Baltimore County executive appointed employee of firefighter who received secret settlement to ethics commission
Lia Russell and Cassidy Jensen
The Baltimore Sun
August 1, 2024
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. appointed a high school classmate and real estate agent to the county ethics commission in 2020, the same year her boss, former county firefighter Philip Tirabassi, received a secret $83,675 settlement from the county. Tirabassi also helped handle Olszewski’s personal real estate transactions.
Tracey Paliath, the county ethics commission’s executive director, said the connection did not appear to violate ethics rules. But it did raise concerns for Public Citizen government affairs lobbyist Craig Holman, who also said it did not appear to violate any ethics rules. Public Citizen is a nonpartisan watchdog group founded by former presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Olszewski has said repeatedly that he does not have a “close, personal relationship” with Tirabassi. County spokesperson Erica Palmisano said in a statement Thursday that Laura Ray’s nomination to the commission was based on her credentials and her party affiliation.
“Any implication of impropriety is baseless and unfounded,” Palmisano said.
Tirabassi confirmed that Ray was a real estate agent in his office in 2020.
“Your phone call was the first time I was made aware of her being appointed to any commission, therefore I certainly didn’t recommend her,” Tirabassi told a Baltimore Sun reporter Thursday.
Olszewski initially appointed Ray in September 2020 to serve a partial term until June 2022 on the five-member Baltimore County Ethics Commission. The commission meets 10 times a year, hears ethics complaints and works to ensure county employees, officials and lobbyists file proper disclosure forms and undergo annual ethics trainings. They also can issue advisory opinions and guidance.
The County Council unanimously approved Ray in July 2022 as a Republican representative for a three-year term ending July 1, 2025. At least two members of the commission must not be from the same political party as the county executive. Olszewski is a Democrat.
“Laura Ray was nominated for the Ethics Commission based on her credentials as an active community leader, a longtime Baltimore County Recreation and Parks volunteer, and as a member of the Republican Party,” Palmisano said in the statement to The Sun.
Asked if Olszewski was aware that Ray had worked for Tirabassi, a spokesperson said the “administration was aware that she has served as a part-time Realtor.”
Per county code, ethics commissioners must be appointed by the county executive with approval from the County Council. They must be county residents and not hold public office. Two members must also be licensed lawyers in Maryland. The ethics commission separated from the inspector general’s office in 2023 on recommendation from a county oversight commission.
Olszewski, now a congressional candidate, has touted his administration as “the most open, accessible and transparent in Baltimore County’s history,” citing his creation of its inaugural Office of the Inspector General and strengthening of lobbying rules.
At the time of Ray’s initial appointment, the county was in negotiations with Tirabassi over a $83,675 settlement its attorneys initially agreed to pay him in May 2020. County attorneys and Tirabassi signed an agreement that month, but Tirabassi did not receive the money until December 2020.
According to her LinkedIn and real estate listings, Ray started working in 2014 as an agent for Advance Realty Direct Inc., a real estate firm solely owned by Tirabassi until he dissolved it in December 2022, according to state business filings.
Ray started working for another realty firm the following month, in January2023, according to her LinkedIn and broker listings. Tirabassi said Thursday that he didn’t remember when she left his office, but she was working for him in 2020.
Tirabassi, along with his younger brother John, was the broker and listing agent on three properties Olszewski and his wife bought and sold between 2016 and 2020, including the Millers Island lot where Olszewski and his wife now live. John Tirabassi is a high school classmate and personal friend of Olszewski.
John Tirabassi is also a regional sales representative for the Peterbilt of Baltimore truck company and sold $4 million worth of dump trucks to Baltimore County between April 2023 and January. Olszewski denied knowing about the purchases.
Ray did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. Between February 2006 and December2023, she donated $1,740 to Olszewski’s state campaign fund, according to campaign finance records.
According to a school yearbook, Ray graduated from Sparrows Point High School in 2000 with John Tirabassi and Olszewski. She served on the student council with the future county executive.
In addition to being a Realtor, Philip Tirabassi was a Baltimore County firefighter until retiring in fall 2020. He agreed to an $83,675 settlement from the county in May 2020 after he asked to transfer retirement credits to his county pension, which multiple county officials said would have violated state and local pension laws.
Public Citizen’s Holman said Ray did not appear to have a conflict of interest, though there was some concern about her ability to remain impartial.
“It’s quite clearly not a violation of any ethics rules. I do raise concerns that while she may not have been personally involved, she was an employee of someone involved in litigation against the county,” Holman said. “It raises some suspicions as to her impartiality.”
Still, her appointment alone did not appear to be an issue, he said.
“You frequently find throughout the political process the appointment of friends into administrations,” Holman said.
He compared Olszewski’s appointment of Ray to former President Barack Obama appointing an old college friend as his ethics counselor.
The county hired Paliath in February as its first executive director of the ethics commission, a position previously held by Inspector General Kelly Madigan.
In an interview Thursday, Paliath called Ray a “diligent board member,” and said that she was unconcerned about the connection between Ray, Olszewski and Tirabassi.
Ray’s role includes submitting annual financial disclosure forms, Palmisano said.
The board usually considers conflict of interest cases, such as when employees seek guidance about whether they can hold jobs outside of the county. In the time she’s known Ray, Paliath said she’s issued decisions alongside her fellow board members in a “thoughtful manner.”
County attorneys eventually agreed to settle with Phillip Tirabassi, which Olszewski said was to avoid litigation after he threatened to sue for breach of contract. Baltimore County has spent almost $316,000 on outside lawyers to shield details of that settlement from public view after a former county official filed a public records lawsuit over it in July 2021.The lawsuit is ongoing, and the county council approved spending an additional $200,000 on legal fees last month.
Political fallout
County Republicans have begun trying to make Olszewski’s ties to John and Philip Tirabassi a focus of the race for the 2nd Congressional District, which covers parts of Baltimore City, and Baltimore and Carroll counties. Olszewski faces Republican nominee Kim Klacik in the Nov. 5 general election. Olszewski is believed to be the frontrunner, boasting a large war chest and endorsements from top Democratic officials like retiring U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, and Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones.
The Maryland Republican Party called for Olszewski’s resignation in a statement Thursday, citing reporting by The Sun on the settlement with Philip Tirabassi and the county’s purchase of dump trucks from John Tirabassi.
Characterizing the reports as “substantial allegations of corruption,” the state GOP also called for Olszewski to withdraw from his congressional race.
Olszewski’s campaign manager, Asa Leventhal, rejected those calls.
“The Maryland Republican Party continues to desperately grasp at straws to find any reason to distract voters from candidates like Kim Klacik, who back the extreme policies of Donald Trump — a convicted felon,” he said.