 |
Happy 4th of July!
Greetings friends! Welcome to from the Bowie City Activist website at www.bowiewatch.org. Here is a summary of the content on this webpage:
• CITY HALL ELECTION MALFEASANCE – CITY CLERK PAM FLEMING CHARGED WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT
• IS CITY MANAGER DAVID DEUTSCH GOING TO ANNAPOLIS?
• VALENTINO-SMITH AND TODD TURNER STAND-UP FOR TAXPAYERS IN NEW CITY HALL PROJECT
• BOWIE BRIEFS
• C & C DANCE COMPANY SAVED - Where America Dances
• CITY MANAGER'S COMPENSATION DISCLOSED
Previously published webpages can be found by clicking in the drop down box. My web service provider only allows 20 previous pages to be held in archive, so as I update The Bowie City Activist website with new webpage content, previous webpages are moved back in date order archive. The Bowie City Activist website advocates accountability in Bowie City Government and has been operating on-line since 2004. It is brought to you as a public service by The Dahms Group, LLC.
Richard
CITY HALL ELECTION MALFEASANCE – CITY CLERK PAM FLEMING CHARGED WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT
Once again, the Bowie City Activist has blown the whistle on corruption and cronyism in Bowie City Hall.
Earlier this year, we filed a Complaint with the NAACP regarding unelected City Manager David Deutsch’s all white segregated City Hall. Now we have exposed the highly unethical conduct of long time City Clerk and Fred Robinson crony Pam Fleming’s political contribution of $200 to Citizens for Robinson in 2006, and then conducting the 2007 and 2009 city elections with Robinson as candidate.
I don’t have much faith in The Bowie Ethics Commission, and I doubt this Complaint will get the hearing it deserves. But, here is the Complaint in full:
May 22, 2009 Richard A. Dahms
XXXXXXXX Lane
Bowie, Maryland 20715
Bowie Ethics Commission
C/O of John Fitzwater, City Liaison
Bowie City Hall
2614 Kenhill Drive
Bowie, Maryland 20715
Subject: Election Ethics Complaints Regarding Mis-conduct of the Mayor of Bowie and the City Clerk of Bowie – Conflict of Interest; and Ethics Complaint involving misconduct by the City Manager, Mayor and City Clerk regarding absentee ballets during 2007 City Election
Dear Commission Members,
This letter is a complaint under Article 4 of the Bowie Public Ethics Ordinance. The Bowie Public Ethics Ordinance states as its’ purpose and policy:
The City of Bowie, recognizing that our system of representative government is dependent in part upon its citizens maintaining the highest trust in their public officials and employees finds and declares that its citizens have a right to be assured that the impartiality and independent judgment of public officials and employees will be maintained.
Complaint Allegation Count I – Solicitation of gifts in form of political contributions from the City Clerk of Bowie
The Mayor of Bowie and the City Clerk of Bowie together violated the Bowie Public Ethics Ordinance governing gifts in the form of a political contribution that was made by the City Clerk to the Mayor in 2006. Specifically, a review of the 2006 Robinson for County Council Campaign Financial Report that is available online found Pamela Fleming listed as a campaign contributor to the 2006 Robinson County Council Campaign with her $200 political contribution made on 7/13/2006.
Section IV of the Ordinance, Solicitation or Acceptance of Gifts reads:
a. An official or employee may not solicit any gift.
b. No official or employee may knowingly accept any gift, directly or indirectly, for any person that he knows or has reason to know:
1. Is doing business with the City.
2. Has interests that may be substantially and materially affected, in a manner
distinguishable from the public generally, by the performance or nonperformance of his official duty.
The City Clerk is responsible for conducting City elections in the City of Bowie. The City Clerk is suppose to be above approach and impartial. The Mayor of Bowie, G. Frederick Robinson, knowingly solicited and accepted a campaign political contribution from the city clerk on July 13, 2006 from a person that the Mayor knows has interests that may be substantially and materially affected in a manner distinguishable from the public generally, by the performance of her official duties as the City Clerk of Bowie.
