The payment of $83,675 to retired county firefighter Philip Tirabassi by the administration of Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski fails the smell test, and Olszewski’s explanation of the reason for the payment fails the laugh test.

A Public Information Act (PIA) suit filed by former county administrative officer Fred Homan pulled back the curtain a bit on how the Olszewski administration handled the Tirabassi matter.

Details remain murky because some records continue to be withheld, but what we’ve seen so far isn’t pretty; in fact, it’s downright ugly.

Tirabassi applied in 2018 to obtain “service credit” in the county Employees Retirement System for the period of time that he was employed by the City of Baltimore. His request was denied in 2019 by former county budget director Keith Dorsey because he filed it 27 years past the deadline set by state law.

Tirabassi then pursued his request directly with Olszewski, with whom he had a personal and business relationship.

High-ranking county officials members first scrambled to find a way to mollify Tirabassi under pressure from Olszewski, then desperately tried to hide the results of their clumsy efforts from both the county council and the public.

The administration proposed an agreement that would grant Tirabassi’s request for a transfer of service credit from the city to the county, but then withdrew it. That was followed by payment of the $83,675. The exact terms and conditions of the payment remain unclear.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of the assistant county attorney who handled pension cases for Baltimore County for 24 years, Tirabassi’s stale claim for pension credit was without merit, his threat of a lawsuit for allegedly breaching the initial agreement settling the claim was hollow, and he should not have been paid a dime.

Baltimore Brew’s coverage of the Tirabassi payment: 

• PART 1: Firefighter who got secret cash payment handled personal real estate for Baltimore County Executive Olszewski (7/30/24)
• PART 2: County attorney says she was – “100%” – fired for questioning the Tirabassi deal (7/31/24)
• Under fire over Tirabassi deal, Olszewski’s relationship to the firefighter remains in the spotlight (8/2/24)
• Tirabassi’s attorney says County Executive Olszewski “sought to renege” on initial settlement (7/31/24)
• Olszewski administration seeks $200,000 more in battle over public information records (7/1/24)

An ugly decision-making process leads to a decision that doesn’t pass the smell test

The decision-making process, as revealed by the records, had the earmarks of an anxious group of employees being pressured to do something for a friend of the county executive that, for very good reason, they were highly uncomfortable doing.

One sure sign of Olszewski’s personal interest was the sheer number of high-level appointees involved in what, legally at least, was a straightforward matter.

County Administrative Officer Stacy Rodgers, Olszewski’s Chief of Staff Patrick Murray, Budget Director Ed Blades and County Attorney James Benjamin were extensively involved. Only Benjamin remains with the county.

The consequence was utter confusion: officials working at cross-purposes and county lawyers disagreeing with each other over basic procedures as well as the propriety of the payment to Tirabassi.

The tension is palpable from the emails, with Murray telling Rodgers that the decision on Tirabassi was a matter between her and the county executive, ending with “God bless you both.”

Rodgers responded by venting her frustration: “This is probably the most annoying thing I have encountered in this tour of duty so far. Just so wrong on so MANY levels.”

The end result was a payment to Tirabassi that never should have happened, and that county officials tried to hide.

Failing the Laugh Test

Olszewski told the Baltimore Sun that Tirabassi threatened to sue the county because it reneged on an “unauthorized agreement” sent to Tirabassi by former assistant county attorney Michael Raimondi in early 2020, and that the $83,675 was paid to Tirabassi to avoid that litigation.

So, a lowly assistant county attorney attempted to settle a matter in which Olszewski was personally involved without the approval of his client?

Forgive me if I’m skeptical of an explanation that consists of throwing a subordinate under the bus for allegedly sending an “unauthorized agreement” to Tirabassi.

Here’s a more likely explanation: Someone persuaded Olszewski to withdraw the initial settlement proposal because it would have created a legal nightmare for the county for which he might be held responsible.

Raimondi himself had warned that granting Tirabassi’s belated request to transfer service credit would place the tax-exempt status of the county pension plan in jeopardy.

