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County auditor suggests setting limits to awards
By ERIN COX
Annapolis Capital (Maryland)
November 21, 2008
The extra $20,000 awarded to a top county political appointee last year raised questions over whether officials skirted salary caps.
The sum appears to be the largest such award in county history.
A recent report by County Auditor Teresa Sutherland showed the appointee, Robert Leib, got the award atop his $112,014 salary and she said it "could be perceived as a way to circumvent the code limitations on base pay."
Mr. Leib is on pace to receive at least another $17,368 in extra pay this year, even though his salary is limited by county law. County officials defended Mr. Leib's pay as a reward for exemplary work and for his success in securing $2.2 million in federal grants.
"This is a creative way to pay one county employee to do two jobs while saving county taxpayers about $70,000," county spokesman David Abrams said.
Mr. Leib's first pay award came at time when County Executive John R. Leopold preached fiscal prudence and warned that the county was facing a "looming fiscal tsunami."
When questioned about the legality of this award by the county auditor, county attorneys concluded Mr. Leib's pay did not break any county laws, but the magnitude of it did raise questions on whether limits should be placed on such "variable pay awards."
The awards are normally a lump-sum given to an employee, but Mr. Leib's was doled out over the course a year.
Personnel Officer Andrea Fulton said the awards are the only mechanism to grant Mr. Leib a much-deserved temporary raise to compensate him for doing two jobs at once.
Mr. Leib was hired in late 2006 as Mr. Leopold's special assistant for education. Less than two months later, Mr. Leib also assumed responsibility for managing the impact of the federal Base Realignment and Closure process, known as BRAC, which will bring tens of thousands of jobs to the Fort George G. Meade area of Anne Arundel County. In that role, Mr. Leib helped secure a $1.4 million Department of Defense grant for regional planning efforts in 2007, and another $800,000 in 2008.
Ms. Fulton said the money for Mr. Leib's extra salary comes from that grant. She added that taxpayers are on the hook for only $43,000 worth of his salary each year, which now totals $130,000 and ranks him among the top 15 highest-paid employees.
"The county executive has really demonstrated a commitment to keeping employee salaries and compensation lean. And I think this is in keeping with that philosophy," Ms. Fulton said. "It certainly wasn't to circumvent the charter or the code. It was the way to temporarily pay him for doing two jobs."
The only other way to grant Mr. Leib extra money for performing two jobs would be seek County Council approval to pay him for doing more work.
"To me, it just does not make any sense to permanently reclassify his position to a higher salary" when the BRAC work is temporary, Ms. Fulton said. "Then what do you do, demote him?"
In addition to a $17,438 "variable pay award," Mr. Leib also received a $3,000 "performance pay award" for scoring high on his performance evaluation.
The County Charter expressly says political appointees must have their compensation fixed by a plan approved by the County Council. But County Attorney David Plymyer said "variable pay awards" like Mr. Leib's seem to fall outside the limits imposed either by the charter or by other county codes that limit extra pay to no more than 10 percent of an employee's salary.
The Office of Law said of those limits: "the manifest purpose of this requirement is that the county be accountable to the taxpayers for salaries paid to employees and officers, by requiring that the salaries paid to employees and officers be fixed by ordinance; a process that includes notice and public debate."
Ms. Sutherland recommended in September that the County Council set limits to these awards, but no councilmen have drafted legislation. Councilmen contacted by The Capital declined to comment on the issue.
Ms. Fulton rejected the idea that the variable pay awards should be subject to a limit.
"There's not been a cap as long as these have been around," Ms. Fulton said, later adding, "To put a cap on it, in my mind, is to say that somebody did something wrong."
County executives have long used this system to award employees. Last year, Mr. Leopold gave four health department employees $500 apiece for their work to investigate and educate residents about fly ash contaminating well water in western Anne Arundel County. Former County Executive Janet Owens doled out $44,500 in variable pay awards to employees during her last term.
But Mr. Leib's variable pay award of $17,668 this year is more than three times larger than others handed out.
This is second time Mr. Leopold's administration has faced criticism over employee pay. As incoming county executive in 2007, Mr. Leopold took an uncommon step of paying seven political appointees from the previous administration a total of $62,000 in severance pay.
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