The Mayor of Bowie failed to provide financial disclosure of this political contribution in financial disclosure reports required under Sec. 2-71. Financial Disclosure.
Complaint Allegation Count II – City Clerk’s Failure to Disclose the Conflict of Interest involving the aforementioned $200 Campaign Contribution to G. Frederick Robinson and continued to performed her city election duties during the 2007 City Election.
The City Clerk Pamela Fleming conducted the City Election in November, 2007 with G. Frederick Robinson as a Mayoral candidate. The City Clerk failed to disclose her paid political contribution to the Mayor in 2006, and then failed to disclose the conflict of interest and failed to remove herself from conducting the 2007 Mayoral election. The City Clerk’s failure to remove herself from the 2007 city election constitutes a gross breach of the public trust placed in her, and creates an appearance of a conflict of interest. The commission is asked to pass judgment on whether the City Clerk’s payment to the Mayor’s County Council campaign in 2006 and then administering the 2007 City election constitutes a violation of the Bowie Public Ethics Ordinance stated purpose and policy which reads:
The City of Bowie, recognizing that our system of representative government is dependent in part upon its citizens maintaining the highest trust in their public officials and employees finds and declares that its citizens have a right to be assured that the impartiality and independent judgment of public officials and employees will be maintained.
Complaint Allegation Count III – The City Clerk Allowed the Mayor to be present in her office during the 2007 city election while citizens were submitting absentee ballets to the City Clerk.
The City Manager of Bowie received the following e-mail transmission during the November, 2007 City election in which the City Clerk failed to secure absentee ballets in the presence of the Mayor while citizens were turning in absentee ballets:
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard A. Dahms [mailto:richarddahms@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 10:52 PM
To: 'David Deutsch'; 'Pam Fleming'
Cc: 'Richard A. Dahms'
Subject: City Election Complaint
Mr. Deutsch and Ms. Fleming,
This electronic communications is being written to document my City Hall observations between October 30 and November 5 inclusive, and to file a City Elections Complaint.
In the one week preceding the City Election, I have driven past City Hall in the course of conducting my professional and personal business. On each business day, October 30, 31, November 1 and 5 respectively, I have observed a vehicle displaying the vanity license plates Maryland GEEFRED parked in the City Hall parking lot.
On October 30, I paid my Water bill, and immediately went home and sent out an electronic communications to my blind copy Bowie City Activist mailing list informing my community that the incumbent Mayor was observed in City Hall. Upon hitting the "sent button", I left my home. drove back to City Hall and observed the incumbent Mayor exiting the City Hall parking lot in the aforementioned vehicle. We passed one another in the parking lot.
In each subsequent day, upon seeing the vanity GEEFRED plates, I entered City Hall and went to the Management office area where the City Clerk's and the City Manager's offices are found. On Wednesday, October 31, I observed the incumbent mayor come out of the City Clerk's office while I waited for her in the office area. During this time, I also observed a citizen enter the office area to turn in an absentee election ballot.
On Thursday, November 1, I observed the incumbent mayor come out of the City Clerk's office at approximately 10:45AM. Today, November 5, I observed the incumbent mayor and the incumbent At-Large Councilman in the general office area outside of the of the City Manager's and the City Clerk's office at approximately 11:30AM.
Given the pending election, I consider it highly improper for the incumbent mayor to be in or even near the City Clerk's office as absentee ballots are being collected. I have to wonder how the mayoral challenger would have been treated and whether he would have been given similar access to the City Clerk's office and close proximity to any absentee ballots that may have been collected.
Please consider this communications as a formal election complaint, and inform me of the action that you intent to take with this City Election complaint. Thank you!
