Maryland
Advocates call for confirmation of Maryland Stadium Authority nominee – Maryland Matters
The drumbeat for Gov. Wes Moore’s stalled nominee to the Maryland Stadium Authority grew louder Tuesday, when a bunch of greater than 80 present and former elected officers and neighborhood leaders signed a letter to state senators urging her affirmation “immediately.”
The letter to senators on the Government Nominations Committee expressed the group’s unqualified assist for Yolanda Maria Martinez, an Ellicott Metropolis businesswoman, citing the necessity for Latino illustration in native and state authorities usually, and on the Stadium Authority board particularly.
The letter, nevertheless, makes no point out of Martinez’s troubled 35-year monetary historical past, her latest $7.2 million chapter, dozens of lawsuits and judgments for thousands and thousands of {dollars} filed in opposition to her, or the truth that she has had her wages garnished, cars repossessed and properties she owned foreclosed upon.
That info, reported March 13 by Maryland Issues, gave the Senate Government Nominations Committee pause, and members put a maintain on the nomination.
Maria Martinez addressed the Maryland Senate Government Nominations Committee about her nomination to the Maryland Stadium Authority board on March 13. Photograph by Danielle E. Gaines.
Signatories of the letter despatched to senators embody former Gov. Martin J. O’Malley (D), former Baltimore Mayor Sheila A. Dixon (D), mayors and metropolis council members from round Maryland, state delegates, enterprise and union officers and leaders within the state’s Latino neighborhood.
“We imagine that till an important commissions embody Latinos amongst their membership, Maryland is failing in its duty to adequately embody 11.1% of the state’s inhabitants and a neighborhood overrepresented in enterprise new begins,” the letter reads. “Maria is a girl who has earned her place in our hearts and the particular person we’re asking you to verify to the Maryland Stadium [Authority board] immediately.”
The Legislative Latino Caucus, which additionally despatched a letter to senators, and CASA Inc., the advocacy group that gives social providers to immigrants, have scheduled a press convention exterior the State Home on Wednesday morning to name on the Senate to verify her appointment.
Martinez is outstanding within the state’s Latino neighborhood, lively in civic causes, a previous O’Malley appointee to state boards and commissions, and a beneficiant contributor to Democratic candidates.
She has mentioned her monetary issues began years in the past, when she was caught up within the 1994 chapter of an organization owned by her abusive former husband — circumstances that she mentioned affected her for years. After overcoming being a sufferer of home abuse, she mentioned she was capable of discovered a profitable medical gear firm.
Each Martinez and the governor’s workers have mentioned that she instructed Moore of her historical past earlier than he nominated her Feb. 17 to the board.
Nevertheless, some senators have been shocked by the information report about her monetary previous. Members complained privately they weren’t suggested by the governor’s workers as to Martinez’s troubles earlier than contemplating whether or not to verify her for the board of one of the vital prestigious and important companies within the state.
Senators have expressed concern about confirming anybody with that monetary background to a spot on the nine-member board of the highly effective Stadium Authority, which oversees a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in state building undertakings annually and has authority to concern bonds for capital initiatives.
Questioned by reporters concerning the appointment on Tuesday, Senate President Invoice Ferguson (D-Baltimore Metropolis) mentioned he was sympathetic to what Martinez has skilled.
“It’s clear that she has confronted an unlimited quantity of trauma all through her life, and it’s heart-wrenching to study of the challenges that she’s confronted and overcome,” Ferguson mentioned. “She has a exceptional story of resiliency in her personal proper and has been profitable in some ways and has been challenged in some ways … that happen disproportionately for ladies of colour.”
However, he mentioned, “I feel that on the finish of the day, the Stadium Authority is a fiduciary of state sources,” Ferguson mentioned. “And so I feel … we’ve got to make it possible for there’s a full degree of confidence within the monetary acumen of the appointees. And so, you already know, we’re reviewing the case.”
Requested if he might predict whether or not the Senate would affirm her nomination, the Senate president mentioned, “Too early to say, however I feel … there are a variety of members who nonetheless have issues.”
He was then requested if there was sufficient time to resolve these issues, given the April 10 adjournment of the legislature, he replied, “Unclear.”
Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.