Johnny O’s Special Arrangements
“I cannot recall ever having to continually address special arrangements for certain people. Every week.”
— -Michael Mallinoff, who previously served as the County Administrator for Charles County and City Manager for Annapolis and Newport, Rhode Island, reflecting on his experience in Baltimore County after being appointed by County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. to be Director of Permits, Approvals and Inspections.
A recent story in the Baltimore Banner described the campaign of Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. for Congress as facing “questions about his judgment” because of actions taken during his tenure as Baltimore County Executive. I agree with the basic premise, but the description of the payment of $83,675 to a retired county firefighter who is the brother of one of Olszewski’s friends as Olszewski’s “first” misstep was baffling.
There was a steady succession of actions that cast Olszewski’s judgment in an unfavorable light long before the story about Tirabassi broke in July of this year. I decided to summarize the “highlights” as a handy reference for reporters and others who are new to Baltimore County, or who are just conveniently forgetful. Links to news accounts are included for those interested in the details.
It is worth noting that we only found out about these actions because of news leaks or whistleblowers filing complaints with the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Consequently, there is every reason to believe that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.
If it was just a matter of setting the record straight, I wouldn’t bother. To paraphrase an old adage, however, Baltimore County residents are doomed to repeat history if they don’t understand it and learn from it. Based on the history of the past six years, the last thing that we need our next County Executive to be is another Johnny O. Voters must be vigilant about candidates who talk a better game than they play.
Olszewski has buyer’s remorse over the Inspector General
The first reported misstep by Olszewski was arguably his worst in terms of shaping the public’s perception of him. His attempt in 2021 to weaken the newly created Baltimore County Office of Inspector General (OIG) shattered any illusions that Olszewski was committed to changing the culture of corruption that has plagued the County for decades.
Al Redmer announced early in his campaign for the Republican nomination for County Executive in 2018 that he would establish the OIG on “day one” of his administration, pledging to end the “culture of corruption and cronyism” in County government. On the Democratic side, Olszewski was running against Jim Brochin, who made ending the “pay to play system” with builders and developers a centerpiece of his campaign.
Not to be outdone, Olszewski promised that he, like Redmer, would establish an OIG if elected. And credit where due, he followed through on that promise. The first time that an investigation by the OIG hit too close to home, however, he revealed his true colors by trying to strip the office of its independence and powers.
In March 2021, the OIG released a report concluding that an employee named Chris McCollum misused County procurement cards while he was director of the Baltimore County Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park (Ag Center). It came on the heels of an earlier report describing waste and mismanagement at the Ag Center during McCollum’s tenure.
McCollum was the campaign treasurer for former Councilwoman Kathy Bevins and a major fundraiser for Olszewski. In April 2021, Olszewski’s chief of staff, Patrick Murray, sent IG Kelly Madigan an email instructing her that she must ask the administration for records in writing, explaining why she needs the information and “how the request is necessary and related to the work of the Office of Inspector General.”
The law gives the OIG unrestricted access to County records, and compliance would have placed Olszewski in a position to monitor and control the OIG’s investigations. Madigan properly refused to comply.
In July 2021, the Baltimore Brew obtained a copy of a bill drafted at Olszewski’s behest that would have made multiple changes to the OIG and rendered it ineffective. Long story short, Olszewski beat a hasty retreat in the face of an intense public backlash to disclosure of the bill and decided not to introduce it, but only after Madigan risked her job by standing up to Olszewski and going public with objections to the bill.
The Cordish tennis barn and “special arrangements”
There was another OIG investigation going on in 2021, this one into allegations that the Olszewski administration attempted to allow developer David Cordish to build an indoor “tennis barn” on his property in Greenspring Manor without going through a special hearing as required by County law. The OIG concluded that it appeared that Cordish had indeed been given “preferential treatment” by high-ranking County officials.
Olszewski chose Michael Mallinoff to be the County’s Director of Permits, Approvals and Inspections (PAI) in April 2019. Mallinoff previously served as the County Administrator for Charles County and City Manager for Annapolis and Newport, Rhode Island.
