Posted on 08/29/2015 6:01:45 PM PDT by markomalley
n assistant attorney general asked Friday for a state ethics commission ruling on whether former Gov. Martin O'Malley's purchase of furniture from the governor's mansion violated rules regarding state-owned property.
When O'Malley and his family moved out of the mansion in January, they left with most of its taxpayer-purchased furnishings — 54 items that he bought at steep discounts because every piece had been declared "junk" by his administration.
O'Malley and his wife, Baltimore District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, paid $9,638 for armoires, beds, chairs, desks, lamps, mirrors, ottomans, tables and other items that originally cost taxpayers $62,000, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
The Department of General Services sold the furniture to the O'Malleys, who together earned $270,000 in state salaries last year, without seeking bids or notifying the public that the items were available for sale.
An agency rule prohibits preferential sales of state-owned property to government officials. On Friday, the assistant attorney general at the department asked the state ethics commission to determine whether the sale violated the prohibition.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
“.shortly after he criticized the DNC about it being a coronation of HIllary...”
Yeppers... no coincidence to this investigation. It’s not like there are any Redumblicans in his State to instigate this.
Sounds like a certain President and his wife we once were enduring.
But hey, at least these people paid something for their loot.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
See ya O’Malley. This isn’t as bad as getting caught with a live boy or a dead girl but it’ll do to paint you as a thief.
Might as well cut your losses now and quit the race.
See what happens when you piss off the DNC and dem elite party members in general. They take care of their own and you can bet they have a book of things they can bring up on just about everyone.
They ain’t called DemonRats for nuthin’!
After they were criticized for taking $190,000 worth of china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts with them when they left, the Clintons announced last week that they would pay for $86,000 worth of gifts, or nearly half the amount.
Their latest decision to send back $28,000 in gifts brings to $114,000 the value of items the Clintons have either decided to pay for or return.
Hunter Biden is sure having troubles!
A lot of the furniture in the mansion is donated and is historically significant. This is not about folding tray tables from KMART
“Anyone familiar with the market for modern used furniture knows that it is very difficult to get any sort of decent price. The same thing is true of lesser antiques and vintage furniture. Anything that is at all big and heavy is a tough sell at auction.”
Even “valuable” antiques are difficult to move. The spread between cash value and retail value is huge. In order to get top dollar, the items must be displayed, and handled by a knowledgeable dealer in either a shop setting of a well publicized auction.
Once time and expenses for handling and moving the furniture around is considered, the net proceeds from the sale of such items is not very impressive. Often a “$10,000 rare antique whatever” sells for far less if it has to be sold in a short period of time, and $1500 is not a low price if it is cash and carry right now.
The “worth or value” of furniture is not the retail or insured value.
Not saying the Gov isn’t a crook, but this issue is not the one to use against him.
When I said “lesser antiques”, I meant most of them. The top items that sell for over $250K or so have not been as severely impacted, but it is a very small market.
If you have a run-of-the-mill Federal table or chest, you’re hurting right now. If you have a piece of used furniture that you bought from a fancy store ten years ago, you should take whatever price anyone offers.
Boom
I don’t see how the actions of grown children should be a reflection on a candidate.
Huckabee doesn’t exactly have a lot of fans here.
Hell, the actions of BILLIE reflected on Jimmy!!!
Yep, Little Marty is so much like the Clintons.
It’s taken a lot of repeated smackdowns to make that so.
Let’s make sure there is never a resurgence.
The stuff the ex Gov got was not high end stuff, or rare antiques. Just non Chinese made nice furniture, possibly even made in USA stuff.
Locally, even the high end stuff is impacted. Just saw several pieces that appraised at well over $200,000 each (and items themselves pictured and written up in books on the style furniture) sell for a fraction of what they were supposedly worth.
For true history pieces like those in the White House (for example), the market is never soft, though.
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