ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland's Senate president says a senior state transportation official should be relieved of his leadership role.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller wrote Tuesday that James Ports, a deputy transportation secretary, has shown an "appalling lack of professionalism and substantive understanding" about a law that creates a scoring system to rank transportation projects in the state's funding process.
The bill was a point of contention between Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Ports has written letters to county officials warning them the law threatens local projects, but Miller says Ports has sent "snide, false, and alarming missives to local officials."
Doug Mayer, a Hogan spokesman, says it's "way over the line" for Democratic lawmakers to take their frustrations out on someone doing his best to implement the law.
