Posted on 12/13/2005 3:15:10 PM PST by conservative in nyc
Lawmakers heard colorful testimony Tuesday describing the hiring and firing practices of the Ehrlich administration, saying the governor's staff employed a hit list among state workers.
WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins reported that a former state worker testified for three hours before a special legislative committee.
Thomas Burgess, a Republican who worked 15 years in state government, characterized Gov. Bob Ehrlich's administration as highly partisan and paranoid to the point of spying on their own people.
Collins said the underlying theme to Burgess' three hours of testimony was that the Ehrlich administration wanted to weed out Democrats and bypass the individual agency appointment secretaries. He said hires and fires were funneled to the office of the state appointments secretary.
Burgess, who now works with for Baltimore City's Department of Public Works, was a surprise witness who did not receive a subpoena --his testimony was voluntary.
--Snip--
Burgess portrayed fired state worker Michelle Lane as a Republican political operative who wrote "DL" on a list next to names of expendable at-will employees.
"I asked her what 'DL' stands for, and she said, 'Death list,'" Burgess said.
Burgess contended that Lane soon fell out of favor with some in the administration who thought she was a spy. According to Burgess, Lane also worked closely with self-described political hit man Joe Steffen.
He said the two discussed dispatching Steffen to one employee's home to determine whether she actually went to work. Burgess told the committee that state workers were scared of Steffen, who had figurines of the grim reaper and Darth Vader on his desk. Collins reported Steffen also perused payroll information without the authority to do so.
"There was a hit list where Mr. Steffen had individuals he wanted fired and they were sharing information with the governor's office," Burgess said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewbalchannel.com ...
MD4Bush Ping!
Thanks for the ping.
tsk tsk..I would have assumed a name with "DL" beside it stood for "democrat leech" (ie, holdover political appointees). Parris Glendenning put thousands of drones on the state gravy train ....what democrat governor hasn't?
Perhaps this state employee "hiring and firing" investigation should be spearheaded by all the Republicans who were hired or appointed by Mr Glendenning or his democrat predecessor.
If the Republican party were as effective and tough as the Deaniacs think, we wouldn't have people ratting us out like this.
So, Governor Ehrlich's aides had a "hit list"? Good for them. Republicans should always have a hit list.
Schaeffer?????????? ROFLMSS - it will take 20 years to rid Mryland of the cronies of those 2.
Employee hit lists should be mandatory for all conservative administrations.
A registered "Republican" who's supported, voted for and kissed the butts of Dems for 15 years?
Erlich should have fired everyone in the state government ~ not just a handful.
His timidity is embarrassing.
The Demonrats in MD have had a "death list" of Republicans in state govt. for decades. For opposing misuse of "environmental cleanup" funds to subsidize development, and for having a Reagan sticker on my desk, I had my home burglarized, all my property vandalized, my mail and packages tampered with, and was bombarded with harassing phone calls emanating from drug-ridden inner-city Baltimore (the Demonrats' power base), for over 20 years. I know other people, including those who testified against corrupt ex-Gov. Mandel (Schaeffer's mentor) who endured similar harassment. The rotten Baltimore County Police, run by political hack and anti-gun nut Cornelius Behan, did nothing to stop this.
I'm glad you said this. I can't even believe the audacity of holding these silly hearings.
But you're right. Every Democrat state in this country has a government filled with people that do exactly nothing.
This is why the voters even hire Republicans once in a while in a blue state...to clean house.
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