Leonardtown, MD – Former St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission (Metcom) lawyer and executive director Jacquelyn Meiser (pictured, left) settled her lawsuit in a pleading filed in St. Mary’s County Circuit Court. Meiser had sued the commission and board members Michael Mummaugh and Bryan Barthelme last October, according to court documents. Meiser, who was fired by the board in May of 2016, had alleged wrongful termination, court records stated. She further alleged gender discrimination was a factor in her termination.
Meiser worked part time but created a position of public information officer and general counsel at a cost of upward of $200,000 a year including benefits. This position was created after a task-force formed by a previous board of county commissioners recommended that the executive director and attorney should not be the same person as it was an inherent conflict-of-interest. This task force and commissioners directed that action be taken towards eliminating this conflict and recommended legislation, which was codified in Section 113 of The St. Mary’s County Code. This legislation was drafted by then-Senator Roy Dyson and state law prohibits this conflict in the future .
None of the allegations in her complaint were proven in court. Meiser has since been replaced as attorney by R. Christopher Beaver. According to various members of the Metcom Board who asked not be identified, Beaver has provided excellent leadership over the last year at about $100,000 less. Additionally, board members report George Erichson, former department head at The St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works for close to 20 years, has been leading the quasi-public water/sewer department in a new direction with close scrutiny of financial concerns raised in the community even though he has not slowed the spending on personnel matters and retirement benefits. Metcom continues to push for increases of water and sewer rates as it has over the last several years at close to 60 percent yet its customer base has only increased by about 7 percent.
According to The St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission financial statements from 2008 through 2017 and supplementary information with the independent auditors report prepared by Murphy and Murphy,CPA,LLC, which can be found online, in the past, Meiser and former executive director Dan Inchniowski had steered Metcom towards $100 million in debt and the taxpayers and customers were paying over $2 million a year in interest charges on bond money that wasn’t being utilized. In addition under Meiser and Inchniowski’s watch the employee count grew from 55 to over 100 employees and payroll and benefits had more than doubled.
The suit dismissal took place Feb. 26. Meiser was represented during the suit by Baltimore attorney Andrew D. Freeman. MetCom, Mummaugh and Barthelme were represented by Kevin Karpinski, who specializes in government litigation. Since being fired Meiser has taken a position with Cherry Cove Development Company in addition to her private law-practice which was an issue while working at Metcom.