Arundel County Executive

As expected, a top aide to Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens resigned yesterday, several days after the aide mistakenly told a Pioneer City community group that a University of Maryland football player had been arrested as a youth. Owens accepted a letter of resignation from Susan Kleinberg, the county's human services officer, Monday evening, Owens' spokesman Matt Diehl said. After meetings last week with the youth's mother and Owens, Kleinberg decided to leave her $99,979 Cabinet-level post, Diehl said.

Anne Arundel County's proposed stormwater fee provided newly appointed County Executive Laura Neuman with her first leadership test, and she failed. Her veto puts the county at risk of sanctions if it does not enact a fee structure by July 1, yet she appears to have no plan for complying with state and federal requirements for reducing the polluted stormwater that is washing into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The County Council should override her reckless decision without delay.

An article in yesterday's editions incorrectly stated the number of terms Robert R. Neall served as Anne Arundel County executive. The correct number is one.The Sun regrets the error.

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold was led out of a courtroom Thursday with his wrists handcuffed behind his back and his head lowered, bound for the county jail after being sentenced for his misconduct in office conviction and behavior a judge condemned as "outrageous. " Outside the county courthouse, a Leopold supporter said the judge should be fired, while a woman whose lawsuit alleges that she was wrongly terminated by the Leopold administration walked from the building exclaiming, "Pop the champagne!"

An article yesterday in some editions of The Sun incorrectly reported Anne Arundel County Executive John G. Gary's proposed property tax for the fiscal year that begins July 1.The proposed rate is $2.36 per $100 of assessed value, 2 cents lower than this year's rate.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 5/02/98

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens made two Cabinet-level appointments yesterday, a criminal justice coordinator and a central services officer. H. Curt Toler, a former Federal Bureau of Prisons administrator and Anne Arundel Health Department program director, will oversee drug treatment programs as criminal justice coordinator. Spurgeon R. Eismeier, who manages the county's real estate office, will leave that job to oversee the Central Services Division, which runs county garages, manages its vehicle fleet and oversees purchasing.

People interested in running for state and county offices had until 9 o'clock last night to file for candidacy. The deadline appeared to bring few additional office seekers for county positions, with no new candidates for Anne Arundel County executive by 6 p.m.A handful of Republicans decided to run for state office, with two filing for House of Delegates in District 30, one for House of Delegates in District 31 and another Republican filing for Senate in...

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens announced yesterday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded the county $3.3 million in grants to help provide housing for lower-income residents.Owens said she is delighted that housing Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo increased the county's funding this year.Arundel Community Development Services Inc., a nonprofit organization that receives funding through the county government, will administer the grants.Slightly more than $2.4 million will go to the county's Community Development Block Grant Program, which is designed to provide jobs and housing for county residents with low to moderate incomes.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens has scheduled a news conference for Monday to discuss a 14-month study of the deterioration of school facilities, problems that could cost as much as a billion dollars to remedy.The 117 county schools, of which 45 are more than 31 years old, are attended by about 74,000 students.The 83-page report recommends increasing the county's piggyback tax and a "reach-back" property tax to pay for renovations.The report is the product of the county's 36-member Citizens Committee on the Maintenance, Repair and Renovation of Public Schools.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens declared victory over Republican challenger Phillip D. Bissett last night after an all-day count of about 6,000 absentee ballots by election officials. "I am thrilled that the campaign is over, and that the voters of this county have reaffirmed my leadership for four more years," Owens said. According to an unofficial count released about 9:30 last night by the county board of elections, Owens received 89,290 votes to Bissett's 83,115 -- about 52 percent to 48 percent.

When she entered the race to replace John R. Leopold as county executive, Laura Neuman had a far higher profile in business than she did in politics. Many of the other 15 candidates were better known. But the County Council pulled a surprise, granting her the seat in a 4-3 vote. It wasn't the first time Neuman, a 48-year-old Annapolitan, came to the table with a seemingly weak hand and raked in all the chips. Born to a family of modest means in East Baltimore, she never finished high school or college, but during her 20s talked her way into the MBA program at Loyola University Maryland.

