Boards

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold emerged from his involuntary retirement  to criticize his successor, Laura A. Neuman, for failing to appear at a meeting Wednesday at which the Board of Public Works approved the move of the state Department of Housing a Community Development to Prince George's County. Over the opposition of three Republican members of the Anne Arundel House delegation, the board voted 3-0 to ratify a lease with a developer at the New Carrollton Metro stop for the new department headquarters.

Maryland officials approved Wednesday a much-debated plan to move the headquarters of the state's housing agency — along with 380 jobs — from Anne Arundel County to Prince George's County. The three-member Board of Public Works voted unanimously to vacate the Department of Housing and Community Development's state-owned building in Crownsville. The department will move to leased space in a new, transit-oriented development at New Carrollton, a hub for MARC and Amtrak as well as the Washington Metro.

The Anne Arundel County government is looking for a licensed physician to serve on the county's Adult Public Guardianship Review Board. Members of the board provide oversight of the care provided for adults who are under public guardianship. They review the health of people under public guardianship and make recommendations whether the guardianship should continue or not. Public guardians are appointed for people who are older than 65 who are unable to care for themselves and to make decisions about their well-being.

The state Board of Public Works is expected to vote today on a contract that would clear the way for the Department of Housing and Community Development to move from its park-like campus in Crownsville to a transit hub in Prince George's County. The board's members - Gov. Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp - are expected to hear from both supporters and opponents of the hotly debated move to New Carrollton. A spokesman for Franchot, Andrew Friedson, said the comptroller was reviewing the deal overnight and anticipates asking questions.

Joy Charlene Naden, a longtime educator and executive on several Democratic political campaigns and chair of the Board of Review for the Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died Saturdayat her Cross Keys home of acute myologic leukemia. She was 79. Born Joy Rosenberg and raised in Liberty Heights, Ms. Naden attended Forest Park High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maryland in 1955, then received a master's degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University.

A Frederick man on his way to Jackson Hole, Wyo., was given a citation Wednesday afternoon for having a stun gun in his carry-on luggage at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. The unidentified passenger was stopped by a Transportation Security Administration officer who detected the combination stun gun/flashlight in his luggage. Maryland Transportation Authority Police confiscated the weapon and cited its owner on a state weapons charge. There was no impact to airport operations and the man was allowed to catch his flight.

A. Blaine Hawley, principal of Red Pump Elementary School in Bel Air, was recently elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). Gail Connelly, NAESP's executive director, announced the election results from the association's headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Hawley begins her three-year term as director of Zone 3 on July 1. She will represent principals in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

In Howard County, there is very little student involvement in Board of Education decisions, despite the fact that we have a Student Member of the Board who advocates for us. But how can we know that the students of Howard County schools are being represented in the best way for them, if we have no contact with him. I am working to make interaction between the students of Howard County and the SMOB mandatory. At least once a month the SMOB must go to a high school, and talk to the students in an open assembly after school, about upcoming BOE decisions, and get their opinions on what improvements they want to see in their schools.

Baltimore's spending board voted Wednesday to approve another property tax break for city homeowners, part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's plan to cut property taxes by 22 percent over 10 years. The tax credit approved by the Board of Estimates would knock $140 off the median property tax bill on owner-occupied homes. That is on top of the $40 cut that came when the panel created the credit last year. The numbers are based on the taxes that would be due on a property assessed at $200,000.

Due to my observance of a religious holiday at the time that Alison Knezevich reported on the Open Meetings Compliance Board's ruling on Baltimore County's approval of the so-called "rain tax" ("Board says Baltimore county gave proper notice of meeting," May 17), I was not able to give her my response. I want to commend Ms. Knezevich for calling me the next day after the article was printed. Ms. Knezevich is very conscientious and is a real asset to The Baltimore Sun. Since I couldn't make my comments in the article, I would like to share them with your readers now. The very fact that the Open Meetings Compliance Board met in closed session to issue this ruling reveals the hypocrisy of the board.