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Three days ago, Michael Everett Calvert was slated to be Oxford, Maryland's new town manager. But, in 1994, he was Court Case Number: 00709028D5.
Michael Calvert of Lexington, South Carolina was going to be Oxford, Maryland's new town manager replacing the retiring Cheryl Lewis. Lewis is retiring at the end of June after twelve years in the position. She has been a controversial figure in the town, particularly in the last year and a half after the sudden retirement of long-time police chief Pat Maxwell in February of 2023. That event led to the citizens of the town digging into the business of the town, especially Lewis's salary which was seen by many as extreme at over $164,000 plus thousands in bonuses a year for a town of 650 people. Nepotism, favoritism, poor management of flooding solutions and non-transparency were other issues. New issues cropped up every other week.
Calvert was supposed to step in and move the town forward after Lewis's tenure. He would be in charge of a town with a budget in the millions.
It didn't work out. Among other things, Criminal Court Case Number: 00709028D5 came back to haunt him and the Town of Oxford.
Calvert's hiring was announced on June 24th. His departure followed on June 27th. The BMW that was backed into the driveway of where he was staying in the Oxford owned townhouses, pulled out at 11 a.m. on Thursday never to return.
The Oxford hiring process, which was supposedly conducted by the town, had gaping holes in it, the biggest of which was the lack of a thorough and complete background and criminal check.
The town seemed unable or unwilling to conduct a thorough background and criminal check, while citizens of Oxford, using their home computers and Google were able to find out all the troubling details about Mr. Calvert in under an hour. At first, they discovered the words of citizens of his previous town management assignment in the City of Liberty, South Carolina. Various Facebook posts showed City of Liberty citizen commentary on his 18-month tenure in their city. A Liberty resident and former town council member, when contacted, told this story:
She (Peggy, a town council member) resigned as a council member because of Calvert. John ****, another council member, also resigned with her. They didn't like Calvert at all. She repeatedly called him a snake. He verbally abused people and fought against all transparency. The only grants he received was for three easy ones that the state simply handed out to the town.
Liberty is a low-income mill town. Many buildings are in need of repair. Peggy used the word "poor" a few times. The town has 3,500 residents but on a good voting day only 300 will show up. Calvert came in at 60K and left making a 100K. She said he had no experience but the town paid for him to take classes. She said he only came into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The entire town is happy he left. It was a breath of fresh air. She said he's never worked anywhere for more than 18 months. He had a policy where residents can only speak for 3 minutes and the town does not answer questions. She filled out a FOIA to learn what he spent on the towns credit cards and she was told it would cost 6K. She got so mad she walked into the office and demanded to see the credit card statement. One council member named Jeff ****** helped her. He's still on the council. Calvert didn't report his travel cost to DC on several occasions and he used the card for liquor and food. Keep in mind, it's a poor town and he's driving a BMW. This credit card mess drove him out of town.
Calvert never lived in Liberty. His home was in Lexington, SC. He increased the staff from 4 people (and that includes the mayor) to 7. When he started his job the town only had one credit card. When he left there were 7. The new administrator, Phillip Trotter, cut up the cards and today the town is back to one credit card. She said when Trotter replaced Calvert he said, "There's a lot of money missing and we're also missing a lot of information." She can't believe Oxford would hire this guy. To her knowledge no one was contacted in the town to vet him.
While some may attribute this to petty bickering among town residents, Calvert left his position in November under a cloud of suspicion. The more alarming fact is it appears no one in the town was contacted by Oxford to vet Calvert. It's also interesting that he is so readily available eight months later.
Here are reactions of other citizens of the City of Liberty regarding Calvert when they heard about Oxford hiring him:
"Who did he put down as a reference on his resume?!!!"
"Who wrote his resume, Oxford will soon understand this man does not match his resume."
" Calvert was retained, paid $100K...was allowed to spend freely on his credit card until he "resigned" due to his "wife's job opportunity"? You know exactly why he resigned. You and Council were never going to do one thing to confront him or stop him." (this comment was directed at the town's council)
One post told of Calvert calling a community member a "f***ing idiot" while speaking to the citizen in his role as administrator.