Richard A. Dahms
The City manager responded to the November 5, 2007 e-mail by letter dated November 30, 2007, and is in direct conflict to my observation and my statement that Mayor Fred Robinson was seen in the City Clerk’s office while absentee ballets were being collected.
It is alleged the City Manager deliberately circumvented the Bowie Public Ethics Ordinance by responding to the allegation by letter, rather than turning the matter over to the Bowie Ethics Commission for investigation and public vetting.
The City Manager also failed to answer why he did not take this complaint as seriously and with the same level of urgency as he did with the Complaint filed against 2007 City Council Candidate Diane Polangin that resulted in negative publicity in the Bowie Blade News just prior to the 2007 City election.
It is alleged in this complaint that The City Manager and City Clerk together breached the public trust by failing to secure absentee ballets as citizens were bringing them in. In light of the City Clerk’s prior campaign contribution to the Mayor discussed in Count I, I ask the Bowie Ethics Commission to comment on this ethics violation by the City Manager, City Clerk and Mayor in light of the stated purpose of the Bowie Public Ethics Ordinance stated purpose and policy which reads:
The City of Bowie, recognizing that our system of representative government is dependent in part upon its citizens maintaining the highest trust in their public officials and employees finds and declares that its citizens have a right to be assured that the impartiality and independent judgment of public officials and employees will be maintained.
Closing Statements
The City of Bowie is entering another city election season. Time is of the essence to address these unresolved 2007 election complaints regarding the ethics of a City Clerk’s conflict of interest in administering an election with a candidate to which see has made a political contribution; and the protection of absentee ballets. The integrity of the 2009 City Election is at stake.
I request a quick response from this Commission, and a quick automatic appeal to the Circuit Court of Prince Georges County should this commission dismiss my Complaint.
I affirm that these the statements made in this complaint are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. I am competent to testify to these matters should I be asked to do so.
__________________________
Richard A. Dahms
CC - Board of Supervisors of Elections; The Bowie Star
IS CITY MANAGER DAVID DEUTSCH GOING TO ANNAPOLIS?
It appears certain political powers in Maryland have been working on an exit strategy out of Bowie for the unelected Bowie City Manager David Deutsch.
Notwithstanding the rhetoric of recent years and his blatant interference with our city elections (along with the 2006 Democratic Primary Election with G. Frederick Robinson as candidate and the mayoral succession scheme that would have made Dennis Brady Mayor of Bowie), Deutsch did a fine job with the city in the 1990s under Mayor Gary Allen.
Fred Robinson has a way of screwing-up everything he touches including city managers.
In 1992, I first raised as a public issue Bowie’s form of City government which has never been approved or ratified by referendum by the people of Bowie that I am aware of. There are two forms of city government – 1) City Manager/City Council where the City Manager is the head of the executive branch and the Mayor is a ceremonial figurehead who is a member of the City Council and chairs the Council meetings; and 2) Mayoral City Government where the Mayor is the head of the executive branch, and is not a member of the City Council.
I have found Mayoral forms of government are much more common outside the state of Maryland. It puts the elected City head directly on the hook accountable to the people who elected him/her to the office of mayor.
In 1992, I ran for mayor of Bowie on a platform that included re-organizing Bowie City Government by empowering the Mayor as the head of the City. During a 1992 Candidates Forum held at Free State Mall when the retail center was an enclosed shopping mall, I was asked for an example of a city that had a Mayoral form of Government. I responded with the answer “Washington, D.C.”
As you may imagine, my answer, did not go over very well with early 1990s Bowie especially with the Logue/Robinson crowd who immediately jumped on my answer and said, “Dahms would turn Bowie into Washington, D.C.”.
In retrospect, in 2009 my 1992 answer doesn’t sound as bad as it did in 1992. Washington, D.C. is in fact a Mayoral form of government. Once again, I was ahead of my time.
