I originally started this post with the sentence “I couldn’t be more pleased that the sheriff has stepped down and the County can now move on. However, that’s not really true. I could in fact be more pleased if I could feel assured that this wasn’t just the tip of some iceberg. And I could be more pleased if the County perhaps considered a bit more ‘tidying up’ before moving on.
There seems to have been a systemic overlooking or ignoring of the ‘sins of the sheriff’ as well as other issues for the last decade or more. Therefore instead of a post that starts with ‘How Come?’ I have to instead ask ‘Who knew what and when?’ and also ‘Why didn’t anyone do anything sooner?’ Given that the sheriff was in office for a decade one can’t help but wonder when his bullying reign of terror originated. Had he behaved like a bigot, sexist, racist, anti-Semite throughout his entire tenure? Was it tolerated when he worked for the Police or the Union? Had everyone turned a blind eye for a decade or more?
There’s an inherent problem with not uniformly enforcing laws, policies, and regulations. Was a blind eye turned to his failure to live in the County as required? Was a blind eye turned to his failure to take the oath of office? Or to secure the bond required for service?
When I first saw Fitz referred to as the ‘hold over sheriff’ it was in the context of referring to him in that manner because he shouldn’t legally be call Sheriff— given that he failed to take the Oath of Office in 2014 within 30 days of his re-election.
But I also wonder if “hold over sheriff’ doesn’t have a second connotation as in “What did he ‘hold over’ our local public servants.
Only time will tell….or perhaps it’ll remain silent. It is wise to revisit the problems of the past so that we don’t repeat them.
Hope for the dawning of a new era by probing the past—and meet me on the high road—
Susan
I personally think that no one wanted to tackle this problem since there were no political bennees to be had. There were abundant warning signs yet the political class ignored them – from the Governor on down.
Hi Susan
Stumbled upon your blog today, and wanted to drop by to say that I enjoy your writing! Love the meeting you on the high road part.
I too share an interest in things involving Howard County, and I see some symmetry in topics of interest between the two of us (on some matters). Wanted to introduce myself and the blog testingmaryland.com Didn’t see any other way to contact you. Hope this was okay.
The thing that really bothers me is that he left office with his pay, his goodies, his pension , and many other “nice things” . He was not the sheriff could not resign from and office he did not have. He should have been brought up on charges and made to pay back all the kick backs he received from builders, and contractors. Allen Kittleman knew of this but washed his hands and said it is not my turn to watch him. No one wanted to take the bull by the horns and get him out of there. They shook his hand patted him on the back an held the door for him. Most residence of Howard Country know that there is a lot of crooked dealing going on but are afraid to do anything about it. It is time for our county government to start working for the PEOPLE and not anyone who can give them money.