City Council President Nick Mosby has selected attorney Robert Dashiell to represent him in his appeal of a ruling by Baltimore City’s ethics board, according to recent court filings.

In May, the ethics board ruled Mosby violated City Hall’s ethics code by indirectly soliciting donations for a legal defense fund for his wife, former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and himself, including contributions from at least two contractors who had done business with the city. Such contractors are considered controlled donors under Baltimore’s ethics code; public officials are not permitted to receive or solicit donations from them.

Marilyn Mosby, is facing federal perjury charges for allegedly lying on a mortgage application; she is set to go to trial in late March. Her husband has not been charged with any crimes.

Nick Mosby has maintained he never received any money from the trust and that he instructed its operators “to return the limited amount of funds received on my behalf” in advance of the ethics board ruling, which he appealed in June. His appeal sent the case to the Baltimore City Circuit Court, where in November he asked Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill to delay a hearing, citing an inability to attain counsel.

“The universe of attorneys who ultimately could be found competent to help provide counsel to me is very small,” he told the judge. “When you couple that with the fact that the process is with the city of Baltimore, finding an attorney who does not have conflict with the city is even more challenging.”

Dashiell is a prominent figure in the Maryland legal and minority business community. He successfully lobbied for the passage of the state’s first minority business enterprise law, organized protests to criticize the MTA’s decision not to hire minority-owned businesses to construct city transit systems, and has appeared before the city and state spending boards to discuss procurement issues.

The city ethics board is represented by Sarah Hall of the Washington, D.C., law firm Epstein, Becker & Green. The case is scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

This week, Dashiell filed a memo to the court saying Mosby was not required to name the defense fund on his yearly ethics filing, arguing that the trust is not a business entity as the ethics board says it is.

emily.sullivan@thebaltimorebanner.com

A six-day senator

Christian Miele lost his bid to become a state senator representing Harford County, but he ended up being able to serve in the Senate after all — ever so briefly.

Miele, a Republican, was sworn into the Senate to fill a vacancy on Thursday. His tenure in the Senate will last only until noon on Wednesday, when the election winner, Democrat Mary-Dulany James, is sworn in for a full four-year term.

That means Miele will be a senator for just six days.

“I don’t want to go down as the shortest-serving senator in Maryland history, but it’s hard to beat six days,” Miele said.

Here’s how Miele became a short-term senator: The incumbent senator, Republican Bob Cassilly, decided not to run for reelection in 2022 and instead ran for, and won, the position of Harford County executive. Cassilly had to resign as senator in early December when he was sworn in as county executive, leaving a vacancy in the Senate.

These type of short-term vacancies happen periodically in the Maryland General Assembly; sometimes they are filled, sometimes they are not.

Because Cassilly is a Republican, the Republican Party had the ability to nominate a replacement senator for the final few weeks of Cassilly’s term. Gov. Larry Hogan quietly made the appointment in early December, but it took until this week for all the logistics to align for Miele to be sworn in.

Before taking the oath of office, Miele had to resign his position as deputy state secretary of aging (state lawmakers can’t also be state employees), which was the plan anyway with the upcoming change in the governorship. There were also the winter holidays and scheduling issues that put off the swearing-in ceremony.

The ceremony lasted less than two minutes and was not publicly announced ahead of time. Miele wasn’t assigned an office or placed on any committees and he won’t have a chance to cast any votes. But his photo was added to the Senate website.

Miele acknowledged the situation is “quirky” but “nonetheless, it’s still an honor.”

pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com

State TikTok ban has ripple effects

Hogan made a big deal out of banning state agencies from using or even accessing TikTok, the popular social media platform, over security concerns.

TikTok was among several “Chinese and Russian-influenced products and platforms” that the outgoing governor banned last month, though no state agencies were officially using any of the apps.

But there was collateral damage to the TikTok ban that one alert Baltimore Banner reader flagged for us: The reader was no longer able to access The Banner or The Baltimore Sun from within the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

How did that happen?

Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, tells us there was no intention to ban state workers from reading local news.

Here’s what he said happened: “TikTok and multiple other sites (including several local newspapers) are delivered on the same content network. Because that network was blocked — as the fastest way to exclude TikTok at its source — users could not access all media websites.”

The situation was resolved about a week after The Baltimore Banner inquired. Vernarelli said the state worked with a vendor on a more precise filtering system to block TikTok, but not other sites.

pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com

Ball, Olszewski to lead county association

Elected officials from Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions on Thursday named Howard and Baltimore county executives Calvin Ball and Johnny Olszewski Jr. to lead the Maryland Association of Counties, the nonpartisan body that lobbies State House lawmakers on behalf of local governments.

Ball will head the nonprofit for a one-year term as its president, and Olszewski will serve a yearlong term as first vice president.

Under the Democrats’ leadership, MACo says it plans to lobby legislators during the legislative session beginning Wednesday to reign in state laws that allow “wide-open public access” to police body-worn cameras, putting an “ominous burden on custodians to carefully redact material to protect victims, families, and witnesses.”

“Requiring each agency, no matter how small, to create its regime for equipment procurement, footage storage, and redaction policies invites widespread duplication of effort,” according to MACo’s website.

