ARUNDEL - COUNTY A A County Executive John R. Leopold P.O. Box 2700, Annapolis, MD 21404 410-222-1821 October 2, 2012 Hon. Bryan W. Simonaire James Senate Office Building 11 Bladen Street, Room 414 Annapolis, MD 21401 Dear Senator Simonaire: I am in receipt of your letter of October 2. I can assure you that I will continue to hold the interests of taxpayers in the highest regard and, in fact, have a 30-year track record of fiscal accountability. You may not know that when County employees faced furloughs for two years, I voluntarily returned $17,000 out of my own pocket to lead by example. Frankly, your letter reeks of hypocrisy. When you write about "action that must be taken to help restore trust," you should start with your own record of spending thousands of taxpayer dollars for hotel stays in Annapolis during legislative sessions when you live only 20 minutes from Annapolis. During my 20 years in the General Assembly, I never once charged taxpayers for an overnight stay in Annapolis and returned over $60,000 in unspent funds to the General Assembly. As you know, State law requires that county employees are provided a defense in order to protect public servants from being intimidated by frivolous lawsuits. I have every confidence that the County will prevail in this particular case, and the process will work as intended. You may not be aware that one civil law suit against the county and myself has already been dismissed. It appears you would prefer to act as judge and jury before I am afforded the opportunity to defend myself. I sincerely hope that you will never personally have to face groundless accusations in your role as a public official. Sincerely, A-. JOHN R. LEOPOLD County Executive