Category Archives: Uncategorized

State Comptroller Peter Franchot recently denounced the General Assembly leadership over their move to end scrutiny of state-funded local school contracting by the Board of Public Works (Board.) He fears it opens the way to increased cronyist racketeering in the … Continue reading →

Governor Larry Hogan is angry at four legislators he identifies as leading the effort to reduce oversight by accountable officials of school contracting. He posted pictures of the four on his Facebook page (see below) with the comment “Incredible. These … Continue reading →

Anirban Basu, the Baltimore based advocate for ‘public private partnerships’ had about 800 words in the Frederick News-Post May 22, 2016 under the head “Downtown hotel & conference center will be a boon for Frederick.” Basu attributed the $81m cost … Continue reading →

No quarterback for the downtown hotel? Frederick News-Post, March 29 2018 You report (Mallory Panuska’s story published on March 24) Mayor Michael O’Connor as wondering whether there’s been a “quarterback” or anyone driving the city’s downtown hotel project. Initiated in 2009, … Continue reading →

City Attorney Saundra Nickols tells us in an email a Request for Proposals CAN be issued by City staff without approval of the Board of Aldermen. She maintains that the City’s Purchasing Policies and Procedures Manual does NOT require Mayor … Continue reading →

COMPLAINT: Failure to conduct an open meeting of the Mayor & Board of the City of Frederick to present, discuss, and vote on RFP14J, the procurement of a developer for the City-sponsored downtown hotel

City records show that the key procurement, RFP14J, in which a developer was sought for the downtown hotel was never presented, discussed, or voted on, at a public hearing of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen back in 2013/2014.  The … Continue reading →

Back five years, on February 6, 2013 at a Mayor & Board of Aldermen (M&B) workshop there was an interesting discussion among the City officials who got us into the downtown hotel boondoggle. They were considering a recommendation from the … Continue reading →

The terms of the City-Plamondon deal for developing a hotel complex on the old Frederick News-Post are now in “active negotiation.” Mayor Michael O’Connor says this in a letter to Andy Stout, who wrote him questioning aspects of the City’s … Continue reading →

This website is dedicated to documenting what’s wrong with the City-sponsored hotel project here in downtown Frederick. We’ve written about: — how and why the project was launched (because hotel developer Pete Plamondon thought such a hotel could pay once … Continue reading →