A proactive citizen of Baltimore named Yakov Shafranovich decided to do some research and find the environmental control board hearing officer contracts. Anyone could have used the Maryland Public Information Act to ask for these documents. It is great to see regular citizens exercising their rights and at the same time making Baltimore a more transparent city.
The contract shows that ECB judge Gary M. Brooks is paid $50 an hour and can not work more than 600 hours in a year. That's $30,000 a year. Not bad.
I decided to look for the political contributions that Mr. Brooks has made over the years. I posted them here. I noticed that Mr. Brooks happens to live next door to Sheila Dixon on Winans Way. The campaign finance database does not show any Sheila Dixon contributions coming from Mr. Brooks. Mr. Brooks did give Martin O'Malley's campaign $330 in the early part of the 2000's while O'Malley was mayor of Baltimore.
It also should be pointed out that the other ECB judge Patricia Welch is married to Martin Welch who is the chief judge of the circuit court. The circuit court is the court that hears appeals from the ECB.
Here is a previous story that I wrote about the Baltimore ECB.
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