WCI v. Geiger

• Decision Date: 06 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. 1827,1827
• Parties: WESTERN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION v. Jeffrey GEIGER.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

747 A.2d 697

130 Md. App. 562

WESTERN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION v. Jeffrey GEIGER.

No. 1827, Sept. Term, 1998.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

March 6, 2000.

Michele J. McDonald, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, for Appellant.

Lisa O'Mara (Davis and Associates, on the brief), Towson, for Appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and DAVIS and VINCENT E. FERRETTI, Jr. (Specially Assigned), JJ. MURPHY, Chief Judge.

Section 11-106 of the State Personnel and Pensions article provides, in pertinent part:

(a) Procedure.—Before taking any disciplinary action related to employee misconduct, an appointing authority shall:

(1) investigate the alleged misconduct;

(2) meet with the employee;

(3) consider any mitigating circumstances;

(4) determine the appropriate disciplinary action, if any, to be imposed; and

(5) give the employee a written notice of the disciplinary action to be taken and the employee's appeal rights.

(b) Time limit.—Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section an appointing authority may impose any disciplinary action no later than 30 days after the appointing authority acquires knowledge of the misconduct for which the disciplinary action is imposed.

Id.¹ This appeal from the Circuit Court for Allegany County presents the question of when the appointing authority acquires knowledge for purposes of triggering the time period within which disciplinary action must be initiated. For the reasons that follow, we are persuaded that (1) the limitation period is triggered by knowledge that is sufficient to justify the appointing authority's decision to initiate disciplinary action; (2) when the disciplined employee makes a prima facie showing that the appointing authority has failed to comply with the limitation period provided for by § 11-106(b), the appointing authority must prove by a preponderance of evidence that this section was not violated; and (3) the appointing authority is prohibited from imposing disciplinary action more than 30 days after it has acquired—or, with the exercise of reasonable diligence, should have acquired—knowledge sufficient to justify taking disciplinary action against the employee.

Background

Jeffrey Geiger, appellee, was employed as a level II Correctional Officer at the Western Correctional Institution ("WCI") in Cresaptown. Sometime in November or December of 1996, during a conversation with Regina Waites, a nurse at WCI, appellee invoked a racial epithet. On March 7, 1997, Nurse Waites reported appellee's language to Frank Sizer, Jr., WCI's warden and appointing authority.² At that point, Warden Sizer requested that the Division of Correction's Internal Investigations Unit ("IIU") conduct a formal inquiry into Nurse Waite's allegations, and he received IIU's completed investigation report on April 11, 1997. Warden Sizer then conducted a mitigation conference with appellee, during which appellee admitted having used the offensive language.³

On April 21, 1997, Warden Sizer prepared appellee's Notice of Termination and forwarded it to appellant for approval. The approved Notice was received by appellee on May 6, 1997. Appellee appealed to the State's Office of Administrative Hearings ("OAH"), arguing that his termination was untimely because it was imposed more than 30 days after the appointing authority acquired knowledge of the misconduct. On December 16, 1997, Administrative Law Judge Michael J. Wallace rescinded appellee's Notice of Termination. Appellant then petitioned for judicial review of that ruling. The Circuit Court for Allegany County affirmed the OAH's decision, and this appeal followed.

I.

A. Legislative History of § 11-106

On June 9, 1995, Executive Order No. 01.01.1995 established the Governor's Task Force to Reform the State Personnel Management System (the "Task Force"). According to that Order, State government needed "a personnel management system that is more flexible, decentralizes personnel management functions, simplifies and streamlines personnel procedures and provides for the consistent application of personnel policies throughout a diverse State government." Id. To this end, the Task Force was charged with conducting a "comprehensive review of the Maryland State Personnel Management System contained in Division I of the State Personnel and Pensions Article to determine necessary and appropriate revisions to that law." Id.

The Task Force submitted a final report,⁴ containing its findings and recommendations, to the Glendening Administration on January 19, 1996. That report included a proposal that the appointing authority be allowed "up to thirty calendar days to impose any [non-suspension] form of discipline." The Task Force's aggregate proposals were then presented to the General Assembly as the State Personnel Management System Reform Act of 1996 (the "Act").⁵ The Act passed in substantially the same form that the Task Force had proposed. Thus, to the extent that the General Assembly relied on the efforts and recommendations of the Task Force, § 11-106(b) was intended as a limitation on the time in which discipline could be imposed by an appointing authority. The legislative history, however, does not reveal what either the Task Force or the legislature intended by its use of "knowledge of the misconduct for which the disciplinary action is imposed" as the triggering event for the period of limitation. To resolve this ambiguity, we must turn to the traditional methods of statutory construction.

B. Statutory Construction of § 11-106

The fundamental rule of statutory construction is that the reviewing court ascertain and effectuate as closely as possible the intent and purpose of the legislature. Oaks v. Connors, 339 Md. 24, 35, 660 A.2d 423 (1995). When, as is the case here, the plain language of the statute fails to reveal a particular intent, we look to the entire statutory scheme and consider the purpose of the particular statute before us. Department of Pub. Safety & Correctional Serv. v. Howard, 339 Md. 357, 369, 663 A.2d 74 (1995). Additionally, courts may examine any interpretive regulations promulgated by an administrative agency, giving deference to the agency's own application. Baltimore & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Bowen, 60 Md.App. 299, 305, 482 A.2d 921 (1984). Courts must also be cognizant of avoiding an illogical, absurd, or inconsistent result. Kaczorowski v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 309 Md. 505, 512, 525 A.2d 628 (1987).

Our construction of the statute at issue should also be consistent with the agency regulations that implement the mandate of § 11-106. Under COMAR 17.04.05.04, the appointing authority "shall take each of the actions required in § D of this regulation within the time limits provided in State Personnel and Pensions Article, § 11-106, Annotated Code of Maryland." Id. The actions required in COMAR's provisions mirror those investigatory requirements of § 11-106(a). While an appointing authority has 30 days within which to impose discipline, the statute does not expressly identify the degree of knowledge that triggers this limitation period.

C. Level of Knowledge Required to Trigger the 30-Day Period for Imposition of Disciplinary Action Under § 11-106

We reject appellee's contention that the 30-day limitation period begins the moment that the appointing authority acquires any knowledge, however slight, of the incident for which disciplinary action is ultimately imposed. There is an important distinction between (1) information that indicates the necessity for an investigation, and (2) the completion of an investigation required by § 11-106(a)(1). The statutory clock found in § 11-106(b) does not start until the appointing authority has—or, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, should reasonably have—acquired enough knowledge to justify the imposition of discipline.

We are persuaded that when an appointing authority reprimands or terminates an employee, that decision is presumptively correct as to both substance and procedure. When, however, the employee produces evidence that generates the issue of whether the 30-day limit had been violated, the agency must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the disciplinary action was timely imposed.

D. Procedure for Determining Compliance with § 11-106(b)

We therefore hold that, in accordance with the Act's...