Mums the Word on Revenue Authority Ethics Bill

County officials say there has been no discussion on whether to support or oppose an effort to place the Baltimore County Revenue Authority under county ethics laws.

Don Mohler, a county spokesman and chief of staff to County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, said there has been no discussion on a proposal by state Del. John Cluster that would authorize Baltimore County to include the authority under county ethics rules.

"We honestly haven't had time to discuss the issue," Mohler said. "We've been involved in other things."

Cluster, a Parkville Republican, said last week that he plans to file the bill after a report by Patch revealed that neither state nor county ethics laws apply to the authority.

The authority is a quasi-public agency created in the 1950s by the General Assembly to oversee county parking operations. The agency has evolved over the last 20 years to include five public golf courses and an indoor soccer-ice rink facility in Reisterstown.

They authority is empowered with the ability to issue bonds and condemn land for public purpose. While it receives no money from the county, all of the land on which its garages and golf facilities are built is owned by the county taxpayers. Those properties are valued at about $60 million, according to one estimate, and generate between $10 million and $15 million in revenue annually.

A news report about William "Lynnie" Cook, chief executive of the authority, at the exclusive Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey found that the legislature failed to establish which ethics rules applied to the agency. The county is in the midst of but cannot add the authority without action by the state legislature.

Cluster said that his bill would give the county the authorization it requires.

Mohler said he couldn't comment on Cluster's bill. When asked if the county supported the concept, Mohler said: "We honestly haven't discussed it but we will at the appropriate time—when we talk about legislative packages coming up shortly.