Under fire for Tirabassi deal, Olszewski’s relationship with firefighter remains in the spotlight

Following in the footsteps of Beer reports — including an $83,675 secret payment to firefighter Philip Tirabassi that was orchestrated by top employees of Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski — the ties between the two are under scrutiny, including old social media posts.

“I feel blessed to have John Olszewski Jr. at BCoFD Station 9 – Edgemere,” Tirabassi wrote on his Facebook page, along with a photo of himself next to the county director at a firefighters’ charity event to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The date of the entry – August 29, 2019 – is significant:

Tirabassi’s request to transfer his time as a firefighter at the Baltimore City Fire Department to the county — which would have given him a cash windfall of about $250,000 upon retirement — was denied by the county’s budget director.

Two weeks later, on Sept. 10, 2019, the new budget director reevaluated Tirabassi’s request to transfer funds “at the request of the County Executive,” according to emails recently disclosed in a Maryland Public Information Act lawsuit.

The re-audit confirmed the decision of the previous budget director to reject Tirabassi’s request.

But that didn’t end the firefighter’s efforts to get the county to pay him the kind of monetary compensation that other retirees weren’t getting — an effort that required multiple interactions with Olszewski’s top aides, Pat Murray, Stacy L. Rodgers and James R. Benjamin Jr., as well as face-to-face meetings with the county executive himself.

Ultimately, in December 2020, Tirabassi received a check from the county, paid from the general obligation fund (not the pension fund) and masked in county records under the false name “Philip Dough.”

The lawsuit filed by former County Administrator Fred Homan seeks to uncover more details about the transaction — and the county, because Infusion as first reported, she spent $325,000 in legal fees to fight the case, and the Baltimore County Board awarded an additional $200,000 at Olszewski’s request.

Call to withdraw from congressional race

In the face of this legal and media scrutiny, the Maryland Republican Party called on Olszewski to withdraw from the race for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2nd District congressional seat vacated by retiring CA Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger.

The Republican Party is “grasping at straws” – that was the response from the Olszewski campaign.

The candidate himself began to respond to these revelations, including: Beer reported this week that Tirabassi, a licensed real estate broker, represented Olszewski in the purchase and sale of real estate in St. Helena and the acquisition of land for his new residence overlooking the Chesapeake Bay on Millers Island.

“I do not have a close personal relationship with Mr. Philip Tirabassi,” Olszewski emphasizes.

In addition to the fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association they attended in 2019, Tirabassi also “shared a memory” on Facebook of attending a golf event related to Olszewski.

“Nine years ago I played in Johnny O’s tournament and now he’s CE,” Tirabassi gushed.

When a commenter wrote, “he’ll raise your taxes and you’ll play golf with this asshole,” Tirabassi responded by supporting Olszewski.

“BE KIND,” he wrote, explaining, “whoever got elected had to do it because of the huge deficit that (previous county executive Kevin) Kamenetz left behind. You have to play the cards you’re dealt. When you leave behind a huge deficit, you either cut services or raise taxes.”

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