Panel could probe payout
Maryland lawmakers may force McGrath to answer questions
A General Assembly committee with the power to subpoena witnesses has scheduled a special meeting next week, as lawmakers say they still have questions about a six-figure payout made to the governor’s former chief of staff.
The Legislative Policy Committee, a bipartisan panel co-chaired by the Senate president and the speaker of the House of Delegates, can issue subpoenas or delegate subpoena authority to others. The committee, which typically only meets once a year to approve the General Assembly’s budget, will meet Wednesday afternoon.
Senate President Bill Ferguson said in a statement that “strong questions persist” about Gov. Larry Hogan’s former chief of staff, Roy McGrath, who resigned in August after The Baltimore Sun reported that he received a payout worth more than $238,000 from his prior job leading the Maryland Environmental Service, an independent state agency.
Lawmakers are concerned about the propriety of such a generous payout — which was described by McGrath and others as “severance” — being given out for a voluntary departure from an agency that gets 95% of its funding from local governments and state agencies. Gov
“To be honest, the city doesn’t want us to engage with squeegee boys,” an officer says. “It’s illegal to be in the street, but the city doesn’t want us to … ” he says before trailing off.
The officer tells them to contact City Hall: “It’s crazy, it’s sad.” He never says it’s because the teens are Black, but instead because it’s a misdemeanor that he didn’t witness. He said he would try to locate them but that he wasn’t familiar with them.
The Scan the Police Twitter account relayed scanner radio information as the incident was happening Sunday afternoon, saying that a woman had called police to report that squeegee kids were throwing rocks at her car at Lombard and President streets.
Once Natale’s tweet went viral, another Twitter user who archives scanner traffic linked the squeegee incident to Natale’s claim and posted a one-minute audio clip.
Such crowdsourced fact-checking may soon be harder to come by as Baltimore Police push forward on a plan to encrypt the police radio from the public.
As part of an upgrade of its radio systems, Baltimore Police are planning to encrypt scanner traffic and restrict it to “established media” that agree to adhere to certain guidelines, including not posting victim information. The radio upgrade has been in the works since a new contract was approved in December.
Attempts to reach Natale, the executive medical director at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, were unsuccessful. The Sun also attempted to reach his daughter for comment, without success.
The Sun was unable to identify the second man in the video who was riding with Natale’s daughter or reach him for comment.
St. David’s Medical Center released a statement from Natale, saying that he apologized for the tweet.
“I was worried about my daughter, and I jumped to conclusion based on the information I had at the time,” he said. “I’ve dedicated my entire professional career to healing people from all backgrounds, and I regret that my words were misinterpreted and created hurt and pain. It was not my intention.”