In its story on the investigation, the Baltimore Sun reported that it found an email in which Mallinoff lamented to an assistant county attorney: “I cannot recall ever having to continually address special arrangements for certain people. Every week.” We soon had more evidence confirming Mallinoff’s observation that “special arrangements” were the norm, not the exception, within the Olszewski administration.
Olszewski gives a wink and a nod to an unlawful fee waiver
One extraordinary such arrangement was with a prominent local developer. In January 2022, the OIG reported that between 2011 and 2018 a former Director of PAI had, without legal authority, waived millions of dollars’ worth of fees and performance securities for developer David S. Brown Enterprises during construction of Metro Centre in Owings Mills. The report listed “possible benefits” provided by the developer to the former director, Arnold Jablon.
When Mallinoff became aware of the nonpayment after taking over as Director in 2019, he notified the administration and contacted the developer in an attempt to get payments resumed. He met with its chairman, Howard S. Brown in October 2019. This is a passage from the IG’s report:
“Around the same time as the meeting with Brown, Mallinoff was contacted by a member of the [Olszewski] Administration about Mallinoff’s opposition to the waiver of Securities and Fees for the Project. This individual told Mallinoff that the arrangement with the Developer had pre-dated the current Administration and therefore needed to be honored. Between approximately October 2019 and September 2020, Mallinoff continued to try and collect Securities and Fees from the Developer for the Project when feasible, despite getting resistance from the Developer and at times, the Administration.”
In September 2021, after the OIG inquiry had begun, then-County Administrative Officer Stacy Rodgers sent a letter of doubtful validity purporting to retroactively legitimize the fee waivers unlawfully approved by Jablon. The waivers continued until April 29, 2022. It was not until July 2022 that the County Council passed a bill that allowed the CAO (not the Director of PAI) to waive fees, but only after giving notice to the Council and conferring the right on a Council member to demand a legislative hearing on the proposed waiver.
The Olszewski administration had neither the obligation nor the power to “honor” an agreement to waive fees made without legal authority by a former County official. The proper response after finding out about it would have been to terminate it, demand that payment resume immediately and refer the matter for further investigation and possible legal action — not to allow the unlawful waivers to continue and to try to legitimize them in a manner not approved by the Council.
The Metro Centre fee waiver and the response by the Olszewski administration would have been a major scandal in any other county, triggering calls by council members for audits and outside investigations. It barely caused a ripple in Baltimore County and never would have seen the light of day except for a complaint by a whistleblower — i.e., it would have been covered up. It demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that Olszewski had no intention of changing the “culture of corruption and cronyism” in the County upon taking office. Indeed, it proved that he fit right in.
The McCollum severance agreement
Speaking of cronyism, Chris McCollum was a beneficiary of it in the form of a lucrative severance package inconsistent with County law. As described above, it was the OIG’s investigation of McCollum that preceded Olszewski’s attempt to strip the OIG of its powers.
On June 14, 2021, a spokesperson for Olszewski stated that McCollum was leaving County employment on July 2, 2021. What she did not say was that he would remain on the County payroll for an extended period of time. On April 25, 2022, the Baltimore Sun reported that, although McCollum’s last “working day” was in fact July 2, 2021, he remained on the County payroll almost ten months later drawing a salary of $137,710 in the position of Senior Administrative Assistant to the County Administrative Officer (CAO), Stacy Rodgers.
Remaining on the payroll allowed McCollum to continue to receive a County paycheck and health benefits. Sources told former Baltimore Banner reporter Taylor DeVille that it also was intended to allow him to accrue enough service to qualify for a 39% increase in pension benefits as an appointed department head.
Olszewski’s press secretary, Erica Palmisano, told the Sun that McCollum was using “earned sick leave” to cover his absence, even though County law precludes the use of sick leave for anything other than illness or injury. At the end of their employment with the County, employees have no right to “cash out” unused sick leave, although they may add it to the length of County service used to calculate their pension benefit. They may not use it simply to extend their time on the County payroll as done for McCollum.
So, how did the Olszewski administration justify the use of unused sick leave to keep McCollum on the payroll? This is what a spokesperson told Fox45:
“Because the County does not have a policy for providing severance to senior level employees, who do not have the ability to accumulate annual leave, the County has in some cases allowed these employees to be paid for their earned sick leave time upon request. This is a practice begun in previous administrations and has been used periodically during the current administration.” [Emphasis added.]
