William Hamrick was supposed to be inspecting gas pipes for Baltimore Gas and Electric. Instead, he was on his boat.

As a BGE inspector, Hamrick’s job was to check the work of contractors installing gas infrastructure and ensuring they met safety standards. But a 2023 investigation by BGE found that he was falsifying inspection reports.

It’s unclear how many reports Hamrick falsified and for how long, but a group of ex-employees told regulators the scheme went on for years, during which time Hamrick allegedly claimed to have conducted thousands of inspections.

Now Maryland’s utility regulator wants to know: How much of the Baltimore region’s gas infrastructure could be unsafe? And should ratepayers get a refund for Hamrick’s salary and other associated costs?

Attempts to reach Hamrick were unsuccessful. In a statement, BGE said it “respectfully disagree[d]” with the findings of the Public Service Commission and any suggestion that the safety of its gas distribution system has been compromised. The company referred to Hamrick as a “former employee.”

“Safety remains our highest priority at BGE,” Communications Director David Yost said.

The finding that Hamrick was not inspecting gas infrastructure came to light as part of an ongoing racial discrimination lawsuit against BGE. More than a dozen ex-employees sued BGE in 2022, alleging that the utility fired Black employees for minor violations while lightly punishing white employees who committed flagrant violations.

The allegations against Hamrick, a white man, were included in a petition filed with the Public Service Commission late last year. Details of that petition were first reported by The Daily Record.

According to the ex-employees, Hamrick falsified his reports and timesheets “on a daily basis for over four years,” and instead of conducting thousands of inspection reports for BGE, Hamrick did fewer than 100.

The scheme would have been exposed had BGE checked his GPS location, the petition said, but it wasn’t discovered until contractors’ complaints triggered an internal investigation in 2023. That investigation included pictures of Hamrick on his boat at Rock Hall Marina on the Eastern Shore when he was supposed to be performing inspections.

BGE punished him with a five-day suspension, according to the petition.

“The petition in question is filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations,” BGE spokesman Nick Alexopulos said in a statement. “As this involves personnel matters and ongoing litigation, we cannot comment further on the specifics.”

But a BGE executive did address the allegations against Hamrick in a November 2023 deposition.

“Quite honestly, I would have liked to have terminated him,” said Jennifer Herwig, BGE’s vice president of human resources.

Herwig did not say how long Hamrick had been falsifying reports, but that “there was a pattern here.”

Still, BGE was reluctant to fire Hamrick, Herwig said, because it was possible he could have been doing some kind of paperwork on the boat, and an arbitrator might simply reinstate him.

In its own filing to the Public Service Commission, BGE said the allegations from ex-employees involving Hamrick were a publicity stunt to draw attention to their lawsuit. The utility company called it “inappropriate.”

But the report issued by the Public Service Commission last week gave credence to their concerns. The report from the agency’s engineering division said BGE has not proven whether the infrastructure “inspected” by Hamrick is safe.

The agency recommended that BGE create a list of all the projects “inspected” by Hamrick, conduct an independent audit of its inspection system, and consider a refund for ratepayers.

The attorney for the ex-employees, David Baña, said BGE and its parent company Exelon “owe my clients a public apology.”

“Executive leadership at BGE, rather than demonstrating a commitment to safety, chose to publicly malign the whistleblowers.”