Tag Archives: Adam Pagnucco

Is Talbot County Killing its Golden Goose?

By Adam Pagnucco.

Last week, the Talbot County Council voted to keep the Confederacy-memorializing Talbot Boys statue on the grounds of its county courthouse. The vote prompted a protest and charges of “systemic racism” from the county NAACP. Ominously, the vote has received coverage in media markets outside the Eastern Shore, including Washington, Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, Long Island and North Carolina. All of this is happening as confederate statues are coming down all over the country and nearby Wicomico County took down a confederate sign in Salisbury.

By sticking with the Confederacy over its own economy and tax base, the Talbot County Council has taken an enormous risk.

Here is why. The table below shows the percentage of total employment accounted for by the leisure and hospitality sector, defined as hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, museums, performing arts, spectator sports, recreation, gambling and related industries in 2019. This sector accounted for 10% of Maryland’s total employment that year. It accounted for 17% of Talbot County’s employment, third in the state behind Worcester County (37%) and Queen Anne’s County (22%).

This sector is extremely vulnerable to the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and Talbot is extremely dependent on it. It would also be vulnerable to any potential boycott caused by the county leaders’ embrace of the Confederacy. If both the COVID-19 crisis and a boycott hit Talbot County at the same time, it would be an unbearable double whammy to the county’s crucial leisure and hospitality businesses. Lacking an impregnable anchor like a large military base (as Harford, St. Mary’s and Prince George’s Counties have) or a sizeable federal government presence (as Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties have), Talbot’s economy has no way to deal with a big hit on its tourism industry.

But there is more. Talbot County is not an everyday tourist destination. It offers a range of high-end amenities along with beautiful bayfront and riverfront property that attracts the wealthy, both as tourists and as full- or part-time residents. That brings sky-high property values to the county, an immense asset. Talbot County had the second-highest assessable base per capita ($231,388) in Maryland in FY20, behind only Worcester County and far surpassing the state average ($131,325). High property values enable Talbot County to have the lowest real property tax rate in the state as well as the second lowest income tax rate.

Not many places in Maryland have $5 million homes for sale like this one in Oxford.

The huge majority of counties on the East Coast would be jealous of Talbot County’s mix of high-end tourism and steep property values. But what happens if a progressive boycott is launched against the white supremacist preferences of its county leadership? The effects on the county’s tourism industry are obvious but what if property values are also affected because wealthy home purchasers choose to buy elsewhere? Commercial property values may already be at risk because of COVID-related economic losses and that is even before any potential boycott. If home price appreciation tapers off too, the county government could face very tough budget choices. Service cuts and tax increases are not unthinkable.

Because of its industry structure, Talbot County’s economy is exceedingly vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19. The county’s leaders must do everything possible to protect the golden egg that delivers its prosperity – its leisure and hospitality sector. Instead, the county council’s loyalty to the Confederacy has greatly increased the county’s economic peril by risking an anti-racism boycott. Talbot County residents and businesses could pay the ultimate price.

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How Big of a Problem is MoCo’s COVID Testing Failure?

By Adam Pagnucco.

Yesterday, the county announced that it has suspended COVID testing by AdvaGenix, a Rockville-based lab with whom the county contracted in May. At that time, County Executive Marc Elrich called the contract “a game changer,” saying, “This greatly increases our ability to get more testing.”

The county’s press release provided no reasons on why the testing was suspended. However, yesterday afternoon, Elrich sent a memo to the county council elaborating a little more on the issue. Elrich wrote:

On Wednesday, August 12, 2020 we were alerted that our supplier of tests and lab analysis, AdvaGenix would be receiving a Cease and Desist order from the State Office of Health Care Quality (OHCQ).

The order is allegedly being issued following a joint site visit by the Center for Medicaid Services (CMS) following a previous site visit earlier this week during which they identified several procedural problems related to the handling of test kits in the laboratory.

While the test kits and the analysis process used by AdvaGenix are not in question, we are awaiting formal notification from the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) on the exact nature of the problem and what corrective actions will be required by the company. We expect to receive notification from the State sometime Thursday, August 13, 2020.

As a precaution we have canceled testing in locations where we had planned to use AdvaGenix test kits. We are concurrently exploring other testing options in the event that we will no longer be able to use AdvaGenix as our supplier for testing.

