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County Office of Law outlines budget cuts, staffing shifts and reduced enforcement backlog
Summary
The Office of Law presented a proposed FY26 budget decrease and described steps to reduce enforcement backlogs, dedicate staff to rent stabilization and strengthen transparency/MPIA capacity while noting ongoing vacancy challenges.
The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee received an overview April 10 of the Office of Law's proposed budget and workload, including a reported decline in the unit's backlog of enforcement cases stemming from court closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
David Williams, budget and policy analyst, said the Office of Law's total proposed FY26 budget is about $4.9 million, a decrease of approximately $403,900 (7.6%) from the prior year. Williams said the office expects to add one full-time position even as it continues to report consistent vacancies in both transaction and litigation teams, with an overall vacancy rate near 10% and an attrition rate cited earlier in the presentation.
County Attorney Rhonda Weaver told the committee the office has reduced vacancies to four as of the briefing and has reorganized some attorney and paralegal positions to reduce costs and improve efficiency. "We have done a lot to decrease our vacancies," Weaver said, noting three attorney vacancies and one recently opened administrative vacancy that had just been posted.
Weaver described steps to improve efficiency, including converting two attorney positions to paralegal roles and creating a dedicated transparency division that handles Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) requests; she said the transparency unit now has three full-time attorneys and three paralegals focused on MPIA work. Weaver also said the office has dedicated staff for rent stabilization matters and that those resources have improved handling of recent laws in that area.
Deputy county attorney Joe Ruddy told the committee the enforcement backlog that emerged when courts closed during COVID has been "dramatically decreased," and that the office is now getting code-enforcement and problem-property cases into court within roughly 60 to 90 days. Ruddy said the office works with the Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement (DPIE) on inspections and that, for problem properties, the office seeks injunctions and court orders when necessary to abate violations.
Committee members asked about abandoned properties and why enforcement sometimes appears slow; Ruddy and Weaver said some of the earlier backlog resulted from court scheduling constraints and that the office is in continuing discussions with the courts about adding dockets as needed. Weaver agreed to provide a list of abandoned properties when the committee requested it so the office could explain where cases are in the enforcement process.
Weaver said turnover has been driven in part by pay disparities in the legal market and that county classification changes and regrading of attorney positions should improve career progression and retention.
Williams and Weaver also noted investments in case management and other technology: the office intends system updates and reported a project cost for a case-management upgrade, and Weaver described training and revised MPIA policies signed by the acting chief administrative officer on April 3.
No formal committee action was taken during the briefing.
