This week’s chat with Maryland Morning News anchor Bill Vanko. This week, we talk about recently passed legislation to reform pensions for county council members and Ken Holt and Del. Pat McDonough, two top GOP prospects for county executive
Del. Pat McDonough said Wednesday that a poll conducted by Annapolis-based Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies suggests that the county executive’s race “is a winnable seat for me.”
The poll, released Wednesday, shows that McDonough has a name recognition of 44 percent among likely voters in Baltimore County. Twenty percent of those polled said they have a favorable opinion of the two-term Republican delegate who also served one term in the House as a Democrat. Only six percent of those polled had an unfavorable opinion and 18 percent remained neutral. (more…)
After years of having his name bandied about as a potential candidate for all sorts of races, Republican former Del. Ken Holt says this time he’s really considering a return to politics and a run for Baltimore County Executive.
Holt served in the House of Delegates from 1995 to 1999. Since leaving the House Republicans break his name out of their hermetically sealed container of potential candidates every few years and whisper that Holt is running for (insert office here). (more…)
Check out this story on WBAL.com for my discussion with Robert Lang about the $1.1 million in cash on hand raised by Councilman Kevin Kamenetz.
Here’s part two of my top five list of Baltimore County political stories for 2009. (Part one can be found here).
2. Pensions and Salaries. Pocketbook issues continued to dominate the news in the county after it was reported by the Baltimore Sun that five-term Democratic Councilman Vince Gardina was eligible to retire at age 53 and earn a pension equal to 100 percent of his $54,000 annual salary. Four other councilmen have served four terms each and are eligible to collect 80 percent of their salaries immediately at the conclusion of the current term.
A month later, the county Personnel and Salary Advisory Board proposed raises of 8 percent and 2 percent respectively for the county executive and council that would take office in 2010. The reason for the difference between the two was apparently hashed out in a closed door meeting that violated the state’s Open Meetings Act, but clearly was influenced by the ongoing pension flap.
Then-council Chairman Joseph Bartenfelder said he would not introduce the salary increase bill as long as he was chairman. Later, County Executive Jim Smith announced he would not send such a bill to the council.
Next month, the council will consider two pension reform bills — one sponsored by Councilman Kevin Kamenetz and the other by Councilmen Joseph Bartenfelder.
Watchdog groups aren’t happy with either, and are expected to call for publicly-funded defined benefits pension plans to be replaced with 401K-style plans.
1. Council Kingmakers. The fact that developers and their attorneys give money to county executive and council candidates in Baltimore County is as surprising as the faux outrage of Claude Raines — as the corrupt gambling Capt. Renault – shutting down Humphrey Bogart’s club because he is “shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” … just as a club employee hands the captain his winnings for the night.
What IS news here is the way in which Michael Paul Smith, the son of County Executive Jim Smith, and David Gildea, a former law clerk to Smith when the county exec was a Circuit Court judge, have gone about backing unknown and untested potential candidates in three open council races, and are said to be seeking a candidate for at least one more race (but possibly two). The private fund raising events in Smith and Gildea’s homes, with their suggested $1,000 per person donations, caught the attention of other candidates and the public.
The council wields a great deal of power when it comes to zoning and development decisions, and community associations and activists didn’t need 20-20 vision to make the connections between those open seats and attorneys with land use practices who might be interested in seeing friendly faces making those calls.
So there it is, my list of the top five political stories for the county for 2009.
Do you agree, disagree? Did I overlook something that should have been on the list? Feel free to leave me a comment below.
Happy new year to everyone and I’ll see you in 2010.
If one needed further evidence that last week’s vote by the Personnel and Salary Advisory board was unusual, you didn’t have to look beyond the actions taken by the board just four years ago.
County Charter and state law require the quadrennial review to be done by fourth year of the term.
Last Wednesday, the board fulfilled its duties during a hearing on raises for both the county executive and council that lasted a little more than seven minutes (give or take). (more…)
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.
Donald Hutchinson won’t seek a third term as county executive.
The two-term Democratic executive confirmed he’s made a handful of phone calls over the last few weeks to friends and supporters telling them he doesn’t have any interest in a year of campaigning.
“If someone wants to appoint me county executive, I’ll take the job because I loved the job,” Hutchinson, 63, told me.”And I think one of the unfortunate things you learn about politics is that when you (become county executive) as young as I did there’s a tremendous amount of knowledge that you accumulate over time and you don’t get to come back and get a do-over.” (more…)
Del. Todd Schuler announced Saturday that he will run for the County Council rather than seek a second term in the House of Delegates.
The announcement, made over the weekend at a campaign fundraising event, was not entirely unexpected. Schuler talked to me about running for the seat back in February 2008.
Schuler, a Democrat from Overlea, now represents the 8th District in the House of Delegates. He said he will run in 2010 for the 6th District council seat currently held by four-term Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder, who is running for county executive in 2010. (more…)