Strange Bedfellows

The current controversy about pensions for County Council members is a no-win scenario regardless of what the council may or may not do in the way of reform, according to former County Executive Don Hutchinson.

“There’s no way they can win on it,” Hutchinson said, adding that voters would likely see any action as “nothing more than reaction to a story of exposure.”

“I don’t think this council can do anything about it,” Hutchinson said. “I think the council, any council, could have changed it, but they chose not to. The new council can talk about it, consider it, discuss it. I think this council is best to leave it alone.”

The two-term Democratic executive talked about the pension issue during an interview about a possible return to politics.

Hutchinson said he understood why the pension issue has captured the attention of the public.

“I think that the average man and woman always look at somebody else’s life in comparison to their own and what they know,” Hutchinson said. “They know that when they retire, regardless of the job they had or what they’ve done, they know they’re not going to get full compensation for their retired years. They know they’re income is not 100 percent of what it was when they left their job.

“That’s all they know, and that’s what they think is fair. They think what is fair for everybody is what has been fair for them.”

So is the public wrong? (more…)

Sen. Norman Stone returned four days of his $43,500 annual legislative salary late last year. Stone, an 11-term Democrat who represents the 6th District, released documents showing he participated in a furlough program requested by House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller.

The 6th District includes Dundalk and Essex.

Both Busch and Miller returned five days’ salary and asked fellow legislators to also give up between one and five days’ pay at the same time 67,000 state employees were being furloughed for up to five days based on individual salary levels. (more…)

County Executive Jim Smith is moving from Reisterstown, where he has lived his entire life, to Cockeysville.

Smith says he and his wife, Sandy, are downsizing from their current large home to a smaller one. A side benefit is the new home is in the 7th District, which happens to have an open Senate seat in 2010. Smith said the move gives him the opportunity to consider running for the seat. (more…)

Del. Jon Cardin, a proponent of campaign finance reform, said he will continue to accept corporate donations leading up to the 2010 election even as he presses for approval of a bill that creates a publicly financed campaign option that would prohibit such contributions.

Cardin was one of two legislators who participated in the telephone news conference Wednesday morning touting the release of a poll that he said shows public support for campaign finance reform. Both Cardin and Sen. Jamie Raskin were asked during that news conference if they would promise not to accept campaign contributions from corporations beginning now. (You can read the full poll results here.) (more…)

It seems former Mayor/Governor/Comptroller William Donald Schaefer may not be entirely over his 2006 election loss to Peter Franchot … at least according to Franchot.

The 2006 election is nearly three years removed, but some wounds don’t heal easily.

Schaefer has been known to carry a grudge or two. Reporters and columnists used to get letters from him when they wrote stories he didn’t like, and citizens sometimes got visits from Schaefer after writing letters of criticism. (more…)

 Del. Dana Stein took five days without pay as part of a voluntary furlough request made to 188 state legislators late last year.

Stein, a Democrat who represents the 11th District, released a form dated Dec. 26, 2008 that authorizes state human resources officials to withhold five days’ pay totaling $604.20.

Stein’s district includes Owings Mills, Pikesville and part of Timonium. (more…)

State Sen. Jim Brochin took four days without pay as part of a voluntary furlough request made to 188 state legislators late last year.

Brochin, a Democrat who represents the 42nd District, released a form dated Dec. 16, 2008, that authorizes state human resources officials to withhold four days’ pay totaling $483.36.

Brochin’s district includes Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville. (more…)

Del. Dan Morhaim has released information related to how many days pay he gave up earlier this year as part of a voluntary furlough request.

The form, dated Dec. 21, 2008, shows Morhaim took five days without pay, which equals $604.20.

Morhaim is a Democrat who represents the 11th District. That district includes Owings Mills, Pikesville and part of Timonium. (more…)

Local elected officials who support deer hunting could be targets at the ballot box next year if one local animal rights activist has her way.

Enid Feinberg, a Phoenix resident who has opposed deer hunting in the Loch Raven reservoir, said she would like to see three county officials unseated in 2010 because of their support of deer hunting — Democratic Sen. Jim Brochin, and Del. Joseph Boteler and Councilman Bryan McIntire, both Republicans.

“Knowing what I know about them, they’re certainly high on my list,” Feinberg said.

Brochin and McIntire have been supportive of expanded deer hunting in the reservoir area. And Boteler sponsored a bill in the General Assembly last year that would have allowed hunting on Sundays on private property in Baltimore County. Boteler’s bill did not pass.

“In my opinion, hunting is legalized animal cruelty,” said Feinberg.

Feinberg said she has joined an organization called  Maryland Votes for Animals. Carolyn Kilborn, who is the only attributed writer on the Web site, was not immediately available for an interview. The site states that the group has “one overriding mission: To create an ever-growing voting bloc of animal advocates who will elect representatives willing to champion and vote for animal protection legislation, and to hold politicians accountable to their constituents.”

The organization lists a Towson mailing address on it’s Web site, but Kilborn lives in Annapolis.

“There’s no way to win for animals other than at the ballot box,” said Feinberg, who said she was speaking for herself, not for Maryland Votes for Animals.

“Our politicians are truly failing us,” Feinberg said.

Feinberg said one strategy could be the formation of a political action committee that could provide financial support to candidates who favor issues such as stronger laws against animal cruelty or are against hunting.

Maryland Votes for Animals formed a political action committee to participate in the 2010 state elections. State Board of Elections records show that Votes For Animals registered as a PAC on June 15. Kilborn is listed as the chairman of the committee, Jared DeMarinis, director of candidacy and campaign finance for the State Board of Elections.

Today’s local government lesson: You have to be fast if you want to claim credit for something good.

That comes courtesy of Councilman Kevin Kamenetz, who was one of a half-dozen county officials who were present to announce that crime in Baltimore County decreased during the first six months of 2009. The decrease is a continuation of a trend that stretches back more than a decade and has resulted in crime rates per 100,000 people that are as low as the rates in 1976, when the county had fewer people within its borders, according to Police Chief Jim Johnson. (more…)