Sen. Carter appointed to state Board of Contract Appeals

Gov. Wes Moore (D) has plucked another Annapolis lawmaker for a key state position, announcing Monday evening that he would nominate state Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore City) to serve on the state Board of Contract Appeals.

Moore also moved to fill vacancies on two other state panels, the Maryland State Board of Education and the Maryland Public Employee Relations Board.

Alverne “Chet” Chesterfield, executive director of the Chincoteague Bay Field Station on the Lower Shore, is Moore’s choice to join the education board, while labor lawyer Lafe Solomon has been tapped to be chair of the Public Employee Relations Board.

“These three public servants have built distinguished careers advancing the interests and values of our state,” Moore said in a statement. “I thank them for continuing to give back to the people of Maryland.”

Carter’s nomination will prove to be the most consequential, at least in the short term, at a time when the Senate is also about to lose Sen. Sarah K. Elfreth (D-Anne Arundel), who will be sworn in to the U.S. House on Jan. 3. The next General Assembly session starts Jan. 8.

A lawyer and longtime civil rights advocate, Carter has been a warrior in the legislature for criminal justice reform and a pugnacious presence who has at times vexed leaders in the get-along, go-along General Assembly. She was appointed to her Senate seat in the spring of 2018, following a brief hiatus from the legislature; she had served in the House from 2003 to early 2017 before resigning to become director of the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement.

The Board of Contract Appeals is a quasi-judicial body that considers appeals from companies that lost out on bids for lucrative state contracts. It consists of six members who serve five-year terms on a full-time basis; the rank-and-file members are paid about $180,000 a year, while the chair and vice chair earn more.

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Carter will be filling a longtime vacancy on the appeals board. In a draft of a statement due to be released Tuesday, and provided to Maryland Matters, the 60-year-old lawmaker noted that she began her legal career representing government contractors.

“I’ve always had a passion for fair and just procurement laws and policies,” she said. “I look forward to the opportunity to serve as a member of the Board of Contract Appeals.”

Carter, the daughter of the prominent late Baltimore civil rights leader Walter Carter, called serving in the legislature “the greatest honor of my life.”

“From the very beginning of my journey, I have been committed to advancing fairness, justice, and equity — principles that guided every decision I made, every fight I led, and every piece of legislation I championed,” she said. “The work was never easy, but it was always meaningful. The opportunity to stand in the Senate of Maryland as the only Black woman attorney and use my skills, voice, and determination to push for transformative change is a responsibility I carried with humility, pride and determination.”

Carter can begin serving provisionally on the appeals board almost immediately, and a confirmation hearing and vote in the state Senate during the upcoming legislative session will follow. Her looming departure means there will be a vacancy in Northeast Baltimore’s 41st District Senate seat.

The members of the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee from the 41st District will eventually meet to recommend a replacement for Carter to Gov. Wes Moore (D), who has the ultimate say. Speculation will naturally focus, at least initially, on the district’s three House members, all Democrats: Dels. Dalya Attar, Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg and Malcolm P. Ruff.

Rosenberg, who was elected to the House in 1982, is the senior member of the General Assembly. Attar was elected in 2018, while Ruff was appointed to his seat by Moore in June 2023 after the 41st District central committee members deadlocked between recommending him and former Del. Angela D. Gibson (D) for the vacancy.

In an interview Monday night, Rosenberg said he was not interested in the Senate appointment. The other two delegates did not respond immediately to messages left by email or text on Monday evening.

Since the 2022 election, four people have been appointed to fill Senate vacancies in Annapolis, and Elfreth’s and Carter’s imminent departures will create two more openings in the upper chamber. Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County) is competing for an appointment to become the interim Baltimore County executive, which could make for another vacancy.

In the House, 10 delegates have been appointed to their seats since the 2022 election, and two more, Del. Rachel Muñoz (R-Anne Arundel) and Del. Brooke Grossman (D-Washington), are scheduled to resign at the end of the year. Replacements for the departing senators could come from the House, creating yet more vacancies.

Two more appointees

For the relatively new Public Employee Relations Board, Moore has turned to Solomon to be its new chair.

Solomon, according to the governor’s office, has practiced labor law at the federal level for more than 40 years. He has served in a number of roles in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor, including as senior adviser to the solicitor, labor counsel and senior counsel. Solomon has also held several positions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) including as director of the Office of Representation Appeals, and as acting general counsel.

Solomon will replace Michael Hayes, a law professor and former NLRB official who spent 14 months as board chair before resigning in September. The board was created on July 1, 2023, after the General Assembly passed legislation last year to consolidate three separate boards that oversaw state labor relations and collective bargaining negotiations into one entity.

Labor leaders had fretted that without a permanent chair in place, the board would not be able to fulfill its mission. Board members serve six-year terms.

For the state Board of Education, Moore has turned to Chesterfield, the executive director of the Chincoteague Bay Field Station, which provides multidisciplinary educational and research opportunities that focus on natural, cultural, economic and technological resources. He is a retired longtime administrator at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Chesterfield will replace Susan Getty, an appointee of former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who had once served as vice president on the state board.

Board of Education members are appointed to four-year terms.

Chesterfield and Solomon are also subject to the Senate confirmation process, which will begin when the legislature convenes next month.

– Reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.