Somewhere, there’s an Anne Arundel County park superintendent out of a job.
The county won’t say who was fired yet, or which park was involved. As many as seven other Recreation and Parks employees face transfers and punishment.
The only public description of the scandal is tucked into an obscure corner of the county website, where a little-known agency offers an opaque description of a park supervisor using county vehicles for personal gain.
“Given this is an ongoing matter, we’re unable to provide a comment on this,” Rec and Parks spokesperson Heath Neiderer wrote in a message.
The reason this is being revealed in such an odd fashion is the agency that exposed the fraud — the Office of the County Auditor.
It’s part of the legislative branch and has a history as a powerhouse of accountability, one that put it at odds with successive administrations. In recent years, though, it has been sleepwalking through that role.
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The Rec and Parks investigation signals that the auditor is back, with a new leader chosen by the County Council to restore its role as a key check on county government.
“One of the things I noticed, even during my interviews, was the lack of audits,” Louis Duncan Jr. said Wednesday after his office’s budget review with the council.
“I think the last audit may have been done three years ago, and so that’s one of the renewed emphases I’m trying to bring back — to actually provide oversight.”
Except Duncan isn’t the auditor.
He’s the part-time executive manager, a title created for him in November. He’s never taken the oath of office.
Duncan has been working 10 hours a week in Annapolis. He fulfills the auditor’s role, but still has a full-time federal job as an inspector general overseeing foreign aid.
“I’m not going to leave the federal government,” he said. “What I plan to do is hopefully stand up this office, get the right people in place, and then I can just kind of hire, help them hire a county auditor.”
That makes the council’s push for greater scrutiny of government a gamble.
Led by Chair Julie Hummer, the council is betting that a temporary leader can change the culture of the auditor’s office and that the November election will sustain it.
“That is the challenge of elected office every four years,” she said. “You may not have the same priorities. I’d like to hope that we will.”
It wasn’t always this way.
From 1998 to 2016, Auditor Teresa Sutherland bedeviled consecutive county administrations.
One county executive threatened to file charges against her, and personal attacks from others may have contributed to her departure. When she left, the watchdog spirit went with her.
Five auditors followed, shifting to pro forma legislative analysis and budget reviews.
In hiring Duncan, Hummer said, the council wanted someone to restore Sutherland’s mission. The council hoped he might make a permanent move.
But, she said, the six-month contract gave him time to start changes.
“That has been a focus for Louis, bringing in staff that has more of an investigation background and building that out,” Hummer said. “Because there weren’t any audits being done.”
During Democratic County Executive Steuart Pittman’s administration, the Democratic-majority council has complained about a lack of access to information, but rarely seemed spoiling for a fight.
Worse, the county Office of Law, led by a Pittman appointee, is the council’s lawyer, too. It plays defense and referee in any dispute over public records, and was the keeper of the waste, fraud and abuse hotline.
Michelle Bohlayer, the auditor from 2022 to early 2025, said the council itself wasn’t always sure what it wanted from the office.
“True objectivity and independence are incredibly difficult to maintain when a watchdog lacks independent legal counsel, faces ongoing hurdles to basic records access and serves at the continuous pleasure of seven different elected officials with competing agendas,” she said.
That began to change in 2024. The council convinced voters to amend the county charter and give the auditor the power to investigate fraud, waste and abuse. It replaced Bohlayer with an interim auditor as it searched for an aggressive watchdog.
Two council members, Allison Pickard and Pete Smith, are now running for county executive. Both served as council chair, as did Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien, who will leave office this year.
Although the chair takes a lead role in supervising the auditor’s office, Rodvien said the council as a whole supported a stronger watchdog role.
“It’s a whole-council responsibility,” she said. “There was never a time when the chair and the rest of the council were out of step.”
Allegations of misconduct by the park superintendent were reported to the law office’s hotline in late 2025. The auditor’s office took on the probe.
Andrew Powell, a former police officer who leads the office’s investigations, chased down the tips. He interviewed witnesses, examined documents and covertly watched as equipment was misused.
The office published its findings April 29. It found that the superintendent used county vehicles outside of work, abused the telework policy, falsified time cards and wasted money on a part-time employee.
Duncan brought the findings to the administration and prosecutors. The superintendent was fired, but no criminal charges were brought. Lawsuits remain possible.
Gabby Reed, a Pittman spokesperson, declined to comment, calling it an ongoing investigation.
It’s not clear when Duncan will leave. His contract has run its course, but neither he nor Hummer would say when his role ends.
He’s spent the time training staff, hiring a staff member with an advanced accounting degree and launching an outreach campaign with county employees. His office now controls the tips hotline.
“They’re getting more reports,” Hummer said, “and they’re investigating things more. We’re looking forward to seeing what that leads to as they build that out.”
The next county executive might welcome the outside scrutiny or fight back. The next council could abandon the role again.
The outcome will depend on the next auditor.
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