McGrath isn’t to blame, MES is

I have read a series of articles and commentaries about Roy McGrath’s compensation by the Maryland Environmental Service, including his own defense of it (“Roy McGrath: Severance from Maryland Environmental Service earned through ‘exceptional performance,’” Aug. 21). For me, the episode is in not so much cause for criticism of Mr. McGrath as an indictment of the state’s choice over many decades to rely on confusing and conflicted institutional structures to pursue public purposes.

Mr. McGrath seems to have been a strong performer operating within the rules that governed his organization, but the organization itself seems designed for conflict of interest. The MES website describes the organization as an independent agency of the State of Maryland that operates as a not-for-profit business unit of the state. Mr. McGrath’s defense is that MES is not much different from a private-sector entity and his was not a “state job.” Neither claim stands scrutiny. The problem is baked into the fundamental design, and the fact that leaders routinely hand out performance bonuses and severance packages to one another is less a defense of Mr. McGrath’s payment than an indictment of the whole process. The challenge nowis for the state to make up its mind: to rely on public agencies to serve public purposes; the private sector to provide support and expertise where needed; and to end confusion between the two. I have worked in both sectors and their respective rules make sense for each. What I do hope is that The Sun will stop making Mr. McGrath the story and focus on the underlying failures of local politics and public policy that are the real issue.

John Walsh, Catonsville