Ethics complaint? No comment.
Yesterday Steve Bailey filed an ethics complaint against County Executive Jim Smith.
Today, Bailey may find himself on the receiving end.
Bailey and the organization he co-chairs, the Baltimore County Chapter of Americans for Prosperity, may have run afoul of the law when they issued a press release yesterday naming Smith as the target of an ethics complaint.
The County Charter article on public ethics states that “the Commission, its staff, the complainant, and the respondent may not disclose information relating to the complaint, including the identity of the complainant and the respondent.”
“I find it interesting that a former Deputy State’s Attorney is unfamiliar with the County Code.” said Don Mohler, a Smith spokesman.
Mohler declined to comment on whether Bailey would be the subject of an ethics complaint.
Bailey, in a phone interview today, said he learned of the prohibition on disclosing information on an ethics complaint “late yesterday afternoon.”
“Now I’m in a position of saying I can’t talk to you about it,” Bailey said.
Bailey added that he would continue to have no comment on statements made about him by Mohler.