Multiple sources agree on the following: the situation is developing, there are many more questions than answers at the moment and the issue is serious. One source said, “It’s a complete mess.” Because the state and the feds are involved, the county lacks both complete information and complete control over the matter.

All of this gives rise to many, many questions. Here are a few that need to be answered.

Is there an accuracy issue with the tests?

Specifically, have they generated false positives or false negatives, and if so, how many? Will we ever know?

Is there an impact on county health data?

County health data on cases and test positivity rates have been used to guide decisions on business reopenings. Given the issues with the tests, is this data accurate? If not, what happens then?

Are the issues with the tests correctible?

This question can’t be fully answered until the problems with the tests, and their effects, are fully understood.

How long will it take to rebuild county testing capacity?

If the issues with AdvaGenix can be fixed easily, it could happen quickly. Otherwise no one knows.

Is there a disproportionate impact on first responders and essential workers?

Back in May, when the contract with AdvaGenix was first signed, LocalDVM.com reported:

In the first phase of the contract, which is underway, the County will receive a minimum of 7,500 tests per week. Priority groups to be tested initially will be first responders; nursing home and long-term facility staff and residents; and employees of the County’s Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. The second phase of the testing plan will begin the week of May 31 and will test County employees who are essential workers, and hospital workers and health care providers. Phase three begins June 8; and at that point, the County will begin receiving 20,000 tests per week. By then, testing is scheduled to begin at sites such as grocery stores and other essential businesses for their employees; and testing will also be available for the general public.

This means a lot of county employees have been administered these tests. The county employee unions will be intensely interested in how this issue proceeds. Health and safety is a mandatory subject of bargaining and is subject to grievance procedures and arbitration. This comes in a context of strained labor relations between the unions and the executive branch.

What about the public?

AdvaGenix tests were available to the public at the Silver Spring Civic Building, the White Oak Community Recreation Center and other sites. The county has shut down nearly all its testing sites and county health officer Travis Gayles has recommended that residents using AdvaGenix tests in the last two weeks get retested. This raises the possibility that residents have used flawed tests provided by a county vendor. Does that create legal liability for the county? And what about the impact on public health?

What are the legal implications?

Speaking of legal issues, there could be a whole lot of them associated with the AdvaGenix contract. How much has the county paid AdvaGenix? When did the issues with the tests begin? What recourse is available for the taxpayers? Legal issues are generally not discussed in public but they can have millions of dollars of implications.

What role will the state play?

The fact that the state issued a cease and desist order on AdvaGenix is an interesting development. Elrich and Governor Larry Hogan have a terrible relationship that was exacerbated by their dispute over closing private schools. (Predictably, the state won that battle.) Elrich’s new Chief Administrative Officer, Rich Madaleno, ran for governor in 2018 and spent much of his time on the campaign trail (and even before) blasting Hogan at every opportunity. There is no love lost on Team Hogan for either Elrich or Madaleno. If this issue turns political, then it will get truly complicated.

The full dimensions of this problem are currently unknown. It may take a while for it to be worked out and the legal questions alone will probably prevent some information from being made public, at least for now.

Elrich’s memo to the council is reprinted below.

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County Republican Leaders Helping Nine Districts

By Adam Pagnucco.

Seven members of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee, the governing body of the MoCo GOP, have given the Nine Districts for MoCo group money, in-kind contributions or both. So have other leaders of the county Republican Party.

The Nine Districts campaign finance reports reveal the following transactions between GOP Central Committee Members and the organization.

County GOP Central Committee Members Who Gave Money

Greg Decker (Legislative District 39) made two monetary contributions of $100 each on 6/1/20 and 7/10/20.

Paul Foldi (Legislative District 16) contributed $100 on 2/5/20.

Lorraine Jaffe (At-Large) contributed $100 on 2/5/20.

Reardon Sullivan (Legislative District 15) contributed $200 on 6/6/20.

County GOP Central Committee Members Who Gave In-Kind Contributions

Martha Schaerr (Legislative District 19) made three in-kind contributions totaling $132.77 for an outdoor banner and printing petitions on 8/12/19 and 8/14/19.

Gail Weiss (Legislative District 16) made a $120 in-kind contribution for hats and caps on 1/15/20.

