Late Disclosure of Teaching Job 'An Oversight'

Baltimore County Councilman David Marks said Thursday that a 2012 teaching job at a local university should have been part of his required financial disclosures.

Marks acknowledged the job and failure to file an amended report last year with the Baltimore County Ethics Commission during an interview.

"It was an oversight," Marks, a Perry Hall Republican, said after being asked about the job.

The undisclosed teaching job as well as two previously disclosed consulting positions do not appear to violate county law.

Marks said the teaching job will appear in disclosure forms that he has already filed that will be made public next month.

Following the interview, Marks issued a statement by email:

"As soon I was offered a three-month teaching position with Loyola University, I consulted with the county attorney, who raised no ethical concerns and did not indicate any further action from me was needed," Marks wrote in his statement. "My annual financial disclosure form, which I filed with the Ethics Commission this spring, indicates I held the position. I have been honest about my outside work, which is why I consulted the county attorney in the first place - and why I declined an earlier offer to teach at Towson University which would clearly violate the county charter."

County ethics law requires that about 250 employees including the County Executive and seven councilmembers file an annual ethics disclosure. The forms for the council and executive are now, by law, available on the county's website.

The forms filed last spring cover the 2011 calendar year.

As part of an ethics law passed in 2011, elected officials are also required to disclose within 30 days any changes in employment. This law applies specifically to councilmembers since the County Charter prohibits the county executive from holding outside employment during his term.

The change was made after Patch reported that Oliver held a state job for nine months, in violation of the Baltimore County Charter. Oliver took the job after the end of the calendar year and therefore did not have to report it. That state job ultimately cost Oliver, a three-term Democrat, a chance to become chairman of the council in 2012.

The 30-day requirement was meant to prevent a similar situation in the future.

Marks, in his 2011 disclosure filed last spring with the Baltimore County Ethics Commission, reported holding consulting jobs with Virginia-based Strategic Health Care and Washington DC-based Anchor Consulting.

From September to December, the first-term councilman also held an adjunct teaching position with Loyola University in Baltimore. That job does not appear on his disclosure and a county attorney with the ethics commission said no amendments had been filed since the report was filed on April 30.

The disclosure form contains language informing elected officials that they must update their disclosures if there is any change in their employment.

Marks said Wednesday in an interview and in a statement that he has already filed his disclosure report covering the 2012 calendar year. That report, due May 1, lists the teaching position.

Willful and false filings can carry a criminal penalty under law. Failure to file or report information also can carry a civil fine of up to $1,000 in addition to any assessed late fees.