They said it, Part 3
A look back at the politics and government stories of 2008 in the words of those involved. Look for part four of four tomorrow. (Part 1 and Part 2 can be found here.)
July
• “There’s a lot of people who didn’t get notices and found out through other people, and there’s some who got them and didn’t feel they could comply in the required amount of time,” Councilman Vince Gardina, a Democrat who represents the 5th District, including Towson, Carney and Perry Hall, said July 2. Gardina sponsored a bill that extended the deadline for the county’s Rental Registration program to Jan. 1.
• “I feel because of my independence, I question if I can be more effective being county executive,” Sen. Jim Brochin, a Democrat who represents the 42nd District, which includes Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville, said July 3. “These are the thoughts that are running through my head.”
• “Deer are devastating to new growth needed for a healthy forest,” Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the city Department of Public Works, said July 9. “They are eating everything in sight, and that means you have old trees and not much to replace them. Without the trees, you have runoff that fills the reservoir with sediment, thus reducing our total water capacity.”
• The county and the city, which owns and manages Loch Raven Reservoir, agreed to allow bow hunting in limited areas. It was the first time such a hunt has been held in the Loch Raven Reservoir area.
• “I grew up a little bit with The Evening Sun and Lou Panos,” County Executive Jim Smith said at a July 9 ceremony honoring Panos’ 67 years in journalism. Panos, who covered politics and was a columnist for Patuxent Publishing Co., which publishes the Towson Times and this Web site, retired this year.
• “It’s a representative Democracy and for 30 years the people of Baltimore County have spoken loud and clear on the death penalty,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said July 17. “County residents believe in the death penalty, and I believe in the death penalty. I reflect the community.” Shellenberger was appointed to serve on a state commission reviewing the death penalty in Maryland. Earlier this month the commission voted 13-9 on a recommendation calling for the repeal of the death penalty. Shellenberger voted to keep the penalty in place. He explained his position in a Dec. 30 op-ed piece and video in The Sun.
• “You don’t issue them for revenue, you issue them for business turnover and also for fire lane and handicap (violations),” County Administrative Officer Fred Homan said July 23. “We try very hard to encourage business turnover without discouraging people coming to shop because they get angry about parking violations.” The County Council approved a series of increases to fines for parking violations including meter violations.
• “If you are brought back before this board, you will be met with some difficult times,” county liquor board chairman Thomas Minkin told Edward Stick during a July 28 hearing where’s a group led by Stick was issued a liquor license for the Blue Grotto in Towson. The board awarded the license even though the three-member panel was concerned about Stick’s criminal record which includes several alcohol related assault cases. A few months after the hearing, Stick was charged with beating his live-in girlfriend after an evening of drinking, according to court records. That case is scheduled to he heard in District Court in Towson on Jan. 5.
• “If it’s $20 or $25, we think the consumers will be well-served, and we know the police will be well-served,” Don Mohler, a county spokesman, said July 30. “We’ll have more police doing police work and not fiddling with towing.” Ten months earlier, county officials told the County Council that a new towing program would only cost residents an additional $3 to $5 dollars for each police-initiated tow.
• “The elevator was up to date with its maintenance inspections conducted by the contracted elevator company,” Ronald DeJulius, state commissioner of Labor and Industry, wrote in a statement provided to the Towson Times just hours after a July 30 malfunction of an elevator in the Circuit Court Building in Towson. A review of state inspection records by Patuxent Publishing Co., publisher of the Towson Times and this Web site, revealed that the elevator failed a Jan. 24, 2008 inspection. A man and two juveniles suffered minor injuries when the elevator fell about three feet.
August
• “We have concrete evidence that the persons who are circulating these petitions are making material misrepresentations about the purpose and effect of the proposed charter amendment,” County Attorney John Beverungen wrote in an Aug. 1 letter to the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees. The union, which represents 911 operators, public health nurses and sheriff’s deputies, hired an Oregon company to collect signatures on a petition that would allow voters to approve binding arbitration for the union’s members. The signature collectors told residents the measure would help teachers.
• “They’re prized parking spaces,” George Hale, chief executive of the county Revenue Authority, said Aug. 12. “Once you get one, basically you can leave your car there for a day or a week or a month. A lot of times they are used for long-term parking.” The County Council approved a bill that allows the authority to install electronic multi-space parking meters on Cross Campus Drive on the Towson University campus.
• “Obviously, we couldn’t have everyone off the same day,” county Auditor Mary Allen said Aug. 12. “Even splitting it half and half might be a hardship.” Allen was asked by Council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz to examine how alternative work weeks, including four-day week schedules, might be implemented in county government.
• “It wasn’t a problem for the press to come, but we didn’t want to advertise it to the public because we thought the leaders of those communities deserved their own briefing,” Don Mohler, a county spokesman, said Aug. 28 of a private briefing on a proposed deer hunt that the county held for about a dozen community leaders a week before a larger meeting attended by several hundred interested people. County officials told a reporter of the meeting. County officials did not respond to a reporter’s request that he be allowed to attend.
September
• “We did not qualify the question, and we’re not going to,” Don Mohler, a county spokesman, said of a petition submitted by the Baltimore County Federation of Employees. The union was seeking binding arbitration for it’s members.
The county turned over a 2-minute-10-second video tape showing signature collectors misrepresenting the petition to prospective signers.
• “There is going to be a controlled culling of the deer,” Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, said Sept. 3. “Every single option has been carefully weighed, and this is the right thing to do. For all intents and purposes, this is decided.” Opponents of the bow hunt in Loch Raven Reservoir said city officials had given them hope that the hunt would not happen.
• “We’re willing to cooperate with the county if that park is important and necessary. We’re going to work hard to work it out with them,” Hannan Sibel, chairman of the county Revenue Authority board, said Sept. 10. “I don’t think we can afford to give it away.” The board had hoped to improve upon a deal in which the authority would turn over the Gunpowder Falls Golf Course in Kingsville to the county which will then be used as a park. In return, the county would agree to forgo collection amusement taxes for three years and then collect at half the current rate for the following eight years. The county refused to move off the original agreement. The authority ultimately agreed to close the course and transfer it to the county.
• “It was a weird feeling for me because I’m kind of an energetic guy and just not to have any get up and go … I thought ‘what the hell is wrong with this, this is not good,’” County Executive Jim Smith, who returned to work part-time Sept. 8 after undergoing a triple-bypass operation Aug. 13, which his doctors said saved his life. Smith made his comments upon returning to work a month after the surgery his doctor called life-saving.
• “There was never an expectation that we would recover all the money we paid to remove the blight from this neighborhood,” Don Mohler, a county spokesman, said Sept. 23. “I don’t know how you put a price on community transformation.” The county sold a 9.8-acre parcel of land in Dundalk to John Vontran, a Perry Hall resident and self-described developer, for $1.64 million. The county purchased the property for nearly $21 million.
• “There are many of us Baltimore County taxpayers that live in Perry Hall that do not want this partisan display on a Baltimore County-owned car,” David Nawrocki, a Perry Hall Republican, wrote in a Sept. 28 e-mail about a Barack Obama bumper sticker affixed to a county car driven by Councilman Vince Gardina. It’s a violation of county rules to place any kind of sticker on a county vehicle.