Reardon Sullivan (Legislative District 15) made a $20 in-kind contribution on 2/25/20 for “proportional use of PC video editing software.”

Ann Hingston (At-Large) made four in-kind contributions totaling $499.43 for office supplies, printed materials and U.S. Post Box rental.

Hingston also wrote this piece on the county Republicans’ website advocating for Nine Districts and asking for financial contributions to the group.

Other party leaders have helped Nine Districts. Sharon Bauer, president of the Montgomery County Federation of Republican Women, gave $50 to the group on 2/13/20. Ryan Gniadek, the contact for the Montgomery County Federation of Teenage Republicans, gave $15 to the group on 1/23/20. And Ed Amatetti, the Republican nominee for County Council District 2 in 2018, gave $25 to the group on 12/26/19. The checks are small but the dots to be connected are many.

Nine Districts is not a solely Republican group. Developers are paying the vast majority of its costs, county employee unions are providing thousands of dollars in in-kind support and lots of people beyond those groups support the concept. But the presence of this many Republican party officials among its supporters as well as the use of the county GOP’s website to raise money for Nine Districts is not a coincidence. Passing the 9 district charter amendment is a big priority for county Republicans.

And soon, I’ll explore exactly why that is.

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End of the Line for Kleine

By Adam Pagnucco.

Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Kleine, who admitted to two ethics violations and attempted to cure them through a $5,000 payment and other remedies, has resigned. County Executive Marc Elrich has announced that former State Senator and current budget director Rich Madaleno will succeed him subject to confirmation by the county council.

Originally, Kleine was set to remain in his position. Bethesda Beat reported this on July 7:

County Executive Marc Elrich, in a statement to Bethesda Beat on Monday, wrote that Kleine is a “committed public servant” and that the CAO’s agreement with the Ethics Commission “resolves the matter.”

“Andrew has acknowledged that his actions were an error in judgment and has accepted responsibility for his actions,” he wrote. “I appreciate that Andrew has cooperated with the Ethics Commission’s investigation from the very beginning to resolve this situation.”

But the matter was far from resolved. On July 28, the county council discussed the ethics report and erupted with fury. Multiple council members vowed to obtain more information about the issue, guaranteeing that it would not die as long as Kleine remained. That forced Elrich’s hand and resulted in today’s announcement, the first resignation of a MoCo Chief Administrative Officer due to ethics issues that anyone can remember.

Elrich’s press release appears below. If there is a severance package, the release does not mention it.

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County Executive Marc Elrich Nominates Budget Director Rich Madaleno to Serve as New Chief Administrative Officer Following Andrew Kleine’s Resignation
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020

County Executive Marc Elrich today announced that he will nominate Richard Madaleno as the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Montgomery County. Madaleno’s nomination follows the resignation of Andrew Kleine, who has served a CAO for the first 20 months of the Elrich Administration. Madaleno will begin serving as acting CAO on Aug. 16.

County Executive Elrich expressed appreciation for Kleine’s many contributions to the County Government. “During his time as CAO, Andrew Kleine led the County Government’s effort to reorganize services ranging from public safety to technology services,” said Elrich. “He championed a Turn the Curve initiative to empower County employees to rethink and improve the delivery of services to our million-plus residents. Over the past five months, he has played a critical role in our community’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. I thank him for his many contributions and wish him well in future endeavors.”

Madaleno, who is serving as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, is a lifelong Montgomery County resident. He has spent his career serving the people of the County in leadership roles at the County and the State levels and had a long career as an elected representative for Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly. He served from 2003-2007 in the Maryland House of Delegates and from 2007 to 2019 as a State Senator representing District 18. While in the Senate, Madaleno was the Vice Chair of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee where he was known for his ability to find solutions to some of the most challenging budget problems facing the state. He was a leader in education reform serving on the Kirwan Commission. Madaleno also worked in the County’s Office of Intergovernmental Relations from 1995 to 2002.

“Rich is trusted by community groups and policymakers throughout the County and State for his leadership skills and budgeting acumen, which will serve the County well as we face the most significant challenges of our generation,” said Elrich. “I am confident that his experience and expertise will help my administration deliver on my promise to build a healthy, well-functioning, innovative, equitable and inclusive community for all of our residents.”

The County Executive’s CAO nomination must be approved by the Montgomery County Council. Councilmembers are scheduled to return from their summer recess in Sept.

