Since the office launched in 2020, its work has brought scrutiny to various corners of county government — including its highest levels. Now the watchdog agency is set to expand, with increased county funds to double the staff from three to six people.

“I’m really excited,” Madigan said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun this summer. “It’s going to be growth. It’s necessary growth.”

Her office’s workload has swelled, with the number of annual complaints nearly doubling over the past year, to 155. She hopes the increased number of personnel will enable the office to address complaints more efficiently and quickly.

The expansion also comes amid continuing debate in county government over the office, whose mission is to identify fraud, abuse and illegal acts.

Madigan’s investigations have at times set off clashes with county officials, including County Council members and County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s administration. A “blue-ribbon commission” assembled by the county executive started meeting in June and is examining laws governing the office and whether any should be changed.

Political tension can be challenging but is a natural part of the job, Madigan said, because the role requires pointing out others’ errors and shortcomings — which “might not necessarily be popular or fun.”

“I once had a supervisor that told me if nobody’s complaining about you, you’re not doing your job,” the former prosecutor said.

Madigan said she is proud of positive change the office has brought about in county government. For instance, after she published a report that more than 800 county employees didn’t receive cost-of-living raises because of an antiquated compensation system, the Olszewski administration said the workers would get back pay.

Madigan’s staff now consists of an administrative assistant and a deputy inspector general, who is a former FBI investigator. She plans to hire two investigators and an attorney.

To account for the new positions, the office was allocated a budget of roughly $603,000 for the current fiscal year, up from about $354,000 over the last.

In the coming year, Madigan also wants to increase awareness of the office and put into place an internal case management system.

The office also staffs the county ethics commission. Its duties in that arena include responding to ethics questions from county employees, investigating ethics complaints and managing disclosure reports filed by county lobbyists.

Madigan, 44, grew up in California. She was an assistant state’s attorney in Baltimore for 11 years, and then worked about four years for the Office of the State Prosecutor, which handles cases of public corruption.

Olszewski, a Democrat elected in 2018, appointed Madigan in 2019 to the newly created county post, then called the Office of Ethics and Accountability.

Inspectors general for local governments are not common in Maryland.

Nationally, though, there has been increasing interest in establishing them over the past few years, driven by government scandals and demand for transparency, said Greg Hill, executive director of the Association of Inspectors General.

Last year, the national association blasted a proposal by Olszewski to create an oversight board and limit the powers of the county’s watchdog office, saying it would “effectively gag and shackle” the inspector general. Olszewski pulled back the proposal after a backlash.

The vast majority of local IG offices do not have oversight boards, Hill said.

Independence “is a pillar of the inspector general community,” said Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming.

“Politics have to stay out of what we do,” the city inspector general said. “We’re trying to get to the truth … regardless of politics.”

Cumming’s office has 18 staff members and a budget of more than $2.4 million. She said “it’s incredible how much [Madigan] has achieved” with a fraction of the resources.

City voters in November will weigh a proposed charter amendment that would change the composition of the board that oversees the inspector general there, removing elected officials from the panel.

In the county, the question of whether there should be formal oversight of the IG is among those being considered by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Ethics and Accountability.

Chaired by William E. Johnson Jr., a former IG for the state Department of Human Resources, the panel is also exploring issues such as whether the office has enough resources and whether the county ethics commission should be staffed separately. Its meetings are being held online; the next is set for Tuesday evening.

So far, Madigan’s office has brought needed scrutiny to county government, said Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican.

“I think it has forced all of us in county government to think carefully about the actions that we might initiate, and that’s a good thing,” Marks said.

Other council members have questioned Madigan’s approach. Council Chairman Julian Jones, a Woodstock Democrat, said her tactics have scared some county employees, driving them to “literally cry.” He said he thinks she could be “kinder and gentler.”

Jones himself was the subject of an investigation in which Madigan found that he violated county policy when some of his official emails to constituents included a “donate” button for his political campaign. The messages were sent using a third-party email marketing service and transmitted through a private computer server, but used one of Jones’ county email addresses in the “from” line.

“There have been a number of incidents where I think she’s made molehills into mountains,” Jones said. “And in some cases, I’m just not sure how that makes Baltimore County better.”

