Bissett departs from DNR post

Phillip D. Bissett, the governor's legislative liaison at the Department of Natural Resources whose dismissal was announced and then retracted on the same day last week, has left that office, officials at the department said yesterday.

"He is no longer working at DNR," agency spokesman John Surrick said yesterday.

Where Bissett will be working remains a question.

Bissett would only confirm yesterday that he is still employed by the state government. He referred all other questions to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s press office. A spokesman for Ehrlich declined to comment on why Bissett had been moved.

Bissett, 46, an outspoken former state delegate who narrowly lost his bid last fall to become Anne Arundel County executive, was hired in February as DNR's assistant secretary for intergovernmental matters, a $77,710-a- year post.

Last week, DNR officials said he was no longer there and then recanted later in the day. Bissett, a Republican, said he was the victim of rumor and misinformation. He said he was keeping the same job.

In that job, he said he was charged with working between Ehrlich and the General Assembly, local governments and the federal government.