Public Affairs

Town Won’t Pick Sides in Internet Squabble

February 20, 2020 by Daniel Menefee

Tuesday’s vote on an ordinance to establish regulations in public right-of-ways for utility companies was put on hold by the Chestertown Council because of a legal challenge.

ThinkBig Networks and Talkie Communications have been in a highly competitive race to connect customers to highspeed fiberoptic Internet in Chestertown. As a result, both companies have accidentally damaged water or sewer lines.

Both companies often use the same subcontractor to install the fiber.

“We have sort of an impasse where two fiber companies want to wire the same neighborhoods at the same time and they might feel like they have a valid reason for doing that,” said Chestertown Town Manager Bill Ingersoll at Tuesday’s council meeting. “One has threatened a suit. For that reason, I would say we listen tonight…and not enact the ordinance.”

Talkie has sought legal counsel to force the town to honor a permit that was approved in August. The company said it was later told that two providers could not serve the same areas in town.

Talkie argues that this is a violation of FCC law, which prohibits barriers to businesses providing telecommunications services.

Talkie Co-founders Andrew and Andre DeMattia believe they were given a “bad shake” by the town when they began installing fiber last May.

“When we were first greeted in the town…the first statement was ‘we don’t need fiber here, we already have ThinkBig, Maryland Broadband and Atlantic Broadband; we don’t want anybody else here’,” Andrew DeMattia told the council. He said the town office told this directly to his engineering contractor.

The two brothers said they were committed to Chestertown and have staked their personal fortunes to connect 300 customers so far.

“Talkie has committed to this town and has committed private funds of almost $7 million,” said Andrew DeMattia.

The arrival of Talkie in May of last year challenged the business plan of ThinkBig, which believes that Kent County and Chestertown are too small for the two companies to prosper, said Dee Anna Sobczak, COO of ThinkBig Networks.

She said that two companies laying fiber in the same areas was not a sustainable business model and she made a sales pitch to the council to select ThinkBig as the right provider for Chestertown.

“Kent County and Chestertown do not have the population numbers to sustain two fiber companies,” she said. “Most likely one of the companies won’t survive…or worse case both companies won’t survive.”

She said her company should be the provider of choice in Chestertown because of the company’s deep pockets.

“We have a very diverse investor pool,” Sobczak said. “It’s conservative to say that our collective personal net worth of our investors is north of $200 million.”

“I’m confident that when you do your research the answers will show that ThinkBig Networks is the right company for this,” she said.

Chestertown Mayor Chris Cerino pushed back on the idea that the council can choose a preferred provider.

“I don’t think it’s our job to pick one company over another,” Cerino told Sobczak. “That does get to a legal question. “What [the council] is being told is that utility companies have a right to these right-of-ways.”

Cerino said his job was to protect the town’s underground utilities.

“My biggest concern is not to pick one company over the other, but to protect our pre-existing resources,” he said.

He said if the council tried to pick one carrier the town would be subject to litigation.

“We are in my view caught in a private sector squabble,” he said. “I hope both of your companies kick ass and make a ton of money.”

In an email on Thursday, Andre DeMattia said there was plenty of room for more than one provider to service customers in Chestertown.

“All Internet providers can prosper side-by-side in Kent County and Chestertown,” Andre DeMattia said. “The community benefits from competition that brings lower prices and better services for everyone.”

In the video below Cerino questions Talkie on the need for two Internet providers in town.

In the video below Cerino explains to Sobczak why the town can’t pick one preferred Internet provider.

Public Citizen Seeks Ethics Investigation of Hogan

February 19, 2020 by Maryland Matters

A Washington, D.C.-based government watchdog group has filed an ethics complaint with the Maryland State Ethics Commission against Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R)

The complaint, by Public Citizen, a non-profit watchdog organization created in 1971 by Ralph Nader, asks the commission to investigate whether state spending on transportation projects since Hogan became governor violated Maryland’s conflict of interest rules.

The complaint, filed Tuesday, draws heavily on a report in Washington Monthly, published in January under the headline “Who Does Maryland’s Governor Really Work For?”

The article focused in part on nearly $60 million in transportation improvements that Hogan included in the budget he submitted to the General Assembly in 2015. Those improvements, in southern Prince George’s County, occurred near land owned by HOGAN, the real estate firm the governor started in 1985.

“Contrary to the law and explicit written guidance from the State Ethics Commission, Governor Hogan directly participated in making a major change in the 2015-2020 Capital Transportation Program and related 2015 transportation budget that benefited his own personal financial interests, i.e. expediting construction and designating $58.2 million in new funding for an interchange and park-and-ride lot in Brandywine, Maryland,” Public Citizen writes in its complaint.
The complaint was submitted by Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for the organization.“The Governor’s decision predictably enhanced the development value of several parcels of land that he and his HOGAN companies accumulated in the immediate vicinity of the new State transportation project. The Governor did not recuse himself from this matter, and did not inform the Maryland General Assembly of his financial conflict of interest in seeking approval of the new taxpayer funding for the State project.”