MACo also wants jurisdictions to be given the option of purchasing equipment and services related to body-worn cameras.

The nonprofit also plans to advocate for jurisdictions to have the option of whether recreational cannabis dispensaries, growers and manufacturers may operate in a jurisdiction (a practice seen in other states where cannabis is legalized for adult use).

MACo says jurisdictional leaders want to cash in on “any revenue structure placed onto the newly legal products” to offset local governments’ “various front-line services most affected by the new laws.” The State House website does not show bills related to adult-use cannabis revenues for local governments or body-worn camera footage disclosure.

Ball and Olszewski were sworn in with four other officers and board members from 10 Maryland jurisdictions at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Hotel in Cambridge Thursday evening during MACo’s annual winter conference.

The organization’s members, which include elected officials and other representatives of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City, typically rotate the organization’s leadership by elevating officers through the ranks. Last year, Ball and Olszewski served as first and second vice presidents, respectively. Both were reelected in November to second terms.

In addition to its advocacy, MACo holds training sessions and annual conferences for government employees.

In a tweet, Olszewski wrote that he looks forward to “working together on behalf of all Marylanders to foster communities built upon our shared passion, wisdom, and experience.”

Ball, in a Wednesday news release, said he’s “honored to be elected as MACo president,” and that he looks “forward to working with” Governor-elect Wes Moore’s administration and his “colleagues ... to foster the best quality of life and further the mission of MACo for all Marylanders.”

Baltimore County Council reopens in-person meetings

Baltimore County is the last of central Maryland’s jurisdictions to announce it is restoring in-person County Council meetings after nearly three years of virtual-only legislating.

The Baltimore County Council quietly reopened its Towson chambers in mid-November for most council meetings without notifying residents. On Dec. 28, Council Chair Julian Jones announced the council will keep the hybrid format by holding work sessions and legislative sessions in person and through online video teleconferences. Work session and legislative session schedules will remain the same — work sessions are held at 4 p.m. and legislative sessions convene at 6 p.m., according to a news release.

Council members and department heads are expected to once again attend meetings in the Historic Courthouse, built in 1854, in the county seat. Meetings can be joined online through the Baltimore County Council website or over the phone using an access code; the council’s website provides details for how to observe each scheduled meeting. County residents may testify in person or virtually.

“My Council colleagues and I believe that with the beginning of the New Year, it is an appropriate time to resume our in-person meetings,” Jones said in the release.

“I am gratified the council can once again operate together in face-to-face meetings — something we have missed over the last few years,” he said.

The Baltimore County Council — along with Maryland’s other locally elected bodies — switched to online meetings in March 2020 on emergency orders from Gov. Larry Hogan at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. Even as Maryland students and lawmakers returned to public buildings in early 2021, the Baltimore County Council’s seven members opted to hash out government business behind their computer screens.

Asked in November why the council hadn’t announced it was once again holding meetings in person, council attorney Tom Bostwick said the council hadn’t decided whether to permanently establish the hybrid meeting format.

taylor.deville@thebaltimorebanner.com

New year, new leadership in the House of Delegates

As the 2023 General Assembly session approaches, House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones announced several Democratic leadership changes this week:

• Del. Marc Korman of Montgomery County is the new majority leader, responsible for leading the Democrats’ debating strategy. He replaces former Del. Eric Luedtke, who resigned to join Gov.-elect Wes Moore’s administration.
• Del. Jazz Lewis of Prince George’s County is the new majority whip. He previously was the chair of the Democratic Caucus and replaces Baltimore Del. Talmadge Branch, who did not run for re-election.
• Del. Emily Shetty of Montgomery County takes Lewis’ role chairing the Democratic Caucus. The caucus chair also plays a pivotal role in shepherding the party’s priority bills.

Several Democratic lawmakers from Baltimore City and Baltimore County also picked up new leadership roles, among them:

• Del. Regina Boyce, Del. Stephanie Smith and Del. Sandy Rosenberg, all from Baltimore, and Del. Cathi Forbes of Baltimore County, were named chairs of subcommittees.
• Del. Tony Bridges, Del. Dalya Attar and Del. Robbyn Lewis were named House chairs for various joint House-Senate committees.
• Boyce also was named one of the three chief deputy majority whips and Del. Marlon Amprey and Del. Melissa Wells are among several members assigned to be deputy majority whips. Wells also was named assistant majority leader. All of those roles are part of a leadership structure with responsibility for keeping delegates informed about upcoming votes and ensuring that key bills have enough votes to pass.

pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com

Former Scott spokesman head to City State’s Attorney’s office

A former spokesman for Mayor Brandon Scott and the Department of Public Works has followed Ivan Bates into the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office.

The move caps the City Hall tenure of communications fixture James Bentley, who worked on PR strategies and media relations for Scott and former mayors Catherine Pugh and Jack Young.

Shortly after Scott’s inauguration, Bentley moved to the Department of Public Works, where he served as communications director. After Scott’s former spokesman Cal Harris left Baltimore in early 2022 for a job in St. Louis, Bentley returned to the mayoral communications team. He went back to DPW last fall.

Bates was sworn into office Tuesday.

emily.sullivan@thebaltimorebanner.com