"Glendening And Staff Aide Have Personal Relationship." The Washington Post, 31 August 2001.

The Washington Post, August 31, 2001

August 31, 2001, Friday, Final Edition
Correction Appended

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B01

LENGTH: 1713 words

HEADLINE: Glendening And Staff Aide Have Personal Relationship; Governor Won't Comment

BYLINE: Daniel LeDuc and Lori Montgomery, Washington Post Staff Writers

BODY:

Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who separated last year from his wife and political partner, Frances Anne Glendening, is involved in a relationship with his deputy chief of staff.

Washington Post reporters observed the governor emerging from the aide's Annapolis town home after spending the night there several times this summer. The personal relationship between Glendening and Jennifer Crawford has coincided with her growing influence in his office. And, with increasing frequency in the last two years, Crawford has been included in the small circle of aides who accompany the governor on national and international trips.

Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D), the former governor, this week referred to Crawford as "the big boss" in Glendening's office in explaining why he sent her a written appeal for reconsideration of a request that he said other state officials have ignored. Schaefer said his understanding was that the 34-year-old aide "runs things" in Glendening's office. "I just hear if you want to get something done, you talk to Jen," Schaefer said in an interview yesterday.

Through a spokesman, Glendening (D), 59, has declined to answer questions about or acknowledge a relationship with Crawford, a longtime aide who has worked in Glendening's administration and reelection campaign. Michael Morrill, the governor's communications director, said Glendening would not respond to questions "about the governor's private life." He said Crawford also would not answer questions.

Crawford has been one of three deputy chiefs of staff since June 23, 2000, when she was promoted by Glendening after serving as his appointments secretary for 19 months. Her promotions and cost-of-living adjustments since rejoining the administration in 1998 have increased her salary from $ 71,812 to $ 103,588.

In her current post, she reports directly to the governor and oversees his signature "smart growth" initiative, which attempts to limit suburban sprawl. In that role, she has become one of Glendening's key advisers and has been included in his entourage for official out-of-state and international travel.

Schaefer said he had heard "by way of rumor" that Glendening and Crawford had a personal relationship and that he saw nothing wrong with that.

"What he does in his personal life is of no interest to me," Schaefer said. "He can use as his advisers anyone he wants."

Crawford has become a controversial figure among lawmakers and lobbyists and those who work on environmental and development issues, who say in conversations with each other and with reporters that they believe the extent of Crawford's influence is the result of her personal relationship with Glendening.

In recent weeks, for example, in conversations with reporters, sportsmen's groups have accused Crawford of engineering the departure of three top Department of Natural Resources officials, including Secretary Sarah Taylor-Rogers.

Taylor-Rogers acknowledged that some people believe that Crawford has too much influence over the department and that she was behind recent decisions that seem to favor environmental activists over hunting interests. But Taylor-Rogers said Crawford has no more power over the department than did Crawford's predecessor. And Taylor-Rogers said she does not believe that Crawford urged the governor to request her resignation.

The state has no written policies that prohibit a relationship between an employee and supervisor, nor is there a formal procedure for handling such a situation, according to Cecilia Januszkiewicz, counsel to the Department of Budget and Management, which promulgates personnel rules.

"It really is handled on a case-by-case basis," Januszkiewicz said. "But I don't think we have as much experience with this as you might think."

During her 13 years with the state, Januszkiewicz, said the propriety of a personal relationship between a supervisor and employee has never been raised as a legal or disciplinary issue.

Reginald Welch, communications director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said many companies prohibit managers from entering relationships with employees they supervise. Such relationships, even if consensual, can lead to complaints of sexual harassment, Welch said.

"That's why a lot of companies don't think it's the smartest thing for supervisors and managers to get involved in romantic relationships with subordinate employees," Welch said. "Because that could give rise to charges of discrimination if the subordinate employee felt they were compromised by the relationship."

Asked if the governor felt that a personal relationship with someone he supervises was appropriate, Morrill said, "Because this is asked in the context of a story on the governor's personal life, we will not be commenting."

Alvin Collins, who became Glendening's new chief of staff four months ago, said he had no evidence of a personal relationship between Crawford and Glendening.

Asked if he had any concerns that a relationship between the two could affect the working of his office, Collins said, "I've seen nothing of that sort."

