SALISBURY – The Wicomico County Council has reopened the application process in its search for the next county executive, days after Dr. Rene Desmarais declined his appointment to the position.
In a special meeting last Friday, the legislative body reached a consensus to once again seek applicants for the next Wicomico County executive, a position held by Bob Culver until his death on July 26. Candidates now have until Sept. 14 to submit their names for the post.
“I don’t think anyone up here wants to drag this process on,” Councilwoman Nicole Acle said.
In a special legislative session on Aug. 20, the council conducted public interviews with three candidates – Desmarais, state Delegate Carl Anderton and former County Finance Director Michele Ennis – before convening in a closed session to deliberate the appointment.
Nearly half an hour later, the council reconvened in legislative session to appoint the new executive by resolution.
At the outset, Cannon submitted Anderton’s name for the position county executive. His motion, however, failed with Councilmen John Cannon, Josh Hastings and Bill McCain in favor, and Council President Larry Dodd, Acle and Councilmen Ernie Davis and Joe Holloway opposed.
Acle then made a motion to submit Desmarais’s name for the position of county executive, which passed 4-3. But four days later, Desmarais issued a statement declining his appointment as the next Wicomico County executive.
To that end, the county council held a special meeting late last week to discuss the procedure for selecting a new executive. At the beginning of the meeting, Holloway asked for a consensus to reopen the application process, a recommendation that had the support of Dodd, Acle and Davis.
The three remaining councilmen, however, argued the council had until Sept. 9, per the county’s charter, to select from the two remaining candidates – Anderton and Ennis.
“You set this formula, you set this whole pattern into being, you asked for the applicants, you established the deadlines, you received three applications by the deadlines, the application was closed, you held public interviews, and I would say you have an obligation to follow through with the remaining candidates who are still on the list,” Cannon said. “You have that obligation not only to the process you began and you created, but you owe it to the public as well.”
County attorney Paul Wilber and council attorney Bob Taylor argued the council could go beyond the Sept. 9 deadline to seek other applicants for the county executive position.
“I think the intent of the charter is to make a good faith effort to have an appointment in place by Sept. 9. With that being said, if you don’t hit that Sept. 9, I think you can go beyond that date …,” Wilber said, citing a Court of Appeals opinion involving time limits. “If you need to go past the 45 days you could.”
McCain, however, noted the council had not yet reached its 45-day deadline to appoint a candidate.
“We should proceed with due diligence to fill this vacancy, and we need to make a good faith effort to fill that vacancy,” McCain said. “With that said, it’s pretty obvious we need to vote. We have two candidates that have gone through the process.”
But Taylor noted the process the council established for seeking and appointing candidates was decided through an informal poll of its members.
“The council can do as it pleases,” he said. “If it wants to reopen and take more applications, it can do that.”
Cannon, however, argued the council should honor the current process it had established.
“Just because there’s a problem with your voting for one of those candidates, you can’t move the goalpost and change your mind,” he said. “That’s a discredit to those individuals who worked very hard to go through the application process.”
Hastings noted he had received more than 100 responses from community members who supported Anderton’s appointment.
“The public in many ways has spoken, and has spoken quite loudly for Mr. Anderton,” he said. “I don’t feel like there’s a particular need to do a new process or go in that direction.”
Holloway, however, noted there wasn’t a majority vote for either of the two remaining candidates.
“So with that said, again I’ll propose we open up the process to accept more applicants,” he said. “Hopefully we will get one, or two, or three, or four.”
But Cannon added that any of the council members who voted for Desmarais could change their mind.
“Isn’t it possible that some of the members of the council that originally didn’t vote for Mr. Anderton because they wanted to vote for Dr. Desmarais might now have a change of heart and want to vote for Carl Anderton?” he said. “I don’t know because we haven’t had that discussion.”
After further discussion, the council agreed to restart the appointment process and accept applications through Sept. 14.
“The charter is vague,” Davis said. “The charter was designed for a county council. There’s not a lot of things in there that govern the county exec. This is the problem we’re going through right now, because it doesn’t tell us how to handle this situation. So right now we are winging it because we don’t know. It’s not written in the charter.”
As Culver was a Republican, nominees must be of the same political affiliation. The successor will serve the remainder of Culver’s four-year term.
Candidates must be a resident of Wicomico County, as well as a qualified voter of Wicomico County for at least five years immediately preceding appointment. Candidates must be 25 years of age and may not hold any other office of profit in federal, state, county or municipal government during the term in office.
Candidates are requested to submit a resume with a biography, and a completed job application to the Wicomico County Council Administrator at P.O. Box 870, Salisbury, MD 21803. All applications must be postmarked by September 14, 2020. For more information, contact Council Administrator Laura Hurley at 410-548-4696, or [email protected].
