Kamenetz takes over

Our view: The former councilman promises to bring a blend of experience and new ideas to Baltimore County's top job — he'll need both, given the challenges ahead

That's going to be necessary if he aims to make good on his promise to bring a new sense of innovation to Baltimore County. Voters didn't express a great clamoring for change from the Smith administration, but there is a growing frustration around the county with a government that has grown staid and set in its ways. Mr. Kamenetz made hay during the campaign about his effort to get air conditioning at Ridgely Middle School — where a renovation meant to bring air conditioning had been cut short, but not before the school got new windows that don't open. But the county's initial refusal to listen to parents' complaints was representative of an inflexibility that characterizes too many interactions between residents and bureaucrats, over everything from speed humps to school construction. The county is in need of some fresh thinking in code enforcement, traffic engineering, planning and other departments.

One other way to interpret Mr. Kamenetz's lack of a transition team is that he doesn't feel like he has a lot of supporters from the election that he needs to pay back. That could be a very good thing. He may be forced to seek more concessions from county workers on pensions and benefits, to tackle the powerful liquor lobby over rules that have stifled economic redevelopment, and to confront a school system that is perceived as increasingly remote, and it will take an independent, confident executive to do it. He has the potential to be that kind of leader, and in one week he has the chance to begin to prove it.