HOWARD COUNTY — Members of different organizations in Howard County are calling for the termination of the county auditor who started a report they say was racial profiling.
It was a packed house Monday night at the Howard County Council meeting where dozens of people signed up to give testimony in support of a bill that will reform the duties of the auditor. The meeting lasted until 11:30 p.m. as this was the last item on the agenda.
RELATED: Protest held to terminate auditor accused of racial profiling in Howard County
WMAR-2 News spoke with some people before they gave their testimony.
The call to terminate county auditor Craig Glendenning comes after he started an audit about an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority meeting that was held back in October of last year.
"He paid a county employee to sit in the parking lot, watch these women and then in his report document several personal unrelated pieces of information. Like the fact that they were wearing white dresses, the fact that they were carrying flowers in,” said Rev. Larry Walker, a community advocate.
The historically African American sorority held the meeting at the Howard County Library in Columbia to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Paid for by the sorority themselves, the library was closed during the meeting.
But after an anonymous complaint was made about the libraries misuse of funds, the auditor contacted the head of the library, Tonya Aikens, to ask for details of the event before it even happened. Even though Aikens is not part of the sorority.
Some details were removed from the report and placed on the Howard County website. The audit was not completed as Glendenning stated he didn't have cooperation from the library.
This did not sit well with people from different organizations in the county.
"I think he was very unprofessional, I would like to see him terminated because I pay taxes [that] go toward his salary,” said Walker.
A protest was held in front of the George Howard Building ahead of the last county council meeting calling for the auditors termination.
Soon after, county council members Christiana Rigby and Opel Jones introduced late filed legislation to address the auditors actions. This was up for open discussion from the public at Monday night’s county council meeting.
"Basically, I’m going to tell everyone that the information in the report is inaccurate and that it was unprofessionally done, the auditor was biased in his presentation of the facts,” said Tracey Williams, President of the African American Round Table of Howard County.
They say their demands remain the same in asking for termination of the county auditor and an apology to the president of the library and the sorority.
Monday evening’s testimony will continue next week. The vote on the legislation will be in April.
Glendenning was at the meeting, but WMAR-2 News was unable to get comment from him before or after the meeting.
