BALTIMORE (Map, News) - A union representing workers at Fort Monmouth, N.J., said it had nothing to do with an e-mail sent to defense workers there claiming Maryland had high taxes, contaminated milk and an active KKK.

The e-mail, meant to discourage workers from moving to Maryland, shocked leaders and residents in Harford County.

John Poitras, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1904, which represents employees at Fort Monmouth, told The Examiner he never reviewed or approved the e-mail newsletter, which said it came from the AFGE and another union, the National Federation of Federal Employees Local 476.

“I had no authorship in this, I had no input in it and I didn’t send it to anyone,” Poitras said. “Somebody up here’s snookered people down there with the e-mail.”

The e-mail had no return addresses or signature. But a copy Poitras forwarded to The Examiner on Tuesday said the e-mail came from Warren Dasczynski, president of the NFFE Local 476, and did not mention the AFGE in the body of the newsletter.

The newsletter had been portrayed as the first in a series to assist Monmouth employees who must choose whether to follow their jobs when the Base Realignment and Closure process shuts down the New Jersey base and moves many of its functions to Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Dasczynski did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

Poitras said he had been flooded with calls from Maryland media and officials asking about the e-mail.

“In all our meetings and briefings, I’ve never heard anything about the KKK,” said Sgt. Dave Betz, a Harford Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

Poitras worried that his name and his union had been associated with the e-mail unjustly.

He and several New Jersey legislators have been fighting the 2005 decision to close the Fort Monmouth base, citing investigations by the Asbury Park Press that say the cost of the move has skyrocketed from the initial estimates presented by the Army.

 “I don’t think Maryland’s a bad place; I just think BRAC was a bad decision,” he said.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com