“I by no means dreamed that I might be investigated by the police division for doing my job in accordance to Baltimore County Policy and Procedure.”
So wrote Michael R. Beichler to the Baltimore County Council final week, stepping ahead to publicly determine himself as the “whistleblower” who helped expose the 2022 Eagle Transfer Station controversy that concerned marketing campaign contributions and alleged affect peddling at the highest ranges of Baltimore County authorities.
“Maybe I might have points with the Mafia or a hauler whose throwers are gang members. But by no means would I think about that politicians and the appearing director of public works would sic the police division upon me,” Beichler continued.
But they did.
Three high-ranking officers serving beneath County Executive Johnny Olszewski – Chief of Staff Patrick Murray, Public Works Director D’Andrea Walker and Chief of Police Melissa Hyatt – set in movement an investigation of Beichler for “housebreaking and trespassing” that saved a detective in the felony intelligence unit busy for 3 weeks earlier than he got here up with nothing.
Hyatt and Murray have since left county authorities. But Walker is now up for a promotion to county administrative officer, the highest non-elected place in authorities. The County Council is about to act on her nomination later this month.
In his letter to Council Chairman Izzy Patoka and his six elected colleagues, Beichler asserts that the police division was known as in “to make Baltimore County workers fearful of sharing information which is taken into account detrimental to the county” in an “try at obstruction of justice relating to the expose on the Eagle Transfer Station.”
It all stemmed, he says, from the administration’s fury over press accounts about Olszewski’s efforts to assist Carroll County businessman, Jackson “Jack” Haden, open the for-profit Eagle Transfer Station in Rosedale.
The Brew reported that Haden’s plan was useless in the water till he organized a non-public fundraiser on June 12, 2021 for Olszewki, which was attended by a dozen fellow trash haulers.
The very subsequent day, Acting Public Works Director Walker started pressuring her subordinates to amend the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan and permit Haden to construct the facility.
In electronic mail correspondence, she mentioned she was appearing at the path of “the CE” (county government), and at employees conferences she was much more blunt:
“We want to get this carried out for Johnny,” Beichler quotes Walker as saying.
Michael Beichler headed the bureau of strong waste administration for 11 years till he resigned in disgust in 2022.
As chief of strong waste administration, Beichler objected.
He argued that a non-public switch station was not solely pointless (the county had a lot of extra landfill capability), however the choice would divert thousands and thousands of {dollars} in “tipping charges” from the county into Haden’s pockets.
“Ms. Walker was very upset,” he mentioned, noting that her public justification for the new switch station – that the county’s circulate of rubbish was skyrocketing when the truth is it had declined by 5% – “was not right and really deceptive.”
Acting Public Works Director D’Andrea Walker, Olszewski Chief of Staff Pat Murray and Chief of Police Melissa Hyatt pressed ahead with the investigation of Beichler after tales appeared in The Brew and Baltimore Sun. (Courtesy: Baltimore County)
“It was most blatant to me,” Beichler’s letter to the Council says, “that Mr. Olszewski was accepting political contributions for its approval, and Ms. Walker was pushing for me to silently acquiesce whereas herself cheerleading and pushing for its approval in any respect ranges.”
In January 2022, Beichler filed a criticism with Inspector General Kelly Madigan, charging that Haden’s fundraiser influenced Olszewski’s choice to search approval of the Eagle Transfer Station. The following month he retired, after 20 years of county service, “as a result of I used to be not allowed as an worker to voice my considerations to both the Baltimore County Planning Board or to the public.”
“It was most blatant to me that Mr. Olszewski was accepting political contributions for its approval, and Ms. Walker was pushing for me to silently acquiesce” – From Beichler’s March 27, 2024 letter to the County Council.
Beichler was an unnamed supply in the June 9, 2022 Brew article. The article targeted on the fundraiser (which netted the county government $35,900) and the subsequent flurry of emails, first between Walker and her deputies after which with County Administrator Stacy Rodgers, all brainstorming methods to promote Haden’s undertaking.