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How Not to Restructure Government

By Adam Pagnucco.

Dear readers, let’s consider the following sequence of events.

2018: County executive candidate Marc Elrich campaigns on a platform of restructuring government. Elrich writes in the Washington Post:

Far from saddling taxpayers with higher bills, I will streamline county government. Unions and their members, our county’s workforce, know and trust me. That is why we announced our plan to restructure county government together. Our county is facing difficult financial times; without thoughtful changes, employees will face across-the-board cuts.

August 2019: The three county employee unions, who expected to partner with Elrich to restructure government, blast Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Kleine in writing for “hindering progress” in labor relations. Kleine, the administrative head of county government, was supposed to be a key player in restructuring.

2019-2020: Instead of streamlining government, Elrich recommends two budgets that cumulatively add 271 full-time equivalent positions to county government at a combined cost of $58 million. After trims by the county council, the two approved budgets during Elrich’s tenure add a combined 184 full-time positions and 12 part-time positions.

March 2020: Elrich recommends a budget that adds positions and raises taxes despite repeated campaign pledges to not raise taxes. The county council immediately rejects the tax hike and later implements a same services budget.

April 2020: The county’s finance department estimates that the county could lose up to a combined $600 million in the current and next fiscal years. A later estimate in July is in the same ballpark.

June 2020: The county advertises and requests responses to informal solicitation #1118023, a consultant contract for “Cost Efficiency Study Group Consulting Services.”

July 2020: The county’s budget director informs the county council about the consulting contract and its relationship with a new “government efficiency work group.” This prompts a letter to Kleine by the three members of the council’s Government Operations Committee, Nancy Navarro (chair), Andrew Friedson and Sidney Katz, asking about the identity and compensation of the consultant, the membership of the work group and prior additions of positions in the budget.

July 2020: Kleine admits to two ethics violations and the county council erupts in outrage, putting the future of Elrich’s top manager in doubt.

August 6, 2020: Kleine’s deputy, Fariba Kassiri, replies to the council with the following information: the consultant, Matrix Consulting Group Ltd., will be paid $92,000 for a twelve-week period beginning this month to advise a “cost efficiency study group” containing county government officials and representatives of the county’s largest employee union (MCGEO). “The Consultant will assist the group abolish at minimum 100 vacant positions by identifying potential cost savings and/or efficiency enhancements. Additionally, the Consultant will provide a written report approximately 3 months after the project commences that will contain findings and recommendations. The report will be shared with the County Council once it has been finalized.”

So let’s summarize. After doing nothing to restructure government for a year and a half, the administration will be paying a consultant $92,000 to help it eliminate 100 or more vacant positions after it has already added almost 200 positions in the last two budgets.

By definition, vacant positions do not have a cash cost since no one earning salary and benefits occupies them. How does eliminating them save cash? And since the county’s budget office already tracks these positions, why is a consultant necessary for identifying them?

In reading the administration’s response, I am reminded of the Leggett administration’s elimination of nearly 1,000 positions from Fiscal Year 2009 through Fiscal Year 2012 during the Great Recession. That was done mostly through attrition since roughly 6% of the workforce, or 500-600 positions, turn over each year. I could be wrong, but I worked at the county council for part of that time and I don’t recall that process being driven by consultants.

The very concept of spending money on a consultant to save zero money by eliminating vacant positions – something the county can do and has done by itself – is totally banana cakes. If this is how county management intends to address the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue which will soon come due, then the county council’s bloody meat axe awaits.

The council’s letter and the administration’s answer (mysteriously not signed by Kleine) appears below.

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MoCo Gives Up on Blanket Private School Shutdown

By Adam Pagnuccco.

Montgomery County health officer Travis Gayles just issued a new order rescinding his recent order shutting down MoCo private schools for in-person instruction. Gayles’s new order states, “I, Travis A. Gayles, M.D., Ph.D., Health Officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, despite believing that it is necessary to close nonpublic schools for in person instruction to protect the public, do hereby, pursuant to the August 6, 2020 Memorandum issued by the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, rescind the August 5, 2020 Health Officer Directive Regarding Nonpublic Schools.”

