Violation of Maryland Public Information Act Law by Cassilly Administration affirmed by the Court
On Wednesday, December 18, 2024, in the Circuit Court for Harford County, the Cassilly Administration, once again sought to avoid transparency by filing a Motion to Overturn the previous decision of the Public Information Act Compliance Board (PIACB).
On March 19, 2024, the PIACB determined that the Cassilly Administration was in violation of Maryland law and had ordered the Administration to disclose all records responsive to a lawful request from Sheriff Gahler.
PIACB Conclusion:
“We agree that, by refusing to search for records received or generated by County employees that may be responsive to the complainant’s [Gahler] PIA request, the County has effectively denied inspection of those records and thus violated the PIA. We direct the County to “conduct a search in good faith that is reasonably designed to capture all responsive records,” Glass, 453 Md. at 232, and to disclose all non-exempt responsive public records to the complainant, § 4-1A-04(a)(3)(i).”
In September of 2023, Sheriff Gahler, on behalf of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, submitted a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request to the County to gain insight into the status of the Central Precinct and Training Academy Project. The primary focus of this effort was aimed at gaining more transparency concerning the actions of the Cassilly Administration and their relationship with MW Studios Architecture Master Planning (MWS). Central to Sheriff Gahler’s inquiry was seeking information related to the questionable selection of MWS to conduct a “feasibility” study of the HEAT Center project for the already approved and funded Sheriff’s Office Central Precinct and Training Academy. It appeared, from what had been reported in the media, that the motivation for MWS could be the potential promise of receiving a much larger capital project from Mr. Cassilly. In their assessment, MWS discredited the previously County approved and selected architectural firm that engineered the Central Precinct and Training Academy Project, an award-winning firm that previously built the Southern Precinct, the expansion project at the Detention Center, and the new Bel Air Town Hall/Police Department building.
As written in the initial request for public information, this conflict of interest, if true, would certainly raise many ethical questions. To that end, one of the items requested was, “Any and all documents, letter[s] and/or emails to and from any County employee that mentions “MW Studios Architecture Master Planning” OR to or from an email address ending with “@mwsarch.com” since December 5, 2022.”
Since that time, the Cassilly Administration has consistently refused to disclose public records responsive to the Sheriff’s request. As part of the required process to compel transparency from the County Executive, the issue was forwarded to the State’s MPIA Ombudsman, who, by law, exists for the sole purpose of mediating disputes concerning MPIA Requests. This mediation is required by law, and the Sheriff was willing to participate in the process to resolve this issue amicably.
However, Mr. Cassilly chose to continue on his path of secrecy and refused to even participate in the mediation process. Based on their refusal, an official complaint was filed with the PIACB.
In the seven months since the PIACB rendered its decision, Mr. Cassilly has personally refused the Sheriff’s request to act in compliance with the decision and through Cassilly’s appointed County Attorney Jefferson Blomquist, the Administration filed a Reply Brief seeking to withhold the requested information.
During the Court hearing on December 18, 2024, County Attorney Blomquist argued the County was opposed to releasing the requested public documents, citing the Cassilly Administration’s previous action of the targeted interception of a Councilman’s emails and texts messages over a year ago. Prior to this Court hearing, Mr. Blomquist had vigorously maintained that these questionable actions of the Cassilly Administration related to surreptitiously intercepting a Councilman’s emails and texts was perfectly legal. However, in a stunning courtroom admission, Mr. Blomquist admitted that a crime was possibly committed by the Cassilly Administration when he conceded he didn’t know if it was illegal or not. The County Attorney’s ever-changing excuses on behalf of the Administration was specifically noted by Judge Pierson, and in his immediate decision from the bench, the Judge affirmed the previous decision of the PIACB and ordered the Cassilly Administration to provide the records within 30 days.
The County Executive alone has acted to defund a vital public safety project despite overwhelming community support and repeated pleas from the Harford County Council to support it. Mr. Cassilly continues to resist transparency that would offer insight and clarity to the inner workings of this entire process. For the second time, Mr. Cassilly has been told he stands in violation of Maryland law and yet Mr. Cassilly (a lawyer himself) continues to defy the law, refusing to share information that you, our citizens, are entitled to see.