Quite a hornets nest has been stirred up

reference point:

UMMS = University of Maryland Medical System

UMMS comprises 14 hospitals across Maryland with over 100,000 admissions, 1.4 million outpatient visits and 375,000 E.R. visits annually.

It now has 28,000 employees and $4.4 billion in annual revenues.

UMMS CEO Chrencik is on paid leave since 25 Mar 2019
($4 million per year)

Acting UMMS CEO is John Ashworth

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https://www.baltimoresun.com/n...-20190406-story.html

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh solicited a lucrative no-bid arrangement to sell copies of her self-published children’s books to the University of Maryland Medical System in “direct conversations” with the hospital network’s CEO, a top system official testified Saturday in Annapolis.

Acting CEO John W. Ashworth III said his predecessor, Robert A. Chrencik, talked with Pugh about buying the “Healthy Holly” books.

“We do know that the mayor approached us,” Ashworth told the House Health and Government Operations Committee. “She had direct conversations with the president and CEO at the time, and possibly others. But we need to look into that even more to make a determination about how all of that occurred.”

Ashworth’s testimony came after earlier statements from Pugh and Chrencik about how the book deal, which ultimately paid Pugh at total of $500,000 between 2011 and 2018, came about. Pugh has said someone at the system expressed interest in her “Healthy Holly” books while she was paging through a copy before the start of a meeting of the system’s volunteer board of directors.

“Prior to a board meeting at the University of Maryland Medical System, I shared it with one of the colleagues there,” Pugh said at a news conference last month. “They liked it and felt it was a part of their own mission and they raised the question, ‘How many?’ I said I wanted to get the book out to young people in the Baltimore City Public Schools.” The mayor did not say whom she talked with.

Ashworth’s statement prompted several delegates to question Chrencik’s status.

“ We have questions why the CEO is on paid leave instead of unpaid leave ,” said Del. Terri Hill, a Howard County Democrat who is a physician.

“We learned today that the CEO who is on leave was approached by Mayor Pugh to buy her books and then he allowed the system to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on them or, at best, he looked the other way,” said Del. Nic Kipke, the Anne Arundel County Republican who is House minority leader. “With that in mind, and with all of the other questionable contracts, I believe it’s inappropriate that he’s on leave with pay.”

The medical system has been under fire since last month, when The Baltimore Sun reported that nine of 30 board members had deals benefiting their companies with the system of hospitals they were tasked with overseeing. Three board members, including Pugh, have resigned from the board, while four are on leave.

Hill said she was concerned about business relationships with other board members, particularly former Sen. Francis X. Kelly whose Baltimore County business, Kelly & Associates Insurance Group, has made millions with the system’s hospitals.

Kelly and two of his sons have taken voluntary leaves of absence from the boards of six affiliated UMMS organizations amid the continuing controversy.

Del. Kathy Szeliga, a Baltimore County Republican, questioned the acting CEO on why one of Pugh’s lieutenants — former Democratic Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith — is on the UMMS board while working at City Hall.

“I would say perhaps he should consider being on leave, as well,” Szeliga said.

Smith resigned from his post as adviser to the mayor on Friday, it was announced Saturday.

It was announced this morning that after the Mayor said she was coming back when she recovered, the entire City Council signed a letter asking (telling) her to resign.

There's more "collusion" here than there EVER was with Pres. Trump and Russia. Where's Mueller when you need him??

https://www.baltimoresun.com/n...-20190407-story.html

7am today: Baltimore City council sends a letter urging Pugh to resign.

noon today: Pugh’s office issued a response saying the leave was for health reasons and that she plans to return to her duties as mayor

“Mayor Pugh has taken a leave to focus on recovering from pneumonia and regaining her health,” Pugh’s office said in a statement. “She fully intends to resume the duties of her office and continuing her work on behalf of the people and the City of Baltimore.”

maybe a small add on here, but Pugh sure sold a lot of people books

https://foxbaltimore.com/featu...company-bought-books

Five months before Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh voted in favor of a $40,000,000.00 contract with a Chicago Investment Firm, Pugh was being flown to California by Ariel Investments and put up in a hotel. Pugh had been tapped by the company to speak at the Black Corporate Directors Conference in Laguna Beach.

Ariel Investments denies the trip influenced the Mayor to approve the multi-million dollar contract

In 2013, the company paid for then Senator Pugh to attend the same conference. As part of that agreement, Ariel Investments purchased four hundred copies of “Healthy Holly” authored by Pugh.

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Ariel Investments is an investment company located in Chicago, Illinois.

Ariel claims to be the largest minority-owned investment firm

Hillary must be kicking herself for not coming up with a scheme like this.

rain keeps coming down

https://www.wbaltv.com/article...-paid-leave/27101306

3 mayoral aides on paid leave were board members of nonprofit once chaired by Pugh

Three mayoral aides, who were listed as board members of a nonprofit that was once chaired by Mayor Catherine Pugh, are on paid leave from their city jobs.

The 11 News I-Team has learned that Ex-Officio Mayor Jack Young placed the aides on paid leave Wednesday as part of a personnel matter and that there are no specific allegations of wrongdoing raised. The specific reason is not being disclosed. Calls to the city solicitor and to the aides were not returned Wednesday.

Gary Brown Jr., Afra Vance-White and Poetri Deal were listed as board members of the nonprofit Maryland Center for Adult Training, which previously operated under a different name and was once chaired by Pugh

The Maryland Center for Adult Training helps disadvantaged and unemployed students get jobs as nurse's aides. It used to be known as the Maryland Center for Arts and Technology.

The Business Journal reports the nonprofit received city funds while Pugh has been mayor.

