Posted on 08/08/2003 8:02:20 PM PDT by CurlyBill
Montgomery County is withholding former police chief Charles A. Moose's final paycheck while the county Ethics Commission seeks more details about a legal settlement he listed as income on his 2003 financial disclosure form, county officials said.
Moose is asking to keep confidential the source and amount of the money he and his wife received before his resignation June 28. The payment was mentioned on forms made public by the commission last week.
The forms do not disclose who made the payment. But Moose sought a financial settlement this year from Marriott International Inc., according to sources familiar with that request. The Bethesda-based hotel chain is one of the largest corporations doing business in Montgomery County.
Chief Moose sought the settlement after alleging that he was a victim of racial discrimination in December while staying at a Hawaiian resort managed by the chain, according to one of the sources, who was briefed on the incident at the heart of the allegations. The source did not know how much Marriott ultimately paid but said the Mooses requested the company give them $200,000 to avoid a lawsuit.
Moose and his wife have repeatedly declined to comment for this report. Washington civil rights attorney John Relman, who handled the matter for the Mooses, hung up the phone when asked about the case. Marriott officials released this statement: "He did stay with us in Hawaii. An issue arose inadvertently during his stay. We resolved it."
"Beyond that," said company spokesman Tom Marder, "there isn't more that we can discuss."
The Ethics Commission collects financial disclosure reports from top-level county employees and elected officials every year. As part of his 2003 report, Moose filed a form in which he invoked a provision in the county's ethics law that allows the details of such a settlement to remain confidential, as long as the employee assures the commission that his county department was not regulating or doing business with the party that paid him.
The payment, and Moose's assertion that it can stay secret, presents a dilemma for the Montgomery County Ethics Commission, which has already tangled with the famous former chief over his plans to write a book about the Washington area sniper case. County officials said that because Moose supplied so little information about the settlement, the commission has no way of determining whether he can legitimately keep it from public view.
The commission asked county officials to withhold Moose's final paycheck while a county attorney seeks more information from Relman. According to Marc P. Hansen, chief of the county's division of general counsel, the two lawyers "have been playing phone tag" for at least a week.
County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg) said he believes that the commission should be told more.
"At the very least," Andrews said, "I would want the Ethics Commission to be able to determine whether it's appropriate that it stay confidential."
The dispute that led to the Mooses' financial settlement originated at the JW Marriott Ihilani resort and spa at Ko'Olina, a luxurious, grassy beachfront property with manmade lagoons and a golf course about 30 miles outside downtown Honolulu. Late in December, still exhausted from the three-week sniper manhunt and the accompanying media blitz, the chief flew with his wife to the Hawaiian hotel to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary and finally get some rest.
At some point during the Mooses' stay, sources familiar with the allegations said, the chief wandered into what the hotel managers call "the back of the house," an unfinished area reserved for employees . Moose was confronted by a hotel employee. When the chief was asked to produce proof he was a guest at the hotel, in the form of a room key, an argument ensued, the sources said.
The details of the exchange have not been publicly disclosed. At some point after this exchange, Moose contacted Relman. The Washington civil rights lawyer, who is best known for his representation of African American plaintiffs suing the Denny's restaurant chain, was also a very familiar name to Marriott's attorneys, the sources said. In 1999, Relman helped represent the NAACP in a lawsuit against the Adam's Mark hotel chain after Black College Reunion participants complained of discrimination at a hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla. Two years later, Relman and NAACP attorneys settled the case for $2 million.
In a letter to a top-level Marriott executive, the source said, the Mooses threatened to sue over what they considered discriminatory behavior at the Hawaii resort. In the letter, Moose asked for $100,000 for himself and $100,000 for his wife, to compensate them for "suffering" and "distress," the source said.
Special correspondent Rita Beamish in Hawaii and news researchers Meg Smith, Julie Tate and Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Sorry, not buying it. The Hawaiians make their money off tourism. They are lost without it. When I was there, those connected with tourism bent over backwards to show hospitality to me. And, none of them were white like me, they were Hawaiians. So, they singled out this Chief Moose, biting the tourist hand that feeds them, because he is black? BS. Maybe he bitched, whined and complained the whole time he was there, over nothing.
When I was there, on a travel agency package, I complained that my hotel room was dirty and shoddy. Being that I was single, I think they put me on the "partying college student floor," people that trash the rooms. After I complained, what did they do? Moved me to the top floor penthouse! I told them, "Hey, I didn't ask for the penthouse, just a clean room!" Anyway, that was my experience. They bend over backwards to please, because they rely so much on tourism.
Of course, we are not looking to make a few bucks for BS discrimination claims, either...
Duly noted and concurred with, SIR!
Unless you're not an officer. Then, I won't call you sir, since you work for a living. :)
Absolutely. Chief Moose is all about himself. The guy is a phoney and a money grubber. By the way, his wife is white (can you spell t-r-o-p-h-y?) Boycott any book that he comes out with!!!
You may well be right on that point!
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