It certainly would have re-opened the window for other employees who, for whatever reasons, did not make timely requests for service credit transfers, to apply and receive credit for time employed elsewhere, setting up the pension fund for a substantial hit.

Baseless Claim

Tirabassi applied in 2018 to obtain “service credit” in the county Employees Retirement System for the period of time when he was employed by the City of Baltimore.

Such transfers of service credit between the pension plans of local governments are permitted under the state’s “pension portability” statute, but the statute places a deadline on requests for transfers that local governments cannot waive.

Tirabassi left city employment and joined the county fire department in 1989 and had until July 1, 1991 to request a transfer under state law. In other words, by the time he applied in 2018 he was 27 years too late, and his request was denied by Dorsey in 2019.

The county disagreed with Tirabassi’s assertion that he was not given notice by the county in 1989 of his rights under the pension portability statute.

Even if the county did not give him separate notice, the pension portability statute imposes no duty on a local government to advise its employees of provisions that appear in the state code.

Tirabassi’s service credit claim was meritless and stale, and any settlement agreement purporting to grant his request for service credit well past the deadline established by state law was invalid and unenforceable, even assuming that it was signed by someone in the county with authority to do so.

Consequently, the “threat” of litigation that resulted in the payment of $83,675 was hollow and should have been ignored.

It was an unnecessary payment based on the alleged breach of an invalid agreement intended to settle a meritless claim.

Cover-Up of a Cover-Up

County law requires the county attorney to provide the county council with an annual list of claims settled during the preceding year that includes the name of and amount paid to each claimant.

We learned in 2021 that the list for 2020 did not include the $83,675 paid to Tirabassi. This was the explanation given by Olszewski spokesperson Sean Naron: “As the legal matter brought by Mr. Tirabassi concerned sensitive, personal information, the Office of Law determined in this instance the settlement should be confidential.”

After we found out this year that the claim was listed under the name “Philip Dough” on the 2020 list, Olszewski spokesperson Erica Palmisano stated that Blades, the former budget director, “mistakenly” told a county employee to enter the name of the recipient as Philip Doe, misspelled as Dough, and that the law office corrected the error after learning about it.

Those two explanations are not compatible. Maybe in 2021 someone was hoping to avoid scrutiny of Blades’ action, because it was highly questionable.

Under Section 8-606 of the Criminal Law Article of the Maryland Code, it is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding $1,000, or both, to willfully make a false entry in a public record.

A public official who falsifies the record of an expenditure of public funds to mislead a legislative body about the identity of the recipient is wandering into dangerous territory.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, let’s assume that Blades sincerely believed that the identity of the recipient was confidential as a matter of law. If so, “Name Withheld” would have been the proper choice.

The question remains, however, as to why Blades, who left the county in 2022, was involved at all.

The law places the duty on the county attorney to send the list to the council and, as described above, the county attorney knew that there was no legal justification for using a pseudonym to disguise the identity of the claimant.

Close to the Flame

Blades is not the only county official who flew dangerously close to the flame. A county executive has wide discretion in settling claims, but there are lines that can’t be crossed without the risk of being accused of malfeasance.

One of those lines is throwing government funds at a claim that the county executive knows – or should know – is devoid of merit made by someone with a personal or other relationship with the county executive.

We need more information before we know whether that line was crossed, and Olszewski, who is now running for the 2nd Congressional seat vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, is spending a lot of our money to try to prevent us from getting that information.

It is worth noting that it appears that some of the records being withheld are legal advice and other so-called “pre-decisional” materials that Olszewski has the discretion to make public under the PIA.

What a confirmation of his professed commitment to openness, transparency and accountability it would be if he waived any privilege with regard to legal and other advice specific to his decisions in the Tirabassi matter to give the public full access to the decision-making process.

Don’t hold your breath.

Given his willingness to spend up to $550,000 in taxpayers’ money to protect the information from public scrutiny, it is fair to assume that the records he refuses to disclose cast even more suspicion on his decision to pay Tirabassi $83,675.

• David A. Plymyer retired as Anne Arundel County Attorney after 31 years in the county law office. To reach him: dplymyer@comcast.net and Twitter @dplymyer.