Anne Arundel County Council creates committee to study personnel protocols

The Anne Arundel County Council has created an ad hoc committee to study and make recommendations on personnel protocols related to the legislative branch.

Beside the seven County Council members, Anne Arundel’s legislative branch includes the county auditor, administrative officer, assistant administrative officer and legislative counsel among others.

The resolution establishing the committee, which passed unanimously at the council’s April 1 meeting, was drafted by council Chair Allison Pickard, a Glen Burnie Democrat, and Vice Chair Julie Hummer, a Laurel Democrat. It was introduced to the council a week after multiple anonymous sources accused council member Pete Smith, a Severn Democrat, of harassing administrative officer Laura Corby. Smith has denied the accusations.

In February, sources told The Capital they were aware of Smith yelling at Corby, approaching her desk in an intimidating manner, spreading damning and untrue rumors about her work ethic and blaming her when things in the office went awry.

The legislative branch does not have its own personnel office or human resources division, Pickard said. This would have made it challenging for Corby to raise issues to an objective third party to investigate.

Corby announced at the start of the year that she would be resigning from her role. At the same time, Smith and the council Republicans, Nathan Volke, of Pasadena, Amanda Fiedler, of Arnold, and Shannon Leadbetter, of Crofton, were drafting legislation shifting oversight of the administrative officer from the council chair to all seven council members. Smith sponsored the resolution after his term as chair expired at the end of 2023 and his time as Corby’s boss ended. The legislation would have once again made Smith one of Corby’s bosses. Corby’s last day is Wednesday.

Since late last year, Corby had been the only person in her three-person office. The assistant administrative officer and legislative counsel positions have been vacant. At its April 1 meeting, the council approved Kaley Schultze to replace Corby and Marcia Alvarado as the new assistant administrative officer. In February the council selected Meredith Beach as legislative counsel.

The ad hoc committee will be charged with recommending personnel policies.

“This was a vehicle that we thought could help us tackle some of the — I call them sort of growing pains of the legislative branch,” Pickard said at a March 12

work session.

The advisory group will consist of three county residents, the county attorney or a representative from that office, two county

Office of Personnel representatives, the county auditor and the administrative officer. The residents must have knowledge of employment matters, law or managing employees in a government setting.

Members will examine best practices in other counties, make recommendations for annual performance reviews and come up with suggestions for an employee relations manual for the employees of the legislative branch, according to the resolution.

Pickard noted the county charter was established in 1964 and there have been significant changes to the way the council operates since then. Council member Lisa Rodvien, an Annapolis Democrat, and Smith asked to be added as co-sponsors later in the resolution’s development.

“When this county charter came into existence the County Council was all men and the legislative aides were typically their spouses,” Rodvien said. “That, to me, is a pretty significant historical change.”

The council will be tasked with selecting the members, Pickard said, adding that the committee’s primary focus will be helping develop an employee relations manual for the legislative branch.

The committee will submit a final report to the County Council by the end of March next year.