Coates again appeals decision barring her from administrator vote

The Maryland Appellate Court heard the latest appeal from Commissioner Thomasina “Sina” Coates (D) earlier this week on a decision that bars her from commenting and voting on the job status of Mark Belton, the county administrator, who has been on indefinite leave since early last year.

According to a Jan. 30 advisory opinion from the Charles County Ethics Commission, for more than four years members of the county commissioners have been engaged in a dispute regarding a county personnel matter.

The “personnel matter” refers to the job status of Belton, who was put on paid administrative leave after issues arose when it came out that Coates, who is Black, allegedly made racially abusive conduct toward Belton, who is white.

Coates, a Democrat, was censured for her conduct in June 2020 and was not allowed to participate in any vote that pertained to Belton’s job status. The issue was not made public for more than two years.

After Coates tried to participate in a vote on Belton’s job status in late 2022, Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling (D) revealed the earlier censure and, since then, legal fees have been continuously rising.

At the end of the initial battle in September 2023, taxpayers had already funded $1.35 million for the dispute.

“We are not paying Coates for her legal costs associated with her appeal. The county legal fees that we are currently paying is our cost to respond to her appeal,” Jake Dyer, the acting director of the Department Fiscal and Administrative Services, said in response to a Southern Maryland News request.

This is the second appeal from Coates. The first was dismissed by the Appellate Court of Maryland after a judge last fall held up the initial censure disallowing her to participate in votes related to Belton’s job status.

Now, her second appeal has been submitted.

Mariam Tadros, a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, represented Coates in the appeal.

Tadros presented the case on Oct. 7 to the state’s appeleate court, saying that when the commissioners went into their meeting on June 9, 2020, only Commissioner President Reuben B. Collins II (D) had viewed a report.

The report was not presented at the meeting, Tadros said.

“Probably bad governance, but why does it matter,” Douglas R. M. Nazarian, an appellate court judge, replied.

Tadros questioned the validity of the action taken against Coates based on the grounds.

Nazarian said that if it is an administrative act, the validity of the action against Coates could not be challenged easily.

“Then it’s a matter of whether the commissioners function properly as administrators,” Nazarian said, referring to challenging an administrative act. “The whole concept of the commissioner counties where the commissioners are simultaneously swapping hats between being legislators and administrators … was very hard for me to get my brain around.”

Nazarian emphasized that although “it’s very weird” sometimes, commissioners are the administrators and that there are records of meetings where the commissioners have to switch which role they are in at the time.

The argument presented by Tadros boiled down to saying that new legislation was essentially needed to take action against Coates.

Anthony May, an attorney arguing on behalf of the county, said that the commissioners were acting as employers.

“When an employer is faced and has knowledge of employment discrimination, it has to take an act,” May said. “Here that’s exactly what four of five of the un-conflicted commissioners had to do in this case.”

May said that because after an election Coates tried to vote on Belton’s job status, that is why the permanent injunction needed to stay in place.

Southern Maryland News submitted a request through the public information act on July 25, 2023, about Belton’s job status. At the time, Belton made $235,244 per year and was the highest paid county employee.

County government said the request was denied as the information was “part of the personnel record of an employee and not subject to disclosure.”

The newspaper submitted another request last month for information on Belton’s job status and is still awaiting a response from county government.