On her first full day on the job, the new Anne Arundel County executive shut down a surveillance operation inside the county office building that included 500 cameras recording minute-by-minute activity in and around numerous county government facilities. County Executive Laura Neuman said she became "suspicious" upon discovering the surveillance equipment, and called law enforcement officials about the operation, which was conducted from a small, unmarked room at the Arundel Center complex that few seemed to know about.

When Laura Neuman heard that an Annapolis salad dressing maker was planning to move his business out of state, she arranged to meet with him. Neuman listened to Greg Vetter's story and made some calls. "She just said, 'Dude, you are NOT leaving Maryland,'" recounted Vetter, CEO of Tessemae's All Natural. "I don't know the nitty-gritty of how she did it, but she did it. And now we're in this insane, awesome space, and we don't have to move to Kentucky. " Keeping Vetter's company in Maryland last year became the latest success for Neuman.

It started with a conversation the day the Anne Arundel County Council announced it was seeking a successor for John R. Leopold, after the county executive was found guilty of misconduct in office. "My daughter, she is in high school. We talk around the dinner table," said Derick Young, father of three and a carpet cleaning sales rep for Stanley Steemer. "One thing she noticed was Anne Arundel County never had an African-American county executive, and she asked me why. "I said, 'I don't know,'" he recalled.

The Acting County Executive for Anne Arundel County, John Hammond has announced that he is a candidate for the County Executive position, which has recently become vacant through the forced resignation of John Leopold. He was featured a number of times on Friday being interviewed by reporters about his announced candidacy. It was mentioned that should he become county executive, he would have to take a $30,000 a year pay reduction. He addressed that issue primarily by making fun of his wife's spending habits.

When he was a young city councilman in Annapolis in 1982, John R. Hammond surprised family and friends by putting his hat in the ring for the job of Anne Arundel county executive. He lost decisively to O. James Lighthizer, a Democrat who went on to serve two terms. "I finished second, and the other guy finished just one place ahead of me," Hammond, a lifelong Annapolis resident, said with a laugh. This week Hammond, 63, didn't have to knock on doors to assume the office he once sought.

We want your opinions THE ISSUE: Legislation proposed by Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens would severely limit those ubiquitous roadside signs on county roads advertising everything from cheap mortgage rates to open houses to landscaping businesses. The so-called "bandit signs" are an effective form of mass advertising, but many residents don't like the clutter, and say the signs could cause accidents as drivers slow down to read them. YOUR VIEW: Are the signs really a problem?

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens underwent planned surgery yesterday morning at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and was expected to be released later yesterday to recuperate at her Millersville home, a county news release said. The condition that prompted Owens' surgery was not life-threatening, according to her chief spokeswoman, Rhonda Wardlaw, who declined to elaborate. County officials hope Owens, 62, will return to Annapolis in time to present the fiscal 2007 county budget to the County Council on May 1. Wardlaw said she was notified Monday of Owens' surgery.

A circuit judge found John R. Leopold not guilty Friday of one count of misconduct in office, a partial victory for the embattled Anne Arundel County executive as his trial continued on other charges. Judge Dennis M. Sweeney said Leopold showed "a lack of sound judgment" when he used his taxpayer-funded police protection detail to drive around the county as he took down a challenger's campaign signs, and said he might have been charged with theft or malicious destruction of property.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's defense attorneys will begin making their case Friday, arguing that his alleged use of county staff for personal errands and political gain does not amount to a crime. The move comes after prosecutors rested their case Thursday afternoon in the misconduct trial, having called more than a dozen witnesses over four days. State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt said he felt "good" about his case. Witnesses have included former officers on the protection detail who testified that they put up political signs, picked up campaign checks and dry cleaning, and ferried Leopold to sexual encounters with a female county employee.