Schaefer wants Md. to reject city's request for aid

In the latest round of his feud with Mayor Martin O'Malley, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer urged the Ehrlich administration yesterday to reject Baltimore's request for money to help reopen part of South Clinton Street.

O'Malley asked the comptroller in a letter last month to support the city's bid for $2 million from the Maryland Department of Transportation for the $6.4 million project. The mayor said the state should contribute because the Maryland Port Administration had destabilized the roadbed when it removed part of a pier.

Schaefer, who had written O'Malley urging prompt action to fix the roads near Clinton and O'Donnell streets, said the state was spending enough on city transportation projects. "That's his responsibility," Schaefer told Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. at a meeting of the Board of Public Works.

Steve Kearney, the mayor's policy director, declined to comment on Schaefer's remarks.