City Charter

Comptroller Joan Pratt's concerns about MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake's handling of the purchase of a new IT phone system for local government highlight the questionable make-up of the Baltimore spending panel known as the Board of Estimates ("Nilson says city phone purchases were legal," June 23). The Baltimore City Charter establishes that the primary fiscal board of the city be composed of all three citywide elected officials, along with the director of public works and the city solicitor.

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young is asking the council to appoint him to a long-dormant board city officials say is supposed to oversee the city's ethics director. "It is my hope that you will see fit to appoint me to represent this Honorable Body," Young wrote in a letter to fellow council members this week. The seven-member Board of Legislative Reference, which is charged with hiring and potentially dismissing the Director of Legislative Reference -- who also serves as the ethics director -- has not met in years, city officials say. One board member, contacted by The Sun, said he had never even heard of the board.

In the spirit of 1708, when a royal charter was handed down to Colonial Annapolis, a town crier Friday proclaimed the first event of the Annapolis Charter 300 celebration: the unveiling of an outdoor mural on the side of the Hillman municipal parking garage. Under clear skies, a small crowd congregated by Gorman Street, a side street off Main Street that the 36-by-14-foot gauzy mural will face. The lively Colonial life mural is actually a digital image of an oil painting done by Annapolis artist Lee A. Boynton 10 years ago that hangs in City Hall.

Avery Aisenstark, the chief adviser to the Baltimore City Ethics Board, recently performed outside legal work on behalf of two developers who do business with the city. He insists that he did nothing illegal or unethical, but some outside watchdogs are calling for him to be fired. This should be handled the same way it would be for any other city employee: through a formal inquiry by the Board of Ethics. But whether he is exonerated or reprimanded, the city needs to reconsider the unique structure of his job that calls for him to serve too many masters while being truly accountable to none.

Seventy years ago this month, Ellicott City, which had been an independently chartered town since 1867, had its charter revoked by the state legislature at the request of local residents, according to Howard County: A Pictorial Historyby Joetta M. Cramm. Blame it on liquor, at least indirectly. "Before Prohibition, due to a high license fee for saloons, the town charged a very small real estate tax," Cramm writes. "With Prohibition, the tax increase led to the many bitter protests that finally brought about the surrender of the town charter."

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE Lawrence H. Rushworth made the only decision the law allowed when he disqualified three Annapolis aldermanic candidates from the Sept. 16 ballot.Although the candidates met the residency requirements, they had not been registered voters long enough in the wards they sought to represent. In light of Judge Rushworth's decision, the council should re-examine this provision of the city charter.Voters -- rather than mandates in the city charter -- should determine suitability for public office.

NO ONE IN ANNAPOLIS can remember the last time outraged citizens bearing torches stormed City Hall demanding the immediate removal of a mayor or an alderman.Despite this historic lack of need for recalling elected officials, a provision was added last winter to the city charter. This week, the City Council approved the procedure to stage special elections that could prematurely end an elected official's term.Voters should petition to have this proposal added to the ballot this fall. Then they should reject it.If Annapolis residents believe their aldermen already pander to vocal pressure groups, the recall provision will only aggravate that situation.

In the name of government reform, Annapolis city council members approved a number of amendments to the city charter last month that have the effect of putting much of their power into the hands of unelected officials.Since then, they have praised their handiwork -- talking about landmark reforms -- but that doesn't mean they can explain exactly what they've done.Did they give up too much power or too little? Did they strengthen the mayor's job? Or is everything the same as before?Little consensus is apparent, except in a belief that the recent amending of the charter -- the city's constitution -- will help rein in an unruly government.

A group of Northeast Baltimore parents that feels it has been thwarted in its attempt to start a charter school has asked the state school board to intervene in the local decision-making process. The appeal to the State Board of Education is the second this summer, signaling a growing frustration among parents and community groups who see local school boards as roadblocks to opening charter schools. "I had been hoping to work within the system," said Bobbi MacDonald, founder of City Neighbors Charter School.

The City Council held a hearing last night on two proposed city charter amendments to trim its membership in the wake of calls to shrink the body because of the declining city population. Though the bills to reduce the 19-seat council were proposed by two of its members, it appears unlikely that either will pass. City Council President Sheila Dixon, who is proposing cutting the council by four, said that she surveyed members after the meeting and few were in support of her measure. "One of my colleagues just told me, `Hell, no,'" Dixon said.

