Should Rockville Mayor, Council See Report Investigating Former City Employees' Claims?

Rockville residents' complaints have revived the discussion over access to a report investigating former city employees’ claims of harassment and discrimination by supervisors.

In a recent story published in The Sentinel, former Rockville mayor Steve VanGrack and Andrea Bernardo, campaign manager for former city Councilwoman Anne Robbins, said the Rockville City Council should have access to the report. If the mayor and council do not review the report, an individual or committee should do it on their behalf, some have suggested.

“When there is a call into question by several city employees into what is going on the mayor and council absolutely have to come in and find out what is going on,” VanGrack told The Sentinel.

The Sentinel’s account is posted at the newspaper’s website, TheSentinel.com.

In May 2012, the city hired law firm Saul Ewing LLP to conduct an internal review of the city’s personnel policies and procedures after The Sentinel published a series of articles detailing complaints by former employees, Patch has reported.

The city paid the law firm $190,000.

While the findings of the report have been released, the report was deemed confidential because it contained personnel information “which cannot be made public,” city officials said in a news release in November.

The Sentinel and The Gazette have requested that the city make the information public under the Maryland Public Information Act, Patch has reported.

The City Council received a briefing on the firm’s findings during a closed-session meeting in November. The probe ultimately found “no unlawful conduct,” and recommended “improvements to communication between management and staff and to the City’s human resources process,” Patch has reported.  

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Speak Out: Should Rockville's mayor and city council have access to this report? Or do you agree that the report is confidential and should remain so? Please post your comments below.