Some Baltimore County Council members want to be told when the county pays out legal settlements.
Members said they were surprised to learn that County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's administration reached a $1.5 million agreement with the mother of Christopher Brown, who was killed in 2012 in an altercation with county police Officer James Laboard. The administration did not announce the settlement or notify the council .
"I think when you're talking about millions of dollars, there definitely should be greater transparency," said Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican.
Marks said he has asked the council's attorney to request a briefing on legal settlements from the county law office.
The Baltimore Sun reported the settlement this month after learning about it through court records.
"I am not familiar with the details of this case or the negotiations that took place," Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond, a Reisterstown Democrat, told The Sun. "What I do know is that with a case and settlement of this size, the County Council would appreciate not learning about it in The Baltimore Sun."
Kamenetz spokeswoman Ellen Kobler declined to comment.
Marks said the council should not be "micromanaging" county litigation, but there should be some threshold at which members are notified the county has paid a settlement.
He pointed to the example of county contracts for goods and services. If they are more than $25,000, they require council approval.
But Councilman Julian Jones said he does not think the council should have any involvement in settlements because "I want the decision to be made without hands from the political process."
"I think it could be problematic," the Woodstock Democrat said.
The county also reached an agreement in April with a man who said he was assaulted in 2013 by county police officers using racial slurs. The county is reviewing a request from The Sun to release terms of the settlement.
Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, director of the good-government group Common Cause Maryland, said some police-related settlements might involve confidential personnel matters. But once a settlement is reached, she said, it should be made public.
"Especially in the current climate, where there's so much attention being paid to police brutality and the growing sense of concern among the public, the presumption should be toward more transparency, not less," Bevan-Dangel said. "So in a case where the issue's been settled and certainly when a payout's been made, the public should be aware that it's been dealt with."
In Baltimore City, legal settlements exceeding $25,000 require the approval of the Board of Estimates.
County Councilman Todd Crandell, a Dundalk Republican, said constituents rely on the council for information on public spending.
"Having just gone through the budget and knowing how tight the budget is, it would have been good for the council at least to have been notified," Crandell said.
Kobler, the Kamenetz spokeswoman, said legal settlements are paid through the county's self-insurance fund.
In the lawsuit settled in April, Jermaine Keith said he was at a restaurant on Pulaski Highway in August 2013 when he went outside a to take a call on his cellphone.
He said he was approached by two officers, identified in the lawsuit as Officer Wood and Officer McLhinney. He said he was arrested without probable cause and assaulted, and that one or both of the officers used racial slurs against him.
Keith, who is black, said he was released without being charged with any crime. He named the officers, the county and the county Police Department as defendants in the lawsuit.
Keith's attorney in the lawsuit, Wes P. Henderson, did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to The Sun, police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said the department "conducted an internal investigation of the alleged complaints against these two officers," Patrick McLhinney and Matthew Wood.
"None of the charges were sustained, following a thorough investigation by the Internal Affairs Section," she said.
When an allegation is not sustained, the Police Department says, it means it cannot be proved or disproved.
Armacost said the agency "respects the right of citizens to seek redress of alleged improprieties on the part of police officers."
"We have confidence in the ability of the courts and our own Internal Affairs Section to adjudicate such cases fairly and thoroughly," Armacost said.
McLhinney left the county department in 2015. Now a detective with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, he said his move was unrelated to the lawsuit. He declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Wood could not be reached for comment.
Baltimore Sun reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this article.
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