A lawsuit against Harford County launched by the county’s former tourism organization, Visit Harford, was thrown out Tuesday in the Harford County Circuit Court.

Visit Harford launched the lawsuit against County Executive Bob Cassilly in July 2024, claiming that the Cassilly administration breached its contract with Visit Harford by allegedly withholding a $215,000 payment for tourism services.

The $215,000 payment was one of three installments outlined in a contract Harford County and Visit Harford entered into in June 2023.

In April 2024, Cassilly terminated the contract because he was concerned with how Visit Harford was using the annual $645,000 of county funds.

Harford County Circuit Court Judge W. Michel Pierson dismissed Visit Harford’s lawsuit Tuesday based on the Cassilly administration’s counterclaim that was founded on “Visit Harford’s failure to account for its use of taxpayer dollars and failure to perform services and provide its work product to the county as required under contract,” according to a news release from the county.

Judge Pierson granted the Cassilly administration to present evidence of damages sustained by the county as a result of Visit Harford’s lawsuit, which county officials said the county intends to follow through with.

Since terminating the contract with Visit Harford, Cassilly, for a second time, vetoed legislation passed by the county council that would mandate funding for Visit Harford in the county code, and started Hello Harford — the county’s tourism group that operates out of the Department of Economic Development.

“The unfortunate actions of Visit Harford in its failure to properly account for tax dollars should in no way reflect on the many wonderful hotels, venues and attractions our county has to offer,” Cassilly said in a news release. “My administration has moved tourism marketing in-house under the branding Hello Harford and we are supporting these local businesses and welcoming thousands of visitors to our beautiful county.”

This story will be updated.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.