Madigan defended her office’s treatment of county employees.

“We treat each and every employee respectfully,” she said, adding that county workers can bring an attorney to interviews. “Sometimes we have to have tense interviews. Sometimes we have to ask tough questions. That’s part of the job.”

In an interview, Olszewski said he feels issues surrounding the treatment of county workers during investigations are “a legitimate concern.” For instance, there are questions about who should bear the cost of legal representation for employees called in for interviews, he said.

“I want the office to succeed,” added Olszewski, who is seeking reelection this year. “We want to make sure that they can both have the autonomy and the ability to independently conduct investigations, but also do so in a way that is fair to employees.”

Despite last year’s attempt to rein in Madigan’s powers, Olszewski said he wants the office to thrive.

“There have been any number of examples where we’ve taken the reports, and we’ve made changes to make county government stronger and better and more streamlined,” he said.

But the county executive’s administration has at times questioned whether Madigan was acting within the scope of her duties. It also disputed Madigan’s findings, released in July, that his aides appeared to give developer David Cordish preferential treatment for a private tennis facility Cordish wanted to build next to his home. Madigan stood by the findings.

Councilman Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat who has supported increased funding for Madigan’s office, said he thinks conflict is to be expected.

“Baltimore County had been doing the same thing, the same way, for decades,” Patoka said. “So when you bring on a new agency, it’s a little unnatural for the culture of Baltimore County.”

Current county rules cap council pensions at 60% of a member’s salary. If the measure is passed, a council member could retire with a pension equal to their full salary after serving 20 years.

The pension limit was enacted more than a decade ago amid criticism that a council member who served five four-year terms could collect retirement benefits equal to their full salary for life.

But now some council members say the cap is unfair.

Council Chairman Julian Jones introduced the measure removing the cap and said in an interview, “It should have never been there in the first place.”

“It doesn’t affect me anytime soon, but it’s an issue of fairness,” said Jones, a Woodstock Democrat seeking reelection this fall to a third term. “It’s just one of the things that needed to be cleaned up.”

Jones said the cap is one item in a list of county retirement issues he wanted to address. A few months ago, the council passed legislation dealing with retirement benefits for Orphans’ Court judges and public safety employees.

The council is considered a part-time job, though some members say they work full-time hours.

Council members receive retirement benefits equal to 5% of their salary for each year they serve.

Removing the 60% limit would affect members who serve four or more four-year terms. Someone who serves four terms would get retirement benefits equal to 80% of their salary.

There are no term limits for the County Council.

Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican, is the only council member running for a fourth term.

The pension limit was proposed in 2009 by Kevin Kamenetz, then a councilman. At the time, Kamenetz was considering a run for county executive — a position to which he was first elected the next year — and there was public criticism that then-Councilman Vince Gardina could retire at age 54 with a pension equal to his full salary. With five terms, Gardina was the longest-serving member in the council’s history.

When the council passed the pension cap in 2010, the bill was written in a way that it would affect only future members.

At a recent work session where the bill was discussed, Jones said the change would bring council pensions in line with county employees, who don’t have caps.

But council members receive a much higher percentage of their salary for each year of service than county employees do. For instance, the pension of a general government employee hired after 2007 is equal to 1.43% of the worker’s salary for each year of service, compared with the 5% for elected officials.

“This legislation would basically say after 20 years that a council member can get 100% of his or her salary,” Councilman Wade Kach, a Cockeysville Republican, said at the work session. “Regular county employees in the new system would have to work 70 years to get 100%.”

Kach, a former state delegate, said he did not support removing the county limit on council pensions. He noted General Assembly retirement benefits are capped.

Maryland caps a state lawmaker’s pension at two-thirds of an active legislator’s salary, according to the most recent report of the General Assembly Compensation Commission. Their pensions equal 3% of that salary for each year of service.

Baltimore City caps pensions at 60% of salary for elected officials who joined the retirement system on or after Dec. 6, 2016. For each year of service, they receive 2.5% of the current salary for the highest office they held.

In Baltimore County, council members and other elected officials contribute 13.85% of their salaries to their retirement benefits.

Contributions vary for county workers, depending on when they were hired and other factors. For instance, department heads hired after 2007 contribute 10.5% of their salary, while many general government employees contribute 7%.

