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Md. Cabinet Member Says He Objected to Aide
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Dec 21, 2005 05:25am |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Dec 21, 2005 05:00am |
| Description | Human Resources Secretary Tells Panel Steffen's Effort to Oust Workers Troubled Him
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page B01
A Cabinet secretary for Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. testified yesterday that he was forced to invite into his agency the man who called himself "The Prince of Darkness" and quickly became troubled by the aide's efforts to target employees for termination.
Secretary of Human Resources Christopher J. McCabe said he twice raised objections in late 2003 about Joseph Steffen's mission -- including once in a letter he had the department's top lawyer write to Ehrlich's chief counsel, in which he complained that Steffen was rifling through an employee's payroll records.
Steffen "made me uncomfortable and others uncomfortable," McCabe said while under oath before the legislative committee investigating the Republican administration's personnel practices. "I probably should have been more decisive and said, 'Enough is enough.' "
Steffen was fired by Ehrlich in February for spreading rumors about a political rival.
McCabe became the first current administration official to appear before the special committee reviewing complaints that Ehrlich dispatched aides to reach into the state bureaucracy and fire workers considered disloyal. Ehrlich aides have said they view the probe as a partisan witch hunt by a Democrat-controlled legislature, exposing nothing more than the natural turnover when a new administration takes office. |
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