Hiring-firing committee extends investigation to mid June

The Gazette (Maryland) ^ | 3/31/06 | Thomas Dennison

[conservative in nyc]

The 12-member legislative committee investigating Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s personnel practices voted Friday to extend its work until mid June as its special counsel vowed to issue more subpoenas.

The Special Committee on Employee Rights and Protections — after months of dormancy — met Friday morning to decide its next steps in probing the hiring and firing decisions made by the Ehrlich administration.

The panel met in closed session where its legal counsel, Ward B. Coe III, discussed his on-going efforts in obtaining personnel documents from the Ehrlich administration via speaker phone. Democratic members said that the administration has not turned over personnel documents from three key agencies, leading Coe to issue subpoenas.

House Environmental Matters Committee Chairman Maggie L. McIntosh, a member of the investigating committee, said Coe will issue subpoenas to the Maryland Insurance Administration, the Public Service Commission and the Department of Juvenile Services.

Issuing subpoenas and extending the commission’s timetable prompted criticism from Republican members of the committee. Ehrlich (R) and his GOP allies have characterized the investigation as a partisan witch hunt.

--Snip--

The committee is expected to meet at least three more times to hear from additional witnesses. The panel has been meeting since last summer.

Frosh and others are pressing to have Joseph F. Steffen Jr., the self-proclamed Prince of Darkness of the Ehrlich administration who was dispatched to agencies to gather personnel information, to testify before the committee’s work is complete. Ehrlich fired Steffen after news reports revealed that Steffen was rumormongering on a conservative website.

--Snip--

[conservative in nyc]

And the witchhunt conveniently drags on through the election year, even though the MD Legislature will be out of session and unable to act on any findings.

The "conservative website" on which Steffen (aka FReeper NCPAC) was allegedly rumormongering is Free Republic. NCPAC still might testify in front of the committee, according to the article.

[conservative in nyc]

MD4Bush Ping!

[Lion Den Dan]

The Dem fascists are at the same game in KY. Under Democratic regimes, you could not gain or hold a state job registered as a Republican. We elect a Republican Governor who hires Republican workers and the Democrat Atty. Gen. can't process the indictment's fast enough.

[Heatseeker]

House Environmental Matters Committee Chairman Maggie L. McIntosh, a member of the investigating committee, said Coe will issue subpoenas to the Maryland Insurance Administration, the Public Service Commission and the Department of Juvenile Services.

That they would be worrying about the PSC is amusing, since the Democrats in the Maryland just yesterday rammed through a veto-proof bill to disband the current PSC and replace it with one composed of members appointed by the legislature.

This was because they needed to cover up the fact this is the same Dem legislature that in the 90's had its hands stuck so deeply into the pockets of the big electric utilities (state senate president Mike Miller received $119,000 from the energy companies all by himself) that Maryland residents are now facing a 72% increase in energy costs. Now that the piper needs to be paid, they need a scapegoat.