The removal of the council’s pension cap is included in legislation that would boost council members’ pay by about 10%, to $69,000. The chairperson’s salary would increase to $77,000.

Council salaries were last increased about eight years ago.

The bill would have allowed restaurants and marinas in Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas in the county to add new structures up to the water’s edge, exempting them from laws requiring a vegetation buffer to separate certain developments from bodies of water.

In a statement, Bevins said Tuesday that after discussions with the county executive’s office and others, she felt that the bill was “a step too aggressive,” so she decided to withdraw it.

“The intent of this legislation was never to allow sprawling development in our Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas, but rather to make some tweaks to allow for businesses to enhance their atmosphere through the addition of palm trees, picnic tables, and other minor amenities,” wrote Bevins, adding that she hopes conversations on the matter can continue.

Bevins, a Middle River Democrat, is not running for reelection, so she will be leaving office when her term ends in December.

Erica Palmisano, a spokeswoman for Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., a Democrat, said Tuesday that the office appreciated the withdrawal of the bill.

“We look forward to working with the Council and community members to explore ways to support our businesses while also protecting environmentally sensitive areas,” Palmisano wrote in a statement.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office had reviewed the bill following a request from Democratic state Del. Dana Stein of Baltimore County and found there was a “significant possibility” that it conflicted with state law, according to a letter from assistant attorney general Kathryn M. Rowe dated Aug. 18. Rowe said she was “unable to give a definitive answer,” however, because under the state’s Critical Area Act — enacted in 1984 — the state’s Critical Area Commission is supposed to decide whether plans from local jurisdictions mesh with state law.

During Tuesday’s County Council meeting, the council’s chairman Julian Jones, a Woodstock Democrat, took issue with the attorney general’s handling of the bill. He said that he heard about the office’s letter only from constituents emailing his office, rather than from the attorney general’s office itself.

“If the attorney general wants to weigh in on something we’re doing, we would urge him to send the proper information to us so that we can evaluate it and accept it — as opposed to coming from third- and fourth- and fifth-hand,” Jones said.

Although Bevins’ statement withdrawing the bill became public before Tuesday’s meeting, Jones allowed county residents to testify about the bill. But then, he read Bevins’ statement aloud, saying he had been unaware of it.

Bevins was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, but Tom Bostwick, the council’s legislative counsel, presented the bill on her behalf. He said the requirements for critical areas have caused frustration among some county residents who visit other jurisdictions in Maryland, such as Ocean City, and see plenty of businesses operating right along the water’s edge. Some have the perception that Baltimore County faces an unfair set of rules, Bostwick said, though some developments could have been “grandfathered in” to the current laws.

Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican and a member of the state’s Critical Area Commission, said he was hopeful that conversations about how to help businesses frustrated by the law will continue.

“You do hear complaints from some of the businesses in the Middle River area that they can’t get, for example, approval to erect a cabana on a cement bulkhead,” Marks said. “I think there’s some frustration, and I’m always wanting to think we can work things through.”

Brian Hall, owner of the Old Bay Marina in Edgemere, was the lone resident to speak in favor of the bill during Tuesday’s meeting, saying that the boating industry is in need of support and that lifting the buffer requirement could help.

Lindsay Crone of Middle River was one of two residents to speak against the bill Tuesday, calling it an example of “the death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach to eroding the health of our bay.”

“These policies are based on 100-year rain events that we’re now experiencing every few years, if not yearly,” Crone said. “But instead, our County Council is looking for ways to strip yet another layer of protection from our bay. And for what? To fill the pockets of a few restaurant owners.”

During production of the series “Lady in the Lake” in the 200 block of Park Avenue, people in the area threatened producers “that if they didn’t cease production, they would come back later” and shoot someone, police spokeswoman Det. Niki Fennoy said in an email to The Baltimore Sun.

The people “then told the producers that if they paid them, they would allow the production to continue,” Fennoy said, adding later that the amount was $50,000.

The incident occurred at about 4 p.m. Producers “decided to err on the side of caution and reschedule the shoot after they found another location,” Fennoy said in the email.