Another resident revealed details of Calvert's contract:
Minimum 3% salary increase yearly, monthly automobile allowance of $500, Professional development funds of $10,000 annually, Annual sick leave, twelve weeks annually with an increase of 1 week for every 3 years, civic memberships, dues and subscriptions paid for by the town, 9 month's severance pay.
Highway robbery in a wonderful little town in South Carolina.
After an extensive review of both Facebook pages for the City of Liberty, not one positive comment was found regarding Calvert other than a person posting under a pseudonym who mainly cursed at those criticizing him. For all we know, that could have been Calvert himself!
After Oxford let Calvert go, someone from Liberty posted, " Good for Oxford, Maryland! They made a great decision for their little town in NOT hiring Calvert. They dodged a bullet."
While these revelations regarding Calvert's tenure in the City of Liberty were troubling, part time Oxford resident Scott Rensberger uncovered bombshell information via a background search into Calvert. He wasn't the only one. Resident Ron Walker did the same. Walker said:
“Wednesday morning I heard from a few of my in town and out of town friends that they were looking into our new town manager. I was curious. It didn’t take long to read and see he was not liked in Liberty. My 11-dollar background search showed some very troubling things about the man. “
At 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, Rensberger sent the following story from the 1994 Washington Post along with Criminal Case Number: 00709028D5 against "Michael Everett Calvert" to Oxford town lawyer, Lindsay Ryan, so the town could further investigate and verify a shocking indecent exposure charge involving children as well as a prostitution charge. These are detailed below:
The information below was found regarding Michael Everett Calvert :
Indecent Exposure
Charges filed date: 3/18/94
Address: 1114 Clubhouse Drive #301, Leesburg, VA
Crime Location: Montgomery, MD
Crime Type: Not Categorized
Charge Category: Criminal
Crime Classification: Criminal
Offense Code: CR.11.107
Offense Description: Indecent Exposure
Case Number: 00709028D5
Court Name: District
Court Cost: $20.00
Fine: $950.00
Plea: Guilty
Disposition: Pbj Supervised
Disposition Date: 7/15/94
Status: Closed.
And this:
Prostitution Engagement
Offense Date: 1/20/92
Address: 7 S Market Street Apt 1, Frederick, MD
Age at time of charge: 23
Crime Type: Misdemeanor
Plea: Not Guilty
Disposition: Guilty
Disposition Date: 11/5/92
Eighteen hours and 45 minutes later, town staff, lawyers and commissioners were called to the town office and Calvert was gone. The town created this press release directly after that meeting:
The town became unavailable for further comments citing the fact that this was a "personnel matter." Mr. Calvert was also unavailable for comment.
This left many questions.
The Town of Oxford had some serious egg on their faces. They were duped into hiring someone for $120,000 a year who would not have passed a thorough, legitimate background, criminal and credit check that would qualify him for a job as a manager of any private or public sector organization. The Town Manager of Oxford oversees personnel, state and federal grants, while managing a town with a budget in the millions. An unquestionable record was imperative.
Not to mention he would be living right next to families with children and the local kid's camp.
Further review of Calvert's resume shows he had many different jobs in his career and didn't seem to stay in one place very long. And now, two days before Lewis walks out the door, he was traveling down I 95 back home to South Carolina. Like the resident of Liberty, South Carolina said, Oxford dodged a bullet.
But how did Oxford get here?
When Lewis announced her retirement at a town meeting on February 14, 2024, the town initiated the process for a search to replace her. Commissioners talked about how important this hiring was. The impact of a new town manager would last for decades. Commissioner Katrina Greer recommended the town engage a recruiting/search firm to assure they got the highest quality candidates. However, she met resistance from the other two Commissioners, President of the Commissioners Tom Costigan and appointed Commissioner Delean Botkin who claimed it was "too expensive" and the town didn't need to go to such lengths. Botkin's assertion seemed feckless considering this hiring was characterized by the Commissioners as the most important hire the town would make. Twenty thousand dollars seemed small in a budget of millions.
