many times, out-of-state businesses are some of these unresponsive taxpayers.

“These are the more most difficult collections that otherwise would be uncollectable,” Friedson said.

If you’ve had a problem with what you consider overzealous tax collection by state employees or outside collection agencies, please contact Len@MarylandReporter.com, 410-312-9840.

State Roundup, May 15, 2013

Cynthia Prairie — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:09:28 +0000

DWYER GETS JAIL, STAYS SENTENCE WITH APPEAL: Del. Don Dwyer was given a 30-day jail sentence Tuesday for a drunken boating charge related to a collision in August that left seven people injured, including a 5-year-old girl who suffered skull fractures. It could be several months, however, before a final decision on whether Dwyer has to serve time. His lawyer promptly appealed the sentence, sending the case to circuit court, writes John Wagner of the Post.

Zoe Read of the Capital-Gazette reports that the judge told Dwyer that as a public official he is held to a higher standard, which Dwyer’s attorney called unfair.

The chief District Court prosecutor for Howard County, who was brought in to prosecute the Dwyer case, had asked for a weekend in jail as part of the sentence, but deferred to the judge whether a weekend Dwyer spent in an inpatient alcohol treatment facility could take its place, reports Andrea Siegel in the Sun.

THE LIST: Dwyer joins a growing list of public servants from Anne Arundel County who have been sentenced to serve jail time recently, writes Sarah Blumberg in the Capital-Gazette.

The Capital-Gazette puts together a little photo gallery of public figures from Anne Arundel who have served time in jail.

PUBLIC INFORMATION: Scott Calvert and Alison Matas of the Sun ask for the phone records of a number of public officials, including Gov. Martin O’Malley. The reporters write about their findings and say that the responses to the requests highlight differing viewpoints on the state’s public information law.

CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS’ PAY: Meg Tully of MarylandReporter.com reports that 13 Maryland correctional officers indicted last month in a corruption case that has outraged legislators and the public were getting paid between $28,000 and $47,000 in 2012, according to salary figures from the comptroller’s office.

PRISON TREATMENT QUESTIONED: As the alleged leader of the Black Guerrilla Family gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal prosecutors say, Tavon White could get access to pretty much whatever he wanted: drugs, phones, money and sex, writes Ian Duncan for the Sun. He is now being held under more straitened circumstances at a state prison in Cumberland, says his attorney, who is asking a judge to reconsider the conditions of his detention.

FOX ON O’MALLEY: Fox News is not backing off on the Baltimore prison story scandal despite a bunch of big national stories that have conservatives salivating over the damage they see the Obama administration suffering, writes media columnist David Zurawik for the Sun. Gov. Martin O’Malley, he writes, says the media needs to put the situation in context: that his administration initiated the federal probe into corruption two years ago. O’Malley added that he wonders why the official memorandum of understanding among federal and state agencies hasn’t been released.

Del. Mike Smiegel apparently has obtained that MOU, which, he adds, was supposed to be shredded. You can see the document here.

O’MALLEY TOURS OVAL OFFICE: On a lighter TV note, Gov. O’Malley took a tour of the Oval Office – on the set of “House of Cards” – as he touted the number and variety of jobs brought to Maryland through the film industry, writes columnist David Zurawik in the Sun.

WAIT FOR GUNS: On Tuesday, state Sen. Bryan Simonaire called on Gov. O’Malley to address the prolonged wait for state police background checks on gun purchases and transfers, which he said has stretched from seven days to 60, Zoe Read reports in the Capital-Gazette.

AIM AT REAL THREATS: In an op-ed in the Sun, Tom Schaller writes that while he supports gun ownership, “is it too much to ask that gun advocates more often aim their anti-government suspicions at real examples — rather than absurd fantasies — of governmental abuse of power?”

DEATH PENALTY PETITIONS: Bryan Sears of Patch.com reports that state Sen. Jim Brochin is saying that getting the signatures required to place the death penalty on the 2014 ballot is going to take a lot of work and gives it a “50-50 chance.”

