Court says O’Malley, as mayor, erred in firing Clark

Ruling reinstates Baltimore’s former top cop’s $120M complaint

‘‘We were pleased by the court’s decision that the mayor’s action was without legal merit,” said Neal M. Janey, a lawyer representing Clark.

Clark, who has been working as a consultant in New York, has scheduled a news conference in Baltimore this morning, Janey said.

The state’s top court disagreed with a Circuit Court judge’s decision that terms of Clark’s employment contract with the city — providing that he could be dismissed without cause if given proper notice — were enforceable.

When O’Malley fired Clark, he said domestic abuse allegations against the police commissioner impaired his ability to lead the department.

The reason the contract’s firing terms were not valid, the court said, is that the Baltimore Police Department is a state agency. And the court said, although the General Assembly in 1976 granted the city’s mayor, rather than the state’s governor, authority to appoint the commissioner, ‘‘it is significant that that is as far as the General Assembly went.”

Under Baltimore city law ‘‘The Police Commissioner is subject to removal by the mayor for official misconduct, malfeasance, inefficiency or incompetency, including prolonged illness ...” and, ‘‘for cause,” the court said, rather than without cause and on notice as provided in Clark’s contract with the city.

‘‘[A] contract conflicting with public policy set forth in a statute is invalid to the extent of the conflict between the contract and that policy,” the court said in an opinion written by Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, noting cases where the court previously stated that principle.

The law that makes the police department a state agency dates back to 1860 and the unrest that roiled Baltimore on the eve of the Civil War.

Responding to the ruling, O’Malley’s office issued the following statement:

‘‘The Mayor of Baltimore City, like other county executives throughout our State should have the right to remove the police commissioner just as they have the right to appoint the police commissioner. We would support any efforts by the City now or in the future to clarify the law so that the Mayor of Baltimore has the same hiring and removal authority that other county executives have.”