Hogan dismissed the Washington Monthly report soon after it was published, saying he had no direct role in the spending and the improvements had long been a top priority of local officials.

Hogan has also insisted that he has been in strict compliance with the agreement he entered into with the ethics commission when he took office following his victory in the 2014 gubernatorial race. And he asserts he has been “even more transparent” than the agreement requires.

Hogan’s brother Timothy Hogan and three former employees are running the firm in an arrangement approved by the commission, though Gov. Hogan is not barred from keeping abreast of the company’s activities.

The Washington Monthly article built on a 2018 Maryland Matters report outlining Hogan’s agreement with the Ethics Commission and some of the properties where the real estate company had potential development projects in the pipeline.

Quoting from Section 5-501 of state ethics law, the Public Citizen complaint said, “One of the most important rules in the existing Public Ethics Law states that ‘an official or employee may not participate in a matter if… the official or employee or a qualifying relative of the official or employee has an interest in the matter.’ A ‘qualifying relative’ includes a brother.”

Drawing again from the Washington Monthly report, Public Citizen’s complaint alleges that, “In addition to the Brandywine interchange, Respondent and his appointees have ‘advanced a number of other improvements in the same vicinity, including the construction of embankments, exit ramps, and median piers; pavement upgrades; a new park-and-ride lot, and a bridge.’”

“A HOGAN vice president reportedly conceded that the state’s Brandywine project and other improvements ‘are incredibly important to facilitating new development’ and ‘contributes to land value, contributes to access, of course.’”

On its website, HOGAN bills itself as “the leading land firm in the state of Maryland.”

Earlier this month, Del. Vaughn Stewart (D-Montgomery) introduced legislation that would require Hogan to disclose more about the subsidiaries his firm owns, so lawmakers and the public can gain greater insight into how — if at all — state spending benefits his sprawling real estate holdings.

The bill would also subject Maryland’s next governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller and attorney general to more robust financial disclosure.

It’s unclear if the legislature’s new presiding officers — who have their hands full trying to cobble together funding for a historic education proposal — have the appetite to back the measure.

This article will be updated.

By Bruce DePuyt

Sculptures of Tubman, Douglass Debut at Emotional State House Ceremony

February 11, 2020 by Maryland Matters

After years of planning, bronze statues of abolitionists and former Maryland slaves Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were unveiled to members of the General Assembly and other dignitaries in the State House Monday evening.

“A mark of true greatness is shining light on a system of oppression and having the courage to change it,” said House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) at the grand unveiling. “The statues are a reminder that our laws aren’t always right or just, but there’s always room for improvement.”

The 500-pound bronze sculptures that now grace the Old House Chamber stand life-sized: Douglass, depicted at 46 years old, stands at 6 feet, and Tubman, 42, just under 5 feet.

The hyper-realistic statues are largely based off of historical photography and intend to be representative of how Tubman and Douglass would have looked on Nov. 1, 1864 — the day that Maryland abolished legal slavery, a provision of the state Constitution that was officially adopted in the room where they are now on view.

Douglass’ hands were modeled after his own great-great-grandson, Ken Morris, who was present at the dedication along with a half dozen other descendants of the two abolitionist icons.

A statue of Harriet Tubman gazes into the Old House Chamber at the Maryland State House. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines

The scene as it’s laid out in the Old House Chamber is fictitious: Neither of the two noteworthy Marylanders was in the room as slavery was ended.

According to the Maryland State Archives, Tubman at that time was a fugitive slave working with the Union Army, whose acts of resistance up to that point had led to the emancipation of hundreds of slaves.

Douglass delivered a speech in Baltimore a little over two weeks after its ratification, but had not been in the state since he fled captivity in 1838. He ultimately made an appearance in the State House in 1874.

“These powerful, beautiful and incredibly moving works of art will serve as a reminder of just how far we have come,” said Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr (R), “and may they also inspire us to focus on the hard work that still lies ahead.”

In the gallery with the newly-installed sculptures is a placard bearing an excerpt from an 1868 letter to Tubman from Douglass. Jones read his correspondence to her fellow lawmakers:

“…The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way,” she read. “You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day — you in the night.”

The Frederick Douglass statue in Annapolis stands at just more than 6-feet tall, a representation of Douglass’ actual height, which historians gleaned from historical articles of clothing. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines.

Legacy of Slavery in Maryland Director Christopher Haley said that the decision to place the two figures at the State House in Annapolis is “right and proper” given the city’s history.

