D’Andrea Walker to become Baltimore County administrative officer following council vote

D’Andrea Walker will step into Baltimore County’s highest appointed position after the County Council unanimously voted to confirm her Monday.

Walker, 52, will be the second Black woman to serve as County Administrative Officer after Stacy Rodgers, who retired this month. Walker previously was the director of the county Department of Public Works and Transportation until county executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., a Dundalk Democrat, tapped her last month.

The vote passed without questions from any of the seven-member council. Councilman Julian Jones, a Woodstock Democrat, praised Walker for her responsiveness. Council Chair Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat, said he admired her work ethic and “diligence,” but warned that as the county’s chief financial officer she will inherit a “spartan” financial situation.

In a statement, Olszewski praised Walker as a “forward-thinking, visionary leader” with a track record of “leading innovative efforts to improve operations and modernizing government services for our residents.”

Walker will start Tuesday, according to county spokesperson Erica Palmisano. As county administrative officer, she will oversee all department heads, supervise the county’s budget, and report directly to Olszewski.

Walker had led DPW since Nov. 2020, initially as acting director, before the council permanently confirmed her in Feb. 2023. During that time, she was scrutinized for her lack of engineering credentials, the departures of longtime bureau chiefs, and several internal investigations into the department. Walker holds business degrees from Morgan State University and previously worked for the state and Prince George’s County in a host of transportation and governmental relations positions.

In February 2022, DPW’s former Solid Waste Management bureau chief, Michael Beichler, filed a complaint with the Office of Inspector General Kelly Madigan. He accused Walker and Olszewski of overruling his objections to advance a proposal from Baltimore Recycling Corp. president Jack Haden, an Olszewski donor, to build a private waste transfer station, which was ultimately never built.

Beichler initially spoke anonymously to The Baltimore Sun in June 2022, but came forward earlier this month to object to Walker’s appointment. Olszewski’s former aide, Pat Murray, asked police to investigate Beichler for trespassing and theft of government property in spring 2022 after Walker gave him security footage of Beichler entering a county building months after he retired and his access was revoked.

The detective stopped investigating after a Baltimore County Assistant State’s Attorney informed him of Beichler’s complaint against Walker and Olszewski, and after police determined another employee had let Beichler into the building. Madigan has refused to confirm or deny an ongoing investigation into Beichler’s complaint. Olszewski has maintained he did not know about the complaint or any potential investigation.

Walker publicly addressed Beichler’s complaint for the first time during last week’s council work session. She said she was “obligated” to report him because he was trespassing.

She told council members she was “shocked” and “hurt” by Beichler’s complaint and suggested complaints about her leadership were rooted in racism because she is a Black woman, and that DPW employees complained because they couldn’t meet her “high expectations.”

“Nobody can come up here and claim I ever mistreated an employee,” she said. “I wouldn’t dare get up here and lie on somebody, and I don’t know why somebody feels the need to do it to me.”

In response, Beichler said he respected Walker but opposed her nomination because she had violated the county charter by not being a qualified engineer and by serving in an acting capacity for over two years until residents passed an amendment allowing non-engineers to oversee DPW. The county charter prevents acting leaders from serving more than 60 days without council approval, but there is no deadline to fill a vacancy.

The council did not address Beichler’s testimony at last week’s meeting. Instead, Councilman Wade Kach, a Timonium Republican, told Walker she should expect to step in as acting county executive until 2026 if Olszewski wins election to Congress in November.

Madigan cited DPW and Walker in a Nov. 2022 report for spending $70,000 to repave a privately-owned alleyway at the request of its owner, Towson developer Wayne Gioioso. The then-bureau chief of Highway Design told Madigan that Walker overrode his objections, as the alleyway repaving was not eligible for county funding, and approved the money after Councilman Julian Jones intervened on Gioioso’s behalf.

Madigan’s office has since cited DPW several times for poor recordkeeping and time and equipment theft by employees.