MILITARY PARTNERS: Gov. O’Malley, the ambassadors of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Estonia and military leaders of all sides met in Annapolis on Monday to celebrate anniversaries of partnerships between the two countries and the Maryland National Guard, which has been giving the two countries’ militaries battlefield experience, writes Matthew Hay Brown for the Sun.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Maryland health advocates urged religious leaders on Tuesday to learn more about how federal health care reform will be implemented in the state so they can pass information on to uninsured congregants, according to an AP story in the Daily Record.

CYBER INTELLIGENCE: In this video interview, U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger talks with Center Maryland’s Damian O’Doherty and Lisa Harris Jones about the importance of passing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act to help protect against the significant amount of cyber attacks our nation faces on a daily basis.

NATIONWIDE ALERT SYSTEM: U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin wants a nationwide alert system to help catch violent criminals who injure or kill police officers and is urging Congress to pass a bill that would put such a system in place, the Gazette’s Daniel Leaderman reports.

ST. MARY’S NEEDS FRESHMEN: St. Mary’s College of Maryland has only locked in about two-thirds of the students it needs for a full freshman class next school year, a shortfall that could cost the public liberal arts school $3.5 million in lost tuition, Jenna Johnson reports in the Post.

MOMENT OF SILENCE: Cecil County Council members moved one step closer Tuesday to adoption of a set of policies and procedures for themselves to follow, choosing, on a 3-2 vote, a voluntary moment of silence to start their future meetings, instead of having council members take turns in giving a prayer, reports Cheryl Mattix for the Cecil Whig.

Indicted correctional officers were low paid

Len Lazarick — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:55:40 +0000

Second in a series on state salaries that began Tuesday.

By Meg Tully

Meg@MarylandReporter.com

Thirteen Maryland correctional officers indicted last month in a corruption case that has outraged legislators and the public were getting paid between $28,000 and $47,000 in 2012, according to salary figures from the comptroller’s office.

The 13 officers were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly helping members of the Black Guerilla Family gang smuggle in drugs, cell phones and other contraband. Four of the correctional officers also had babies fathered by the inmate gang leader.

Jeff Pittman, communications director for the employee union that represents correctional officers — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — said that the union doesn’t believe higher salaries will prevent corruption.

“The vast majority are doing [the job] at the current salary level,” Pittman said. “I don’t think offering someone more money makes them more honest.”

Starting pay for correctional officers is $36,414

The starting salary for correctional officers is $36,414, with $44,796 as the mid-point for an experienced correctional officer.

The four indicted correctional officers with the lowest pay had base salaries of $37,977 in 2012, according to the comptroller’s state payroll database. The full list is at the bottom of the story.

In terms of actual payment from the state, 27-year-old Antonia Allison was the lowest paid at $28,238. The difference between salary level and gross payment is not explained in salary records from the comptroller’s office, but it is likely due to employees taking leave or working reduced hours.

On the higher end, 26-year-old Ebonee Braswell made $47,035, including $7,020 in overtime.

All thirteen guards were considered full-time in 2012, according to Mark Vernareli, spokesman for lthe Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The indicted officers were suspended without pay April 23.

“Ninety-nine percent of our correctional officers do their jobs with integrity, honor, and ethics at the current salary levels,” Vernarelli stated in an e-mail.

Attracting better officers

The indictments have caused state leaders to question how they can attract better correctional officer candidates and crack down on bad behavior.

According to Vernarelli, about four out of five applicants for correctional officer positions in Baltimore last year (83%) did not pass background investigations. The rejection rate is high in other regions of the state, as well.

AFSCME Maryland has called for better training, higher staffing levels, and careful hiring as potential solutions to the problem not related to salaries.

“Fair pay and fair benefits will help attract the best employees, but in this it’s about finding people of integrity to fill these important roles,” Pittman said.

In the first part of the series which ran Tuesday, MarylandReporter.com found almost 5,700 state workers made $100,000 or more.