Comptroller Joan Pratt's concerns about MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake's handling of the purchase of a new IT phone system for local government highlight the questionable make-up of the Baltimore spending panel known as the Board of Estimates ("Nilson says city phone purchases were legal," June 23). The Baltimore City Charter establishes that the primary fiscal board of the city be composed of all three citywide elected officials, along with the director of public works and the city solicitor.

An Annapolis commission charged with examining ways to improve the city's governing structure has recommended several changes to the city charter, including making city elections nonpartisan and the creation of an audit committee, according to a draft of its proposals. The proposed changes, which the seven-member commission is set to formally present to the Annapolis city council next month, also include the creation of deputy department directors and a cash reserve fund. The council, which includes Mayor Joshua J. Cohen, has final authority on any changes.

Editor: When voting for the mayor on Nov. 8 please keep in mind that the city council and mayor changed the length of the term for two years to four years without having the people vote on it. This is shameful, especially given that nobody is running against the city council. The council and current mayor think that just because it's legal to change the city charter, they should do it. No, the people deserve to vote on such a big change. To send a message to the city, I'm voting for Patrick McGrady for mayor.

It took shipyard workers 38 months to build the Arthur W. Radford, but only four hours Wednesday for a marine salvage crew to send it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. With little of the drama depicted in maritime disaster movies, the 563-foot former Navy destroyer settled low as seawater poured into its depths and then disappeared stern-first off the coast of Maryland to create the East Coast's largest artificial reef. The reef, called Del-Jersey-Land for the three states involved in the project, is roughly 28 miles northeast of Ocean City Inlet and about equidistant from Indian River Inlet andCape May. Tourism and natural resources officials for Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland believe the Radford will attract deep-sea fishing charters and divers eager to explore its nooks and crannies.

The Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women named Jennifer Wheeler Teacher of the Year for 2010-11. She completed a second year on the faculty of the Baltimore public charter school onFranklin Street. She is the social studies/language arts team leader and a sixth-grade teacher. A 2001 alumna of Catonsville High School, Wheeler earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Virginia. After participating in the Baltimore City Teaching Residency program, she received a master's degree in teaching fromJohns Hopkins University.

If some city residents have felt a little lost recently, wondering who represents them on the City Council, they were not alone. The Baltimore City Law Department has been befogged as well. Late in March, that office issued an opinion saying that the recently redrawn map defining City Council districts would go into effect April 1. This meant, in effect, that some 72,000 city residents who were represented by one council member on Thursday, March 31, were suddenly represented by another on Friday, April 1 — April Fool's Day. Change of representation happens in political life, but most of the time it is caused by an election.

If all the trial balloons in the Clinton health plan were placed end to end, it would make one heck of a hot air balloon race.Everybody in Serbia is extremist except the people.New city employees must live here. Exceptions will be made for heads of department required by the City Charter to do so. They don't.David Gergen and Lani Guinier make a lovely couple.

A Harford Circuit judge ruled yesterday the city of Havre de Grace and city officials cannot force the chief of police to go on administrative leave while an investigation into unspecified allegations against the chief is being conducted.In effect, Judge Maurice W. Baldwin's decision permanently extended a temporary injunction that he granted William L. Lamphere, the police chief, on June 30.Judge Baldwin cited the city's charter, which gives the city's mayor the power to appoint the chief of police.

In a major shake-up at City Hall, new chiefs were announced Friday for three key Baltimore agencies. Public Works Director David E. Scott said he was asked to resign because of a "difference of opinion" with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration and that his abrupt departure has created instability in the department. Col. Alfred H. Foxx Jr., 57, who has headed the Transportation Department for a decade, will take the helm of Public Works. Khalil A. Zaied, head of the Department of General Services, will fill Foxx's former post.

A city councilman's proposed amendment to ethics legislation introduced by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake would violate the terms of Baltimore's charter, according to an opinion issued by the city solicitor. The proposal, intended to limit the mayor's influence over the ethics board, was suggested by Councilman Bill Henry last week, but he has not drafted an amendment. Currently, the mayor controls all nominations to the five-member volunteer panel, which came under scrutiny during former Mayor Sheila Dixon's public corruption trial.