Prince George’s council calls last-minute meeting to appoint auditor ahead of Election Day

After temporarily abandoning its appointment last week, the Prince George’s County Council on Monday named a new county auditor during a last-minute virtual meeting one day before the General Election.

The meeting, announced via email 40 minutes before it was scheduled to begin, and which started 35 minutes late, grew heated as council members repeatedly interrupted each other.

With three members absent and a third abstaining, the council voted 6-1 to appoint Marcel Emerson, a financial controller for a New York City-based acquisition holding company and former account manager for Prince George’s Community College.

“This was a tough one, but I know the county needs an auditor, and it’s important that we put someone in place,” said council member Danielle Hunter, who cast the decisive sixth vote.

Emerson could not immediately be reached for comment.

Council member Jolene Ivey, the lone dissenter, said she believed the council violated state law by not providing proper notice for its meeting.

Ivey herself only learned about the meeting 40 minutes ahead of time, she said.

“The Open Meetings Act would only allow short notice like this if this were like a truly urgent matter,” she said. “And since this is a position that’s been open for a year, I hardly think that this is something that had to be rushed like this.”

Her colleagues disagreed.

“I see this as an emergency,” said council member Tim Adams. “We have a responsibility to have an auditor in place.”

Maryland’s Open Meetings Act generally requires public bodies to “give reasonable advance notice” before meeting in open or closed session.

Ivey also alleged that Emerson is friends with council member Edward Burroughs, and said she could not support a candidate who was friends with any council member.

Several council members interrupted to push back on her allegation, including council member Tom Dernoga, who said that Ivey hadn’t provided any evidence to substantiate her claim.

Earlier in the meeting, Ivey had attributed the source of her allegation to “extremely good intelligence from people who know both parties.”

Burroughs, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, said in an interview that Ivey’s claim is false and that he is not friends with Emerson.

“Let me make this very clear. My understanding is that there were three finalists for this position. I know all three of the finalists. I don’t consider any of them a friend of mine,” Burroughs said.

Asked why he didn’t attend Monday’s meeting, Burroughs said, “I made a decision that I would not allow council member Ivey to weaponize my presence.”

Emerson’s appointment comes at a notable time for the Office of Audits and Investigations, which recently started investigating the millions in public dollars awarded to Community on the Frontline, a local organization run by Council Chair Krystal Oriadha’s close friend.

Separately, Ivey and council member Sydney Harrison have called for audits of Community on the Frontline and Joan’s House, a nonprofit with close ties to Burroughs.

Oriadha first announced Emerson’s appointment on Oct. 23, days after the council voted 9-0 in closed session to appoint him.

The council was then scheduled to vote again on the matter during a public meeting on Oct. 26.

But the lawmakers quietly removed Emerson’s appointment from its meeting agenda, and its 2026 legislative session concluded the following day without any mention of the auditor appointment.

At a press conference last week, Oriadha declined to explain why the council didn’t follow through with its decision to appoint Emerson, but said that an appointment letter she wrote had been “prematurely” added to the council’s agenda.

During Monday’s meeting, the council chair said the final decision was delayed because “we wanted to make sure that it was reviewed in due diligence before there was any formal step.”