As delegate, Busch not bound by Arundel panel, state says
Attorney general's office backs him on ethics issue

By Ryan Davis
Sun Staff

June 12, 2003

The Anne Arundel County Ethics Commission cannot restrict House Speaker Michael E. Busch's actions as a state lawmaker, the state attorney general's office wrote in a letter released yesterday.

"It is my view that it would be inappropriate for the County Ethics Commission to attempt to limit those matters on which you could vote as a legislator," Assistant Attorney General Kathryn M. Rowe wrote to Busch, who is a county employee.

The letter throws significant legal weight behind the Democrat's position that he can continue to vote on issues affecting the Anne Arundel government, for which he is assistant to the director of recreation and parks. But the letter is not a formal ruling and does not bar the county from investigating Busch's dual roles.

The Ethics Commission met this week, but members have declined to comment on whether they're investigating Busch, a 24-year county employee and five-term delegate.

The letter was written Monday by the office of Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., also a Democrat. The attorney general's office provides legal advice to state officials.

Busch, who was elected speaker of the House of Delegates in December, requested the opinion after a May 29 article in The Sun.

The article disclosed that Busch has introduced legislation that directly benefited the county agency for which he works. For example, a bill he introduced in 2001 directed $250,000 in state money to help turn county farmland into lighted ball fields.

County Executive Janet S. Owens, a fellow Democrat, raised Busch's salary in 2000 after he considered leaving his county and delegate jobs. The raise cleared the way for Busch's salary to jump to $84,862, a 41 percent increase over the past 2 1/2 years.

Some ethics experts suggested that Busch, 56, had a conflict of interest. He said he could balance his two roles but acknowledged that the county ethics law could cause problems for him.

The law bars county employees from assisting a company or agency in matters in which the county might have a competing interest.

Based on that provision, the Ethics Commission ruled last year that Michael W. Fox, a county employee who is also an Annapolis alderman, could not vote on or discuss issues such as annexation of county land.

Busch said that if a complaint was filed against him and the same ruling was applied, he would be barred from doing much of his legislative work, even voting on the state budget, because the state and county often have competing interests for money.

In that situation, he said, he would be forced to resign one job or the other, and he would relinquish his county job.

But Rowe wrote, "It is my view that an attempt by the Commission to exercise such authority based on your actions as a legislator would raise at least three separate, though related, legal problems."

As a delegate, Busch is protected against regulation by local government, the letter states.

The letter, which was also sent to the County Ethics Commission, does not mean the issue is closed.

Alan Hilliard Legum, chairman of the commission, declined to comment on Busch's case. But he said that if the commission received a letter from the state attorney general's office, it would seek legal advice.

Monday, the day the letter was drafted, the Ethics Commission held its monthly meeting. As is customary when the commission discusses continuing ethics investigations or decides whether to begin an investigation, it went into closed session at the end of the meeting.

Busch said yesterday that the Ethics Commission had not notified him of any investigation into his actions.
 

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun