Today is the final day of Davis Ruark's employment with the Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office. It is the end of an era and one that many are happy has come. I want to try to be as fair as I can be to Davis as he is existing stage right but we have to also hope he learns from his mistakes.
Davis Ruark is a good trial attorney I have never heard anyone say otherwise so kudos to Davis for his skill in the Courtroom. The problem with Davis Ruark was never his job performance (although there are many cases I felt like he could have done better, however it ultimately is up to the jury.)it was his lack of Administrative skill which was more evident as time went on.
Thank God Wicomico County had Sam Vincent while it did, as many times he is the only thing that kept that Office from spiraling out of control. Matt Maciarello inherited an Office full of bitterness and untrust which he had to deal with immediately to get the Office back on course. The problems of course became public with Davis Ruark's arrest for DUI.
I'm doing Davis a last favor by not going into the issues he was having at the time in his personal life that finally pushed the situation over the top but it was the best thing that probably happened for all parties involved, us the Taxpayers and himself. It allowed him to get a grip as things were out of control for him, and for us so we could begin thinking about what we wanted out of our State's Attorney.
I had a working relationship with Davis and that was about it in all my time Blogging. I wasn't like some other people that had to call him when someone looked at them wrong and waste his time. That is one thing that Davis made a huge mistake in however and that was entertaining certain local bloggers. I know Davis claims he wasn't but the facts are he still kept taking call after call, email after email from certain people(I know this because many times I was included in these private emails)and never once putting his foot down and saying "ENOUGH OF THE BS!" Davis felt it better to try to appease which is a big mistake with certain individuals.
I had actually thought Davis might be able to recover from his DUI issues and for a short period it looked like he might, however the final straw was an event nobody could have foreseen. Obviously I am talking about the death of Sam Vincent this time last year which shocked the entire area. I was going to support Sam in the election and had already added a Sam Vincent for State's Attorney thing to my site because I felt Sam was the man for the job and had been the glue holding the place together and was the one everyone universally loved.
We will never really know what the logic was in Davis Ruark's mind the weeks prior to this sad event, but they were things that I can tell to this day bother him. Davis in my opinion got uber pissed when he found out Sam was planning on running against him, and knowing full well Sam would crush him in the election decided to get petty by putting out a memo saying anyone that was planning on running for office would have to tender their resignation. I sent Davis a scathing email after this telling him I thought he made a huge mistake by not just letting the voters decide and deciding to get petty about it. He responded the memo was "misconstrued" My thoughts were BS but I knew there was no need to continue the debate with him.
Then tragically the very week all hell breaks loose because of the memo incident Sam Vincent on his way home from the State's Attorney Conference in Ocean City is killed in an Auto Accident. I think just about everyone was disgusted with Davis at that point, and a few months later when he lost the primary to Seth Mitchell of all people, it showed how people felt about him after all this drama he had brought to the Office of the State's Attorney.
I do see real regret in Davis now when I see him. I talked to him when Matt was sworn in and then was just with him last Saturday at Sam's pavilion dedication. I could really tell he felt bad about how things had went down with his friend the week prior to his death. The morale inside the State's Attorney's Office has jumped back up with the new leader and staff he has brought in, and with the cutting of some who were perceived to be problematic. These were things Davis should have dealt with so Matt didn't have to come into a job of chaos but I honestly don't think Davis could see the rotting from within.
I appreciate the service Davis has given to the community but at the same time it was past time for him to move on in his life. I know he is joining a law firm as a consultant and I can tell you he will do well there not having to deal with administrative matters. While you and I were never what I would call friends Davis and I do dislike many things you have done or said I do wish you luck and prosperity in your new endeavors.
