“I never dreamed that I would be investigated by the police department for doing my job according to Baltimore County Policy and Procedure.”

So wrote Michael R. Beichler to the Baltimore County Council last week, stepping forward to publicly identify himself as the “whistleblower” who helped expose the 2022 Eagle Transfer Station controversy that involved campaign contributions and alleged influence peddling at the highest levels of Baltimore County government.

“Maybe I would have issues with the Mafia or a hauler whose throwers are gang members. But never would I imagine that politicians and the acting director of public works would sic the police department upon me,” Beichler continued.

But they did.

Three high-ranking officials serving under County Executive Johnny Olszewski – Chief of Staff Patrick Murray, Public Works Director D’Andrea Walker and Chief of Police Melissa Hyatt – set in motion an investigation of Beichler for “burglary and trespassing” that kept a detective in the criminal intelligence unit busy for three weeks before he came up with nothing.

Hyatt and Murray have since left county government. But Walker is now up for a promotion to county administrative officer, the highest non-elected position in government. The County Council is set to act on her nomination later this month.

In his letter to Council Chairman Izzy Patoka and his six elected colleagues, Beichler asserts that the police department was called in “to make Baltimore County employees fearful of sharing information which is considered detrimental to the county” in an “attempt at obstruction of justice regarding the expose on the Eagle Transfer Station.”

It all stemmed, he says, from the administration’s fury over press accounts about Olszewski’s efforts to help Carroll County businessman, Jackson “Jack” Haden, open the for-profit Eagle Transfer Station in Rosedale.

The Brew reported that Haden’s plan was dead in the water until he organized a private fundraiser on June 12, 2021 for Olszewki, which was attended by a dozen fellow trash haulers.

• Beichler case holds a harsh mirror up to the Olszewski administration (4/4/24)

The very next day, Acting Public Works Director Walker began pressuring her subordinates to amend the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan and allow Haden to build the facility.

In email correspondence, she said she was acting at the direction of “the CE” (county executive), and at staff meetings she was even more blunt:

“We need to get this done for Johnny,” Beichler quotes Walker as saying.

As chief of solid waste management, Beichler objected.

He argued that a private transfer station was not only unnecessary (the county has plenty of transfer capacity), but the decision would divert millions of dollars in “tipping fees” from the county into Haden’s pockets.

“Ms. Walker was very upset,” he said, noting that her public justification for the new transfer station – that the county’s flow of garbage was skyrocketing when in fact it had declined by 5% – “was not correct and very misleading.”

“It was most obvious to me,” Beichler’s letter to the Council says, “that Mr. Olszewski was accepting political contributions for its approval, and Ms. Walker was pushing for me to silently acquiesce while herself cheerleading and pushing for its approval at all levels.”

In January 2022, Beichler filed a complaint with Inspector General Kelly Madigan, charging that Haden’s fundraiser influenced Olszewski’s decision to seek approval of the Eagle Transfer Station. The following month he retired, after 20 years of county service, “because I was not allowed as an employee to voice my concerns to either the Baltimore County Planning Board or to the public.”

“It was most obvious to me that Mr. Olszewski was accepting political contributions for its approval, and Ms. Walker was pushing for me to silently acquiesce”  – From Beichler’s March 27, 2024 letter to the County Council.

Beichler was an unnamed source in the June 9, 2022 Brew article. The article focused on the fundraiser (which netted the county executive $35,900) and the subsequent flurry of emails, first between Walker and her deputies and then with County Administrator Stacy Rodgers, brainstorming ways to promote Haden’s project.

The Baltimore Sun followed up on June 14, reporting that Madigan had opened an investigation into the Eagle Transfer Station at the request of an individual who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation.

Surmising who that individual was, Murray asked Chief Hyatt to open a criminal investigation on the whistleblower.

In an email to Hyatt on June 16, Murray built his case for an investigation this way:

“Mr. Beichler was observed entering a Public Works & Transportation facility after ordinary business hours on May 2 and May 5. DPWT has video of him entering the facility and exiting the facility with a box. I respectfully request the Police Department open an investigation into his unauthorized entrance into a County facility and his departure from that facility with County property.”

The investigation of “internal trespassing and theft” was assigned to a county detective who reviewed camera surveillance and interviewed various DPWT employees, including Walker’s top aide, Anthony Russell, identified as the “contact person” for the inquiry.

The investigation was dropped on the advice of a senior assistant state’s attorney, who said Beichler’s activities “did not meet any criminal elements.”

The probe yielded no evidence of theft or damage of county property. Asked by the detective if he knew of “anything missing” from the facility that Beichler had entered, Nicholas Rodricks, the new head of solid waste, said he did not.

The investigation was dropped on the advice of a senior assistant state’s attorney, who said Beichler’s activities “did not meet any criminal elements.”

The assistant SA recommended that the county send a letter to Beichler advising him not to enter county property except in areas open to the public.

That left the County Council confronted with Resolution 26-22, introduced by Olszewski, allowing Haden to operate the county’s first privately owned transfer station.

Describing himself as a public servant who serves his hometown (“I don’t consider myself a trash mogul, as I was recently portrayed”), Haden pressed for approval.

Despite enthusiastic support of the resolution by then-Council Chairman Julian E. Jones Jr. (“we all are rooting for the home team,” he said), the media scrutiny of the Eagle Transfer Station deal had made an impact.

Other Council members expressed concern about the fiscal impact of the proposal and fretted over the yearly loss of revenue if the transfer station was approved.

A vote was scheduled for July 5, 2022, but Olszewski apparently decided to cut his losses.

At the start of the public meeting, Jones announced that it was the “will of everyone” that action on the resolution be deferred indefinitely. A month later, on August 3, the administration announced that Pat Murray was stepping down as Olszewski’s chief of staff. Hyatt left as police chief in November.

Campaign Contributions

Even though the Eagle Transfer plan has not resurfaced since, Haden continues to shower county politicians with campaign funds.

In 2023 alone, Haden and his business entities handed out:

• $14,000 to Councilman Jones (D, 4th).

• $10,000 to Councilman Patoka (D, 2nd).

• $8,000 to Councilman Patrick Young (D, 1st).

• $3,000 to Councilman Mike Ertel (D, 6th).

• $9,000 to County Executive Olszewski, who is running to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Rupperberger in Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District. If he wins the May Democratic primary and the November general election, Olszewski will head to Congress midway through his second term as county executive.

Beichler said he has come out publicly so that the Council can make an informed decision about Walker’s qualifications for the top administrative post and to lament that his complaints to the Inspector General have not yet resulted in a public report of her findings.

“All of the issues, complaints and their documentation in this letter have been previously filed with the Baltimore County Inspector General as per policy and procedure,” he asserted.

“The Inspector General received the complaints between January 2022 and February 2023, and I did attend two interviews with the IG as a result of them. As of this letter, I have received no feedback.”

• To reach a reporter: reuttermark@yahoo.com