Sharon Liggins, a spokesperson for Endeavor Content, the studio producing “Lady in the Lake,” said in a statement Monday that two men confronted a driver on the production crew before the cast and crew arrived for their call time. One of the two men “brandished a gun directed at our driver, and then they fled the location,” Liggins said. No one was injured.

The production will continue on schedule with increased security measures, Liggins said.

“It has been a privilege filming ‘Lady in the Lake’ in Baltimore, working with its vibrant community across many areas. Our thanks and appreciation to the City of Baltimore, Mayor Brandon M. Scott, the Baltimore Film Office, Maryland Film Office and the Baltimore Police Department for their incredible support as we continue production in the great City of Baltimore and surrounding communities,” she said.

The Baltimore Banner first reported the incident.

The AppleTV+ series takes place in Baltimore in 1966 and stars Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. Filming began in April and is expected to continue until October.

In it, “an unsolved murder pushes a housewife and mother to reinvent herself as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda,” reads a description of the series from the Maryland Department of Commerce.

The commerce department in April issued a news release highlighting the “significant economic impact” the series would have on Maryland.

Lippman, who is a former Sun reporter, could not be reached for comment.

Baltimore Sun reporters Mary Carole McCauley and Lilly Price contributed to this article.

The delays are affecting north- and southbound service between the Patapsco and Camden Yards stations after a loss of power at the Westport station, according to an advisory from the Maryland Transit Administration. Light Raillink trains are running on a single track between Camden and Pataposco stations Sunday while repairs are underway.

Shuttle buses that ran between the two stations during the delay are no longer operating Sunday, the advisory states. Trains are still operating northbound from Camden Yards and southbound from Patapsco.

The Baltimore Ravens issued a statement Saturday night saying service would be unavailable at the M&T Bank Stadium station after the team’s game against the Washington Commanders.

The Ravens advised people at the football stadium to walk to the Camden Yards station for service.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the $740 billion package Friday by a party-line 220-207 vote, after the Senate approved it along party lines earlier this week. U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican, was the only Maryland congressman to vote against the bill.

“It’s been a long and winding road, but the Inflation Reduction Act is almost at the White House door,” U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Thursday in Baltimore.

Van Hollen spoke at a news conference organized in support of the legislation, where he was joined by fellow Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, local government leaders and representatives of several Maryland organizations, including those focused on health and the environment.

Joshua Harris, vice president of the NAACP Maryland State Conference, said the measure “is going to be huge for our country and for Marylanders” by reducing the nation’s carbon footprint and creating jobs.

“We know that pollution has drastically and disproportionately impacted low-income communities of color, when we talk about asthma rates, when we talk about flooding that we’ve experienced right here in Baltimore City,” Harris said. “This will work to make sure that we are impacting those communities positively, and the economic impact is tremendous.”

The package is less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but still meets deep-rooted party goals of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs and taxing big corporations. Biden is expected to sign the bill into law this week.

Name aside, nonpartisan analysts have said the 755-page bill would have a minor effect on surging consumer prices.

Republicans say the bill’s business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices skyward, making it harder for people to cope with the nation’s worst inflation since the 1980s.

The bill contains a number of provisions that will affect Maryland residents and the local economy.

Health care subsidies

For the past year, people across the country have been tapping extra federal subsidies included in a COVID relief package to buy cheaper health insurance on local exchanges. Average monthly premiums for so-called Obamacare plans in Maryland dropped to $300.

The boost led to a record 180,000 Marylanders enrolling, up 11% from pre-pandemic days, according to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, which operates the state’s exchange.

The tax credits were available to low and also some middle-income residents, largely people who don’t get coverage through their employer. But the subsidies were to expire at year’s end, costing most enrollees some financial assistance, according to federal estimates.

A provision tucked into the bill will keep the subsidies going for three more years.

“The Inflation Reduction Act will be an enormous help to all Marylanders who purchase their own health insurance,” said Michele Eberle, executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange.

Health care advocates say extending subsidies will be vital for many to maintain coverage. The exchange also estimates many of the 357,000 Marylanders still lacking any coverage would qualify for low-cost plans or free coverage under Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor.

Prescription drug cost benefits

Seniors in Maryland and across the country enrolled in federal Medicare plans could see significant savings on their prescription drug costs under the bill.

