By Adam Pagnucco.
Former planning director Gwen Wright has sued the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), her former employer. We now have details about her allegations, which is still an active case in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Wright’s situation is one of the unresolved issues stemming from the planning board’s self-destruction last fall. She is a long-time professional planner who has served multiple stints with the planning department and was mostly recently its planning director from 2013 through 2022. She won an award near the end of her tenure and was set to retire at the end of last year.
Wright is honored shortly before her planned retirement.
But an event intervened before Wright could leave: then-Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson was the target of a confidential email alleging that he had created a “toxic misogynistic and hostile workplace,” which was sent after he was punished by the county council for drinking in his office after hours. (The toxic workplace allegations were subsequently shown to be without evidence by an investigation that took place months later.) Wright publicly rose to Anderson’s defense in articles published by WJLA-TV and the Washington Post. She was also a signatory on an email to the council defending Anderson.
The four members of the planning board other than Anderson then fired Wright in October, an event which shocked both the council and many employees of Park and Planning. Days later, the council obtained the resignations of the entire board and have been rebuilding it ever since.
Wright is out of the agency and has apparently not obtained resolution to the issues connected to her firing as she is now suing Park and Planning. We will get to her allegations soon. But as dramatic as those allegations may be, the identity of her attorney is just as interesting. She has hired one of the most respected and feared litigators in the state.
Meet Timothy F. Maloney.
You don’t want to be sued by this man.
Maloney was a Democratic delegate from District 12A in Prince George’s County from 1979 through 1994. A 1993 Post article described him this way:
Chairman of a tiny Appropriations subcommittee in the House of Delegates, Maloney is the legislature’s leprechaun with a public pot of gold, holding virtual veto power over $350 million annually in construction programs ranging from a baseball stadium in Bowie to a theater in Olney…
His base may be a windowless room on the fourth floor of the Lowe House Office Building, but Maloney’s influence extends far beyond that. A lawyer with a restless intellect, inexhaustible energy and an eye for detail, Maloney has played the central role in forcing the sprawling University of Maryland system to rethink its priorities, requiring poor-performing Baltimore schools to be more accountable, pushing the penal system toward alternatives to incarceration and making the state pay its share of operating subsidies for the Washington Metro system.
Even though he was one of the state’s leading power brokers and wielded particular influence in his home county of Prince George’s, Maloney decided to not run for reelection in 1994. That triggered phase two of his career, in which he became one of the state’s most sought-after litigators. Just over the last few years in Montgomery County alone, Maloney has represented private school parents upset with county COVID restrictions, a police brutality victim, and families of Damascus High School students who were sexually assaulted by their football team. He also represented Governor Larry Hogan when he was sued by the teachers union in 2018. A search of Maryland’s online court records finds Maloney listed as an attorney in 264 cases in just the last five years. This man has no problem finding clients.
Check out Maloney speaking to the press about the assaults at Damascus High School.
Maloney understands the intersection of politics, press and the law as well as anyone in Maryland. His rolodex could fill a warehouse. If I were a government official and I received a legal complaint signed by Maloney, I would strongly consider taking early retirement.
Now that Wright has obtained able representation, what has she said in court? We will have more in Part Two.