Annapolis Capital Punishment

On this blog I have raised questions about many candidates for office and many elected officials. The list is long. Republican Delegate Tony McConkey, Democratic candidates Josh Cohen and Zina Pierre. I've poked fun at Republicans Dave Cordle's and Frank Flyntz's campaign mis-steps. I questioned Trudy Mcfall's early and intensive fund-raising. I've tried to get straight information from Republican Jim Conley about his failed diamond venture. I've pointed barbs at nearly every candidate this election season--Republican, Democrat, White, Black, Male, Female, Conservative, Liberal...whatever!  But for a local candidate, not one has been as apparently secretive or opaque as has Kenneth Kirby in Ward Six and believe me, I have tried to meet with him and get information from him but it was the database searches provided to me by two different and unconnected sources--and I must say, they were unsolicited by me, that are proving most interesting.


Visit the Maryland Judiciary web-site and you'll find that Kenneth A. Kirby got into a bit of trouble with the law while driving. While we frown upon such things, it can happen-and has happened to many people. It's certainly not a reason to disqualify anyone for public office. There is another Kenneth Kirby on that site, but that's not him--that's apparently his son (born 1975, the candidate was born in 1954)--well, that's another story and we wish to hold the candidate responsible for himself, and certainly not his adult son. However, if you happen to read that, keep in mind that the candidate Kenny Kirby was quoted in The Baltimore Sun on October 29, 1993 (when he ran for and lost for alderman) that "We are letting our children run amok. Then we throw them away too easily." 

Oh--and keep this one in mind too as we learn about the man who wants to represent Ward Six as he recently said about Ellen Moyer:

                                                     "She's done us well."

He said a lot more in praise of Ellen Moyer at a recent Democratic breakfast (where he, a guest speaker, arrived 45 minutes late) Let us see if we can learn more about the background of the mysterious Mr. Kirby, who is being handled and managed by the notorious Chuck Weikel, the elitist downtowner, Naval Academy graduate (or so he says) with high-level ties to big-moneyed Democrats.

The site, by the way, is www.courts.state.md.us/courtrecords.html
You'll see about Mr Kirby's one run-in for a driving violation, but that's not such a big deal. Unfortunate and wrong, but not that big a deal.

Let me explain why this blog is taking an interest in Mr Kirby. The answer is simple. Mr. Kirby has refused to meet with or communicate with me in any way. He has refused to supply me with his literature or answer any questions about his background or qualifications. This is not about me or some presumption on my part, but thousands of voters look to this blog for information and analysis. This blog happily provides information about candidates, their events and their stances. Of course, in order to do that, the candidates have to be forthcoming or respond to inquiries.

Kirby's web-site says nothing about him and has not been updated since it started. Perhaps he thinks his voters don't read or don't use computers. Who know?  His literature says next to nothing about him. He refused to come to any Sip N Blog as a featured guest despite having every primary and general candidate for mayor gladly attend as well as all aldermanic candidates (with the exception of incumbents Hoyle and Finlayson--despite repeated invitations. But then again--they are the biggest Friends of Ellen on city council and are incumbents with records.)

He has rebuffed repeated requests from his opponent to meet with him. Until recently, he refused to appear with him in public. Perhaps Kirby and his handlers believe he is best left out of the limelight because he does not come off too well in public. Who knows? But when he does show up at events, as I have witnessed three times--he comes quite late--even when he is a featured speaker.

These behaviors make one naturally curious, but especially make journalists very interested. Does he have something to hide?? Who knows?

Worst of all is that he does not appear to be independent but he is closely allied with the notorious Chuck Weikel. He seems to be under Weikel's control, I believe it is safe to say. Weikel is well known as a highly divisive and unpredictable figure. He spends much of his energy on character assassination and event attacks Democrats if he does not agree with him one hundred percent. Through his Baltimore-based pal, Craig Purcell (who also was defeated for council in 1993 when Kirby was also defeated), they run a blog that despicably defames individuals, entre classes of people, plays the race card, defends Ellen Moyer's record, and uses supposedly "anonymous" posts to further their own highly charged, divisive and negative positions.