For the first time Medicare would be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices, beginning with 10 drugs in 2026 and rising to 20 drugs by 2029 and after.

Drug companies also would have to pay rebates to Medicare if they hiked prescription prices faster than inflation beginning in 2023. Cost increases for half of all drugs covered by Medicare exceeded the inflation rate in 2019 and 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Together the provisions are expected to save Medicare hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade. How much saving is passed onto individual seniors depends on how many and which drugs have lower prices or smaller price increases, Kaiser said.

More directly for seniors, the legislation caps annual out-of-pocket prescription costs at $2,000 beginning in 2025. The price of insulin through Medicare would be capped at $35 a month and vaccinations would be free beginning in 2023.

Democrats wanted to apply the insulin cost cap and inflation measure to private plans, but those provisions were dropped.

The negotiated drug prices, however, could inform work underway by the Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board, created by the General Assembly in 2019 to assess how to control prescription costs for everyone, said Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland HealthCare for All Coalition.

For its part, the drug industry says the federal legislation could have negative effects, such as curbing investment in new drugs.

“These warnings are largely not true, but that is not to say this legislation won’t have an impact on how the industry does business,” said Jonathan P. Weiner, professor of health policy and management in the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“It will go a long way to decreasing prescription drug costs for many seniors in the Medicare program, with less out-of-pocket costs for many, and decreased future drug price inflation for all.”

The environment

The Inflation Reduction Act could have a major environmental impact on Maryland, which already set ambitious emissions reduction goals in recent years. This bill makes it cheaper for consumers to install solar panels, purchase an electric car and buy a more efficient water heater, while also funding improvements to energy infrastructure and equipment at ports like Baltimore’s.

What really excites Gil Jenkins, a spokesman for Hannon Armstrong, is the stability it will bring to the renewable energy and green technology industries. Hannon Armstrong is a publicly traded firm based in Annapolis that says it invests solely in “climate change solutions.”

For years, the country has had a mishmash of tax credits and incentives that are extended every few years, creating a “topsy-turvy market,” Jenkins said, but the Inflation Reduction Act puts 10-year guarantees on several incentive programs.

Colette Hayward, CEO of Maryland Solar Solutions, and Rick Peters, CEO of Solar Energy Services, both said the bill would have an immediate impact on Maryland’s solar energy industry. Federal tax credits for home solar panel installation are currently slated to decrease, then disappear, Hayward said, which would have “hamstrung” the industry.

Instead, Peters said Maryland is uniquely poised to benefit from the bill because of state income tax credits already offered to Maryland residents who install solar panels.

“We can invest in our businesses [knowing] that we have a 10-year runway of solid federal support,” he said.

On an earnings call last week, Constellation CEO Joseph Dominguez called the bill “clearly transformational” for the Baltimore-based energy company. Constellation touts itself as the nation’s biggest single producer of nuclear energy and has a nuclear plant in Calvert County.

Dominguez called the Inflation Reduction Act, which will subsidize the production of nuclear energy, a “win-win-win” because it will retain and create jobs in nuclear energy, lower costs for consumers and help the country in “our fight against the climate crisis.”

The bill also will benefit the state’s nascent offshore wind industry, said Brady Walker, the head of government affairs and strategy for Orsted in Maryland. Orsted is a Danish company building a massive wind farm off the Delmarva coast. The bill includes tax incentives for domestic parts production and funding to improve electricity transmission.

Jamie DeMarco, federal policy director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, noted $2.25 billion in the bill will go toward reducing emissions in ports, including the electrification of certain machines and heavy-duty vehicles that transport cargo.

“Baltimore City is going to benefit tremendously from that reduction in air pollution,” DeMarco said. “Those vehicles are highly polluting per mile traveled and they’re concentrated in our city.”

Cap remains on state and local property tax (SALT) deduction

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, a Republican Congress imposed a $10,000 cap on how much individuals could deduct from their federal taxes to offset state and local property taxes. The so-called SALT deduction was particularly popular in politically blue states like Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

This year, with a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, three U.S. House Democrats from New York and New Jersey had vowed to oppose any significant tax measure that didn’t increase or remove the cap. But in recent days they signaled support for the bill even without the tax cap’s removal.