That doesn’t mean private schools can do whatever they want. The state’s memorandum says that private school reopenings should be done in “close consultation” with local health departments using guidance from the state health department. That means there is still a role for regulation. But MoCo has conceded that there won’t be a blanket shutdown.

The county’s press release appears below.

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Health Order Prohibiting Nonpublic Schools Rescinded by Montgomery County Health Officer
For Immediate Release: Friday, August 7, 2020

Reemphasizing the need to protect the health and safety of Montgomery County residents as well as parents, students, teachers and staff from the spread of COVID-19, County Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles today announced that he has rescinded his health order that prohibited nonpublic schools from opening for in-person instruction until after Oct. 1, 2020. The decision was made due to the new policy announced yesterday by the State Department of Health prohibiting the blanket closure of nonpublic schools.

Today’s new Health Officer Directive and Order regarding public, private and independent schools, dated Aug. 7, 2020, is effective immediately and rescinds the order dated Aug 5, 2020.

The Health Officer continues to strongly advise schools against in-person learning due to the risks posed by COVID-19 and has asked that the Department of Health provide articulable criteria to be used in determining acceptable and safe levels of activity in schools.

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Private Schools Caught in Elrich-Hogan Feud

By Adam Pagnucco.

Last November, I wrote about the growing feud between Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and Governor Larry Hogan. Back then, the issues were the governor’s proposed Beltway widening project, the dispute about how to fix MoCo’s crumbling public safety communications system, the thin blue line flag that was delivered to a MoCo police station and transportation funding. Some of those issues have faded over time but the general radioactivity between the two men can still melt hazmat suits. And now the feud is threatening to blow up MoCo’s private schools.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were roughly 190,000 people age 5 through 18 living in MoCo in 2018. MCPS K-12 enrollment was 158,101 in the 2018-19 school year, suggesting that about 30,000 students, or almost one-sixth of all MoCo kids, were in private school or home school. The Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns series identified 108 private school establishments in the county with 6,610 employees in 2017. Their combined annual payroll was $322 million.

Private schools are a big deal in MoCo.

Right now, private school employees, parents and students are caught in a tit-for-tat power struggle between Elrich and Hogan. This isn’t the typical sparring that the two do over social media. With the county saying one thing and the state saying the opposite, what are these families and employees supposed to do? If you’re a school and you open, the county could fine you. If you don’t, your own parents could sue you and/or pull their kids from your school.

It’s the worst of all worlds!

The situation calls for the low-key tactics of former County Executive Ike Leggett. Hogan, a good old boy developer and son of a Republican politician, and Leggett, a soft-spoken law professor who had risen from a childhood of poverty, couldn’t be more different. But despite their different backgrounds and beliefs, Leggett understood the powers of the governor and learned how to work him. Leggett succeeded in getting Hogan to back off a campaign promise to cancel the Purple Line and the two worked hand-in-hand to lure Amazon to MoCo. If Leggett had any criticism of Hogan, he kept it private. Leggett took a loooooong time to endorse Hogan’s general election rival, Democrat Ben Jealous, and never campaigned against Hogan. The two became peas in a pod – and an odd-looking pod at that!

The lesson of Leggett is not one of capitulation but of continuing to talk despite areas of disagreement. Leggett never made things personal even when other people wanted to. I wrote many tough pieces on his administration and Leggett would respond by seeing me at an event, shaking my hand and saying, “How are you? Is everything OK? Let me know if you need something.” Then I would feel bad about being so hard on him and I would go beat up someone else for a while!

Leggett, who originally hired current health officer Travis Gayles, would have found a way to work this current dispute out. Working the phones with Hogan and state health secretary Bobby Neall, Leggett and his people would have devised a stringent network to regulate private school reopenings without provoking a legal war with the state. And he would have kept it out of the press. The only sign of discussion would have been mutual praise between Leggett and Hogan of what a great job each was doing on handling COVID. As for the private schools, many would probably have opted for distance learning rather than deal with cumbersome county bureaucracy and plan approvals, thereby producing a similar result to the one desired by Elrich. It just would have happened without yelling and screaming.

Leggett is happily retired from elected service now and is probably laughing as he reads this column. He is still around. Maybe Elrich and Hogan should bring him back, always the calmest guy in the room, to settle their increasingly bitter feud.

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State Responds to New MoCo Shutdown of Private Schools

By Adam Pagnucco.

