I was hoping he would resign from the County Council

Know one would leave a job like that unless something was offered to make it worth their wild.

Get caught then do the right thing?!? That's why we have so much confidence in our elected officials.

Come on Ken - how many times do you have to get caught breaking the rules? First paying personal expenses out of your campaign finance account. Now this and it was just addressed a few years ago with another councilman, so you really don't have an excuse.

Just a thought. Why don't councilman have to report other jobs or income? Police officers have to report it. Since it is a part time job, most need additional income. Wonder where they get it and if the companies do business with the county?

Ethically he should resign from the council. Also, something should be put into the charter to take back the money...but that will never happen, the council won't have anything to hide behind.

My dear friend said it best: "Truth, justice and the American way." RIP Clark Kent.

Speaking of Mr. Clark Kent, the Sun also reported on this. Shame on them for not giving credit where credit is due. No wonder their circulation is falling faster than a speeding built.

Rumor has it the Sun has a contact out on Bryan Sears. One problem though, they ain't fast enough to keep up with him.

I think I'll go over to their website and slap them.

Doug Donovan's article on Dundalk Patch got me all riled up. I went to my closet and brought out the old police Zap-gloves, black leather with lead in the forehand and knuckles.

They still fit and felt oh so good.

What is wrong with Mr. Oliver? I don't think he is suited to be on the council because of his flawed thinking skills. I mean, he didn't realize he was being paid by the State? So can he name the 3rd party contractor he works for? Wasn't it just a few years ago that his family tried to throw around some political weight to get out a traffic ticket? I think Mr. Oliver's expiration date as a politician is past due.

Well now, Mr. Oliver had a choice, keep the contract job with the state that would not give him a lucrative pension or stay on the council and hope the citizens of his area will continue to vote him back into office so he will get himself an overly generous pension. Not really much of a choice. These sorry council people need a 403b program not some gauranteed pension like the slimy one Gaudino received. The citiznes of the county are just as oblivious at this level as they are on the state level with these sorry democrats. Keep voting them back into office and you deserve what you get.

Bryan, are disclosures public record and are they on the web?

I agree Jackie. However, half the voters in his district probably do not follow politics. Just ask a few people at the 711 or a gas station in Randallstown or any other district- Who is your councilman? Dunno!!! They just keep voting for the same person. It is called name recognition. The other half will forget by the time he is up for re-election.
I do not think it is many politicians left that actually want to help. It is all about retaining power as long as possible and pensions. He will leave office when he is ready.

Shawn, you think that half the voters follow politics? You sure have an optimistic view of things. I suspect it's more like 90% that don't follow politics, in the sense of really knowing and understanding what is going on. And that's true in every district, not just Oliver's.

The County Charter reads:

" (b) Other offices. No person shall qualify or serve as a member of the county council while he holds any other office or employment for profit of or under the state or county, and no member of the county council, during his term of office, shall be eligible for appointment to any county office, position or employment carrying compensation except the office of county executive. "

As such, Mr. Oliver was not qualified to act as a councilman during his term of employment with the state. Accordingly, any votes cast by Mr. Oliver are likely invalid and must be reviewed. If the Council will not police their own, any taxpayer in Baltimore County should have standing to seek the Court to order a complete review of all actions by the Council under while Mr. Oliver was not "Qualified to serve" or order that all votes cast by Mr. Oliver during his dual employment are invalid and must be re-cast once he is qualified.

This is called the Rule of Law and laws (including the "Charter") must be followed by our law-makers.

Thank you to Bryan and Patch for holding our "leaders" accountable.

To Mr. Pappas, "This is called the Rule of Law and laws (including the "Charter") must be followed by our law-makers". Does that include zoning laws? That didn't seem to apply to the former governor or your client as you went to federal court to fight the zoning laws and lost! Why didn't the former gov agree then that laws must be followed or was there another agenda, like cheap publicity for him,you and your client. Your client is now the chairman of the repub central comittee. The irony or is it the hypocrysy, I'm not sure which but it sure isn't transparency or honesty. Mr. Oliver was wrong and never should have taken that job but please to read your statement about laws needing to be followed just doesn't pass the smell test.

C'mon Dorn, don't give me this ole bullsh*t! A private citizen challenging the constitutionality of a county zoning law in federal court is hardly analogous to an elected official blatantly violating the County Charter.

The case referred to by Mr. Dorn in his personal attack on me and my client really proves the point about the rule of law that I was trying to make. So thanks for bringing it up! Mr. Kolbe was singled out by political operatives for placing a sign on his lawn in support of the former Governor. This was clearly evidenced by the fact that the "anonymous" complaint taken by the head of the Code Enforcement division could never be traced to any actual person other than a few certain Democrat operatives who were targeting all Republican signs during that election. Nevertheless, despite his belief that his constitutional rights had been intentionally violated by the Baltimore County Government, Mr. Kolbe removed his sign and took his case to court, in order to challenge the law that he was accused of violating as well as the thinly veiled political motivations behind it. Mr. Kolbe prosecuted his case vigilantly and stood by his position that his rights had been violated.

Mr. Kolbe did not lose his case. Although the judge did not grant his request for a preliminary injunction, he and I were confident that either the Trial Court judge or the Appellate Court would have ultimately ruled in his favor on the issue. Moreover, Mr. Kolbe’s case is an shining example of a single man (and his family) forced to stand up to their own government in order to exercise their rights to freely associate and to speak freely on their own property and his case is a testimony to the system of checks and balances in our country (however flawed they may be).

Unfortunately, this matter is also an example of a situation seen far too often in our County and country on a grand scale, where government infringes upon the basic constitutional rights of its citizens and then forces the solitary citizen to spend tremendous amounts of money in order to attempt to force the government to stay within the legal bounds set up by our founders.

Mr. Dorn’s comments are also classic examples of diversion and misdirection. Instead of pointing out how Mr. Oliver’s clearly violative situation was not in violation of the passage from the charter that I cited, Mr. Dorn chose to simply attack me personally and then vaguely suggest that my posting (which was a simple verbatim cut and paste from the county charter) was somehow less credible because I represented a citizen that challenged the constitutionality of a particular law. Moreover, Mr. Dorn also seemingly also suggests that Mr. Kolbe was somehow less entitled to bring his case because he is now the Chairman of the Republican Party in Baltimore County. At the time he prosecuted his case, Mr. Kolbe was an average citizen and business owner and had no more formal connection to politics than any other registered voter in Maryland. Since these facts didn’t support Mr. Dorn’s unsupportable position or distract from Mr. Oliver’s plain refusal to follow the very clear language of the Charter, Mr. Dorn did not include them.

The fact remains that Mr. Oliver was wrong and that he was clearly ineligible under the Charter to serve as a Councilman during his dual employment with the state. In addition, the fact also remains that any Taxpayer in Baltimore County could bring a suit at this time in the Circuit Court or a Federal Court to force the County Council to revisit every vote cast by Mr. Oliver when he was ineligible to serve. Moreover, such a citizen should also be able to request that the Court order Mr. Oliver to repay his Council salary, car benefits, pension time accrued, and other perks bestowed upon him by the County during his period of ineligibility. My opinion about this matter would not change if he was Ronald Reagan himself.