On Friday, Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier announced the appointment of a five-member task force to aid in the search for an inspector general.

Klausmeier recently advised Inspector General Kelly Madigan that she would not be automatically reappointed to the post, but that Madigan could reapply for the position.

Not everyone was happy with the new county executive’s action. County residents presented a petition, signed by some 260 people, urging Klausmeier to keep Madigan in her role, and six of seven County Council members expressed support for the current inspector general.

In an open letter Friday, Klausmeier acknowledged the controversy but said she intended to move forward with a search process.

“I appreciate that Baltimore County residents are engaged with our government and supportive of the Office of the Inspector General,” Klausmeier wrote. “The purpose and role of the Office, much like the role of the County Executive, members of the County Council or even department heads, should transcend whomever may hold the position. As part of a thorough process, I am confident that the most qualified candidate will emerge and act as a watchdog to help ensure accountability, transparency and integrity within our government.”

Klausmeier said she believed the county had “assembled some of the best-qualified people to lead that process.”

The task force will review resumes, interview candidates and make recommendations to the county executive. The appointment is subject to County Council approval.

According to Klausmeier’s office, the task force members are:

• Rev. William Johnson, who served as inspector general of the Maryland Department of Human Services and as director and processes officer at the agency’s employment and program equity office. He also chaired the county’s ethics and accountability commission;
• Retired Judge Kathleen Cox, who served as a Circuit Court judge in Baltimore County, head of the county’s Juvenile Court and a circuit administrative judge for the Third Judicial Court. She is a past member of the ethics and accountability commission;
• Attorney Dennis King, who has worked in private practice for more than 40 years, focusing on federal and state law in addition to drafting legislation for the General Assembly. He was appointed by the County Council;
• Arthur Elkins, an attorney who served as inspector general (IG) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2011 to 2018 and as the first IG for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. He also practiced law for various agencies for more than 20 years;
• Thomas Dewberry, a former state delegate who was the first chief administrative law judge for the state of Maryland. He has served on a number of boards, including as president of Revisions Inc., a psychosocial rehabilitation center.

The flap over reappointing Madigan has proved to be the first major controversy for Klausmeier, who served in the state legislature for three decades before being appointed county executive by the County Council. She is serving out the term of Johnny Olszewski, Jr., who was elected to Congress last year.

In an interview with the Baltimore Banner this week, Klausmeier said Madigan never asked to be reappointed to her position, so she decided she would “go by the charter” and require her to reapply.

“She’s done a good job, from what I understand. She’s gotten different awards and everything,” Klausmeier said.

Madigan, however, said she had been reaching out to Klausmeier’s office since January to discuss her performance and her interest in remaining in the position. When she finally got a sit-down meeting with Klausmeier on May 12, she thought it went well until the county executive handed her a letter saying she would not be reappointed automatically.

“I have been telling everybody that asked me that I would like to stay,” Madigan said Tuesday.

The blow came a month after the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ Maryland chapter named Madigan “fraud fighter of the year.”

In her letter, Klausmeier said she is committed to the mission of the Office of Inspector General, namely “rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, and recommending best practices and efficiencies that can improve government services.”

She stressed that she believes residents deserve “effective, efficient, honest and open government.”

“In my short time in this job, I hope — if nothing else — that will be an important part of how people remember me," she wrote. “And that is why finding the right person for the job of Baltimore County’s Inspector General is so important to me.”