Ted Shea’s Much Delayed “Early Retirement”

A WICOMICO SAGA

Upon being elected to his first term as the County Executive, Rick Pollitt appointed Mr. Shea – who until then was the County’s chief administrative officer, a position previously appointed by the Council – to essentially the same position as the “Director of Administration” of the County government. At the time Mr. Pollitt said that Shea would remain in that position until July 1, 2007, when he planned to retire. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since then, you probably know that Mr. Shea has continued in that position, in which he receives a 6-figure annual salary, and has decided to take the special early retirement deal that Pollitt recently instituted, with Council approval, under which a monetary incentive is provided to those who choose to retire.

Why Mr. Shea did not retire as planned when Rick Pollitt was first elected has not been formally stated, but by not doing so Shay has received pay and benefits that approach if not exceed one-half million dollars as a member of Pollitt’s staff. Now he will get a special “kicker” to retire “early” some four years after he planned to do so.

Shortly after his planned retirement in mid-2007, Mr. Shea was in the news in the context of Mr. Pollitt’s midnight “bonus” for certain department heads and – you guessed it – Mr. Shea. Soon after passing the County’s budget for FY 2008, the Council became aware that it included a special reward for Mr. Shea and four department heads and demanded an explanation. It seems that after the Council had cut certain items from the budget proposed by Pollitt, Mr. Shea suggested to him that those department heads should receive a bonus for their exemplary job performance as a “supplemental budget.” Pollitt, who had been in office less than a year at that time, both agreed and expanded the package to include Shea among the chosen few.

Apparently the bonus package got into the adopted budget without the knowledge of the Council due to silence – the “public information officer,” who was not among the bonus designees, did not do a press release about special monetary reward by Pollitt. The midnight bonus episode set the tenor of subsequent dealings between Pollitt and the Council. Several members felt that they had been duped by him and Shea, who has served as Pollitt’s representative in dealing with the Council. Getting timely and complete information from Pollitt and lack of transparency have remained sore points with the Council to the present.

Mr. Shea also figured in the landfill theft episode (in which he was not a direct participant in any manner) that occurred during his tenure as the County Administrator or later as the Director of Administration on Rick Pollitt’s staff. Whether either of them should be held accountable as derelict in their supervisory capacity is certainly debatable. A very interesting aspect is that the investigative report made by a consultant commissioned by Mr. Pollitt seems to have been revised from the draft to omit much of the discussion of poor or “indifferent” supervision by immediate supervisor – the former public works director – whose supervisor was Mr. Shea, who reports to Pollitt.

The landfill episode, which surfaced several years ago, did not affect Mr. Shea’s subsequent career or Mr. Pollitt’s reelection, although his opponent, Mr. Ollinger, argued during the campaign that Shea should have retired when Pollitt first took office in late 2006 and been replaced as the county’s chief administrative official by “someone with fresh ideas.” Now, he will be replaced by someone who has been on Mr. Pollitt’s staff and previously that of the County Administrator for many years. So much for the fresh ideas.

Tacitus is a Salisbury resident and frequent contributor to SbyNEWS.