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Healey Can't Communicate With Her Own Staff; Blames Cassilly, Threatens Lawsuit, Demands Taxpayers Pay Unspecified Millions For Her Mismanagement
Taking a page out of the Washington DC playbook, Harford County States Attorney Alison Healey hastily called a press conference on Monday to blame the County Executive Bob Cassilly for her inability to effectively manage key personnel in her own agency. Not only that, she demanded taxpayers pay an unspecified amount for her mismanagement by insisting on a completely new IT system, separate from the existing Harford County technology.
This was the headline story last Monday, but supposedly Healey and Cassilly have worked out some kind of agreement since then. Agreement or not, this doesn't change the fact that Healey was willing to hold the taxpayers hostage for her political gamesmanship. By her own admission, Healey waited less than two full business days before threatening action against the taxpayers unless Cassilly submitted to the demands stated in her hysterical presser.
I'm not a reporter or a politician. I'm not a smart man (but I do know what love is). I work for a private company that sells products and services. If our prices get too far out of line, our customers punish us by using someone else for those products and services. So we have to watch our expenses. We can't just arbitrarily raise our prices whenever we want like politicians do. So it's difficult for me to understand the mentality of an elected official who is willing to soak the taxpayers with millions in unnecessary new expenses at a time when interest rates, housing prices, and the the cost of everything is going up except the incomes of regular people.
The employee whose email Ms. Healey sought worked for Ms. Healey, not Mr. Cassilly. Why didn't Ms. Healey simply instruct the employee taking leave to forward their emails to her (or the appropriate person) before beginning FMLA? Reports state that the employee was accessible to Healey. If this is true, it seems like overkill to have a press conference. If Healey did not have access to this employee, it also seems like the press conference was a bit over-the-top. Perhaps some additional efforts involving more diplomatic means would have been more effective.
Another consideration is this- like Sgt. Spendman (AKA The Councilman from District Snee), Alison is definitely a member of Team OD (overdevelopment). As the graphic below indicates, Healey received over $10,000 from Michael Euler and his businesses during the last campaign cycle. Could this be another tactic in Team OD's attacks against anyone who resists the agenda of big-moneyed powerbrokers like Euler and Snee?
It's not unreasonable to think so based on who is funding them both, and their public appearances during the 2022 elections. Penman was President of the Harford County Deputy Sheriff's Union at the time, and a lot of money and support flowed through the HCDSU Political Action Committee for Healey. Never one to shy away from a conflict of interest, Penman was of course endorsed by the HCDSU PAC while he was still the union president. The HCDSU leadership had multiple candidates they endorsed without even interviewing their opponents to see where they stood on the issues.
Further, lots of money was flowing into Insider Management Group, Erik Robey's political consulting side-hustle- or is the Sheriff's Office gig his side hustle? Revenue reports for Insider Management seem to indicate the latter. For those of you who are new to this newsletter, Erik Robey was the Chief of Staff to the disgraced former AA County Executive John Leopold, who was convicted of misconduct in office. During the trial, Robey admitted to conducting campaign business while at work and viewing opposition research dossiers improperly produced by the AA County Police Department. Robey was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony against Leopold.
Robey's shady past is well-documented. For a quick review, click HERE, HERE, and HERE.
However, not only did Sheriff Gahler hire this man, he created an entirely new position for him- and pays Robey a six-figure salary at taxpayer expense. It's unconscionable that the county's chief law enforcement official would have such poor judgment to hire someone who admitted under oath to misusing police resources and participated in the weaponization of law enforcement for political purposes. This man should be nowhere near a law enforcement agency, yet Gahler seems to have made Robey a "gatekeeper" of sorts to the Harford County Sheriff's Office, with the title of Director of Legislative and Community Affairs.
During the 2022 election cycle, Robey maintained his position at the sheriff's office, was a campaign advisor to Aaron Penman, was on the Harford County Redistricting Committee, all while he was raking in money from primarily establishment politicians from Harford and around the state for political consulting, signs, mailers, and other services through Insider Management Group.
It is important to understand that while Robey was on the redistricting committee that would decide councilmanic districts in the county, Robey was actively working on Penman's campaign. To be clear, this meant a member of Penman's campaign staff was on the committee that had influence over which people would be voting for his candidate. In other words, a conflict of interest was being created in which politicians could potentially be choosing their voters rather than the voters choosing their politicians. Council President Vincenti was well aware of this conflict at the time, and allowed it to continue. This is not surprising as Penman was Vincenti's choice, and they openly campaigned together on a frequent basis.
Forgive me for the tangent, it always takes time to unclog and map out the sewer of Harford County politics. Most of our politicians claim to be Republicans, but openly oppose most of the stated principles of the Republican Party. They are not fiscally conservative, they do not follow the constitutions, they do not demand accountability in the public schools, they have brought perverts to the libraries to read stories to the children, and they do not care about you. Both Democrats and Republicans openly defy the county charter that gives them the authority to exist in the first place. Jacob Bennett is a county employee who works for the schools, and Aaron Penman was just re-hired as a deputy with the sheriff's office. He now works for both the legislative AND judicial branches of the county government, regardless of the wordsmithing to the contrary by liberal judges and the sheriff.
As always, we encourage you to research these things for yourself and don't simply accept our word for it. We hope to aid anyone who is interested in finding the truth.
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