Currie's Committee Role Questioned By Baltimore Co. Senator
Sen. James Brochin Writes That He's 'Absolutely Flabbergasted'
Maryland state Sen. Ulysses Currie is no longer serving on a powerful legislative committee, which was reported Thursday by The Baltimore Sun the day a Baltimore County senator questioned the censured senator's membership.
The Sun reported Thursday evening that Currie was taken off the Rules or Executive Nominations committees. Currie was recently censured and banned from leadership posts. An ethics panel determined that Currie used his position for personal gain and to help Shoppers Food Warehouse. It was the first time in 14 years that the Senate imposed sanctions against one of its own.
In a letter to the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, Sen. James Brochin had asked why Currie was still a member of the Executive Nominations Committee.
"It was my understanding that the recommendation of the Joint Committee of Legislative Ethics to the Senate president was that he be stripped of all committee assignments except for his standing committee, which is Budget and Taxation, and his participation as a member of the Prince George's County delegation," Brochin wrote in the letter.
He went on to say he was "absolutely flabbergasted" and that the panel's work had been circumvented.
"If we are to have a committee system and it is supposed to have meaning, and if the committee's report is accepted by the full Senate (which it was), then the penalties imposed on Sen. Currie should be adhered to," Brochin wrote.