A better answer to the 1992 question would have been “Annapolis”. The City of Annapolis has a Mayoral form of City Government, and has since its historic inception. Let’s not forget, the City of Annapolis was briefly our nation’s capital in the 1780s during the Articles of Confederation government precursor to the United States Constitution.
Two years ago to this very date, I invoked in the City of Bowie Article 34 of our Maryland State Constitution which reads:
Maryland State Constitution Declaration of Rights Art. 34. That a long continuance in the Executive Departments of power or trust is dangerous to liberty; a rotation, therefore, in those departments is one of the best securities of permanent freedom (amended by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978).
In the City Manager/City Council form of city government, the unelected City Manager is the Chief Executive Officer of the City as defined by Section 39 of the City Charter. Applying Article 34 of our State Constitution to Bowie, a change or rotation of the Chief Executive Officer is one of the best securities of permanent freedom at the city level of this Maryland city since Mr. Deutsch has been City Manager since 1993.
The attorney who I counseled with regarding Article 34 told me that there is no doubt Article 34 applies to the Maryland Municipalities. In fact, the Maryland Attorney general’s office rendered an opinion on behalf of the City of Bowie that Article 34 was more of a principle to be followed, although Maryland Appellate Courts have never ruled on the matter. My interpretation was that such litigation involving this State of Maryland’s Constitution Declaration of Rights would be a landmark decision.
I have been raising this issue in the City of Bowie since July 4, 2007.
Maryland’s earliest cities - Baltimore and Annapolis to be exact – are Mayoral forms of City government and were in existence in Maryland when our State founding fathers enacted Article 34 Declaration of Rights.
After more than 225 years, the City of Annapolis is placing before public referendum its form of City government in this falls election. WHY?
During the 2007 Bowie City election while I was briefly a mayoral candidate to raise public issues that wouldn’t have been raised otherwise, I raised three questions for consideration of public referendum. As documented on the October 25/30, 2007 Bowie City Activist webpage available in the drop down box, the three questions were: 1) bond debt financing for construction of a new city hall; 2) A term limit proposal for City Council; and 3) City Manager/City Council vs. Mayoral form of City government. The unelected City Manager speaking for the incumbent Council refused to bring any of these three simple questions to the citizens of Bowie who pay the bills.
So, here we have a tale of two Maryland cities in very close proximity to one another: one is a mayoral form of government (Annapolis), and the other is a City Manager/Council Council form of government (Bowie). One city is about to ask its citizens to ratify its form of city government after over 225 years (Annapolis), and the other city has never asked its citizens to ratify its form of city government (Bowie). The two cities are so close in proximity that Megan & Caitlin Kinney of Annapolis from season 5 of “So You Think You Can Dance” both were educated at The C & C Dance Company (Bowie), and the Evening Capital (serving Annapolis) and the Bowie Blade News are sister newspapers both published by Capital Gazette newspapers -although both newspapers were complete opposites in political and ethical orientations with John Rouse “the louse” running amuck in Bowie.
Oh, could it be that Maryland’s political powers are orchestrating an exit strategy out of the City of Bowie for City Manager David Deutsch? Is City Manager David Deutsch going to Annapolis – pending the outcome of the Annapolis city referendum on its form of government?
My sources say: Could be!
VALENTINO-SMITH AND TURNER STAND-UP FOR TAXPAYERS IN NEW CITY HALL PROJECT
Notwithstanding the headlines in the Bowie Star which read, “City Hall to cost $7M less than expected”, at no time have the citizens of Bowie been asked whether they approve paying for the construction of a new city hall. The New City Hall project has been a pet project of unelected City Manager David Deutsch working in a vacuum divorced from the people who pay the bills in Bowie. The Council put to public referendum the costly creation of a City police force in 2005, but deliberately chose not to place the financing of a New City Hall on public referendum perhaps because Deutsch knew it might fail if the question were put to the public.