The explanation fails to mention that the “practice” by previous administrations of crafting severance packages not in full compliance with County law was prohibited by a charter amendment adopted by the voters in 2018. In 2017, the Baltimore Sun reported that former police chief Jim Johnson received a $117,000 “severance package” upon termination based on an unpublished “executive benefit policy” signed by former CAO Fred Homan. There was sharp criticism of the secret policy and two months later former County Executive Kevin Kamenetz scrapped the executive benefit policy and ended the practice of severance pay.
In 2018, an amendment was proposed to Section 508 of the County Charter to prevent the county executives from unilaterally deciding on the salary and benefits of their appointees. As a ballot measure proposed by a council bill in response to a public outcry, the amendment was hardly a secret. Here is an excerpt from a story appearing in the Sun on November 6, 2018:
“One of the more substantive changes on the ballot approved by voters will give the County Council oversight over benefits granted to ‘exempt employees’ — including many top county officials. Until last year, such employees had been under an ‘executive benefits policy’ that could include lucrative perks that were never reviewed or approved by the council. Changing that system will mean that the county executive now must recommend a compensation system that will be voted on by the council.”
On May 2, 2022, I received an email from CAO Rodgers confirming that the County Executive had failed to submit a proposed “compensation system” to the council for approval as required by the 2018 amendment to the Charter. Rodgers stated: “In reviewing our records on this matter, the Administration was not aware of the requirement.” [Emphasis added.]
That’s right. Rodgers claimed that the administration was unaware of the charter amendment for 3 ½ years. Needless to say, I found that claim hard to believe.
In any case, Olszewski was in violation of the charter amendment when the severance package for McCollum was approved that used sick leave to keep him on the payroll despite no provision of County law allowing that. Ignorance of the law by the administration did not justify awarding McCollum, who later served time in jail for embezzling campaign funds, a severance package to which he was not entitled.
The Eagle Transfer Station proposal
This one is as easy to understand as it is troubling. It reeked of “old school” Baltimore County shenanigans. A proposal to allow a private waste transfer station to operate in the County was dead in the water until the prospective operator, Jack Haden, held a fundraiser for Olszewski in 2021.
A resolution to authorize operation of the private Eagle Transfer Station was introduced before the County Council on June 6, 2022. On June 9, 2022, the Baltimore Brew reported that it traced $17,500 in contributions to Olszewski from Haden and his affiliated companies as a result of the 2021 fundraiser, and another $18,400 from other donors, most of whom were involved in the trash disposal industry. The Brew also reported that there were strenuous objections to the proposal from within County government.
On June 14, 2022, the Baltimore Sun reported that the OIG had opened an investigation into the proposal, and that a day after the 2021 fundraiser County CAO Rodgers emailed Michael Beichler, head of the Solid Waste Bureau, to inquire about the status of the Eagle Transfer Station proposal. Emails and other records left no doubt that it was Olszewski’s intervention that resurrected the proposal within DPWT.
The proposal may have been lucrative for Haden, but it would have been costly to the County, with an annual loss of tipping fee revenue at County-operated transfer stations estimated at $1.2 million. The Solid Waste Bureau of the County Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPWT) also opposed the proposal because it was contrary to the county’s longstanding adherence to “municipal solid waste flow control” that requires county ownership of all facilities and violated the “best practice” of public ownership of transfer stations described in a consultant’s report included with the recommendations of the Solid Waste Work Group established by Olszewski.
The information brought forward as a result of the news stories doomed the proposal, which otherwise appeared headed for the usual perfunctory approval by the Council. On July 5, 2022, the Council “tabled” the proposal and it never again appeared on its agenda.
The aftermath of the Eagle Transfer Station scandal — harassment of the whistleblower
But for the action of a whistleblower, the ill-advised Eagle Transfer Station proposal would have been approved with little or no discussion. It later was disclosed that the whistleblower was Michael Beichler, the former head of the Solid Waste Bureau. Beichler retired from the County in February 2022 because of his clashes with his boss, then-Acting Director of DPWT and now CAO D’Andrea Walker, over Walker’s advocacy of the proposal against the objections of the professional staff.