Collins praised Crawford. He said she "understands the governor's vision. I wish I had three more of her. She's extremely capable and extremely effective on what she does."

Neither Glendening nor his wife has spoken publicly about their breakup since they separated in July 2000. Mrs. Glendening, a lawyer at the Federal Election Commission, has continued to make public appearances as first lady and recently attended the National Governors Association meeting in Rhode Island. She has told friends that the separation was initiated by the governor, one source said.

Between October 1999 and her promotion to deputy chief of staff in June 2000, Crawford accompanied the governor on at least four out-of-state trips.

At the time, the trips drew quiet criticism in State House circles, as some state officials wondered why the governor took his appointments secretary to events that had no connection with her job.

News organizations requested copies of travel receipts and trooper logs in an effort to document their travel together. Administration officials provided those records but would not comment on whether Glendening had a personal relationship with Crawford.

Those records show that in October 1999, Glendening chose Crawford to accompany him to a smart-growth forum at the Litchfield Beach and Golf Resort on Pawleys Island, S.C., after a more senior aide canceled at the last minute. They traveled without other staff.

In December 1999, Crawford was one of three aides who joined Glendening for a three-day trip to Quebec for a meeting of the Council of State Governments. In the spring, Crawford was one of several aides chosen to join Glendening on smart-growth trips to Miami Beach and the West Coast.

In May, a source unfriendly to the governor told The Washington Post that Glendening often visited Crawford's Annapolis town house, a short drive from the State House. In a month-long period, Post reporters, watching from a shopping center parking lot across the street from Crawford's town house, saw Glendening there without his security detail, and on several occasions he spent the night.

Post reporters also observed Glendening and Crawford vacationing together at the beach house of a Glendening political supporter on Fenwick Island, Del. Although the relationship was observed in June, The Post withheld publication until this week, when Schaefer's letter to Crawford and subsequent comments he made at an open meeting of the Board of Public Works drew attention to Crawford's growing influence with Glendening.

In Annapolis, Crawford is noted more for her political experience than policy expertise. She started as a special assistant to the governor in 1995, four months after he took office, organizing his daily briefing materials and handling his correspondence. She was also his staff liaison to the Board of Public Works and to the Cabinet secretaries who oversee state agencies.

After Crawford worked as one of two deputy campaign managers on Glendening's 1998 reelection campaign, Glendening made her his appointments secretary, a role that put her in charge of handing out political patronage jobs and overseeing selections to state boards and commissions.

In June 2000, Glendening made Crawford one of three deputy chiefs of staff. She is his chief aide on redrawing the lines for Maryland's congressional districts. And even though Glendening already had a full-time aide working on the smart-growth program, he gave her oversight and took her with him on trips throughout the country as he promoted the program during his term as president of the National Governors Association.

Since her promotion, Crawford has joined Glendening on several out-of-state and international trips.

In July 2000, she was one of his aides on a three-day trip to Charlotte, where Glendening spoke about smart growth before the National Association of Counties. The two dined alone on their last night in Charlotte, spending $ 145 at Sonoma Restaurant.

That August, Crawford was among staff members who accompanied Glendening to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, a trip paid for with political funds. Last October, Crawford handled several smart-growth events for Glendening as part of his entourage on a $ 180,000 trade mission to Africa.

In May, she joined staff members traveling with Glendening to Las Vegas for a smart-growth speech to shopping-mall developers. And in June, Crawford spent two nights in New York, when Glendening gave a keynote address to the Congress on the New Urbanism.

Crawford had been expected to accompany Glendening to Europe in late June to help him with several smart-growth presentations. The state-funded trade mission to Rome and Paris was canceled after The Post questioned a Glendening spokesman about the governor's visits to Crawford's home. At the time,Morrill said several business deals that required Glendening's presence in those two cities had fallen through, making the trip unnecessary.

Staff writer Nelson Hernandez contributed to this report.

CORRECTION-DATE: September 2, 2001

CORRECTION:
In some editions Aug. 31, an article about Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening's personal relationship with a deputy chief of staff was ambiguous about when The Washington Post received a tip about his visits to her Annapolis town house. It was in May 2001.

LOAD-DATE: August 31, 2001