The Baltimore Sun adopted up on June 14, reporting that Madigan had opened an investigation into the Eagle Transfer Station at the request of a person who didn’t need to be recognized for concern of retaliation.
Surmising who that particular person was, Murray requested Chief Hyatt to open a felony investigation on the whistleblower.
In an electronic mail to Hyatt on June 16, Murray constructed his case for an investigation this manner:
“Mr. Beichler was noticed getting into a Public Works & Transportation facility after extraordinary enterprise hours on May 2 and May 5. DPWT has video of him getting into the facility and exiting the facility with a field. I respectfully request the Police Department open an investigation into his unauthorized entrance into a County facility and his departure from that facility with County property.”
The investigation of “inner trespassing and theft” was assigned to a county detective who reviewed digital camera surveillance and interviewed numerous DPWT workers, together with Walker’s prime aide, Anthony Russell, recognized as the “contact particular person” for the inquiry.
The investigation was dropped on the recommendation of a senior assistant state’s legal professional, who mentioned Beichler’s actions “didn’t meet any felony components.”
The probe yielded no proof of theft or harm of county property. Asked by the detective if he knew of “something lacking” from the facility that Beichler had entered, Nicholas Rodricks, the new head of strong waste, mentioned he didn’t.
The investigation was dropped on the recommendation of a senior assistant state’s legal professional, who mentioned Beichler’s actions “didn’t meet any felony components.”
The assistant SA beneficial that the county ship a letter to Beichler advising him not to enter county property besides in areas open to the public.
County Executive Olszewski on X final month asserting D’Andrea Walker as his decide as chief administrative officer. It’s now up to the seven-member Council approve or reject her nomination.
That left the County Council confronted with Resolution 26-22, launched by Olszewski, permitting Haden to function the county’s first privately owned switch station.
Describing himself as a public servant who serves his hometown (“I don’t contemplate myself a trash mogul, as I used to be not too long ago portrayed”), Haden pressed for approval.
Despite enthusiastic help of the decision by then-Council Chairman Julian E. Jones Jr. (“all of us are rooting for the residence staff,” he mentioned), the media scrutiny of the Eagle Transfer Station deal had made an impression.
Other Council members expressed concern about the fiscal impression of the proposal and fretted over the yearly loss of income if the switch station was permitted.
A vote was scheduled for July 5, 2022, however Olszewski apparently determined to minimize his losses.
At the begin of the public assembly, Jones introduced that it was the “will of everybody” that motion on the decision be deferred indefinitely. A month later, on August 3, the administration introduced that Pat Murray was stepping down as Olszewski’s chief of employees. Hyatt left as police chief in November.
Jackson Haden is one of the largest non-public haulers of residential trash in Baltimore County and likewise operates the Baltimore Recycling Center on Edison Highway. (Carroll County Times)
Campaign Contributions
Even although the Eagle Transfer plan has not resurfaced since, Haden continues to bathe county politicians with marketing campaign funds.
In 2023 alone, Haden and his enterprise entities handed out:
• $14,000 to Councilman Jones (D, 4th).
• $10,000 to Councilman Patoka (D, 2nd).
• $8,000 to Councilman Patrick Young (D, 1st)
• $3,000 to Councilman Mike Ertel (D, sixth).
• $9,000 to County Executive Olszewski, who’s working to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Rupperberger in Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District. If he wins the May Democratic main and the November normal election, Olszewski will head off to Congress halfway via his second time period as county government.
Beichler mentioned he has come out publicly in order that the Council could make an knowledgeable choice about Walker’s nomination as county administrative officer and to lament that his complaints to the Inspector General haven’t but resulted in a public report of her findings.
“All of the points, complaints and their documentation on this letter have been beforehand filed with the Baltimore County Inspector General as per coverage and process,” he asserted.
“The Inspector General obtained the complaints between January 2022 and February 2023, and I did attend two interviews with the IG as a outcome of them. As of this letter, I’ve obtained no suggestions.”
• To attain a reporter: reuttermark@yahoo.com
