To: Howard County Council, Lixa Markovitz, Susan Gray, Allen Dyer, Jane Gray, Frederick Gray, Shun Lu, Alan Schneider, Peg Whyte, Rus Swatek, Paul Verchinski, Myra Phelps, Soon Park, Ellen Long, and Susan Garber
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
SAY NO TO THE REAPPOINTMENT OF WILLIAM ERSKINE, BIG MONEY DEVELOPMENT LAWYER, TO THE HOWARD COUNTY ECONOMIC AUTHORITY BOARD!!
Why is this important?
This moveon.org petition is about a Petition to add a Rezoning Referendum in Howard County, MD to the ballot in Nov 2014. The petition circulators, asked registered voters in Howard County to sign the petition in order for the citizens of Howard County to be able to vote on whether or not they want big development in many portions of the county. The circulators got 7000 signatures, more than enough for the ballot. The short story is the developers with their money and their lawyers have served the petitioners with subpoenas and some with writs for potential arrest!
One of the intimidation lawyers, William Erskine, is up for reappointment to a position of serious power on the Howard County Economic Development Authority.
We find this a most egregious conflict of interest. Mr. Erskine (of Offit Kurman law firm, Fulton, MD) is the prime attorney for the Moxley development firm: Normandy Ventures. He is the one who has threatened and intimidated Petition Circulators with being video deposed, asked to produce intrusive degrees of documents, and, finally, being hauled into court by the sheriff. He, speaking for Big Money Development in Howard County and is out to quash citizens right to free speech, petition their government, and their right to referendum.
We do NOT want Mr. William Erskine on the Howard County Economic Development Authority. There will, most likely, be many challenges to zoning in the future. We cannot allow Mr. Erskine to have free reign over citizen’s rights in Howard County.
One of the intimidation lawyers, William Erskine, is up for reappointment to a position of serious power on the Howard County Economic Development Authority.
We find this a most egregious conflict of interest. Mr. Erskine (of Offit Kurman law firm, Fulton, MD) is the prime attorney for the Moxley development firm: Normandy Ventures. He is the one who has threatened and intimidated Petition Circulators with being video deposed, asked to produce intrusive degrees of documents, and, finally, being hauled into court by the sheriff. He, speaking for Big Money Development in Howard County and is out to quash citizens right to free speech, petition their government, and their right to referendum.
We do NOT want Mr. William Erskine on the Howard County Economic Development Authority. There will, most likely, be many challenges to zoning in the future. We cannot allow Mr. Erskine to have free reign over citizen’s rights in Howard County.