Strange Bedfellows

Let’s face it, nothing is as political in any county as snow removal.

County executives have been nearly run out of town on a rail because of it. That’s why executives hold annual press conferences to tell county residents how they are preparing to keep the streets clear when the snow arrives.

Add to the political fodder a Monday night press release from county Republican Central Committee Chairman Chris Cavey, who criticized County Executive Jim Smith and the County Council for what he desribed as a failure to properly plan for last weekend’s blizzard.

“Everyone knew it was coming,” Cavey said. “They were calling it Snowmageddon and stuff like that.” (more…)

The last thing a county with a $144 million revenue shortfall needs is a blizzard.

Don Mohler, a county spokesman, said he and County Executive Jim Smith tried to ward off the impending storm with a little anti-snow dance.

“Last week I used all my bad dance moves,” said Mohler. “I even had the county executive doing a little butter-churn move.” (more…)

The state is not the only one with budget woes.

Baltimore County is facing a $138 million budget shortfall due to income tax and property tax revenues being less than anticipated in the budget that was passed last spring.

The only question that remains is how the county will deal with the shortfall. (more…)

Everyone ready for the answers to the pop quiz on the County Council and county government that I posted on Tuesday?

If you haven’t had the opportunity to take it you can find it here. Remember, you’re on the honor system — no internet and no lifelines. Hey, I’m not Regis Philbin here.

Here are the answers to all 60 questions. Look for the special bragging rights questions I left in the answers. Feel free to leave the answers in the comments section — if you think you know them. (more…)

“You hope property owners start to comply immediately. We’re just recognizing the fiscal impact. I don’t think they want to dilly-dally.”

~ County spokesman Don Mohler, expressing his belief that area rental property owners won’t need more than a year to install carbon monoxide detectors.

People who can, do — and those who can’t, teach. Or so goes the old adage. But what happens to those who give up teaching?

Apparently, they become farmers.

Or so goes the story as told by Don Mohler, who briefly spoke Thursday about Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder’s brief tenure as a teacher.

Bartenfelder taught from 1979 to 1981. The last year was spent as a long-term substitute at Chesapeake High School, in Essex, where he taught drafting and business (he was also involved in the family farm at the time). (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…)

The County Council is poised to vote tonight on legislation that would enable the county to use speed cameras in up to 12 school zones around the county.

Police and traffic safety officials are still working on a list of potential locations. Some officials, including Police Chief Jim Johnson and Don Mohler, a spokesman for County Executive Jim Smith, are now giving indications that statistics won’t be the only factor that determines where the cameras are placed. (more…)

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman has announced a new public safety campaign urging residents of our neighbor to the west to come in out of the rain. (more…)

A week into the official start of the 2010 campaign season and already we’ve had our first surprise announcement: that Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith isn’t running for an office for which he never officially said he was a candidate.

Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some criticism in the blogosphere and in political circles has surfaced on where Smith’s announcement originated, rather than the fact that he will not run for state comptroller.

The question centers around how the announcement was made as part of a county press release — and not a campaign release. Smith first e-mailed the announcement to the media on Monday afternoon from his county communications office. That same announcement was also put up on the county Web site. (more…)