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License Is Restored for Station in Pr. George's
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On Feb. 29, a Friday, Exum asked that Sheridan's nomination be considered separately from a batch pending on the floor and that the vote be delayed for a week. Hilltop received its license to resume operations the following Monday.
Last Friday, the vote on Sheridan was delayed again, with a vote scheduled for today.
After that session, Exum told a reporter that the black caucus thinks Sheridan is not working hard enough to "retain and promote" minorities. "There are all kinds of allegations about people of color," Exum said.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), whose district includes part of Prince George's, said it is his understanding that Exum's interest in Hilltop was part of the holdup on Sheridan's nomination.
"Senator Exum has a concern related to his district," Miller said, referring to the Hilltop issue.
James L. Wilson, an owner of Hilltop, credited Exum for helping the station operators get their license back after several previous attempts failed.
"He was able to let us go through the whole process," Wilson said, adding that the restoration of the license was the station's "just due."
Wilson said the reinstatement was deserved because the station had met all qualifications.
The state police agency notified Hilltop of its intention to revoke its license in October 2002. After a hearing, an administrative law judge recommended in May 2003 that Hilltop's license be revoked.
Among the findings in the decision: The maximum number of possible inspections that Hilltop could have legally performed between January and May 2002 was 872. During that period, Hilltop purportedly inspected 2,116 vehicles and issued 2,067 state inspection certificates.
"This was clearly accomplished by completing the inspection reports and certificates with information provided by the persons seeking the certificates and selling the certificates to those persons, never having laid eyes, or their hands, on the vehicles," the judge wrote.
Hilltop operators testified that they had never sold any inspection certificates. But the judge found that a police investigator interviewed three people who had received inspection certificates from Hilltop although their vehicles had not been inspected there.