To their credit, At-large Councilwoman Geraldine Valentino-Smith and District 3 Councilman Todd Turner have both expressed the concern throughout the public discussions that the people of Bowie have not approved this large capital expenditure, and both stated that they wish the people had been asked through public referendum. Councilman Todd Turner pointed out that if this were a County building project and new debt were being raised for financing, the public would have been asked to approve the bond sale. I would add, why doesn’t the same standard adhered to by the County apply to the City of Bowie?
Once again, this is a another good example of why unelected City Manager David Deutsch’s long duration as head of the City is bad for the people of Bowie, and why the City needs a New City Manager for its New City Hall building. The unelected head of the City, Mr. Deutsch, and his surrogate Council Mayor, have become so arrogant that they feel they no longer need to ask the people of Bowie for approval to put the City into bond debt.
BOWIE BRIEFS
• In response to question by Councilman Todd Turner, unelected City Manager David Deutsch stated recently that only 12 % of the new City Hall construction will go to minority based businesses, or $1,920,000. Under further questioning from Councilman Todd Turner, Deutsch also indicated that he failed to specify in the bid package that city residents benefit from the 350 some jobs that will be created during the construction.
• Why is it all the intellectual questions regarding the new city hall are being asked by either Turner or Valentino-Smith while our brainless Mayor Robinson keeps saying ”we’ve got to pull the trigger and get this done”. Of further concern is Robinson’s comment at a recent Council meeting in which he stated, “I look forward to signing a document tomorrow that commits me to $15.5M” Excuse me Mayor? I thought the taxpayer’s of Bowie are financing this construction.
• The Bowie City Activist had a lunch engagement at Rips recently with former 50,000 Watt powerhouse Radio Talk Show personality Allan Prell. Some of my reader’s may remember Uncle Allan’s 17 year long run at Radio 11 WBAL, Baltimore (technically, 1090 on the AM dial). Allan’s 9:05 AM morning program was rated number one in Baltimore through most of the 1980s and 1990s.
(Editor’s Note: AM in the latter reference means morning; AM in the previous use is a broadcast reference meaning “Amplitude Modulated” and should not be confused with “Frequency Modulated”. Oh, how the Engineer turned City Councilman Dennis Brady would enjoy this clarification although I think Dennis is a mechanical engineer and not a radio engineer).
In an earlier career, The Bowie City Activist was Allan Prell’s Producer/Engineer at “The Talk of The Capital”, WLMD Radio 9 (technically 900 on the AM dial) in the mid 1970s. It was a personal thrill for me to work with him as I remember listening to Allan on my transistor radio while home sick with the flu from Somerset Elementary School. At the time in the mid-1960s, Allan was afternoon talk show host for 50,000 Watt powerhouse WTOP, Washington once located at 1500 on the AM dial for many years.
Uncle Allan looks great after all these years. He is busy writing books.
• A recent council meeting provided some entertainment. Public Safety Director Alan Creveling was speaking to the Council about advanced contingency preparations for disease epidemics such as swine flu. As Creveling was speaking about the use of masks covering the face preventing germs from being spread from sneezing and coughing, City Staff Member Una Cooper sitting next to him started coughing all over the place. While Cooper’s coughing did provide some laughs, it is unknown if the coughing was a planned coughing spell on cue.
• And speaking of the City’s Communications Director, she made a statement about how helpful community resources have been for communications. Cooper said she regularly receives communications from Temple Nevy Shalom. Well, OK. I hate to be the one who communicates to Una Cooper that Nevy Shalom has been closed for quite some time now. The property has been purchased by Grace Baptist Church some time ago and is used for serving the congregation’s youth. Oh well, maybe she meant Temple Solel.
