Montgomery County councilwoman accuses investigators of 'KGB' tactics
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
November 18, 2009
The Montgomery County Ethics Commission found that a transgender employee who helped craft the county law prohibiting discrimination against transgender people sought to intimidate people who opposed the rule.
The commission determined that Dr. Dana Beyer improperly tried to stop people at a grocery store last year from signing a petition to have a referendum on a 2007 law banning discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodations, and taxicab and cable service.
Beyer, who is a senior legislative aide for Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg, fired back Tuesday with a County Human Rights Office complaint that charged she was targeted by the Ethics Commission because of her gender.
"What both angers and saddens me is that this historic law must first be invoked against the Montgomery County Ethics Commission," Beyer said.
The dueling complaints are the latest saga in Montgomery County's efforts to ban discrimination against transgender people. After the council unanimously approved the law in 2007, a grouped called Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government led an unsuccessful petition effort to have a referendum.
The group said it feared men would be allowed in women's bathrooms and locker rooms.
On Tuesday, Trachtenberg said she and Beyer were being targeted by the Ethics Commission at the behest of Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government, and took issue with the commission's investigation.
"The use of KGB-type tactics to undermine the function of my council office is chilling," Trachtenberg said in reference to a memo from the County Attorney's Office showing that Beyer had her e-mail records searched without her consent as part of an investigation.
Trachtenberg told The Examiner she was worried her computer and phone records may have been searched as well, and had plans to have the matter investigated.
"It's very possible is what we'll discover is that a sitting elected official had their computer and phones swept," Trachtenberg said. If true, such a search would have "far-reaching implications of the functions of the legislative branch," she added.
County policy allows for searches of council members and their staff's county-owned computers, as long as the department head, County Council Staff Director Steve Farber, gives his approval. Farber said he has never been asked, nor given approval, to have any employee or council member's computers searched.
County Attorney Leon Rodriguez declined to comment about the issue.
