Elected officials turning up the heat on Ridgely Middle School’s air conditioning problem and an update on state legislator furloughs.
It’s all here in this morning’s conversation with WBAL AM 1090 Maryland’s Morning News reporter Bill Vanko.
Del. Jon Cardin was one of 25 state legislators from Baltimore County who gave up some of his $43,500 state salary in a first round of voluntary furloughs in January.
Beyond the appearance of his name on a list of legislators who participated, Cardin is not talking and declined to provide information on how many days’ salary he gave up.
“There are certain matters that can remain private,” said Cardin, a Democrat who represents the 11th District, which includes Owings Mills, Pikesville and part of Timonium. (more…)
It started as an academic exercise for Doug Riley.
The former Republican councilman from Towson, who now works for Pope and Hughes, was talking to Virginia Barnhart, a former county attorney who works with Riley, about whether a two-term county executive would be barred from running for office a third time.
The topic was driven by continued talk that former County Executive Donald Hutchinson might run in 2010 for the office he held from 1978 to 1986. Some believe the County Charter might prevent another Hutchinson run. (more…)
Four Baltimore County legislators were not on the list of 155 senators and delegates who gave up at least one day’s pay as part of a voluntary program in January.
That doesn’t mean all of those four kept the money. Two, in fact, Del. Bill Frank and Sen. Andy Harris, both Republicans, announced they would give up the pay — just not to the state.
Instead, they both said they would make a donation to charity.
Patuxent Publishing Co., publisher of this Web site, is asking the 29 legislators who represent Baltimore County to voluntarily release information showing how many days pay they gave up in January. The House of Delegates and Senate declined to provide that information when asked last month, saying the information was a personnel matter. (more…)
A police officer was set up with a radar gun outside Cromwell Valley Elementary School last week to enforce the 25 mph speed limit.
That spot was almost directly across Providence Road from where Police Chief Jim Johnson held a June 1 news conference to announce the county’s intentions to add the cameras to its speed enforcement arsenal. During that conference, almost on cue, a car sped by at a rate of speed clearly too fast for the road. (more…)
If you missed it or are not a regular listener to WBAL AM 1090 here’s a link to a conversation I had with Bill Vanko about Baltimore County politics.
I’m a regular weekly contributor to the station’s new Maryland’s Morning News program. You can hear me every Thursday at 7:39 a.m.
Jordan Hadfield knows he’s facing an uphill battle.
Hadfield, 24, said he plans to challenge 10-term State Sen. Norman Stone in next September’s Democratic primary.
“My race is not going to be about me challenging anyone,” Hadfield said. “It’s going to be about a vision. It’s about what needs to be done.”
The Dundalk resident will officially kick off his campaign Sept. 19 with three stops in three different parts of the district, starting with the Boulevard Diner on Merritt Boulevard and ending with a 9 p.m. appearance at Pizza John’s in Essex. (And who doesn’t like a slice of pizza with their politics?) (more…)
Growing up in Baltimore, you learn that when people ask you where you went to school they’re not asking you about where you went to college. In Small-timore, it’s all about your high school.
Even on the County Council, where five of the seven members graduated from local private schools, members occasionally participate in some playful inter-school rivalry banter. (more…)
Yesterday Steve Bailey filed an ethics complaint against County Executive Jim Smith.
Today, Bailey may find himself on the receiving end.
Bailey and the organization he co-chairs, the Baltimore County Chapter of Americans for Prosperity, may have run afoul of the law when they issued a press release yesterday naming Smith as the target of an ethics complaint. (more…)
Prior to the Tuesday evening vote on speed camera legislation, a few councilmen took the time to explain why they were about to vote the way they were about to vote.
Councilman Vince Gardina, a Democrat who represents the 5th District, said his vote was based, at least in part, on what he explained as a month-long “unscientific experiment.”
“Over the last month or so I’ve been trying to drive the speed limit all the time,” said Gardina, who represents Perry Hall, Carney and Towson. (more…)