Ethics Committee unanimously recommends to censure Currie

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By Dan Menefee
Dan@MarylandReporter.com

Sen. Ulysses Currie

Sen. Ulysses Currie on Thursday morning.

The Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics unanimously recommended to censure Sen. Ulysses Currie for failing to report $250,000 in consulting fees he received from Shoppers Food Warehouse while advocating legislation beneficial to the grocery chain, according to the committee report.

Here is a summary of the recommendations. The full report is available here on the General Assembly’s website.

Currie, D-Prince George’s, will be asked to make an apology, and he would be stripped of all leadership positions in the Senate, if his fellow members agree to the recommendations.

Currie was acquitted last year of federal bribery charges. Investigators said he used his legislative influence to transfer a liquor license for Shoppers Food Warehouse from Takoma Park to College Park while receiving money from the grocery chain as a consultant. Other charges stemmed from Currie’s efforts to secure traffic lights for Shoppers Food Warehouse locations.

“The Joint Committee concludes that Senator Currie participated in legislation relating to Shopper Food Warehouse during the 2005 Session,” The report said. “He was disqualified from participating due to a presumed conflict of interest.”

The matter was brought before the Ethics Committee because Currie did not report the income as required by Senate rules.

The committee made its decision last Friday, but held off the announcement while the report was finalized for Senate President Mike Miller. He said on several occasions that the full Senate would probably accept the recommendations.

In a statement, Miller said, “I commend the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics on their thorough and deliberative work resulting in the bi-partisan unanimously supported report we received today.”

Committee members Sen. Norman Stone, D-Baltimore County and Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery will read the findings on the Senate floor tomorrow. Currie will be able to respond.

In an effort to prevent lawmakers from violating ethics rules in the future, the committee recommended that both chambers consider a “renewed program of education and enforcement with respect to ethical obligations of it’s members,” the report said.

Currie has been in the Maryland General Assembly for 25 years and is eligible to receive a full pension. Members of the General Assembly receive 66% of their salary as a retirement benefit after 22.3 years of service.

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

2 Comments

  1. William Campbell

    Why is Senator Currie being allowed to remain on the most powerful committee in the General Assembly?  We need the smartest people in the General Assembly on the Budget & Appropriations Committee.  He utilized the “stupid, but nice” defense at his recent trial.  If he is “smart enough” to remain in that post he should have known that his behavior was inappropriate (and I believe illegal).  If he is as mentally challenged as his supporters testified at his trial, he is too stupid to be managing Maryland’s finances.  You cannot have it both ways.  The Maryland Senate is not serious about preventing further inappropriate behavior by its members.  This proposed “punishment” is a sorry sham!   

  2. party

    MORAL of the story is, if your smart enough to be chairman of marylands budget and tax committee,
     your smart enough to get away with CRIMES in public office and still get a great pension .

     The md assembly like congress takes care of their own first.
    The rest of us go to jail, lose a job and no pension reward. 
     
    Maybe currie  and  the mayor dixon should get together for dinner  at the baltimores  satdium sky box  , I sure the present Mayor could find some free tickets for them.

    Join,  Move ….Move out of Maryland…..you crooks.

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