By: Baltimore Informer Staff
December 15, 2025
If you thought 2020 was just about surviving a pandemic, you weren’t paying attention to the Baltimore County Council. While you were wiping down groceries, homeschooling your kids, and worrying about your job, our local government was busy executing a masterclass in corporate welfare, backroom deals, and legislative weaponization.
We’ve spent weeks tearing through the paper trail—the bills, the minutes, and the resolutions they hoped you would never read. The conclusion is inescapable: The system isn’t broken…it’s working exactly as designed for the people who write the checks. This report is better late than never, with the 2026 elections right around the corner! There will be many more to come as we dig through the government archives.
The “Free Money” Machine
Let’s start with the crown jewel of the 2020 grift: Lyon Homes.
On January 6, 2020, while the rest of us were paying our mortgages, the Council handed a developer named “Lyon Homes III Preservation LLC” a winning lottery ticket. Resolution 9-20 gave them a $500,000 loan from public funds for a project in Turner Station.
You’d expect a loan to have a repayment schedule, right? Not this one. The resolution explicitly states that payments are required only “from surplus cash flow”.
Translation: If the developer’s accountants can show they didn’t make a “surplus”—after paying their own fat management fees and salaries—they pay the taxpayers absolutely nothing. It is a loan in name only. It is a grant disguised by legal jargon.
And to add insult to injury, Resolutions 10-20 and 11-20 locked in a tax rate of just $300 per unit for five years. You pay more in property taxes on a shed than this developer pays for an entire apartment unit. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but…
The Scheme That Never Dies: Lyon Homes
The most brazen scheme—the Lyon Homes affordable housing deal—is still operating five years later.
In January 2020, through Resolutions 9-20, 10-20, and 11-20, the Council gave the developer a $500,000 public loan that is only repayable if they report “surplus cash flow” (i.e., never).
Now, five years later, the developers are back. The September 15, 2025 agenda shows the Council is being asked to re-approve a new loan and PILOT tax break for the same project, now operating as Turner Station Preservation, LLC. This confirms the business model: Public money is perpetually financing private profit. The original “loan” was just the first draw on a lifetime County credit card.
Weaponizing the Law
While they were handing out carrots to developers, they were sharpening sticks for others.
Take Resolution 13-20. This wasn’t a policy; it was a hit job. The Council used the legislative process to target a single business—GPS Nurseries, LLC at 1810 Broadway Road. The resolution claims neighbors complained about the smell of hemp.
Instead of letting code enforcement handle it, the Council passed a formal resolution requesting the Planning Board change the zoning regulations to stop this specific operation. They didn’t like the business, so they rewrote the rules to crush it. That is not governance; that is bullying by statute.
The Zoning Game
While small businesses were dying, the Council was busy picking winners.
In District 6, Councilwoman Cathy Bevins endorsed a “Transit Oriented Development” designation for Martin State Airport (Res 142-20). Sounds boring, right? Wrong. That designation unlocks millions in state subsidies for whoever owns the land next door.
In District 3, Councilman Wade Kach sponsored the 932 Ridgebrook deal. And in District 5, David Marks carved out a special zone for a brewery on a specific block of York Road.
This isn’t zoning; it’s concierge service.
The Transparency Charade
But the most insulting move of 2020 was Resolution 21-20.
For years, working people have begged the Council to move their “Work Sessions”—where the real decisions are made—from 2:00 PM to the evening so actual taxpayers could attend.
The text of Resolution 21-20 shows it was amended to move the start time to 4:00 PM. A modest compromise. But what happened? Councilman Julian Jones and his bloc deferred the resolution. They killed it. They looked at the public demand for transparency and said, “No.” They prefer the empty room at 2:00 PM. They prefer you not being there when they approve the uncapped snow contracts or the sole-source IT deals.
The Ghost Link
If you tried to look up Baltimore County Council Resolution 151-20 on the government website recently, you might have noticed something strange: The link is broken. Why? Because that resolution, approved in the dead of winter in 2020, signed off on a massive Planned Unit Development (PUD) for a residential facility at 932 Ridgebrook Road.
The consequence of that single, obscure vote in 2020 was a $21.4 million payout in July 2025, when the property owner Towers Point Lots BDEF Property Owner LLC. finally sold to Broadmead Inc.. As of December 2025, the property is still featured for sale on former Governor Larry Hogan’s company website (archived here in case that changes) for some reason. Is HOGAN the parent company of Towers Point Lots? The Council manufactured millions in value for a developer, and then they tried to bury the evidence. Or did they…?
That PUD approved up to a 182-unit senior living development in Sparks that the Council approved on December 21, 2020—the same night County residents were distracted by holiday breaks and a surging pandemic. It turned a corporate office pad into a residential goldmine for a private developer, and the public record is conveniently difficult to find.
In July 2025, developer Broadmead, Inc. to bought the land for $21.4 million. Fascinating stuff…we will have to dig deeper on this one in the future.
The Never-ending Emergency Slush Funds
And then there is the money. The sheer, staggering amount of untracked cash.
Throughout 2020, the Council passed resolution after resolution (like 135-20 and 152-20) to extend the “State of Emergency” indefinitely. Why? Because under emergency rules, they don’t have to follow standard transparency laws.
In April and July, they created the Coronavirus Relief Fund (Bill 56-20 / Res 73-20), dumping $144 million into an account controlled by the administration. Then, they passed Bill 49-20, which removed the Council’s ability to vote on grants. They effectively legalized a slush fund, allowing them to hand out millions to “small businesses” (read: donors and friends) with zero public oversight until months later.
Just to top it off, in the final days of the year, they moved $15 million in “surplus” cash into the Capital Budget (Res 111-20) instead of returning it to you.
