Former Montgomery County Council employee faces lawsuit over unauthorized field bookings

FOX 5 has learned more about a now-former Montgomery County Council employee accused of booking turf fields using the Council’s account.

Instead of being for council use, it was for her spouse, according to a Montgomery County Inspector General’s inquiry FOX 5 reported on last fall.

The Inspector General did not name the employee in its public report last September, but the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has sued the employee, saying its efforts to get money for the field use have been unsuccessful.

FOX 5 has confirmed with Montgomery County that Carolyn Chen’s employment with the county ended a month after the Inspector General’s report was released last fall.

Chen is not facing any criminal charges.

The civil suit against Chen seeks to recoup $19,190 worth of field time covering at least 33 bookings between June 2022 and July 2023, according to the complaint.

The complaint includes receipts with bookings, and an affidavit from the Executive Director of the County Council Office saying these bookings were never authorized, as well as an affidavit from the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning employee who said Chen "purported to Parks Department staff that she was acting in her capacity as a Montgomery County Council employee on behalf of that body."

The civil suit against Chen reiterates that there was no authorization, and they still haven’t been able to recoup the cost of that field time.

"As to each and every reservation and/or permit obtained, [Chen] was acting outside of her scope as an employee of the Montgomery County Council, and at no time did the Montgomery County Council authorize [Chen] to obtain said reservations and/or permits on its behalf," the suit states. 

Putting together what FOX 5 learned Wednesday, the last field booking occurred in July 2023. Once the county council’s executive director learned what was going on, an investigation started, the public-facing letter was sent out in early September, and according to employment records, Chen’s time with the county government ended in October.

Council President Andrew Friedson reiterated this was addressed almost immediately after the County Council staff learned what was happening, called it serious, and thinks it was handled appropriately by the county.

"That aspect has been addressed," Friedson said. "And I will say, as I have said before, immediately after learning about the circumstances, the council moved to address it, referred it to the Office of the Inspector General, and followed every protocol that you’d expect. And while council members are not involved in this, it’s not a council staff member, the executive director of council acted exactly as she should have."

FOX 5 made multiple attempts to reach Chen for comment on Wednesday.

At her apartment building, the person working at the front desk called her unit to let her know FOX 5 was requesting a comment, but the person at the other end of the phone declined to say anything.

Additional calls and a text to a number associated with Chen went unanswered, as did emails to two separate accounts.

No attorney for Chen is listed as of this writing.

If FOX 5 hears from Chen, we’ll include that response in this article.

A hearing on this civil case is tentatively scheduled for May.

The National Capital Park and Planning Commission declined further comment.