But enough of Weikel, for he only tells Kirby how to run his campaign-right? It seems that Kirby has a long history of serious problems with paying his bills. During the course of this campaign, two different individuals, each coming to me independently and unsolicited, provided me with computer database searches of public records about Kenneth A Kirby, born November, 1954. Searches were done with the same social security number used for each record. Again, I did not do these searches nor did I ask anyone else to do them for me. They were handed to me without solicitation from two different people and they give every indication of being THE Kenneth Aaron Kirby who wants to be on our city council, vote on our tax rate, our budget and our future.

I have previously recounted how I tried to share that information with Kirby privately and in confidence to get his response and comments before I did anything with it. That was weeks ago. Kirby and/or his handler Chuck Weikel in concert with blogger Craig "Pure Zeal" Purcell, as I have shown in previous posts, made the story public on their own questionable blog, in a manner that tried to intimidate and portray me in a negative light as "fishing for blood." This of course is utter nonsense.

All they accomplished was to break a story I was trying to keep private between me and Mr Kirby and to give him the chance to respond. Their intent was to defame me personally. Obviously Kirby never took that opportunity to respond. Furthermore, instead of Kirby replying to me in an email asking him to talk with me about the information, he passed them on to ADCC Chair Nick Berry who called me before he knew anything about what I had and said I should be careful about reporting "dubious charges." I asked both Berry and House Speaker Mike Busch to have Kirby contact me before I would release information publicly. I never heard from Kirby or Busch in that regard. Mr. Berry said he could not comment. So here it goes.

These records deserve further scrutiny, but by using the same date of birth and social security numbers, how can they be misleading or inaccurate? Perhaps Mr. Kirby can actually answer and explain.

Here is what documents show about Kenneth A Kirby, born November 10, 1954:

A federal tax lien in 1991 with Maureen T Kirby for $5,376

A federal tax lien in 2002 with Maureen T Kirby for $1,867

A federal tax lien in 2002 for $4,942

A Maryland judgment against Kirby to a private creditor for $3,145 in 2004

And now, most critical of all and the one really requiring an explanation from the candidate:

A 2006 Child Support Lien for $26,784 in Massachusetts. Although this appears to have been satisfied a year later, it calls a number of things into question, not the least of which is how could he have been so far behind in a legal and moral obligation to his child? Remember, this is the man who was worried about children running amok. This is the man whose son has had his own problems with the law--but Kirby says youth are among his top concerns.

According to these same records, during the last 19 years, Kirby lived in three different places in Massachusetts, two places in Connecticut, at different addresses in Annapolis and one place in Georgia. While of course, there is no crime with moving around or living in different states, this is a bit unusual. The job of alderman is demanding and requires someone to serve for four years. Moving around 11 times in 19 years raises some questions about a person's job stability, among other things. It also raises questions about their commitment to their town and their understanding of its issues because he was away for so long.

Kirby may have perfectly good explanations but how could he have run the same summer camp since 1973, as he claimed in his literature, if he moved around this much? The Capital, on October 10, raised some questions about Kirby and he provided some context and some answers, but how can we verify the answers he provided? For the most part, Kirby claimed these financial problems stemmed from a 1986 tax return. "He and his wife had recently separated and filed inconsistent tax returns, with one of them filing separately, another jointly."  If that was in 1986, how come the records I have show liens against Kirby and Maureen T Kirby continuing for almost another 20 years? Did Kirby have another wife before Maureen? How could all these liens stem from one incident over 20 years ago?

In The Capital, Kirby described himself as "a trustworthy person who was able to pass a background check to work in flight operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport." Kirby admits he was in Georgia and that seems to have been in 2005 based on records I have, but why doesn't Kirby tell us anything about that? Why can't he provide information about where he worked and for how long? What did he do in Connecticut and Massachusetts? How long did he keep those jobs he might have had there?

