Strange Bedfellows

It was reported here last week that Ronald Lipscomb, through four companies he controls, donated $11,000 to County Executive Jim Smith on Dec. 9, 2005.

The question is: Why?

Lipscomb is the Baltimore developer and former boyfriend of Mayor Sheila Dixon. A state prosecutor’s investigation of Dixon appears to be centering around the pair’s relationship and gifts that she may have received while she was City Council president and votes she may have made on city contracts that went to Lipscomb’s companies.

In Baltimore County, Lipscomb’s relationship (if one can use that term) with Smith is less clear.

Lipscomb and Doracon, his company, didn’t donate a dime before that time and haven’t donated anything to Smith since, according to state campaign finance records.

Rachel Rice, a Belair-based consultant, organizes fundraisers for both Smith and Dixon. Lipscomb donated to both, but Rice said she never shares donor lists of one client with another.

No county contracts have been awarded to Doracon or related companies, according to Don Mohler, a Smith spokesman.

There appear to be no special connections with the 2005 date of the donations either.

In 2005, Smith attended his first International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas. The convention is billed as the place to see and be seen if you’re a developer or government official looking to woo a developer.

Again, nothing. Mohler said he did not know if Lipscomb or other representatives of Doracon attended. If they did attend, no one met with Smith or other county officials.

The best Mohler could come up with was that the two had met at an event of some kind and hit it off.

“It’s probably casual meetings,” Mohler said. “(Smith) would be at an event and meet and chat.”

“Ronald Lipscomb is a well-known leader,” he said. “I think it would be hard to move in those circles and not meet him. It’s probably impossible to find someone who didn’t know Ron. That’s really about the extent of it; he’s around.”

Lipscomb was not immediately available. A message left by a reporter seeking comment was not returned.

The deadline to register rental properties in Baltimore County passes today but those who aren’t signed up are not likely to face the $1,000 per day maximum fine just yet.

That’s for two reasons:

First, the deadline is likely to be extended to Oct. 1 (you can read about that here). That change will require a bill to alter the current law. Councilman Vince Gardina says he is going to submit such a bill and claims it has the support of the other six councilmen.

The earliest he could do that would be at the council’s July 7 legislative session. That means a work session hearing on the change would be at 2 p.m. on July 29 at the council conference room on the second floor of the Old Courthouse in Towson. A vote would come at the council’s legislative session at 6 p.m. on Aug. 4.

Second, Mike Mohler, deputy director of the Department of Permits and Development Management, says he is more interested in getting compliance. He said he understands some property owners may have received notice too late, or had trouble finding an available inspector or contractor to do required repairs.

“Get the properties registered as soon as you can, and we’ll take any (violations) on a case-by-case basis,” Mohler said.

It is estimated that about 3,500 homes already are registered out of the 12,000 to 15,000 properties believed to qualify under the program that was expanded last December.

Originally, county officials estimated that the number of qualifying properties would be as high as 55,000. That number has been reduced after it was discovered that a computer program used to make the intial count was flawed. In one instance, the county sent out a large number of notices to condominium owners whose properties are not covered by the law, Mohler said.

Information on registering properties can be found here.