On June 15, 2022, the day after the story appeared in the Baltimore Sun reporting that someone had filed a complaint with the OIG about the Eagle Transfer Station proposal, Olszewski’s Chief of Staff at the time, Patrick Murray, met with former County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt and asked her to investigate Beichler’s “unauthorized entrance into a county facility and his departure from that facility with County property” in May 2022. Walker supplied video to the police showing Beichler leaving the Central Acceptance Facility at about seven in the evening carrying what appeared to be a large number of documents.
The police department opened a criminal investigation and assigned a detective. It turned out that Beicher had been given permission to make copies of records and was allowed into the building by a County employee, and the investigation was dropped.
A few questions to their own employees by Walker or Murray and no police investigation would have been necessary. Then again, had they done so the administration would have lost the opportunity to send a clear message to the employees interviewed by the police that whistleblowers should watch their step.
Another special arrangement — Philip Tirabassi
In summary, an obvious pattern had emerged by the time news broke in July of this year of the deal cut by the Olszewski administration with retired County firefighter Philip Tirabassi. The Tirabassi arrangement confirmed questions about Olszewski’s judgment that already had arisen; it was hardly Olszewski’s “first” misstep as described in the Banner story.
We still don’t know the complete scope of the Tirabassi deal. And if Olszewski has his way, we never will, illustrating another aspect of his administration: Its lack of transparency and accountability.
Tirabassi is the brother of a friend and high school classmate of Olszewski, a campaign contributor, and the owner of a real estate firm with whom Olszewski has done business. As soon as Olszewski took office in 2018, Tirabassi began pestering County officials and dropping Olszewski’s name in an attempt to revive his stale claim for “service credit” in the County pension plan for the period of time that he was employed by the City of Baltimore before being hired by Baltimore County in 1989.
Under the state “pension portability” statute that governs transfers of service credit between the pension plans of state and local governments, Tirabassi had until July 1, 1991 to request the transfer of service credit. It appears from the information available that he made his first request in 2018, more than two decades after the deadline had expired. His request was denied by former Director of Budget and Finance Keith Dorsey in a letter dated April 22, 2019.
Tirabassi had the right to file an appeal of Dorsey’s decision to the County Board of Appeals no later than May 21, 2019, but apparently did not do so. Instead, when Edward Blades replaced Dorsey in June 2019, Olszewski asked Blades to revisit Dorsey’s decision. Blades did so and reached the same conclusion as Dorsey. That did not mean that Tirabassi, or his stale claim, went away.
So, why did the County decide to make a secret payment of $83,675 to Tirabassi in 2020? Olszewski told the Baltimore Sun that Tirabassi threatened to sue the county because it reneged on an “unauthorized agreement” to settle Tirabassi’s claim that was sent to Tirabassi by former assistant county attorney Michael Raimondi in early 2020. He said that the $83,675 was paid to Tirabassi in December 2020 to avoid litigation over withdrawal of the agreement.
That’s one of the fishiest explanations that I’ve ever heard. For one thing, not once in my career did I encounter an assistant county attorney stupid enough to make a settlement offer on a case, especially a case with financial or political significance, without the consent of his or her client. In my opinion, it is more likely that the Olszewski administration manufactured an excuse to pay money to Tirabassi on his time-barred, meritless claim and threw Raimondi under the bus in the process.
We know that Olszewski’s top staff was involved in the decision to make the payment, and that his second-in-command was not thrilled with it. CAO Stacy Rodgers complained in an email to Olszewski’s Chief of Staff that:
“This is probably the most annoying thing I have encountered in this tour of duty so far. Just so wrong on so MANY levels.”
She was absolutely right about that, at least.
We are not 100% sure if the deal cut with Philip Tirabassi is limited to the $83,675 or also includes an adjustment in his pension service credit. The attempt by former County CAO Fred Homan to obtain copies of the relevant records has been fought at every turn, mostly unsuccessfully, by the Olszewski administration. The Olszewski administration asked for and received from the Council approval to spend up to $550,000 to continue the fight.
Special arrangements begin at home
In June 2016, Olszewski and his wife purchased a lot on Millers Island at the intersection of Baylight and Chesapeake Avenues less than a block from the Chesapeake Bay. Small world that it is, the Olszewskis bought the lot for $135,000 through a realty firm owned by Philip Tirabassi. In October 2019 they took out a $500,000 mortgage to finance construction of a house on the lot. Olszewski took office in December 2019.
