I am not going to cite an article here, but if you want to find more info about this, click on www.omalleywatch.com.
Basically, here's what happened. The state decided it wanted to buy a piece of land for preservation. The land was officially appraised twice, the appraisals for $3.6 million and $4.6 million respectively. According to the Baltimore Sun, the state along with Quenne Anne's County paid a total of $5 million for it.
Why $400,000 higher than THE HIGHEST appraisal? Because the owner of the land was a member of the O'Malley transition team! Smell a rat?
A 29-year state employee, Nelson Riechart, pointed out that in cases of differering appraisals, the state pays the average of the 2, or $4.1 million in this case. When he stated this FACT, he was fired THE NEXT DAY!. But the governor's office says the two events had nothing in common, simply that they wanted to take the Mr. Riechart's department in a different direction.
I mean, come on. If you didn't think things were out of control already, you do now.