• The Praise Dance during Youth Day at Cresthill Baptist Church immediately recalled memories of saving The C&C Dance Company from attack by Mayor Robinson and Dennis Brady. And to think the moron Robinson and Dennis Brady didn’t think dance was educational when they attacked the C&C Dance Company. And, as I mentioned on the March 1/15/31 – 07 Bowie City Activist webpage at www.bowiewatch.org, the C&C Dance Company actually is a permitted use under the current land covenants complying with the educational institution clause, the recreational use clause, and possibly the religious use clause (some people consider dance education to be a form of religious expression. For example, St. Matthews Church has a dance ministry). Youth Day was a very good event.
• Doesn’t Bowie Baysox Assistant General Manager Phil Wye have the best job in Bowie? He always seems to have fun running around Prince Georges’ Stadium tending to all the many details of pulling off a major event on each game day. He even performs with “The Diamond Disco Dancers” during games perhaps part of his job description. And those three stooges Mayor Fred Robinson, Jack Jenkins and Dennis Brady didn’t think The C & C Dance Company provides useful job skills and is an educational institution conforming to the Melford land covenants?
• Sherman L. Ragland, II of Bowie Maryland was elected as the Chair of the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Sherman is a visionary mastermind who resides right here in the City of Bowie – although he could perhaps reside anywhere in the world if he really wanted to. When Sherman speaks, people listen. He regularly speaks before capacity crowds here in the Bowie area at Florian Hall. If you had listened to Sherman in recent years, he accurately predicted the mortgage meltdown and warned his e-mail readers to GET OUT OF THE STOCK MARKET several months before the financial crisis hit last year.
I have known Sherman for about 5 years now, so you can understand why I was so appalled by the derogatory comments about Sherman published in the Bowie Blade News by the Robinson crony John Rouse “the louse” in one of his commentaries a few years back. I seriously doubt “Rouse the louse” even knew Sherman when he wrote the derogatory comments about Sherman while he was the Chairman of the Bowie Economic Development Committee. Thankfully, Blade News columnist Joan Christian wrote a column that introduced Sherman to the larger Bowie community in a much better way. Congratulations Sherman!
• I recently read in a newspaper about the death of an old childhood friend. Considering the newspaper source (and the outright lies that have been published in this particular newspaper), I had to verify the information for myself. Sure enough, a drive behind Blockbuster’s at Free State Mall found Bowie’s only bowling alley was, in deed, deceased.
• Apparently, two people walked into the City Clerk’s office in early June to file their candidacy in the 2009 City election. The City Clerk refused to accept their candidacy. Yes, you read that right. It seems the two people who walked in weren’t filing individual candidacies – they were filing as a Slate – something that is certainly permissible in city law, but rarely, if ever, done in Bowie City elections.
Oh, but this slate was a little bit different than what the City would expect. This slate was two people who wanted to run as a team for one City Council seat – two Councilpersons for the price of one! And, the ethically challenged City Clerk Pam Fleming took it upon herself to deny their slate candidacy.
Now, I don’t mean to be disrespectful or unkind when it comes to people’s jobs – clerical workers do a very important job, but in my corporate career, the clerks were at the bottom of our organization. In the City of Bowie, our City Clerk is a clerical job although she is also given responsibility for administering our city elections – therefore the ethics Complaint. Did the City Clerk usurp her authority? Shouldn’t she have stamped the slate candidacy filing as “Received” by the City with a notation that read something to the effect, ”Subject to the review of the City Attorney”.
It seems our ethically challenged City Clerk should have retired about 4 years ago when I suggested she should. The “brain dead” City Clerk contributing $200 to Citizens for Robinson in 2006, and then conducting the 2007 city election with Robinson as a candidate, and of course, giving the Robinson access to the absentee ballots so he could see the early voting returns as citizens were submitting them to her merits her immediate termination or forced retirement.
• Things have gotten so bad in the People’s Banana Republic of Bowie totalitarian regime that a Tourist walking into City Hall with a Camera can’t even take a picture of the supreme one - the unelected head of the City - without being threatened with criminal prosecution and being thrown into some City of Bowie Gulag. Apparently, The Bowie Pravda, otherwise known as The Bowie Blade News, is the only authorized media outlet to take photos of Bowie City public officials at work. I suppose the City of Bowie would throw the unsuspecting Tourist into some Maryland State Mental Health Institution for an unexpected change in vacation plans where the Tourist would sarcastically be told, “The only thing that we can see wrong with you is the Mayor of Bowie”.