Pay records in 2012 for indicted correctional officers:

Name, Age, City, Annual Salary, Actual Payment Including Overtime

Antonia Allison, 27, of Baltimore; salary $40,814, $28,239

Ebonee Braswell, 26, of Baltimore; $41,567, $47,035

Chania Brooks, 27, of Baltimore; $41,567, $38,486

Kimberly Dennis, 26, of Baltimore; $41,567, $45,232

Jasmin Jones, a/k/a J.J., 24, of Baltimore; $39,365, $38,014

Taryn Kirkland, 23, of Baltimore; $37,977, $39,488

Katrina LaPrade, a/k/a Katrina Lyons, 31, of Baltimore; $37,977, $36,161

Tiffany Linder, 27, of Baltimore;$37,977, $40,311.80

Vivian Matthews, 25, of Essex; $40,814, $40,242

Jennifer Owens, a/k/a O and J.O., 31, of Randallstown; $39,365, $37,843

Adrena Rice, 25, of Baltimore; $39,365, $35,222

Katera Stevenson, a/k/a KK, 24, of Baltimore; $37,977, $43,533

Jasmine Thornton, a/k/a J.T., 26, of Glen Burnie, $39,365, $40,404

State Roundup, May 14, 2013

Cynthia Prairie — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:40:34 +0000

DWYER GETS A PLEA DEAL: Del. Don Dwyer, who was involved in a powerboat crash last August that injured him and several others, will plead guilty today in Annapolis District Court to operating a boat while drunk, reports Andrea Siegel for the Sun.

One day before he was set to go to trial, the Republican from Pasadena apologized for his role in the accident near Cornfield Creek, a crash that injured seven people including himself and several children out for a day of tubing, reports Zoe Read for the Capital-Gazette.

The Post’s John Wagner reports that an attorney for Dwyer said that his client has secured a plea deal with prosecutors that will not result in jail time for a drunken boating charge.

Dave Collins of WBAL-TV reports that Dwyer is hoping to get probation before judgment.

HIGH SALARIED STATE WORKERS: MarylandReporter.com’s third annual report on state salaries found that 5,663 state employees – about 6% of all state employees – pulled in $100,000 or greater in 2012. Three out of four of these six-figure salaries are earned by people working for state colleges and universities — more than 10% of the full-time employees — led by three million-dollar coaches, reports Meg Tully for MarylandReporter.com.

DATA FAILURE? Gov. Martin O’Malley constantly touts his data-driven approach to governing, as embodied in StateStat, writes conservative blogger Mark Newgent and Change Maryland’s Jim Pettit for the National Review Online. However, they write, over the last few years, a series of legislative audits have revealed a raft of problems — a lack of accountability for the state’s speed-camera vendors, violations of procurement laws at the State Highway Administration, failure of the education department to conduct background checks for child-care workers and millions of dollars in lost and overpaid funds at the Developmental Disabilities Administration.

ANTI-GUN CONTROL PETITIONER: Meredith Somers of the Washington Times writes about Sue Payne, the Montgomery County housewife and political activist who has revived a stalled referendum effort against Maryland’s recently passed gun-control bill. She’s breaking from a plan favored by the National Rifle Association and leaving her the daunting task of producing thousands of signatures in about two weeks.

GUN TURN-IN: Nine guns were turned in at the Salisbury Police Department headquarters during Attorney General Doug Gansler’s Statewide Gun Turn-In Day, according to the Salisbury Daily Times.

CASINO BIDDERS: James Karmel, who tracks Maryland’s gaming industry, said none of the three bidders for a casino in Prince George’s County has an unobstructed path to winning the lucrative license, writes Gary Haber for the Baltimore Business Journal.

3,000 SLOTS: Penn National Gaming Inc. intends to install at least 3,000 slot machines at Rosecroft Raceway if it wins the right to operate a casino in Prince George’s County, even though the company paid an initial licensing fee to the state that only covers 500 slots, writes Alexander Pyles of the Daily Record.

ZIRKIN TO SEEK RE-ELECTION: Sen. Bobby Zirkin announced his reelection campaign Monday and said in an interview that he considered not running for a fifth term in the General Assembly after a “very, very hard session” that kept him away from his two young children, writes Erin Cox in the Sun.

Bryan Sears of Patch.com reports that the decision to run for a third term in the Maryland Senate comes a month after an interview in which he said he was considering leaving public office.