In August, the Brew reported that on October 21, 2020, DPWT signed a contract with Monumental Paving & Excavating to design and build a drainage system that would alleviate flooding at the intersection and on adjacent private properties, including Olszewski’s. The lot is in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area and in a Flood Hazard Area, and the part of the 65x300 foot lot in front of the Olszewski home collects water during and after storms.
A former County permit official told the Brew that the project was “hush-hush, need-to-know from day one” and that its primary purpose was “to help Johnny out with his flooding problem.”
Roughly $90,000 has been spent by the County on the project design, with an additional expenditure of $210,000 projected to complete the project. The Brew reported that a source not authorized to speak to the media told it that the project has stalled because of difficulty obtaining an easement necessary to install the drainage facilities from a neighbor.
One project in Olszewski’s new neighborhood that did not stall was the County’s payment of $2.25 million to two political supporters of County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. for an 8.5-acre parcel of waterfront land less than a mile from Olszewski’s home that will become a County park. The Council unanimously approved the purchase in June, although three members expressed concerns about it to the Banner.
The purchase did not qualify for use of state Project Open Space funds, nor does the County have a concept plan for its use. It is located in a part of the County blessed with numerous parks while residents in other areas are crying out for more parks and open space. Finally, there are questions whether the appraised value exceeded the actual value, given that much of the parcel consists of undevelopable wetlands.
The County Council grouses about the “lack of transparency” by the Olszewski administration
Some councilmen took the opportunity of the park purchase to complain about the general lack of transparency by the Olszewski administration, saying that they frequently are asked to take actions without being given complete information. In at least two recent instances, information was withheld that very well could have influenced the Council’s decisions on the matters.
One was the purchase last year of a 30-year-old office building at 305 Washington Avenue in Towson for $5.8 million, $1.7 million more than its assessed value. The Council was assured at the time of the purchase that the building was move-in ready and that renovation costs would be “minimal due to the excellent condition of the property,” but this year was informed that the building needs repairs and renovations of nearly $7.5 million, more than doubling the cost of the purchase.
Then in April of this year, the OIG reported that the Olszewski administration violated the County Charter in 2022 by failing to notify the Council of material amendments to a proposed contract with an existing County vendor for installation of a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system in the 911 Center. The failure understated the cost of the contract that the Council approved by over $20 million.
My hunch is that council members are willing to speak more freely now that Olszewski is perceived as a lame duck, likely to move to Congress in January. That means that Olszewski probably has prepared his last County budget and will no longer be able to punish wayward council members by denying funds for their favorite projects. Also, members considering a run for County Executive in 2026 are trying to separate themselves from the pack.
Olszewski often asserts that he is the “most transparent County Executive in Baltimore County history,” although there is little evidence to support that. His fight to hide information about the Tirabassi deal may be his most expensive effort to thwart a request under the Maryland Public Information Act (PIA), but a 2022 story by the Banner documented his administration’s dismal record in terms of complying with PIA requirements.
Even though the facts support the allegations by council members about the administration’s lack of transparency, there is a bit of disingenuousness in those allegations. From the beginning of the Olszewski administration, there appeared to be a tacit understanding between the Council and Olszewski:
The County Executive generally did not interfere with the wheeling and dealing on land use and development decisions by individual council members, and in turn the Council didn’t put much effort into its responsibility to oversee decisions made by the County Executive. One hand washed the other, and dirty linen was not aired in public.
Looking to the future
Baltimore County will never get the forward-looking and enlightened leadership that it needs as long as its elected officials are obsessed with their own political futures, cronyism and various “special arrangements” with campaign contributors and others. Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. did not deliver the transformational leadership that many of us hoped he might. Instead, it was business as usual in the County, a continuation of Tammany Hall, Towson style, despite what he and others seeking his favor claim.
The voters are going to have to redouble their efforts to make sure that the next County Executive is committed to reforming the dysfunctional organizational culture within County government. We can’t afford another County Executive who doesn’t practice what he or she preaches when it comes to openness, transparency and accountability in government.