Oh, our Maryland state tax dollars at work!
|
C & C DANCE COMPANY SAVED - Where America Dances! (Added August 5, 2009)
With very little fanfare, the Bowie City Council passed a resolution on July 6, 2009 ending a long battle (more than 5 years) between the City of Bowie and the property owner of Melford (former known as The Maryland Science and Technology Center) , St. Johns Properties. The resolution essentially acknowledges, although it doesn’t use these words, that the Melford covenants were antiquated.
Specifically, the City of Bowie acknowledges that the portions of the Melford property approved for “Flex Space” do not lend themselves to the limited uses permitted by the Covenants, and that certain additional uses permitted under existing zoning but not permitted by the covenants will not adversely affect the character of the Melford development if limited solely to the existing and approved “Flex Space”.
The C&C Dance Company, the target of the original litigation located in “Flex Space” is now officially saved although I declared it saved in the Court of Public Opinion when Ingrid Turner defeated the idiot Fred Robinson by 48 votes in the September, 2006 Democratic Primary. We just couldn’t have someone that stupid as a County Council person – spending city tax dollars attacking a reputable business serving Bowie’s children. On September 22, 2006, I left a message on Audubon Lane for Fred Robinson, and he conceded the election to Ingrid Turner shortly thereafter.
In 2006, all of Bowie got to learn what I learned about the idiot we have for a mayor many years earlier. In some ways, I feel vindicated although you will never read about it in the Bowie Blade News!
How many letters to the Bowie Blade News editor did I write in 2004 and 2005 saying the land covenants were antiquated? How many letters did I write about the waste of city tax dollars attacking the C&C Dance Company? What about that large advertisement I took out in the Bowie Blade News publicly challenging the Fred Robinson, “We will not allow you to evict the C & C Dance Company”. And Fred Robinson crony, John Rouse “the louse”, allowed Robinson to rebut my paid advertisement in his weekly commentary free of charge a week later. There is an example of John Rouses’s lack of editorial ethics. That happened in 2004, and when I learned The Blade News moved the Mayor’s State of the City Address right along with the City’s new election cycle in odd numbered years thanks to another Blade News crony, Gerald Devlin, I knew running for Mayor of Bowie in 2005 was a waste of my time and effort – I would be running for Mayor of Bowie not only against Fred Robinson, but also the full printing presses of the Bowie Blade News!
I originally created the Bowie City Activist website www.bowiewatch.org, now with over 10,000 internet visits, in defense of the C&C Dance Company to keep public awareness focused on saving The C&C Dance Company. Mayor Fred Robinson was spending our city tax dollars attacking a reputable dance company. I have apologized on the Bowie City Activist website to the Brennan family on behalf of the City of Bowie for Fred Robinson’s and David Deutsch’s attack on their wonderful family business.
I am the only person in Bowie to stand-up to the arrogant former newspaper editor of the Blade News.
John Rouse “the louse” had always been use to silencing people out of fear of what he might write about them in the Bowie Blade News. As I have pointed out before, the money trail between your tax dollars and the Bowie Blade News is easy to demonstrate. City Manager David Deutsch had awarded ALL of the City’s legal and other public notice advertising dollars to the Bowie Blade News while ignoring the competing and much more editorial ethical competing newspaper, The Bowie Star.
I am the only one in this City who saw the unethical conduct of our City Manager and John Rouse “the louse”. David Deutsch/Fred Robinson’s attempt to silencing me in my hometown of almost 50 years on September 22, 2006 has utterly failed!
The C&C Dance Company – “where America Dances” has now been formally saved!
