A Maryland executive has been offered the top job at North Dakota's workers insurance fund, five months after the agency's previous director was dismissed without explanation.

The Workforce Safety and Insurance agency's board of directors voted Tuesday to offer the position to Thomas Cleary, an executive vice president of the Injured Workers' Insurance Fund of Towson, Md.

Cleary met with Robert Indvik, the board's chairman, Tuesday night to discuss the offer, agency spokesman Mark Armstrong said. Cleary had questions about the proffered salary and moving expenses, Armstrong said.

Cleary "said he was going to think about it," Armstrong said.

Indvik was authorized to negotiate an annual salary between $100,000 and $150,000 annually. Neither Indvik nor Cleary returned telephone messages left Tuesday night for comment.

Board members interviewed Cleary and a second finalist, Charles "Sandy" Blunt, before voting late Tuesday to pick Cleary as their favored hire. Blunt is an assistant administrator for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation in Columbus.

The North Dakota agency is looking for a successor to Brent Edison, who was fired last October.

Board members declined to give a reason for Edison's dismissal, although agency documents said he was viewed as an occasionally temperamental manager. Other employees said Edison was the victim of bureaucratic infighting. He was paid $112,212 annually.

Workforce Safety and Insurance, an agency formerly known as the Workers Compensation Bureau, sells insurance for employee injuries on the job. It pays benefits for medical treatment, rehabilitation and lost wages.

North Dakota businesses are required to buy worker insurance coverage, and they are barred from buying the same insurance from private companies. WSI is the monopoly provider of workers compensation coverage. It has about 20,000 accounts, and collects about $90 million in premiums annually.

Maryland allows competition for workers compensation coverage, and the Maryland fund insures about 20 percent of the state's businesses. It has the largest market share of any Maryland company.

The Maryland agency has a nine-member board of directors, who are chosen by the governor. North Dakota has a similar arrangement; the Workforce Safety chief executive is hired, and may be fired, by an 11-member board that is appointed by the governor.