The nonprofit used the same address as Pugh's original company, Healthy Holly LLC , according to state and federal records.

Brown serves as the mayor's director of special projects, Deal is the deputy director of the Mayor's Office of Government Relations and Vance-White is the director of external affairs.

Brown was found guilty 2017 of election law violations that stemmed from illegal contributions to the Committee to Elect Catherine Pugh campaign finance entity. The state prosecutor said Brown, who was working for Pugh's mayoral election campaign, deposited a total of $18,000 into the bank accounts of his mother, stepfather and brother and then immediately contributed that money in their names to the Pugh campaign. The maximum amount an individual is allowed to contribute to a candidate is $6,000 per election cycle. Brown was sentenced to probation before judgment and placed on one year of supervised probation.

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what a cesspool

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
Hillary must be kicking herself for not coming up with a scheme like this.

Prolly couldn't find a ghost writer for children's books...

Pugh is still out on sick leave.

Now 6 of her staffers have also been put on paid leave.

The sum of the annual salaries of Pugh and her 6 staff is between $685,000 and 870,000 per year.

The article below says $685k but that assumes her chief of staff was making zero (because his salary is unknown to the Balto Sun paper). The former chief of staff made $183,300 per year.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/n...-20190417-story.html

https://www.wbaltv.com/article...ion-letters/27254812

3 top Pugh aides receive termination letters

Three top aides to Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh who were put on paid leave have received termination letters, Ex-Officio Mayor Jack Young said.

Young confirmed Gary Brown Jr., Poetri Deal and Afra Vance-White are the three aides who received termination letters. No reason was given for their termination. They are at-will employees.

The three were put on paid leave April 10 as part of a personnel matter.

Brown, Vance-White and Deal were listed as board members of the nonprofit Maryland Center for Adult Training, which previously operated under a different name and was once chaired by Pugh.

MCAT received more than $75,000 in city funding since 2016, and has another $20,000 pledged for this fiscal year.

https://www.foxnews.com/politi...ealing-book-scandals

Acting Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young admitted he “would hate to see” embattled Mayor Catherine Pugh return to work after she received $500,000 from the University of Maryland Medical System in what critics have called a “self-dealing” book sale.

“I would hate to see it,” Young said during an interview with Baltimore's WYPR-FM radio, though he stopped short of calling for the scandal-ridden mayor to resign.

According to the Sun, Young told the radio show he hasn’t spoken with Pugh for more than two weeks and doesn’t know the current status of her health.

“It’s frustrating,” Young said. “I would like to know when she plans to return, if she’s going to return.”

But when pressed whether the mayor should resign, Young offered only a diplomatic response: “I’m not going to say that. I’m wishing the mayor well.”

As this saga continues, I am continually amazed by the relatively small payouts these people seem to be getting for their risk. Or is an $800k book deal just the tip of their financial mischief?

Federal agents executed search warrants Thursday morning at two homes belonging to Baltimore's embattled mayor and at City Hall.

Dave Fitz, an FBI spokesman out of the agency's Baltimore office, says agents with the FBI and the IRS criminal division in Washington were "executing court-authorized search warrants" at "both residences and City Hall."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politic...-homes-city-62622995

FBI raids Baltimore Mayor.
https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/04/...%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

she has multiple residences?

how fortunate

It’s difficult not to think of Martha Stewart with a story like this, or the college admissions scandal. Stewart just did 5 months, and it sure wasn’t “The Q,” but she did serve time. I hope this woman gets to experience it too.

Pugh's lawyer:

“She’s in poor physical health and obviously under a tremendous amount of stress, and we hope that as she becomes more lucid she makes appropriate decisions next week,”

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
As this saga continues, I am continually amazed by the relatively small payouts these people seem to be getting for their risk. Or is an $800k book deal just the tip of their financial mischief?

What I can decern, she has no proof that any quantity of books were ever printed. A hospital states they received a few, possibly only 5-20, and so this sale was only on paper to make it look good. People remember seeing "a few copies", but they are not able to find any of them, at least not in the hospital system.

"The UMMS spokesman, Michael Schwartzberg, has said UMMS (University of Maryland Medical System) never had possession of any Healthy Holly books, nor did it distribute books. Book distribution was managed by Healthy Holly LLC.

Corrupt Baltimore Democrat Mayor May Have Fled State After FBI and IRS Raid of Her Home and Office

https://www.thegatewaypundit.c...her-home-and-office/

In March 2018 Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced at that the city would send 60 buses to the march against guns in Washington DC. later in the month.

The Baltimore city school system did not have the money to heat the schools in 2018 but found the money to bus kids to an anti-gun rally.



Pugh has been on leave since April 1, ostensibly to recover from a recent bout with pneumonia but no one has seen her.

City officials now believe that Pugh may have fled the state.

Baltimore CBS Local reported:

Where is Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh? It’s the question buzzing around the city as the FBI and IRS raid Pugh’s home, City Hall and several other locations tied to her Thursday. But, no one has seen the mayor and her own spokesperson doesn’t know where she is even though she’s supposed to be recovering from pneumonia.

Pugh’s spokesman, James Bentley, told The Associated Press Thursday that he hadn’t spoken with the mayor and doesn’t know where she is. Her defense attorney, Steve Silverman, did not immediately return calls; his office routed calls to an answering machine.
Earlier this week the FBI and IRS agents executed search warrants at two homes of Mayor Catherine Pugh, one of her businesses, offices in City Hall, as well as the residence of one of her aides.

Shit show, somebody flush these idiots.

She ran to the only place she could be safe from prosecution and persecution........Chicago.

^^ she went to Chicago for training. They wrote the book on political corruption!