“In a State House where [the] General Assembly was made up … of representatives who passed laws that kept people enslaved, here’s the same body — here’s the same place where they were freed,” said Haley, grandson of the late “Roots” author Alex Haley.

The process of getting these sculptures in place was long-fought. Senate President Emeritus Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and late House speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) had proposed the addition of the sculptures to the State House Trust in 2016.

Busch died in April 2019. His absence was noted by Deputy State Archivist Elaine Rice Bachman.

“It is so regrettable that Mike Busch is not here with us tonight to finally see the statues,” she said, “and so very gratifying that Mike Miller is.”

Miller relinquished his long-held position as Senate president in late 2019. He had not seen the sculptures before their unveiling.

The Board of Public Works voted unanimously last year to move forward with the project but voiced some concerns about the choice to go with the Brooklyn-based StudioEIS — the sculptures’ fabrication company — rather than pursuing a Maryland-based contract.

StudioEIS also fabricated the sculpture of President George Washington and noteworthy Annapolitan Mary “Molly” Ridout on view in the old Senate chamber. The Maryland Archives said that they recommended the company because they wanted it to appear as though the four pieces had been produced concurrently.

In his address to fellow lawmakers, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said that the state was taking a step forward in finally giving representation to the numerous people who helped to build it who for so long had gone unrecognized.

He closed with an excerpt from the speech that Douglass delivered in Baltimore in 1864:

“You are no longer a border slave State, vexed between two extremes, enduring the evils of slavery,” Ferguson read, “but a central Free State, destined, in my opinion, to become morally and politically, as you are geographically, the keystone State of the Union.”

By Hannah Gaskill

Lawmakers Putting Brakes on Kirwan Funding, Hershey and Jacobs Say

January 13, 2020 by Daniel Menefee

Del. Jay Jacobs, R-Kent, and Senate Minority Whip Steve Hershey

Annapolis — Lawmakers inaugurated the opening of the 2020 Maryland General Assembly on Jan. 8 expressing sticker shock over the funding mandates in the Kirwan Commission recommendations that promise to transform education at a cost of $32 billion over the next decade.

The formula requires cost-sharing by the counties, and Baltimore City and Prince George’s County would each have to fund over $300 million annually–requiring property tax increases or cuts in public services that the jurisdictions are reluctant to support.

The annual cost is expected to reach about $4 billion a year, of which $1.2 billion is the cost-share to the counties.

And while legislators have promised to help Prince George’s and Baltimore City, no such overture was extended to rural counties of the Eastern Shore.

“The tax base just isn’t there,” said Del. Jay Jacobs, R-Kent.

Tiny Kent County, the smallest in the state, has seen stagnant population growth and declining school enrollment for decades, which three years ago forced the consolidation of five elementary schools to three.

Kent County would need to pay an additional $1 million annually through 2030–and it would have the same impact on Kent that Baltimore City and Prince George’s are facing, Jacobs said.

“For Kent County it’s a very expensive proposition,” Jacobs said. “[Kent] will have the highest cost of the counties in District 36…almost double the other counties I represent.”

Jacobs said the administration of Gov. Larry Hogan has already funded record spending on education, now at over $6 billion annually. He said the “Kirwan recommendations are Thornton on steroids.”

The 36th District consists of Caroline, Cecil, Kent, and Queen Anne’s counties.

The Kirwan formula requires a greater cost share for counties with a higher population of at-risk students.

“There are no two counties alike under Kirwan,” Jacobs said. He said the $9 million Kent will have to pay over the next decade is only matched with $2.5 million in state funding.

“Queen Anne’s County won’t have to pay anything,” Jacobs said.

Kent Commissioner Ron Fithian said the mandate would require property taxes increases of “nearly 40 percent.”

The sticker shock to Baltimore City and Prince George’s has moved the General Assembly to give the plan a haircut, said Senate Minority Whip Steve Hershey.

“The initial funding formulas came out and a lot of counties got hit very hard on the money they would have to raise to meet the Kirwan requirement,” Hershey, R-Queen Anne’s said. “The commissioners have told us that there’s no way they can come up with that kind of money.”

“Baltimore City and Prince George’s both got hit with over $300 million and they’ve said they can’t come up with the money either.”

Hershey said Prince George’s County would need to cut its police force to meet its funding mandate without raising taxes.

“There are some big jurisdictions out there that have said ‘no way, put on the brakes, we can’t afford this,’” he said.

He said it came as a relief that Senate President Bill Ferguson promised not to “raise the sales tax, property tax or income tax in order to fund this.”

“At the end of the day we’re going to get a phased-in Kirwan,” Hershey said. He said there will be a “three-year Kirwan” that will pass to address some of the major issues.

“But it’s not going to be anywhere near the bill that’s been talked about,” he said “It’s going to be a price tag that Maryland believes it can fund on its own.”

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