Jul 8, 2008 6:27 pm US/Eastern
Md. Releases Documents Linked To Senator
HANOVER, Md. (AP) ―
A state senator under federal investigation who did not disclose his consulting work for a grocery store chain asked frequent questions to monitor the status of traffic projects near the chain's stores, according to documents made public Monday.
The documents, which include e-mails and letters from state transportation officials, show that Sen. Ulysses Currie was interested in projects near Shoppers Food Warehouse Stores in Prince George's, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, as well as one at Baltimore's Mondawmin Mall.
The records illustrate Currie's persistence in keeping tabs on the status of different projects, such as traffic light installments. They also demonstrate transportation officials were interested in satisfying Currie's queries, with one e-mail noting his influence as chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.
"Senator Currie asks me every time he sees me whether we have resolved the Reisterstown Road Shoppers Food Warehouse issue," State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen wrote to Kenneth McDonald Jr., chief of the department's Engineering Access Permit division, in February 2004. "How close are we to resolving it?"
In a March 2005 e-mail, Pedersen mentions the senator's influence as the head of the committee that helped steer spending in the state's $31.5 billion budget.
"It is very critical that we do all that we can to expedite this as much as possible," Pedersen wrote. "This is very important to the Chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. We have our budget ... and several critical pieces of legislation before his committee right now."
Federal investigators have not said what they are investigating.
They have subpoenaed five state agencies, including the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Maryland Transit Administration, the Motor Vehicle Administration, the State Highway Administration and the Department of Legislative Services.
Currie, a 70-year-old Prince George's County Democrat, did not disclose his employment with Shoppers to the State Ethics Commission as required. On May 29, the FBI searched Currie's District Heights home on the same day they searched at Shoppers headquarters in Lanham.
At Currie's house, agents collected financial information, including "a check stub from Shoppers" from last year, a consulting agreement with the grocery store and tax returns dating to 2002.
Shoppers is based in Lanham, which is in Prince George's County.
More than 1,800 pages of documents were made public, SHA said in a statement.
"SHA's Administrator was interviewed by federal investigators last month," the agency said. "Both he and the entire agency are cooperating fully with the investigation."
The documents were released Monday at the Maryland Department of Transportation, after reporters requested to view them through the state's public information act. Many of the documents have been subpoenaed by the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore.
Currie declined to comment Monday, referring questions to his attorney, Dale Kelberman, who also declined to comment.
The documents indicate that Currie was particularly interested in seeing a traffic light installed near an intersection where a Shoppers store was planned in Baltimore County.
In one letter dated August 2003, Currie wrote to Pedersen about a traffic impact analysis for a traffic light at a Shoppers store in Owings Mills.
"I would like to talk to you about this matter early next week," Currie wrote, including a phone number for his Annapolis office. "Thank you very much for your cooperation."
Five days later, McDonald wrote to SHA officials that Pedersen handed him an analysis for a requested signal. McDonald wrote in the e-mail that the analysis "was delivered to Neil by Senator Ulysses Currie."
"Given the source of the study, I must ask for your schedule for an expedited review," McDonald wrote. "I will arrange for the study to be hand delivered to each of you tomorrow morning, but I would like to be able to give Neil a timeframe so that he can communicate that to the Senator."
State transportation officials later decided there was not adequate justification for a traffic light signal at the Owings Mills store.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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