The legislation and its host of tax provisions “seemed like the clearest opportunity for the Congress to revisit and reset this issue,” said Michael Sanderson, executive director of the Maryland Association of Counties. “That they didn’t seems to speak loudly that there is no congressional consensus to do so.”

Marylanders are more likely than those in other states to claim the SALT deduction. In 2017, 47% of taxpayers in the state did so, according to the Tax Policy Center. Those with high incomes are also more likely to, with more than 90% of those earning more than $200,000 claiming the deduction, according to the same analysis.

In 2018, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, joined other states in suing over the $10,000 cap, but the lawsuit was unsuccessful. At the time, Frosh said the cap was “an attack on state sovereignty” that would increase taxes for nearly 600,000 Marylanders.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Cox announced Friday that Zach Werrell will serve as his campaign manager, touting his “extensive statewide campaign experience with national contacts.”

Werrell managed the 2014 congressional primary election campaign of Republican Dave Brat of Virginia, who ousted Cantor in a stunning upset.

Cox faces Democrat Wes Moore in Maryland’s November election.

Werrell, who grew up in Southern Maryland, is co-author of “How to Bag a RINO: The Whiz Kids Who Brought Down House Majority Leader Eric Cantor,” a reference to the term “Republican in Name Only.” The book is described as a detailed look at the Brat campaign, and “why it is a model for similar insurgent GOP campaigns across America as grassroots Republicans fight to take back their party, and the country.”

In 2015, Werrell described himself to the magazine “In These Times” as “a hardcore libertarian” who “was turned on to politics in high school” when Rep. Ron Paul ran for president in 2008.

He explained Brat’s grassroots strategy this way: “One: Go to events where like-minded people might be. Two: Introduce Dave and sign them up as volunteers. Three: Get them to come door-knocking or phone-calling, or to host an event. Rinse and repeat. Given our funding disadvantage, we had to maximize the resource we did have — manpower.”

Werrell has since managed other congressional campaigns.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Werrell graduated in 2013 from Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia and this year from the University of Texas law school.

An economics major at Haverford, Werrell in 2014 told The Clerk, the school’s student newspaper, his main interest was public policy to help shape the direction of the country.

“I incorrectly assumed the way for me to make the biggest impact was to work directly with WHAT policy looked like,” Werrell said. “I found, however, that changing WHO is making the policy is a much faster avenue to political change.”

Pat Murray, who has been with the Democratic county executive’s administration since Olszewski took office in December 2018, departs in mid-September.

Murray is the latest top aide to leave as Olszewski’s current term winds down. The departure of Drew Vetter, the deputy county administrative officer, was announced last month.

Democrat Olszewski is seeking reelection and faces Republican Pat McDonough in the Nov. 8 general election.

Murray told The Baltimore Sun on Thursday he hasn’t decided on his next move. He said he plans to continue teaching political science at McDaniel College, where he is a senior adjunct lecturer, and “may pick up a writing project.”

“This was a challenging job before the pandemic,” Murray said in an email. “It got exponentially harder over the past two and a half years. Like millions of others who are part of the Great Resignation, I am going to take some time off before I make any career decisions.”

Murray previously served as chief of staff to the late Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and as executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party, among other jobs in politics.

His county salary is about $180,000.

In a statement, Olszewski said Murray has “played an integral role in helping to build our team and manage our way through unanticipated and unprecedented fiscal and public health crises.”

Henry has been named interim chief of staff starting Sept. 15 with a salary of about $180,000.

Henry previously oversaw communications for the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her past experience also includes roles with the federal labor and justice departments, as well as the state’s health and labor agencies.

“She is a strategic thinker and a dedicated public servant who is uniquely qualified to serve as chief of staff,” the county executive said.

On Tuesday, Lancaster stood outside the same office building on a busy intersection downtown, part of a group of survivors who gathered there to call on outgoing Attorney General Brian Frosh to release the results of that investigation.

“It’s hard to sit and wait,” she said. “It’s hard not to see any action … I would like to hear something, please.”

With Frosh leaving office by early January, the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] organized the news conference. Frosh’s investigation became public in 2018, but no report has been issued.

