By Adam Pagnucco.
Montgomery County Inspector General (IG) Megan Davey Limarzi has written a memo to the county council finding misconduct by one of its employees. The IG found that the employee, who is not named in the letter, charged $11,490 to the council for the reservation of athletic fields for the benefit of their spouse. According to the IG, the employee misled other county employees, made reference to their employment by the council and made false statements to investigators. The IG found evidence of violations of county policy, law and regulations and referred it to the ethics commission and the state’s attorney.
The memo is transcribed and reproduced below.
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Memorandum of Investigation
To: Marlene Michaelson, Executive Director
From: Megan Davey Limarzi, Esq., Inspector General
Date: September 8, 2023
Subject: Public Synopsis: Misconduct by County Council Employee
The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently concluded an investigation into allegations that a Montgomery County Council staff member inappropriately charged $11,490 worth of reservations of county athletic fields to the council’s ActiveMONTGOMERY account.
ActiveMONTGOMERY is the registration and reservation system used to request permits, register for activities, reserve public spaces, and pay online for various classes, camps and facility rentals throughout the county. While many athletic fields can be reserved online through ActiveMONTGOMERY, synthetic turf fields can only be reserved by direct communication with a Community Use of Public Facilities (CUPF) or Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission – Montgomery Parks (Parks) employee. Once a synthetic turf field reservation has been processed by a CUPF or Parks employee, the reservation and permit are listed under the applicable ActiveMONTGOMERY account.
The investigation revealed that in 2022 and 2023, the subject employee intentionally misled staff from CUPF and Parks to believe they were requesting reservations for athletic fields on the Council’s behalf when in fact they were doing so for the benefit of their spouse. In total, field use permits in the amount of $19,190 ($11,490 of which was reserved under the council’s ActiveMONTGOMERY account) were obtained by the employee and never paid for. Attempts by Park staff to obtain outstanding payments were ignored, and at times the employee made reference to their position at the County Council. During the investigation, the employee also intentionally made false statements to OIG investigators in an effort to conceal their misconduct.
The OIG investigation substantiated several violations of county policy, law and regulations including abuse of prestige of office, misappropriation, false statements during the course of an investigation, and misconduct by a public employee.
I am referring this matter to you for appropriate action to address the employee’s misconduct. A separate referral has been made to the county’s Ethics Commission and the results of our investigation have been referred to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Please contact me with any questions.