Maryland Secretary of Health Robert Neall has responded to Montgomery County’s new order shutting down private schools for in-person instruction. In a memo to the state’s health officers (including MoCo health officer Travis Gayles), Neall wrote, “The State of Maryland’s position is that all schools, including public school systems and non-public schools, be provided with the individualized opportunity to determine how they are able to comply with the federal and state COVID-19 guidance to reopen safely and protect students and staff. Those determinations should be made in close consultation with the affected schools and local health departments with Maryland Department of Health guidance.”

In other words, the state is saying once again that there should not be blanket closures of private schools.

So let’s stop back and take a broader view. The county’s original order shutting down private schools was based on authority contained in Governor Larry Hogan’s original emergency order. So Hogan amended his emergency order to exempt private schools from private shutdowns. The county said fine, we will issue a new shutdown order based on a different section of state law. Now Hogan’s health secretary is reiterating state authority over health policy and saying, “No you’re not.”

Looming over all of this is the tangled structure of appointment and reporting relationships between health officers and the state. Calvert County has a good description of that.

Neall’s memo to county health officers appears below.

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Top Seventh State Stories, July 2020

By Adam Pagnucco.

These were the top stories on Seventh State in July ranked by page views.

1. Restaurant: My Staff Will Not Wear Face Masks
2. MCEA: MCPS Reopening Plan “Wholly Inadequate” to Protect Students and Staff
3. Volcano in Rockville
4. The Upcounty Doesn’t Vote and Nobody Seems to Care
5. Distance Learning May be Plan C, but it is the Best Option Right Now
6. MoCo’s Book Club
7. Elrich on Hot Mic: “Can I Say the Council is Fact Proof?”
8. MCEA President Responds to MCPS Video
9. Kleine on the Line Again
10. MCPS Releases “Just the Facts” Video

The post about a restaurant not requiring face masks was one of the top five most-read stories in the history of this blog. (That puts some perspective on the relative importance of politics!) Marilyn Balcombe and Sunil Dasgupta deserve congratulations for their excellent and widely read guest posts. Aside from those, the top posts generally reflect the top two stories of the month: MCPS’s reopening decision and the county’s ethics-challenged Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Kleine.

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Revealed! Funders of Nine Districts

By Adam Pagnucco.

Nine District for MoCo, the ballot question entity responsible for gathering signatures for a 9 district charter amendment, has filed a new campaign finance report listing its contributions and expenditures through August 2. The organization’s prior report, released in January, contained data for 7/24/19 through 1/8/20.

The information here is bound to shake MoCo’s political establishment to its core.

First, the overall data on contributions and expenditures.

Contributions
7/24/19-1/8/20: $1,244
1/9/20-8/2/20: $64,790
Total: $66,034

Expenditures
7/24/19-1/8/20: $438
1/9/20-8/2/20: $59,140
Total: $59,578

Here are the largest contributors to the group.

Charles Nulsen, Washington Property Company: $50,000
UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO: $10,000 (in-kind)
Bob Buchanan, Buchanan Partners: $5,000
Fraternal Order of Police: $5,000 (in-kind)
Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association PAC: $5,000 (in-kind)
Gingery Development Group: $5,000
Arlene Hillerson (listed as being in real estate): $2,000

The Town of Laytonsville also contributed $100.

Charlie Nulsen is the founder of Empower Montgomery. Bob Buchanan is the former chair of the county’s economic development corporation. Both are long-time regional developers.

The unions’ in-kind contributions came in the form of online advertising.

The leading recipient of money from the group is Rowland Strategies of Baltimore, which was paid $50,000 on June 9. The firm is headed by Jonathon Rowland, a national level strategist who ran Hoan Dang’s campaign for county council in 2018.

Nine Districts for MoCo is now revealed as an unholy alliance of developers and unions – two groups that often don’t see eye to eye. The unions are aggrieved at the council’s rejection of their collective bargaining agreements (among MANY other things). The developers have long complained about – in their view – the difficulty of doing business in MoCo. They are also no doubt upset about the recent imposition of temporary rent stabilization.

The real estate industry and labor both have substantial influence over county politics but don’t get everything they want – especially in these troubled times. If they have indeed formed an unholy alliance on anything, much less a ballot measure that would eviscerate the county council, this is a new day for MoCo.

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