Note to Self: Remove Lainy LeBow-Sachs From Will

Long time friend and aide to former Mayor William Donald Schaefer (he will always be mayor to me), Lainy LeBow-Sachs, is back in the news.

The Baltimore Sun reported that she is one of three trustees for the William Donald Schaefer Foundation.  Accoding to the article, LeBow-Sachs and another trustee, Zelig Robinson, Schaefer’s personal and campaign attorney, are trying to have old time Schaefer friend, Gene Raynor, removed as the third trustee.

I don't know the legalities of the situation, but something about the move by LeBow-Sachs and Robinson just does not pass the smell test.  Schaefer appointed Raynor as a trustee for a reason.  That reason should be honored now that he has passed away.

LeBow-Sachs and Robinson are also executors of a Schaefer will signed in 2009, according a Sun article.  An earlier will, signed in 2005, named Raynor, LeBow-Sachs, and yet another Schaefer friend, Jeanne Bell, as executors.  The big difference is that Bell was to receive $860,000.00 in money and property from the 2005 will and she is to receive his stamp and plate collection in the 2009 will.  LeBow-Sachs was willed about $1 million in each will.

Remember, LeBow-Sachs is also the person who tricked Schaefer into the Charlestown Retirement Community, in Catonsville, back in 2008, according to the  Sun.  

Schaefer was living alone in his Pasadena townhouse and his friends were worried because he was getting shaky on his feet.  (That has nothing to do with the nickname "shaky" that Schaefer earned while running for city council in Baltimore City, it would seem.)  Schaefer did not want to go.  But after a fall, LeBow-Sachs decided to handle things herself.

The Sun reported that LeBow-Sachs arranged to have Schaefer's belongings moved to the retirement community while she took him out to lunch.  He only found out about the plot as the driver headed towards Catonsville instead of Pasadena.

"She tricked me," Schaefer told the Sun.

Indeed she did. I am sure LeBow-Sachs had Schaefer's best interest in mind, but still, the man was the best mayor Baltimore City ever had and he did not do too shabby of a job as Governor and Comptroller either.  It just seemed so undignified to me. It was as if he were a child, not one of the greatest Marylanders in history.

It must be noted that Schaefer was okay with the move to Charlestown after everything simmered down.

I hold nothing personal against LeBow-Sachs. I do not even know her. But, I think I know enough about her that I will never ask her to manage my affairs for me.  At least in Schaefer's case, "stuff happens" when she is involved.  And, if I do decide she should be my go-to gal, I certainly won't accept any invitations to lunch from her.