Kirby said he served as executive director of the Franklin Field Community of the Boston Housing Authority for seven years and a reader sent me a link to a 1993 article that quoted Kirby as an employee there. However, I was unable to confirm anything about Kirby's involvement with either the BHA or Franklin Field or what was called the Franklin Field Task Force, which appears to have been a part of the BHA. Kirby has also said he played professional basketball, but I have been unable to confirm anything about that either.

Many of the liens against Kirby have been released, and he may very well have worked hard to right these wrongs. He may very well have worked to pay off his debts and to satisfy the judgments against him, but we don't know for certain. But let us look at one of the most serious charges. In 2006, a child support lien of almost $27,000 was filed against a Kenneth A. Kirby whose address at the time was shown as 17 Hicks Ave in Annapolis. The social security number (the last four digits are always x'd out) provided was the same as shown in all the other databases on the same Kenneth Kirby. It appears that a year later, the lien was released. Again, there could have been a perfectly good explanation as to how and why this occurred. We just don't know, and Kirby should explain it, escpeially to the many female residents of Ward Six who may be experiencing similar challenges with the men who are--or who were once in their lives and that of their children.

The Capital reported that, "He had documentation to back up that payments were deducted directly from his paycheck at times, but he said there may have been lapses when he changed jobs." According to The Capital, Kirby said in regard to making child support payments that, "Of course I'm not going to call and say, 'I just changed jobs, you can lien me over here,' "he said. "I'll pay it when I pay it." And if change of addresses are a good indication, Kirby may have changed his place of employment as well.

The aldermanic hopeful said he'll pay it when he pays it.

In an article in the Baltimore Sun, on October 29, 1993,  Kirby made his concerns about youth very clear and his platform, to the extent that it is known, is strongly based on helping youth. In his campaign literature he has made his concerns about youth a priority. How odd that he would then become so far behind in child support payments. From that same Sun article, we can piece together that Kirby became a supervisor in a housing authority in Boston, then returned to Annapolis in about 1990. The article also says that Kirby "managed a large public housing complex in Boston". So, was it managed? Was it supervised? Or was it being an executive director? How come the candidate for alderman in Ward Six, a ward that contains so much public housing, Mr. Kirby's literature has never laid out clearly what is background is in this field??

Why would he not say anything about his supposed basketball career or his career in public housing in his literature or web-site? A Ward Sic resident old me that Kirby has a college degree and I corrected him. Kirby went to an elite, private college in Pennsylvania (perhaps on a basketball scholarship) but he did not graduate and was two credits shy of the requirement.

He is asking for the support and the vote of the residents of Ward Six yet he is apparently taking his orders from a downtown resident and Democratic activist who appears to be managing him. This notorious and divisive political activist in the city has repeatedly played the race card. Kirby is getting all his money from Democratic activists and not a penny from Ward Six residents.

He refused until recently to meet with his opponent, hold any public gathering or meetings with him, claims that the Sierra Club was unfair toward minorities such as himself because it communicated with him via email to get his responses to their survey, and is running a highly negative campaign against his opponent with  codewords such as "one of us" and "one of them" and "elitists". He gives every appearance of running on the belief that you should vote for him because he is a Democrat and "one of us" while his opponent is "one of them". That's what his campaign literature says in the form of a postcard that was paid for by the Maryland State Education Association and or Teachers Association of AA County, you know the same organization that Ellen Moyer worked for as well as Sheila Finlayson.

So perhaps Mr. Kirby will come forward with a resume, a listing of his previous employment, an explanation as to why he did not complete college and perhaps he will explain how he managed to managed to rack up such a record of tax liens and yes, the $27,000 in child support payments he owed.  I just wish he would come forward and answer all these questions and give every indication of being transparent and clean with us. If he can't do that as a candidate (not to mention his apparent inability to ever arrive on time for any event), how can we be confident he will do it on city council?

See The Capital's piece: www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2009/10/10-20/Records-Ward-5-candidate-Conley-has-fiscal-troubles.html


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