From Harford County government:
Maryland’s highest court ruled Friday that Harford County will not have to pay $45.4 million to a plaintiff who sought to develop a rubble landfill thirty years ago near Havre de Grace. The Maryland Court of Appeals on April 24 upheld the lower court’s reversal of the award to landowner Maryland Reclamation Associates, known as MRA, handed down by Harford County Circuit Court in 2018.
Friday’s ruling followed a series of cases MRA brought over the years against the county after the county denied MRA’s plan for a construction debris landfill on 55 acres near Gravel Hill Road. At issue were county development regulations for landfills, adopted in part because of concerns about environmental hazards.
In response to the 2018 judgement, County Executive Barry Glassman directed the county’s law department to appeal. A number of Maryland county and municipal governments, along with the Maryland Association of Counties and the Maryland Municipal League, filed “friend of the court,” or amicus curiae, briefs in support of Harford’s appeal.
In response to Friday’s announcement, County Executive Glassman issued the following statement:
“This case goes back to when I was first elected to the Harford County Council and this final decision by Maryland’s highest court affirms Harford County’s actions and our appeal of the $45.4 million judgement. It’s a victory for environmental justice and local government’s ability to adopt responsible development regulations. I would like to thank County Attorney Melissa Lambert and her team, our outside counsel Andy Baida from Rosenberg Martin Greenberg LLP, attorney Jeff Blomquist, and the governments and organizations across Maryland that stood up together on behalf of our citizens. I would also like to pay tribute in memory of those citizens who banded together to protect their community including Wink Jonas, Sylvia Hutsell and all the past and present members of St. James AME Church in Gravel Hill.”
The full opinion by the Maryland Court of Appeals is online at http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/2754/MRA-v-Harford-County-Maryland.
Isn’t this the case that northern big mouth Jerry Scarborough said the County should pay?
Settle down or he’ll kill your dog
Yes, watch what you say or he will kill you’re dog and won’t pump out your septic. Worse yet he will kick you out of his septic school
It was funny when Barry Glassman shot down whining and crying Jerry on his own facebook page. Barry owned him.
Is this Harford Countys famous dog catcher I keep hearing about?
Dude got fired as a cop? I’d that right?
This ruling surprises anyone? More of the Good Old Boy system at work. The fact of the matter is the Government can do whatever it wants with little to no accountability for its actions or impacts against citizens and business. Of course other counties stepped up. They all have issues similar to this one and didn’t want to allow any precedent to be set where they might be held accountable.
This arbitrary lockdown where the government selects who has to shut down (small business) and who remains open Corporate Big Boxs who make millions in campaign contributions. Make no mistake about it folks look at what businesses are open right now.
The wife of outgoing state Delegate William H. Cox Jr. lent an undisclosed sum of money to Richard D. Schafer, the president of the company seeking permits to start an asbestos rubble fill near Havre de Grace, a recent deposition given by the state delegate shows.
Cox, a District 34 Democrat, said in the deposition that while
he signed a bank agreement to be a guarantor of an $800,000 loan forthe company, Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc., he decided not tobe a shareholder. That decision meant that he would be one of the parties responsible for repaying the loan if the company defaulted, buthe would not share in company profits.
Cox said he “closed the door” on being a shareholder in the company in October 1989, about fourmonths before signing the guarantor note.
But Cox said in the deposition he was uncertain whether he had signed any loan guarantees for MRA apart from a $800,000 bank loan for the rubble fill project. “Idon’t believe so, but I’m not sure,” he said in response to the question.
Cox said in an earlier deposition, taken in July 1990 in connection with a suit MRA filed against the county government, that he signed an agreement Feb. 9, 1990, with Bank of Maryland-Harford County to be one of four guarantors of the $800,000 loan to MRA.
That’s because people who do wrong get amnesia when it comes to answering for their actions. There is nothing unusual about this, but it is till a lie. They word their responses to give “plausible deniability”. That is what you are seeing in this exchange. My lawyers did the same thing. It’s all bull shit….
Mr./Mrs./ Miss/ Ms. Follow the Money
Sir, Ma’am,
Very Interesting posting, thank you.
Perhaps you would direct your attention and talents to undertake a similar effort to identify the mischief and beneficiaries of the land use activities of the current County Executive.
I would be most interested in a discussion of the tire pyrolysis plant in Joppa. I am sure that there are others who could also nominate candidate projects. Maybe they will add to the list.
A quick question for you. Do you believe that County Executive Glassman will be as generous with his gratitude and as lavish with his praise of all those citizens who are preserving their communities by opposing his land use activities? Just curious.
I am l looking forward to your discussions.
THNX
MALLAMO
I can’t remember the last time that dim-witted, antifreeze wielding, hair-dyeing self-promoter has EVER been right about anything. And Freud would have a field day with that cylindrical thing that he always has dangling out of his mouth.He’s Larry the Cable guy… without the brains, class, confidence or sense of humor.
“It’s a victory for environmental justice and local government’s ability to adopt responsible development regulations.”
Funny from a bow-tied smugmug who approves a new house or apartment complex on whatever green space is available.
Environment my a55.