It's Business as Usual, at Least Until the Court Rules, Lobbyist Assures His Clients
Gary Hart, ex-presidential candidate and former senator from Colorado, was a guest at the governor's mansion in Annapolis twice last month.
(By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)
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Clients of Bruce C. Bereano, one of Annapolis's most colorful lobbyists, recently received some "very positive news" in a memo he penned regarding a long-disputed suspension of his license by the State Ethics Commission.
In a decision issued on Flag Day, Bereano noted, Maryland's highest court agreed to review a lower court ruling that would force him to forfeit his lobbying privileges for 10 months because of a prohibited compensation arrangement.
With the Court of Appeals agreeing to review the case, the Ethics Commission sanction "cannot go into effect and is stopped," Bereano wrote Friday in a memo to his clients. "I can and will be able to continue to lobby for you . . . and provide full services, effort and representation like I have always done. You are fully covered and respectively have nothing to worry about."
Bereano suggested it could take a year before briefs are filed, the court hears the case and a decision is reached.
The case stems from a 2003 Ethics Commission ruling that Bereano entered into a forbidden "contingency contract" that paid him a percentage of the receivables of a company seeking to win contracts for foster-care services. Bereano has maintained his innocence, arguing that the commission improperly applied a 2001 law retroactively.
The commission's action was upheld in subsequent court rulings.
Bereano has been a fixture in Annapolis for years, reporting earnings of $653,612 between November 2005 and October 2006, a figure exceeded by only nine other lobbyists during the period.
His influence with the executive branch was curtailed in January with the arrival of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who pledged not to do business with lobbyists who are convicted felons. Bereano was convicted of mail fraud in an unrelated episode more than a decade ago that knocked him off his perch as Annapolis's top lobbyist.
Bereano has maintained a healthy practice, however, and represents about 50 clients, including such high-profile groups as the Licensed Beverage Distributors of Maryland, the Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland and the Greater Baltimore Urban League.
-- John Wagner
