Currie intervened for Shoppers, released e-mails, records show

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Every time State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen bumped into Ulysses Currie, Pedersen said, Currie asked about one thing.

“Senator Currie asks me every time he sees me whether we have resolved the Reisterstown Road Shoppers Food Warehouse issue,” Pedersen wrote in a February 2004 e-mail. “How close are we to resolving it?”

The e-mail was among 1,800 pages of documents state transportation agencies turned over to federal agents and released Monday in response to public information requests submitted by reporters. Currie, a Prince George’s County Democrat, is under investigation for his consulting work for Shoppers, which he did not disclose on required financial reports.

Records show Currie repeatedly advocated for traffic signals and road improvements near Shoppers locations across the state. He arranged meetings to discuss a roundabout at an Upper Marlboro shopping center — where a Shoppers was later built — and a new entrance at a Parole store. He also intervened for a new traffic light near a Laurel location.

In August 2003, Currie delivered a Shoppers-commissioned traffic study supporting a new light in Owings Mills to SHA project manager Ken McDonald.

“Given the source of the study, I must ask for your schedule for an expedited review,” McDonald wrote in an e-mail to employees. “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 [Pedersen] a time frame so that he can communicate with the senator.”

In March 2005, Pedersen instructed employees to fast-track the stoplight at the Laurel store, saying it was “very important” to Currie, noting the 70-year-old chairs the powerful Senate Budget and Taxation committee.

Currie’s requests for a stoplight in Owings Mills and new entrance in Parole were eventually denied, SHA officials said. Federal investigators interviewed Pedersen last month, officials said.

“The documents speak for themselves and reflect the agency’s goal of communicating fully with its constituents, including members of the General Assembly, who pose questions regarding state highway related issues,” the department said in a statement.

The FBI searched both Currie’s home and Shopper’s Lanham-based headquarters May 29.

In a brief telephone interview, Currie declined to comment, as did his attorney.

“I have not seen the documents,” Currie said.

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com 

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