Strange Bedfellows

Comptroller Peter Franchot came to Towson last week, preaching the gospel of penny-pinching in a place even he seemed to think was a bit odd — a Democratic club meeting.

Franchot spoke to about 50 attendees of the Central Baltimore County Democratic Club last Tuesday and compared the economy to a blizzard.

“The snow has stopped falling, but there’s 10 feet outside and it’s going to take a while to dig out,” Franchot said, adding that the possibility of new taxes to support state spending is slim to none until the economy rebounds.

“As Democrats, we have to reform state spending,” Franchot said. “A lot of Democrats look at me like, ‘What’s that?’ Like they took an oath to defend every last dime of spending in public programs.” (more…)

Republicans appear to be attempting to use the speed camera issue as a wedge issue in the upcoming 2010 election to unseat Democratic Del. Steve Lafferty in the 42nd District.

Lafferty was first elected in 2006 to the seat that represents Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville. The seat was previously held by one-term Republican Del. John Trueschler, who decided not to run for re-election citing concerns about the toll the job was taking on his family. The remaining two delegate seats have been held by Republicans since the district was created in 2002.

John Fiastro, president of the 42nd District Republican Club, handed out fliers criticizing Del. Steve Lafferty during the Aug. 19 public meeting on speed cameras, held at the Baltimore County Public Library branch in Towson.

The bright yellow leaflet declares in bold letters “Lafferty voted for speed cameras.” On the reverse side, the group reprinted a blog post that appeared here on July 23 in which Lafferty called for public hearings on the bill.  The reprint has several passages underlined with hand-written notes criticizing the delegate.

It should be noted the reprint was done without the permission of Patuxent Publishing Co., which owns this Web site.

Lafferty addressed the flier briefly at the meeting just before speaking about his reasons for supporting speed camera legislation.

“I really love that my opponents have put this piece of crap out,” said Lafferty, who was holding a copy of the flier as he spoke to the crowd of about 60. “Because if you read the other piece, the other side to it, this meeting is about public information. As I’ve walked neighborhoods and talked to voters, people do not fully understand the intent of the legislation and certainly no one has had the opportunity up until now, other than what the county has rightfully put on its Web site, gotten any kind of insights on how (the county) expects to proceed.”

laffertyflier

Kevin Carney, a house builder and Towson resident, said this week he will run as a Republican for the 42nd District Senate seat and challenge two-term incumbent Democrat Sen. Jim Brochin next November.

The 42nd District includes Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville.

Carney, president of Columbia, MD-based Thomas Builders, lives at the far end of the district near the city line with his wife Marla. The couple has two adult children.

“Annapolis is broken,” Carney, 58,  said during an interview in his Columbia office. “People are worried that the state is over-spending.” (more…)

Just a note to our readers: I’ll be live blogging Sen. Ben Cardin’s town hall meeting tonight at Towson University. You can follow along at Twitter.com/bpsears. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.

As we noted earlier today in a story here, organizers have set ground rules for protesters and counter-protesters.

Look back here at explorebaltimorecounty.com for stories and updates.

A Towson author who is running a scaled-down presidential campaign now has a mock news video courtesy of an unknown fan.

Blaine Taylor, who is running in Maryland, is the star of a video made on a Web site that allows anyone to put themselves or friends into a mock-news report. Currently, he is only on the ballot in Maryland. (more…)

The site of a former gas station in Towson is slated to be the next honor for the county’s Olympians.

County Executive Jim Smith announced over the weekend that he wants to turn the site of the former Shell Station off the Towson Roundabout into Baltimore County Olympic Park.

Smith, in remarks made during Saturday’s festivities honoring Michael Phelps and other Maryland Olympians, said he would re-dedicate the empty lot currently now Towson Circle Park.

“This park will have special recognition of all Baltimore County’s Olympic medalists,” Smith said in an Oct. 5 release of his remarks from the night before.

The land used for the park has a somewhat controversial history.

In August 2007, the county paid $500,000 to Motiva Enterprises. The agreement came after about three months after Smith announced he would use the county’s condemnation powers to acquire the site. Motiva Enterprises, which operated a Shell station on the site, has been involved in cleaning up gasoline contamination there and is expected to continue those efforts through 2009.

Councilman Vince Gardina, a Democrat who represents the 5th District, including Towson and Perry Hall, praised the idea. When the initial announcement was made in 2007, Gardina said he expected the spot would become “a quiet oasis.”

“When you’re in the midst of a desert, anything can be an oasis,” Gardina said.

