A company owned by a former Baltimore County Revenue Authority board member is getting a $5,500 going-away present after his firm lost out on an extension of a public relations and advertising contract with the authority.

Nevins & Associates, a small public relations firm owned by David Nevins, was awarded the payment after the five-member board met behind closed doors Dec. 4.

The firm had a no-bid, no-contract arrangement to handle public relations and advertising for the authority's golf division for about nine years, beginning soon after Nevins left the board. The firm was replaced in October after the authority solicited bids on a new contract.

"David has represented us for about 10 years and has done an outstanding job," Hanan Sibel, chairman of the revenue authority board, said in a Dec. 9 phone interview.

In October, the board chose GKV Marketing to represent the golf division. The contract began Nov. 1.

Nevins, in a Nov. 4 e-mail to the authority's chief executive, George Hale, said his company was not given enough notice and asked the authority to pay his firm up to 90 days severance.

"While I understand the BCRA is anxious to get started with its firm, I believe the BCRA has an obligation to retain (and/or compensate) Nevins & Associates through the end of the year," Nevins wrote in an e-mail released by the authority at the request of Patuxent Publishing Co., publisher of this newspaper.

Despite Nevins' assertions that 30-90 days notice was customary, Hale, in a Dec. 10 interview, maintained the authority had no obligation to pay because the arrangement was month to month without a contract.

Hale said his Nov. 4 e-mail reply to Nevins referred to concerns he and Les Pittler, an authority board member, and William Cook, executive director of the authority's golf division, had over a billing practice. Nevins & Associates received discounts on ads placed with various media outlets, billed the authority the full price for the ads and then kept the difference. Hale estimates the difference netted Nevins & Associates about 15 percent of the ads' full price.

It is unlikely the discounts would have been available to the authority directly, so it was difficult to say if the authority could have saved money, Hale said.

Such arrangements are common in advertising. Several companies that bid for the authority contract this year had similar arrangements as part of their bids, Hale said.

Hale, who believed Nevins was no longer taking a cut, said he and others became frustrated recently when they asked if the arrangement was continuing.

"We had to ask multiple questions, multiple times," said Hale, who described the situation as "frustrating."

In a Nov. 4 e-mail, Hale urged Nevins to let the subject of a severance payment drop.

"Additionally, since several individuals are of the opinion that Nevins was less than clear with respect to some of the past billing practices, my personal advice is that you probably would not benefit from having the contract discussed or debated again by the Board of Directors."

Ultimately, the board did take up the issue after Sibel said he had had a talk with Nevins.

"The man requested (the payment) so we had to bring it up," Sibel said. "We couldn't ignore it."

Sibel said the board felt changing the start date of the new firm from Jan. 1 to Nov. 1 warranted an additional payment to Nevins & Associates.

"We try to treat people fairly," Sibel said. "We thought just cutting (Nevins) off wasn't fair. Everybody thought it was fair to do something. He did a good job. He wasn't terminated for poor performance."

The board's discussion of the issue was held behind closed doors.

During the meeting, Sibel asked the board to go into closed session to discuss a "matter pertaining to compensation and personnel." The issue was not on the agenda for the morning meeting and no additional explanation was given before the board unanimously voted to go into closed session.

The state Open Meetings Act provides 14 reasons for closing a meeting. None of those include payments made to contractors.

The board reconvened publicly about 20 minutes later and voted unanimously, without discussion or explanation, to give Nevins and Associates a $5,500 payment.

Closing meetings to discuss payments for contracts that have already been awarded is unusual.

The County Council frequently deals with similar issues.

Council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz said the council rarely, if ever, closes a meeting under similar circumstances "because the open meetings law does not allow us to do so."

He would not comment on the closing of the revenue authority meeting but said his personal view is to close meetings "as rarely as possible."

"I think it's healthier to have the discussion in public," Kamenetz said.

Bryan P. Sears is political editor for Patuxent Publishing Co.'s Baltimore County newspapers.

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user comments (1)

user brucerobinson says...

The Open meetings Act doesn't have any teeth, so boards are encouraged to ignore it. I serve on a board that has gone into closed session at almost every meeting since July 2007. The voting members of the board will make decisions over the telephone that conflict with decisions made in meetings, and are not adverse to leaving the public presence because the board president wants to take back a decision made in public. I have objected to this at every meeting since spring. now, when ever I speak, board members and staff roll their eyes and sigh heavily. Not because I am wrong, but because they know I'm right but they chose not to follow the law. The last time we met they amended the minutes of a previous meeting to reflect the closed meeting, but there are no minutes of the closed meetings. the revised minutes were not shared with anyone other than the voting board members. The president explained that substitute members are not entitled to review the documents signed by the voting members. She also blew off holding a meeting called for under statute because she didn't want to do it. Another board member added that they had never hald this meeting in past years and didn't need to start doing it this year.

Posted 2:13 PM, 12.19.08

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