City employee filed action for judicial review of decision of commissioner of city division of pretrial detention and services terminating employee’s employment at city jail following allegation of excessive force against an inmate.
The Circuit Court remanded to commissioner to conduct penalty increase meeting. Employee appealed. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. City detention center petitioned for writ of certiorari.
The Court of Appeals held that:
- The 30-day window contained in Correctional Officers’ Bill of Rights (COBR) for commissioner to conduct penalty-increase meeting began to run upon commissioner’s receipt of recommendation of hearing board;
- Commissioner was required to comply with all of procedural steps enumerated in COBR before conducting a penalty-increase meeting and issuing a penalty increase;
- Post hoc memorandum by the commissioner was insufficient to satisfy the requirement that a penalty-increase meeting be conducted on the record; and
- Commissioner’s failure to hold meeting “on the record” did not prejudice officer, and thus, remand warranted to allow the commissioner to conduct another meeting with a properly operating recording device.