Strange Bedfellows

You don’t have to be 5 years old to have an imaginary friend.

County Executive Jim Smith has one and wants you to meet her.

Meet Merrie Holiday, Baltimore County’s resident holiday shopping maven.

Fronda Cohen, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Economic Development, was coy about exactly who or what Merrie Holiday is other than to say it’s part of a new marketing effort to encourage residents to shop in some of the 3,000 shops in the county’s 13 traditional retail districts — Arbutus, Catonsville-Paradise, Dundalk, Essex, Lansdowne, Liberty Road, Loch Raven, Overlea-Fullerton, Parkville, Pikesville, Reisterstown, Towson and Woodlawn Village.

The campaign, which is part of the county’s ReDiscover Your Neighborhood Downtown promotion, was designed by Barb Clapp Advertising and Marketing.   The character will be featured in radio and print ads and some short videos of Smith running around the county trying to find the elusive personality.

The Lutherville-based advertising company was awarded the contract for the ReDiscover Your Neighborhood Downtown campaign in 2008. This is the second renewal year and the company will be paid $107,500.

Merrie even has her own Facebook page, part of a social media marketing effort that began on Wednesday. Her photo conveniently obscures her face.

“She’s a woman of mystery,” Cohen teased, adding that “a real human being” responds to posts on the Facebook page.

Already Holiday has 66 friends. Not bad for a few days. I know someone whose cat has been on Facebook for a year and has 68 friends. And that cat is real.

If the marketing campaign sounds kitschy, remember it could be worse.

At least it’s not a six-foot tall rabbit named Harvey.

I’m getting reports from readers saying there’s trouble listening to the audio of the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board that I posted yesterday. The common link seems to be the use of Internet Explorer.

I hear Firefox works pretty good. There is a load time though so be patient.

Here’s a direct link if you want to try Youtube.

Here’s the audio of Wednesday’s meeting of the Baltimore County Personnel and Salary Advisory Board. During the meeting, the board unanimously approved recommending salary increases for the county executive and the County Council of 8 percent and 2 percent, respectively. If approved by the council, the increases would take effect in December 2010.

Audio was recorded by the board and released upon my request.

This portion of the meeting covers just the discussion and vote on the two salary proposals and was edited by me, as was the video.

Here’s the link to my weekly political chat with WBAL 1090 AM Maryland Morning News anchor Bill Vanko. On today’s docket: Pay raises for the county executive and county council and early “retirement” of long-time county police spokesman Bill Toohey.

Joseph “Prince of Darkness” Steffen offers his take on Al Redmer’s entry last week (officially, anyway) into the 7th District Senate race, where he’ll square off in the GOP primary against two-term Republican Del. J.B. Jennings.

Two’s company and three’s a crowd as Steffen, the former staffer for Gov. Robert Ehrlich who was caught up in the whole political firing brouhaha, muses about the possible entry of  Republican former Del. Ken Holt, who has been named as a possible candidate for several races in 2006 and again in the coming 2010 election cycle.

“Still, the possibilities for a raucous 7th District primary campaign are rife and if, as is being chattered about, well-heeled former Delegate Ken Holt enters the race as a bit of a dark horse, the possibilities will be even rifer. (Rifer?),” writes Steffen on his political blog, Darkness Rising.

If you missed it, here’s my weekly chat with Bill Vanko on local politcs and Al Redmer’s return to the campaign trail.

“I have my clock radio set to WBAL. If there’s anything I don’t want to wake up to in the morning, it’s your voice. How would you like to wake up to your voice?”

~ Les Pittler, Baltimore County Revenue Authority board member, referring to yours truly speaking on the radio.

The folks over at Maryland Politics Watch had an interesting post Monday about Rep. Frank Kratovil and his vote Saturday against the House version of health care reform.

One Montgomery County union official sent out an e-mail blasting Kratovil’s vote.

“The way I see it, if not for President Obama and Labor’s help, Congressman Kratovil would not have won,” wrote Bob Stewart, Executive Director of the county chapter of Municipal and County Government Employees Organization. “Remember also that this is the Congressman who was ‘hung in effigy’ in August by the Tea-baggers, birthers and assorted other right-wingers. Running scared and showing fear by voting how they want him to will probably not get them to vote for him next year.”

You can read the rest of Stewart’s e-mail at Maryland Politics Watch.

One by one the county’s seven councilmen are speaking about the possibility of reforming the pension plan that has been in place for the last 50 years.

The issue attracted attention after it was revealed that Democratic Councilman Vince Gardina would retire after completing an unprecedented fifth term and be eligible immediately for a pension equal to 100 percent of his current $54,000 annual salary.

Since then, some on the council, including Gardina, have expressed an opinion about possible changes to the system. Not everyone, however, has made up his mind.

“It’s something I haven’t thought about,” said Councilman John Olszewski Sr., a three-term Democrat who represents the 7th District, including Dundalk, Essex and part of Rosedale.

Current Council Chairman Joseph Bartenfelder said he wanted to cap council pensions at 60 percent 10 years ago but had no support. Two weeks ago, he said he’d sponsor a bill with a similar cap if he could find at least three more votes.

Olszewski said he couldn’t comment on Bartenfelder’s idea, repeating that it wasn’t something he had thought about.

Would you support an effort to reform the pension system, I asked Olszewski.

Olszewski smiled and said, “You never say never.”

“You hope property owners start to comply immediately. We’re just recognizing the fiscal impact. I don’t think they want to dilly-dally.”

~ County spokesman Don Mohler, expressing his belief that area rental property owners won’t need more than a year to install carbon monoxide detectors.