Strange Bedfellows

Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch?

Up to 400 county employees will be treated to lunch at an event Tuesday as “thanks for a job well done during the Blizzard of 2010,” according to a county press release e-mailed Monday afternoon.

And the event won’t cost taxpayers a dime, courtesy of donations made by at least eight companies.

Marjorie Hampson, a county spokeswoman, said at least 250 people are expected to attend the two-hour event at Oregon Ridge Park. (more…)

County Administrative Officer Fred Homan, not County Executive Jim Smith, will meet with members of the county’s House delegation Friday to answer questions about the county’s projected $144 million budget deficit.

The delegation asked Smith to meet with them last month regarding the budget at the request of Republican Del. Pat McDonough, who represents the 7th District including Cockeysville, Middle River and part of Perry Hall.

The political ramifications of such a request must also be noted since McDonough is mulling a run for county executive in 2010, and Smith is  considering a run for state senate in McDonough’s district. (more…)

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 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…)

Sorry for the delay in posting. There were some technical issues on my end. I hope to get you all caught up with some stuff that happened Thursday. Here’s the first of them

Here’s this week’s installment of my weekly chat with Maryland Morning News anchor Bill Vanko.  We covered the county’s expectations for the 90-day General Assembly session that began on Wednesday and the politics of the competing pension reform bills before the County Council.

County Executive Jim has been quiet about his political future since announcing in October that he was moving from his Reisterstown home of 40 years to Cockeysville in order to keep open the possibility of running for the state senate in the 7th District.

But reporter Alan Brody of the Gazette of Politics and Business reports that Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller told a ballroom of elected Democrats and party faithful that Democrats were going to take three to five senate seats from Republicans this year including the 7th District seat currently held by Sen. Andy Harris.

And Miller’s Democrat candidate is a certain outgoing county executive.

You can read Brody’s story here.

Add 2nd District County Council candidate Vicki Almond to the list of candidates interviewed by Michael Paul Smith, the son of County Executive Jim Smith, and David Gildea, a former law clerk to Smith during his time as a Circuit Court Judge.

Almond said she interviewed with Smith and Gildea in October. The pair, who each has a land-use practice, are throwing high-priced fundraisers for select candidates in open council districts in the 2010 election.

Almond said the meeting, which took place in Gildea’s Towson law office, covered a wide range of subjects, such as public safety, education and development. The meeting sounded much like a conversation Towson Democrat Mike Ertel said he had with Smith and Gildea around the same time last year.

I asked Almond, a self-described “community person,” if she had concerns about attorneys with land-use practices putting together a slate of candidates who could be friendly to development interests if elected. (more…)

The Ravens are headed to the playoffs Sunday, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by our local and state officials.

County Executive Jim Smith fired off an e-mail Wednesday morning entitled “Wacco for Flacco” and encouraging county employees to participate in purple Fridays.

“Throughout the season you have displayed your purple passion by wearing your Raven colors on Purple Fridays,” Smith wrote.  “It has been great seeing all of that purple walking the halls in our county offices. As great as it’s been, I know that we can take it up a notch this Friday. Grab those jerseys, get out those purple skirts, find those purple ties and let’s send the Ravens off in style.” (more…)

Chris Cavey, the chairman of the county’s Republican Central Committee, might be a fan of the county’s new single-stream recycling program, but he’s not a fan of a promotional postcard sent out by the county this week.

Mostly because Cavey is concerned the postcard, printed on glossy stock, is promoting the wrong thing — County Executive Jim Smith.

Cavey sent out a press release Tuesday afternoon, decrying the postcard and what he called Smith’s “endless and shameless self-promotion.”

In an interview, Cavey acknowledged he had not actually seen the postcard, but three people he said he trusted called and described it to him.

“Fifty percent of it is basically Jim Smith,” Cavey said in a phone interview. “Good golly, when you’re only sending a postcard, that’s a little over the top.

“I’m a big fan of recycling,” he continued. “It should have been an educational piece or a how-to-do-what-to-do piece.”

Now, to be honest, I hadn’t seen the postcard.

recyclepostcard

Don Mohler, a spokesman for Smith was kind enough to provide me with an electronic version. One side of it carries a picture of Smith — the same one used on the county Web site — along with some tips. It ends with Smith encouraging county residents to “Please join me by recycling all you can.”

Is it 50 percent of the mailing? Doesn’t look like it to me, but journalists are notoriously bad at numbers.

Information on the number of postcards mailed and the cost of production and mailing was not immediately available. I’ll update those when they’re released.

Of Cavey’s comments, Mohler said, “I assume Chris Cavey’s comments were tongue-in-cheek.  I know he can’t be serious. I applaud his sense of humor.”

The good news is, the postcards are printed on recycled paper stock. Both the postcard and Cavey’s release can be tossed into the single-stream recycling bin.

What do you think about the postcard? Is it self-promotion or an effective recycling education effort?

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.