Strange Bedfellows

Steve Bailey, co-chairman of the county chapter of Americans for Prosperity, said he thinks two Baltimore County councilmen who voted Jan. 19 on the council’s pension reform bills should have abstained — because they stood to benefit financially.

Bailey said Democratic Councilmen John Olszewski Sr. and Ken Oliver both benefited from voting to approve a bill that caps pensions at 60 percent for any freshman councilman sworn-in as of December 2010, while voting to table what has been considered a tougher bill that would have imposed limits on both their pensions almost immediately.

Both Oliver, a two-term incumbent, and Olszewski, a three-term incumbent, would have seen their pensions capped at 60 percent under a bill proposed by Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder. That bill was ultimately killed in favor of Councilman Kevin Kamenetz’s bill. (more…)

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.

“That doesn’t sound like their role. I’m not sure their role is to inject politics into this process.”

~ Republican former Councilman Wayne Skinner, on county Personnel and Salary Advisory Board considering pensions and other benefits when making recommendations on a 2 percent raise for the County Council that will take office in December 2010. Those benefits and perks were not part of a recommendation to give the incoming county executive an 8 percent raise.

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…)