An Association of Community Associations
Established: October 9th 1990
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An Association of Community Associations |
The Greater Crofton Council Tuesday night voted to support the group's former president and current planning and zoning chairman, Torrey Jacobsen. Jr., following the story published in The Sunday Capital and this week's Crofton News-Crier reporting that Mr. Jacobsen may have violated state ethics rules.
The story, written by Staff Writer Joshua Stewart, said that Mr. Jacobsen may have violated ethics rules when he asked a state legislative committee to amend Mr. McConkey's bill to prohibit development on top of fly ash landfills in Gambrills.
Mr. Jacobsen., who presented himself as a small business owner, didn't tell the committee that he is also a registered lobbyist for the Mid-Atlantic Retail Food Industry Joint Labor Management Fund - a group that represents unionized grocery stores and executives.
Nor did he say that the amendment he was supporting would stop his client's competitor, Wegmans, from opening a new store.
"It looks like Greenburg Gibbons wrote the article and gave it to The Capital," said Bob Brennan, vice president of the council.
Greenburg Gibbons Commercial is the development company that is planning to build the store Mr. Jacobsen has opposed.
"The motion is to support Torrey against the statements that were made in The Capital. Some of them were fair, and some were not" said Percy Sussex, a representative from Crofton Meadows.
Mr. Sussex said that Mr. Jacobsen has always been against "big-box" stores including Wegmans before his job as a lobbyist, a detail he said was not noted in the story.
However, the story included a quote from Mr. Jacobsen saying he has opposed to big· box stores since he arrived in Crofton and included details about Mr. Jacobsen's work before he became a lobbyist in June.
The council voted in favor of the resolution, 9-1-1, with Secretary Bess Sharland and Harry Sinclair opposing and abstaining, respectively.
