Greenbelt Metroland: Ricker confesses

This week Federal prosecutors made public a guilty plea from Patrick Ricker in which Ricker confessed that he and unnamed co-conspirators "regularly provided ... money, trip expenses, meals, hotel rooms, airline tickets, rounds of golf, sexual services, employment, and ... campaign contributions to" County administrators, County Council members, and Board of Education members.  

In return, the recipients provided "approval letters for the Greenbelt Station Detailed Site Plan;  ... creat(ed) the Greenbelt Station Special Taxing District and the Greenbelt Station Development District; ensur(ed) that Greenbelt Stations was listed as priority number five under the State Highway Administration list of project/construction priorities; obtain(ed) necessary state and local approvals for the development of Greenbelt Metropark...."  If you go to the link, you will find criminal activity confessed for other PG sites of less interest to College Park residents.

Ricker confessed to committing the above offenses because he held an ownership interest in Greenbelt Metropark, along with three other individuals, two of them unnamed co-conspirators.  The other owners of this corporation have never, to my knowledge, become public record.  Metropark was always represented in public by attorney Norman Rivera and a planner named Sandy (don't recall her last name), neither of whom acted like owners. Rivera denied knowing who the owners were when I asked him during my tenure on the City Council between 1999 and 2003.   

Developers showed little interest in corrupting me when I was on the City Council, probably because the City does not control zoning.  The only exceptions had to do with this very development.  My position then and now is that dense development at the Metro station makes a lot of sense but that the development must not be allowed to flood North College Park, most of which drains into the Narragansett ditch running through the property. Ricker invited me to dinner at Jerry's Seafood, at the time the most expensive restaurant in the County.  I thought this was a little compromising, so I had him meet me at my house with various other parties from the neighborhood, whom I believe included Don Byrd and John Krouse.  We made no particular progress at that meeting, so I wondered what legitimate business purpose was intended.  Subsequently an executive at Beltway Plaza, which was then trying to stop the Metroland development, invited me to their box at a Terrapins football game.  I declined.

Clearly I missed my chance to profit off this deal, but I also missed my chance to get ratted out by Ricker.  I could have spent my time in fear, my money on attorneys, and lost any reputation I have. The incentives were the same for Ricker's bribees.  I wonder what possessed them, but more important -- how is this county going to change to prevent it from happening again?  The Greenbelt Metro would be a huge opportunity for an honest developer -- how did it get into dirty hands like these?