“Why has Maryland taken so long?” asked Maryland SNAP director David Lorenz, pointing to neighboring Pennsylvania, where a two-year investigation led to an explosive grand jury report in 2018.

Lorenz questioned whether enough resources were devoted to the investigation. He said members of his group want Frosh to at least issue preliminary findings before his term ends.

Frosh did not seek a third term, so a new a new attorney general will be picked in November. And, Elizabeth Embry, a special assistant to Frosh who has overseen the investigation, recently won a primary election to represent a district in the House of Delegates.

Frosh spokeswoman Raquel Coombs told The Baltimore Sun this week that the investigation is ongoing, and that the office expects “to have some news in the next few months.”

In response to a question about whether enough resources were devoted to the probe, Coombs said Tuesday that Frosh “has made this a priority.”

“Significant resources are being dedicated to the investigation,” she said.

The investigation became public in September 2018, when Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori told clergy the archdiocese was under investigation by the state.

Survivor Jean Wehner said she is concerned about how the lack of conclusion “feels to some of the survivors.”

“After four years of silence and without any kind of true constructive updates, survivors may find themselves in an old familiar place where the silence turns to fear,” she said. “The fear is that we told the secret and that the disclosure will bring harm to us and our loved ones, or that we are not believed, or that we’ve been duped.”

Both Lancaster and Wehner were part of the 2017 Netflix series “The Keepers,” which documented allegations of sexual abuse by the late priest A. Joseph Maskell at Archbishop Keough in the 1960s and 1970s, and the unsolved 1969 killing of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, a nun who taught there.

One man who attended Tuesday’s event said that when he was interviewed as part of the investigation, it was the first time he told anyone he was abused.

“I hadn’t told a soul,” Buddy Robson said after the group’s news conference.

Robson said he was abused more than five decades ago at age 11 by a priest who pleaded guilty to sodomizing a minor in a case connected to other victims.

When abuse allegations against former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick surfaced in recent years, it “brought the nightmares back,” Robson said.

Robson said he later reached out to the lead investigator in the Maryland investigation and was interviewed for three hours.

Survivors, Robson said, “deserve answers.”

“They deserve truth, they deserve justice,” he said. “And the attorney general can go a long way in helping that cause.”

One person has been charged in connection with the attorney general’s investigation. In March, Neil Adleberg, 74, of Reisterstown, was indicted on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, sexual solicitation of a minor and two counts of second-degree rape and attempted second-degree rape. The alleged offenses took place in 2013 and 2014.

Adleberg is a former wrestling coach at Mount Saint Joseph High School, but the person who reported the allegations was not a student there, authorities have said.

Adleberg’s attorney, Joe Murtha, said Tuesday that Adleberg denies the allegations and that he has “has incredible support from the Mount Saint Joseph community of alumni.” Murtha said the case is scheduled to go trial in Baltimore County in 2023.

The officials would see their pay increase roughly 10% under the proposals.

County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s administration introduced two separate pieces of legislation addressing the salaries of the county executive and administrative officer. Another bill by Council Chairman Julian Jones would give raises to the seven-member council.

The county executive’s salary would increase from $175,000 to $192,000.

The council members’ pay would rise from $70,000 to $77,000for the chairperson, and from $62,500 to $69,000 for other members.

And the county administrative officer’s salary would go from $240,000 to $263,000.

If approved, the increases for the county executive and council would take effect in December, when new terms of office begin. Olszewski, a Democrat, and five members of the council are running for reelection.

The raise for the county administrative officer would take effect in June 2023.

In addition, the council bill would repeal a cap that says no council member may receive a pension that equals more than 60% of their average final compensation. The members’ pension could be calculated based on up to 20 years of service.

Salaries for the council and county executive were last increased in 2014.

The county last raised pay for the administrative officer in 2017 under County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, when Fred Homan was county administrative officer.

The position is now held by Stacy Rodgers, appointed by Olszewski in 2019.

The amounts of the proposed raises are based on the recommendations of an advisory panel that reviews county officials’ salaries.

Olszewski press secretary Erica Palmisano said the raises are based on increases received by county employees over the past four years, and “the process is governed by state law.”

Jones, the council chairman and a Woodstock Democrat, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The legislation is set to be discussed Aug. 30, with a vote set for Sept. 6.