Embattled Howard County auditor removed from watchdog post, replaced by deputy, councilmember says

Howard County’s longtime auditor, who faced opposition earlier this year for a report that critics said exceeded his authority and unfairly probed a historically Black sorority, is no longer in office.

The county’s council, which appoints the local government’s auditor, had “decided to move in a different direction” from Craig Glendenning, who has held the locality’s watchdog post for 11 years, District 2 Councilmember Opel Jones said Sunday. Owen Clark, who was a deputy auditor, will now serve as an acting head until a permanent auditor is appointed.

Jones declined to comment further on Glendenning’s departure on Sunday, noting it was a personnel matter that could get “litigious.” It was not clear when the council, which last met Dec. 4 and meets again Monday, entered the closed session in which Glendenning’s position was discussed.

Glendenning, who was an assistant auditor in Anne Arundel County before being appointed to the Howard County post in 2012, did not return a request to comment on Sunday.

A spokesperson for County Executive Calvin Ball’s office did not say what happened to Glendenning, only noting that the auditor position “is an appointed employee of the County Council and serves at the discretion of councilmembers.”

Glendenning’s departure comes several months after calls to oust him in the wake of a Feb. 14 audit report regarding an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority event at a Howard County public library. Local leaders, including Jones and Ball, said the report contained racially insensitive language and fell out of the scope of the auditor’s duties.

No vote was taken on Glendenning’s termination in early March, soon after the report was released, as only two of the five councilmembers — Jones and District 3’s Christiana Rigby — supported Glendenning being ousted. Rigby, the council’s chair, did not immediately return requests for comment on Sunday.

Amid the fallout from the report, the council unanimously passed legislation introduced by Jones and Rigby that set new guidelines for the auditor’s office.

The auditor’s office report, which has since been edited on the county’s website, was initiated by a complaint about an Oct. 7 reception hosted at the Howard County Library System’s central branch by the local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha. The tip claimed library system CEO and President Tonya Aikens had allowed the historically Black sorority to hold a private event at the expense of library staff and taxpayer dollars.

Auditor’s office staff went to the event, writing in the report that “African American women wearing white dresses were entering the building” — details that Glendenning said in a later apology letter were “inappropriate and unnecessary.”

The library system appointed its own committee to probe the event, finding that it followed facilities use policies and that the library incurred no costs, as the sorority covered expenses such as food, beverages and security. The event was held to celebrate the opening of a library exhibit regarding the sorority chapter.