Delay, Deny, Defend – Washington County Constructively Denies Records on ICE Warehouse Sale

This is Part 1 of our continuing series of articles highlighting Washington County Government’s efforts to delay and deny information from the public. Part 2 is now available here.

For months, residents have been asking the county questions on how much they knew about the sale of of a warehouse property located at 16220 Wright Road, which is reportedly being considered for conversion into a federal detention or processing facility by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The property’s sale price was $102.4 million. Our own inquiries have been met with resistance and instructions that we use the county’s Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) portal for any requests for information, even for simple yes or no questions. And now, what was intended as a transparency tool now appears to be used as a tool to delay and deny access to public information. As such, Radio Free Hub City has initiated a formal mediation process with the PIA Ombudsman concerning four Washington County Government MPIA requests that have faced delays and denials. It seems that the strategy of “Delay, Deny, Defend” is no longer a strategy exclusive to insurance companies, and is now also used by Washington County Government when faced with legally mandated public transparency.

When the letter from DHS was originally announced by Washington County Government, Radio Free Hub City reached out to the County PR department and County Commissioners in hopes that they might respond with information to help provide context regarding how long the county had known about the sale. In response, we were informed of a new policy requiring all requests for information go through the MPIA portal. This policy was then re-iterated in a subsequent PR department request regarding an incident at a Washington County Commissioner meeting.

In this instance we had already filed MPIA requests, as outlined by our original email, and were providing the county an opportunity to provide additional context. However, based on this new policy, we will no longer reach out to the county for comment until we are notified this policy has changed.

The core of the investigation by Radio Free Hub City aims to ascertain the extent of Washington County’s prior knowledge and involvement in the transaction. The first MPIA request, filed on January 28, 2026, sought internal county communications, including emails, texts, and Microsoft Teams logs. Specifically, it targeted communications related to a letter sent by DHS to County Planning and Zoning on January 14, 2026. The objective was to understand why the county waited two weeks to publicly disclose this correspondence. The county government responded to this request on February 9, 2026, by stating that no responsive records existed, with the justification the DHS letter itself had since been released. Radio Free Hub City contested this response, arguing that the request was for internal discussions about the letter’s handling, not the letter’s content, and the letter itself was released on January 29, 2026, a day after the filing of our request. The county declined to reopen the case.

Following this initial denial, a second request, identified as 26-113, was filed on February 10, 2026. This refiled request aimed to circumvent the perceived evasiveness of the county’s initial response by specifically inquiring about the county’s “DELAY” in releasing information. This was intended to prompt a search for the internal communications that were allegedly overlooked.

Two additional MPIA requests, filed on January 28, 2026, sought to shed light on the county’s potential role in facilitating the property’s transition to federal use. Request 26-66 asked for all communications between county officials, including those from Business Development, the Commissioners, and the County Administrator, and representatives of FRIND-Hopewell, LLC, RSE Capital, or Fundrise. The goal of this request was to determine if the county had actively assisted in marketing the property to federal authorities while maintaining a public stance that no such plans were underway.

The final request, 26-67, also submitted on January 28, 2026, focused on infrastructure and utility capacity. This request sought “Will-Serve” letters, inquiries regarding utility capacity, and technical assessments concerning water and sewer service. The rationale behind this request is that converting a warehouse into a facility capable of housing up to 1,500 individuals would necessitate a substantial increase in utility services. Such records, it is argued, would provide objective evidence of when the county first became aware of the intended scale of the federal facility.

Washington County Government’s handling of these requests has led to accusations of constructive denial. Under the Maryland Public Information Act, custodians of records are provided specific timelines for responding to such requests. For requests 26-66, 26-67, and 26-113, the county issued notifications indicating that more than the standard 10 working days would be required to produce the requested documents. However, the MPIA mandates that a custodian must either grant or deny a request within 30 days of receipt, unless a written extension is obtained from the requester.

The 30-day deadline for requests 26-66 and 26-67 passed on February 27, 2026, without the county producing the records or issuing a formal denial. As of March 9, 2026, these requests remained outstanding. For request 26-113, the deadline is today, March 12, 2026, with further delays anticipated by the county. By failing to respond within the legally prescribed timeframe without securing a formal extension, the county’s inaction is considered a constructive denial of these requests. This silence, prior to the legal deadline for a formal response, is viewed as a strategic maneuver to postpone the release of potentially sensitive information regarding the warehouse conversion.

As a consequence of the improper denial of the initial request and the constructive denial of the subsequent three, all four MPIA requests have now been forwarded to the Office of the Public Access Ombudsman for mediation. This mediation process can extend for up to 90 days. The timeline of these events is considered significant, as the county’s approach through constructive denial appears to be delaying the disclosure of public records until after the upcoming primary election. Radio Free Hub City is continuing its efforts to compel the county to immediately provide the overdue records and to conduct a thorough search for the internal communications that were initially dismissed. The mediation process is confidential, and we will be unable to release any information until the process has concluded, or the records released.

Read more in Part 2 of this series.

A copy of our requests and all related documents for the ICE warehouse are available on our DocumentCloud.

Article by Ken Buckler, based upon MPIA requests filed with Washington County Government

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