Nevertheless, the town had a workshop with well-respected human resource and hiring professionals to hear why the town "going it on their own" with INDEED and other online searches was a bad idea. The workshop included Carol Kachadoorian, a resident of Oxford, who has extensive experience in town management and has lived in the town for twelve years, Donald J. Borut, the former Executive Director of the National League of Cities, the nation's oldest and largest national organization representing municipal governments and David Duetsch, a seasoned city manager with over 40 years of experience, who has held significant roles in municipal administration in Bowie, Maryland and Springettsbury Township in Pennsylvania and has been the recipient of national awards. Mr. Borut was employed by Mercer Group Associates, a group that conducts candidate searches for many jurisdictions.
This summary of the workshop, details how appointed Commissioner Delean Botkin and President of the Commission Tom Costigan were against hiring a recruiting firm, claiming that $20,000 to $50,000 to pay for the service was just too expensive.
Oxford Commissioners Conduct Town Manager Search Workshop - Easton Gazette
One wonders if they now think avoiding this embarrassing incident would have been worth it.
After the workshop, the EASTON GAZETTE contacted the experts to allow them to further explain why the town needed to do more than post on INDEED to find a town manager:
Here is David Deutsch's comment from the article regarding INDEED and other online recruiters for a search of this magnitude:
Indeed.com may be suitable for advertising certain positions, but I would suggest it is not a helpful tool in a town manager search. That platform uses algorithms and key words to provide responses. If a key word is “manager”, you are likely to receive applicants that have absolutely no experience in local government, but they might be a “manager”. Manager of what? Auto parts store? A coffee shop? Nothing wrong with those jobs, but the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze” in reviewing those kinds of resumes.
And, his further comment on what job recruiting firms do:
First of all, advertising does not occur until the position profile is prepared, and a brochure is prepared that describes the various aspects of the Town and the position. The recruiter will advertise in various publications, plus using a database we have developed, we would reach out to various professionals that we believe will be strong candidates. The recruiter reviews all applications, develops a list of semi-finalists for review by the Commission. Background checks are conducted, including social media and internet activity, criminal and credit checks, and validation of educational attainment. The recruiter works with the governing body to reduce the field to an interview group (usually three or four applicants). The recruiter facilitates an employment agreement if requested by the Commission.
But, the town, for whatever reason, decided to do things cheaply, possibly causing them not only huge embarrassment but the money required to send Calvert home. No one knows for sure if Mr. Calvert had signed a contract before he left or exactly how much his sudden dismissal cost the town.
The Commissioners of Oxford issued a statement June 28 regarding the situation. While they explained some of the process, they ignored questions many of us have. Here is their statement:
Here are the questions I asked town attorney Lindsey Ryan in an email:
Lyndsey did respond by alerting me to the Commissioner's statement above, but questions still remain.
One thing is abundantly clear, the town grossly mishandled this hiring, and someone needs to be held accountable. Citizens have questions that need to be answered completely and honestly. Had residents not done the due diligence the town should have completed; Oxford might have spent the next couple of years dealing with a man who would not only destroy the reputation of the town but bankrupt it as well. And that doesn't address the other appalling possibilities.
What can be done in the meantime? There are many options for conducting town business. Allow the current staff to divide the responsibilities of the manager until a replacement can be hired.
Or, contact the Maryland Municipal League or other agencies who provide interim managers to towns in similar situations to Oxford. Use an interim manager until a replacement is found. This will give the town time to do the search correctly and thoroughly. It may also bring in some new, fresh ideas about how a town manager should do his/her job.
Finally, it is clear the Town cannot make this mistake again. We need to hire a reputable recruiting/hiring firm, spend the money, get a bigger applicant pool, and finish the hiring process with a new Town Manager who will be fully vetted, and background checked.
NOTES: The Easton Gazette is not implying the guilt or innocence of the applicant for Town Manager named in the article.