Almost 5,700 state employees make $100,000 or more

Len Lazarick — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:46:54 +0000

By Meg Tully

Meg@MarylandReporter.com

Top 10 State Salaries

1. Randy Edsall Head Football Coach, University of Maryland, $2,011,720

Maryland Reporter’s third annual report on state salaries found that 5,663 state employees pulled in $100,000 or greater in 2012 –about 6% of total state employees. Three out of four of these six-figure salaries are earned by people working for state colleges and universities — more than 10% of the full-time employees — led by three million-dollar coaches.

This total is slightly higher than last year’s number, when 5,552 people — about 6% of state work force — made $100,000 or more, but 500 more than calendar 2010 when furloughs reduced all state salaries. The state employed close to 94,828 total full-time employees in 2012, according to budget documents (pages 144-146) including figures for higher education, non-budgeted agencies and contractual employees.

The median household income in Maryland was $72,419, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, meaning half of Maryland homes make less than that amount.

Here is the complete list of state employees making more than $100,000 per year.

Market drives salaries

Public policy experts on both sides of the political spectrum said that Maryland’s salaries seem to be in line with with the marketplace.

Christopher Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, a free-market oriented think tank, said that salaries should be considered

2. Mark Turgeon, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, University of Maryland, $2,001,149

within the market for those jobs.

“It’s good that we have transparency of public employee compensation,” Summers said. “(But) I think when you look at the overall compensation packages, it would be very comparable if these same individuals were to hold the same positions of responsibility in the private sector.”

Particularly medical doctors, who earned some of the highest wages in the university system and non-education state government offices in 2012, could probably earn higher wages in the private sector, he said.

MarylandReporter.com’s analysis of 2012 payroll data provided by the Maryland Comptroller’s Office found that 5,663 employees paid by the state made more than $100,000. The data includes contractors and hourly workers. Some Department of Public Safety and Corrections who made more than $100,000 were excluded from the list because of an accounting change mid-way through the year as the department reorganized.

About three-fourths of earners making $100,000 or more are employed by Maryland’s public universities and colleges. University employees dominate the highest paid echelons of state employees, with non-university employees only coming into the rankings after 269 university employees.

3. Brenda Frese, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, University of Maryland, $984,637

The judiciary, the health department, the state police and the transportation department have the most $100,000-plus workers of non-university state departments.

Universities lead salaries, top earner makes more than $2 million

At the top of the list of highest paid employees are three coaches at University of Maryland, College Park – Head Football Coach Randy Edsall earned $2,011,720, Head Men’s Basketball Coach Mark Turgeon earned $2,001,149 and Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Brenda Frese earned $984,637.

Rounding out the top 10 paid are higher-ups at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore. Many of those are doctors whose private practice patients go through the university system.

“Fully two-thirds of those salaries come from private non-taxpayer sources,” said Mike Lurie, a spokesman for the University System of Maryland. “Technically these private practice physicians are de facto members of the professor faculty at the University School of Medicine, but the salary that you see listed is not paid by the state — about one third of that number is.”

The payroll database maintained by the comptroller’s office does not distinguish sources of funding for

4. E. Albert Reece, M.D., PhD, MBA, Vice President for Medical Affairs, & Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine, $ 796,183

salaries. Especially in the universities, there are other sources of income that help offset salaries – whether it is research grants brought in by faculty, endowed chairs funded through donation, private patient payments or sports media deals.

For some employees, there is a big difference between their annual salary and the amount the state actually paid them. For instance, Edsall’s salary is listed as $400,000 but the football coach was paid more than $2 million.

The state’s database for gross payments includes salaries plus bonuses, annual leave payouts, overtime, payments for working late shifts, Social Security and Medicare taxes, and any increases in pay for temporarily performing increased duties.

Six-figure employees in the minority

Most state employees do not make six-figure salaries and are hard-working people who have endured furlough days and pay freezes in the recent years, said Jeff Pittman, communications director for the state employee union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME Maryland) . Most employees in the union are not in the six-figure pay range and take note of higher government salaries.

