Marschner’s Reasons for Retiring
Announcement was made yesterday that Michael Marschner, the Director of the Frederick County Division of Utilities & Solid Waste Management, is retiring from county employ.
TheTentacle.com has received communications from several sources regarding Mr. Marshner’s decision. Below is a letter from Mr. Marschner to County Commissioner Kai Hagen outlining some of the reasons for his decision to retire. We present it without further comment – because, as you will see, it needs no further comment. The letter was posted as an email at 3:18 P.M. yesterday.
Commission(er) Hagen:
Your statements/communication with Mr. Smith is flagrantly incorrect. It suggests that the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority (NMWDA) and I have refused to provide information that you requested, which is absolutely incorrect. The truth is you have been provided hundreds of pages of documents regarding the WTE project at your special request, which was in addition to what all of the other Commissioners received in staff reports and presentations. You then provided portions, if not all, of this information to Caroline Eader who subsequently filed a law suit against the County regarding the WTE facility.
Contrary to what you have suggested, the DUSWM, the NMWDA, and several consultants have spent years providing information to the BOCC and the public on the project, including numerous scenarios and underlying assumptions on the WTE operation and financial considerations. Furthermore the detailed information has been provided to the public in numerous public presentations, work sessions and public hearings, with the information subsequently posted on the County web site, providing ready access for the public to review and critique.
In August of this year the current BOCC decided to have a qualified independent consultant review the WTE project model including an in depth review of the electronic spreadsheets and assumptions and prepare a report for the BOCC. Even before that meeting ended you unjustly criticized the consultant that was selected to do this work and inferred a conflict of interest on their part. The majority of the BOCC decided that this was the approach we were to take, as opposed to providing the electronic version of the model to others, some of which you are closely aligned with in your opposition to the WTE project.
To my knowledge you have not once asked that BOCC Resolution 06-05, the 2006 action by the BOCC to pursue the WTE concept, be reconsidered by this Board. Instead you have continually attacked me and the staff of the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority regarding the project with snide insinuation and innuendo in emails and during public presentations. This is not responsible behavior by an elected official and reflects poorly, not only on you, but unfortunately the Board of County Commissioners as an elected body, which it does not deserve.
Your treatment of staff over the last several years, who were directed by a formal BOCC Resolution to work on the WTE project has been nothing less than unprofessional and childish. Do you really think this type of behavior and attacks on staff are justified or appropriate by an elected official. I do not, and this is one of the principal reasons that I have decided to submit my resignation/retirement from Frederick County.
Michael G. Marschner, Director
Frederick County Division of
Utilities & Solid Waste Management
4520 Metropolitan Court
Frederick, Maryland 21704
Phone: 301-600-XXXX
FAX: 301-600-XXXX
|