Fred Robinson wasted a lot of time and wasted your city tax dollars, perhaps well over $100,000, litigating with St. Johns Properties when this July 6, 2009 Council resolution could have occurred 5 years ago. Folks, this is what happens when we have someone like Fred Robinson as our Council Mayor (he is not a real mayor as my readers know). David Deutsch and Fred Robinson couldn’t do what the owners of the C&C Dance Company do every day – run a successful business generating their own income. David Deutsch and Fred Robinson couldn’t do it if their lives’ depended on it. David Deutsch and the idiot Fred Robinson are fat, dumb, and happy living off YOUR tax dollars!
In business, when I make a mistake, I pay. When Councilman Jimmy Marcos makes a mistake at his TJ Elliot’s restaurant business, Jimmy Marcos pays. But when the idiot Fred Robinson makes a mistake, we all have to pay. The City is out a bunch of tax money, the Levan law firm took a bunch of city tax money as I predicted, and the ultimate development of Melford property has been delayed and is therefore delayed in producing new tax revenue for the State, County and City during Maryland’s fiscal crisis. WAY TO GO GEE FRED!
So, thus ends the 5 year antiquated Melford land covenants battle. C & C Dance Company has now been officially saved. Only one person in this community kept this issue alive in the Court of Public Opinion consistently during the entire 5 year battle, The Bowie City Activist at www.bowiewatch.org !
|
CITY MANAGER ANNUAL SALARY DISCLOSED : $196,992 (Added August 5, 2009)
Corrupt City Manager David Deutsch has feathered his nest nicely during his 16 year long tenure as Bowie's unelected City CEO.
The corrupt City Manager used a city contracted PG County Police Officer to interfere with Councilwoman Polangin's campaign on election night of 2005. He diverted all of the City's legal and other advertising to one media outlet, The Bowie Blade News, in exchange for political endorsements while ignoring the City's other newspaper, The Bowie Star.
As a Chamber of Commerce member, Mr. Deutsch was part of the collusion between the City and The Blade News to give Fred Robinson free publicity with "The State of the City Address" timed for the Blade News publication right before the city election in 2005.
Then, in 2006, he failed to enforce city law on Fred Robinson's County Council bid allowing Robinson to violate the city law against political signs on public property and on public right of ways while enforcing the same law on Robinson's opponent.
Deutsch diverted City funds to provide Fred Robinson with free legal representation in District Court in October, 2006 even though Fred Robinson was not acting in his part time capacity as ceremonial Council Mayor of Bowie.
Deutsch has denied equal opportunity for minorities in the City's top jobs within City Hall - a segregated City Hall. His long duration in office has been harmful to the advancement of African Americans and women.
And, is David Deutsch really worth $196,992?
I don't think so!
David Deutsch feels he is entitled to be City Manager - and no wonder Deutsch can't find comparable employment elsewhere. Yet, his counterparts at higher levels of government are elected officials who make less than Mr. Deutsch. The elected Governor of Maryland makes $150,000 as an annual salary. And, Prince Georges County Executive Jack Johnson will make $183,222 this year acording to a 2009 Washington Post article available on-line.
Folks, when the unelected City Manager of Bowie makes more money than the elected County Executive and the Governor of Maryland, something is wrong in Bowie.
Isn't it time - in fact long overdue - for a new City Manager in Bowie?
A long duration in office is dangerous to liberty as our founding Maryland State fathers warned us in Article 34 of our Maryland State Constitution. City of Annapolis, you better think real hard about moving away from the more accountable Mayoral form of City Government to the the unelected City Manager/City Council form of government if the question makes it to public referendum in your City next fall.
============================================================
The Bowie City Activist can be reached at richarddahms@comcast.net. The Bowie City Activist is brought to you by The Dahms Group, LLC as a public service.
Notice: Content on this website may not be copied or reproduced without permission.
© 2009 – The Dahms Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
|