“For state employees, non-teachers, the average is around $41,000 a year, so they definitely look at these and it raises their eyebrows,” Pittman said.

5. Bartley Griffith, M.D., Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine $ 792,336

Psychiatrists make Top 10 list for non-university employees (See list below)

In state government outside the university system, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene employee Dr. Linda De Hoyos made the most of all employees. De Hoyos, clinical/medical director at the Thomas B. Finan Hospital Center in Cumberland, is paid $118 an hour and earned $263,326 in 2012.

Dori Henry, a spokeswoman at DHMH, said there is a shortage of psychiatrists nationally and in Maryland. Psychiatric hospitals in particular require round the clock physician presence, and the department has a variety of contracts to attract physicians instead of relying solely on salaried doctors, she said.

For instance, some physicians work only “on call” while others have regular hours. Other physicians work at several different institutions and prefer to be contract employees, she said.

“In the rural areas, recruitment of psychiatrists is particularly difficult, so special payment contracts are sometimes used to attract psychiatrists for higher pay but no benefits,” Henry said.

That is the case at the Finan Hospital, where De Hoyos oversees clinical and medical staff, as well as a 22-bed unit. Two other psychiatrists, Dr. Taiwo Okusami and Dr. Sherri Passarell, from DHMH who are in the top five non-university state employees both oversee 22-bed

6. Jay A. Perman, M.D., President, University of Maryland, Baltimore $657,542

units at the hospital. Although they are hourly employees, DHMH does not offer them additional overtime compensation, Henry said.

The health department employed 258 people who made more than $100,000 in 2012. The university system employed about 4,170 people who make more than $100,000. Judiciary employed 335, Department of State Police 166 and Department of Transportation 150.

Expert: high-wage employees not over compensated

Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget & Tax Institute often aligned with progressive advocates, said that state government employees are not over compensated.

“You look at your top 10 list outside of higher education and you can see that most of them are in very specialized positions where if you want capable professionals you have to pay them market rates — people running ports and airports and investment operations,” Bergsman said.

The Department of Budget and Management performed a compensation study in 2008 (and part 2) that compared state employee salaries

7. Stephen Bartlett, M.D., Chair, Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center, $622,449

with salaries paid by the federal government, counties and neighboring jurisdictions. The study found that

Maryland government employee salaries were about five percent behind market rate in salaries, and comparable to market rate with benefits included, he said.

In the years since 2008, state leaders grappling with the recession implemented furlough days and cut back on expected salary increases, so the study is relatively current, he said.

And Bergsman pointed out not all six-figure jobs are simple desk jobs.

“Just recently the warden positions have edged up to hundred thousand territory,” Bergsman said. “I cannot think of a more stressful, a more responsible job where the consequences of screwing up are worse that pays as little as a hundred thousand or so. It’s astonishing to me that prison wardens do that job for that money.”

Top 10 Paid Non-University Employees

1. Linda De Hoyos, M.D., Clinical/Medical Director of the Thomas B. Finan Hospital Center, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene $263,326

2. Taiwo Okusami, M.D., Psychiatrist/Unit Director, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene $261,771

8. Vincent Pellegrini, Jr., M.D., Chair, Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, $612,650

3. Paul Weidefeld, Executive Director of the Maryland Aviation Administration, Department of

Transportation $260,858

4. James White, Executive Director of the Maryland Port Administration, Department of Transportation $257,734

5. Sherri Passarell, M.D., Psychiatrist/Unit Director, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene $255, 669

6. Michael Frenz, Executive Director, Maryland Stadium Authority $249,332

7. Ann Moye, Chief Investment Officer, State Retirement Agency $245,365

8. Kelley Phillips, M.D., psychiatrist and acting clinical director, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Eastern Shore Hospital Center $241,042

9. Robert Bass Maryland, Executive Director, Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems $238,852

10. David Fowler, M.D. Chief Medical Examiner, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene $227,088

9. James S. Gammie, M.D., Director, Center for Heart Valve Disease at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, $609,783

10. Scott E. Strome, MD, Chair, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine $604,518