Bryan McIntire, Gardina’s Republican council colleague, painted another image of the future greenspace at one of the county’s busiest intersections.

After voting to approve the sale in 2007, McIntire suggested another name to me for the park - “carbon monoxide park.”

Given media reports of heavy smog in Beijing during the Olympics this summer, perhaps McIntire’s name is apropos.

For weeks county officials have claimed “concrete proof” that employees of a firm collecting signatures for a union seeking binding arbitration with the county weren’t being up front with voters.

Now we know what the proof is — video of two signature collectors explaining the purpose of the petition on a video shot by a county employee.

The Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees hired Democracy Resources, an Oregon-based company, to collect enough signatures of registered county voters in an attempt to get binding arbitration for its members on the November ballot. It was a story first reported in newspapers published by Patuxent Publishing Co., which also operates this Web site. (You can read the two stories here and here.)

A woman who answered the phone at the union’s Towson office this morning said Jim Miller, president of the union local, was in a meeting and unavailable.

Don Mohler, a county spokesman, has repeatedly claimed that collectors were misleading voters by stating the petition would help county teachers even though the union does not represent those employees.

The 2-minute-10-second video was shot by a county employee who accompanied Mohler on a trip to the Towson farmers’ market July 31. The video was released today in response to a request filed under the state Public Information Act.

Mohler, whose county employee badge is clearly visible in the video, is seen talking to two men who identify themselves as collecting signatures for the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees, a union that represents many county employees, including 911 employees and sheriff’s deputies.

The two signature collectors tell Mohler nearly a half-dozen times that signing will help teachers. When Mohler questions the language of the petition and asks how it will help teachers he is told that it’s “all lawyer jargon.”

The collectors also say binding arbitration would help garbage collectors and “people who drive buses.” In truth, all of the county’s trash and recyclables are collected by nearly 50 private haulers whose employees are not county employees. The county has no municipal bus system. School bus drivers are hired employees of the Baltimore County Public Schools System.

Sen. Jim Brochin says Maryland should now consider a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole for anyone convicted of raping a child.

Brochin, a Democrat who represents the 42nd District, made his comments after learning of the June 24 Supreme Court decision striking down a Louisiana law that applies the death penalty to anyone convicted of raping a child. (You can read the text of that decision here.)

The 42nd District includes Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville.

In an interview three years ago, Brochin called for a minimum sentence of life in prison for such cases, adding “I wouldn’t rule out the death penalty either.” (more…)

It seems that neither the county executive nor the council is willing to repeat the past when it comes to one appointment on the Baltimore County Revenue Authority Board.

Five years ago, the council and County Executive Jim Smith squared off on the appointment of one member of the authority board - Towson attorney Leslie Pittler.

The council saw Pittler as their appointment to the board. Smith wanted Baltimore Orioles majority owner and attorney Peter Angelos.

The five-member board is, by County Charter, appointed by the county executive with the approval of the council. Each member serves a five-year term.

Nearly a dozen years ago, the council and then-County Executive Dutch Ruppersberger agreed to make one of the slots a council appointment. Smith initially refused to acknowledge that arrangement.

A brief standoff ensued in which the council kept Pittler on the board past the end of his term by refusing to confirm his replacement. Smith eventually relented and agreed to send Pittler’s name to the council.

Pittler’s term ends June 30. But the council and Smith are playing so nice on this one that each side is waiting for the other to do something. Pittler’s name, or a replacement, has not been forwarded to the council. If his name were sent up soon, the council could vote on it at its July 7 meeting.

If they don’t take it up then, Pittler, who has never missed a board meeting, will continue to serve until a replacement is confirmed.

“From our perspective, it’s a council appointment,” said Don Mohler, Smith’s spokesman. “I’m assuming (the council) wants Les so it will be Les.”

Council chairman Kevin Kamenetz offered a slightly different take.

“My understanding of the arrangement is it’s still a county executive appointment but one that would be made in consultation with the council,” Kamenetz said.

Kamenetz declined to say whether or not the council would ask for Pittler, saying that he had not had discussed the matter with anyone from Jim Smith’s office. But he hinted that Pittler would not likely face a lot of opposition on the council.

“If the executive chose to send the name of Mr. Pittler to the council, I suspect the other council members would not object,” he said.

Pittler was pretty clear about his desire to remain on the job for a third term.

“I’m interested in being reappointed,” Pittler said.

Blaine Taylor is on the ballot.

The Towson resident appears as a Democratic candidate for president of the United States on the Maryland State Board of Elections official list of candidates for the Nov. 4 election. (more…)