City Code

In a nod to Taneytown's working population, Mayor Henry Heine has introduced a by-appointment, after-hours service for people who can't come to City Hall between 8 a.m. and 4: 30 p.m."It's not just for commuters," Heine said.He said some people who work in town may be unable to get away for the length of time they need to conduct city business, such as applying for a building permit or poring over the city's zoning map.The service is a cross between the old days, when Taneytown's City Hall was routinely open until 7: 30 p.m. and the future, when residents will have the convenience of e-mailing a building permit request and calling up the city code on the Internet.

Annapolis Mayor Dean L. Johnson has appointed his spokesman as temporary city administrator after the man he selected for the job rejected it as paying too little.After an exhaustive four-month search during which he sifted through 124 resumes, Johnson said, he offered the job to an out-of-state candidate a few weeks ago.The maximum salary of $74,000, as dictated by the City Code, was not enough for the candidate.City spokesman Thomas W. Roskelly moved into City Hall yesterday to help with administrative duties while Johnson begins searching anew.

Taneytown officials have learned they erroneously approved a change in the city code in August that removes the requirement for downtown businesses to provide off-street parking, said Mayor Henry C. Heine.Heine said he expects the error to be corrected without incident in the next few months. The error is not in the code, but in the way the change was approved -- without a public hearing.In the meantime, the changed code is valid, Heine said, and the first people to benefit from it, Keith and Cinda Reed, have approval to lease the first floor of their building, the former Central Hotel, as business space.

A dilapidated former theater in the Baltimore's Park Heights section has once again become the subject of a political controversy, this time over accusations that campaign leaders for a Democratic candidate for governor violated city law by hanging campaign signs on the marquee.The former Avalon Theater at 4312 Park Heights Ave. contained three giant blue and red marquee signs supporting Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann for governor. However, the vacant property is deeded to the Mayor and City Council, making the property public and the hanging of political signs prohibited.

Bernard F. "Buzz" Murphy, longtime director of Baltimore's legislative reference service, is being transferred to an unspecified job in the city's law department, according to City Hall sources.Mr. Murphy, 51, who has run the Department of Legislative Reference since 1978, has been on extended medical leave since early November.The seldom-convened, five-member Board of Legislative Reference, which oversees the department, is expected to discuss Mr. Murphy's status at a meeting Monday. Mr. Murphy declined to comment.

Main Street merchant Michael H. Klein wants the city of Westminster "to proceed with my trial . . . for flying the Maryland state flag and the three American flags outside my shop."But city officials said Mr. Klein hasn't been cited for any code violations or charged with any crimes, and there is no trial with which to proceed.Mr. Klein calculates that he may owe the city $146,000, or perhaps $438,000, in fines over the flag issue. But city Public Works Director Thomas B. Beyard said Mr. Klein doesn't owe Westminster a cent.

The Annapolis city council will consider tonight whether to impose a new ethics code to minimize conflicts of interest in local government.The measure, proposed by Ward 5 Democratic Alderman Carl O. Snowden, would bar the mayor, aldermen and other city officials from voting on any city matters in which they might have a personal interest."

Western Maryland College's plan to reduce interest costs by refinancing a bond issue is scheduled to go to the Westminster City Council for approval tonight.The council will meet at 7 p.m. in the Westminster fire hall on East Main Street.Other items on the agenda include action on rules that would allow merchants to place sandwich board signs on sidewalks, but would bar neon or flashing lights; and a proposal to increase the minimum charge for restoring water service after it is cut off from $10 to $50.City Public Works Director Thomas B. Beyard said the city has the legal authority to charge its actual cost but historically has billed customers only the $10 minimum set by the city code.

A Circuit Court judge dismissed yesterday a suit to overturn Annapolis' aldermanic redistricting plan before next fall's City Council elections.An Annapolis civic activist and a candidate for City Council charged that the boundaries were drawn illegally because the council did not swear in witnesses at a public hearing.But Judge H. Chester Goudy Jr. said the council was not required to hold a public hearing, so it was free to decide how to conduct the hearing."There's no question that the council didn't swear in witnesses at the hearing.

OCEAN CITY -- When completed, the two-story, single-family home under construction on Blue Heron Court -- on the city's bay side -- will be able to withstand 90-mph winds.The still-visible interior of the upscale, brick house shows what Mike Richardson, the city's chief building official, and other experts call a "continuous line of connection."Metal timber connectors reinforce studs to the foundation, second floor and rafters. In any openings for windows or doors, connectors have been used to reinforce the susceptible area.

The U.S. Justice Department, making good on a long-standing threat, announced Friday that it had filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that Baltimore's zoning code discriminates against those seeking drug treatment. The suit attacks a part of the city code requiring applicants for drug-treatment group homes to obtain conditional zoning ordinances from the City Council, a constraint that gives the legislative branch of city government veto authority over those facilities. Other types of disabled housing do not require council approval.

The Annapolis Board of Appeals has upheld a Department of Planning and Zoning decision to allow a homeless shelter to be built on Hudson Street, despite contention from a local businessman who said the shelter does not conform to the city zoning code at the proposed building site. Michael Roblyer, who has a law firm on Willow Street near the proposed shelter site, filed an appeal in February that the Light House Homeless Prevention Support Center, which is scheduled to start construction this summer at 10 Hudson St., could not be built in a BCE, or business corridor enhancement, zone because of the way certain terms are defined in the city code.

It is illegal in Baltimore to leave a hogshead in the street for 12 hours, punishable by a $1 fine. A city law says merchants can't sell contraceptives to anyone under age 16, though municipal programs distribute condoms for free. And, technically, city officials could issue a $100 fine every time a performer pauses while Orioles fans yell "O" as "The Star-Spangled Banner" is sung at a baseball game. These and other anachronistic bits of Baltimore code should be deleted or updated, according to City Councilman James B. Kraft, who introduced a raft of legislation yesterday to modernize police ordinances.

When police look for stolen property in Baltimore - be it a GPS or a pricey diamond necklace - they start with a paper trail that leads them through reams of documents stored in plastic trays and cardboard boxes at police headquarters. It is an antiquated recordkeeping system that every month generates 20,000 paper reports of purchases made by secondhand shops and pawnbrokers. To determine whether a stolen item has been pawned, police go through each record by hand. Now the City Council is considering a proposal that would require Baltimore's 37 pawnshops and 78 secondhand dealers to file reports electronically, creating a database police could search instantly - potentially speeding the recovery of stolen goods.

An Annapolis alderwoman wants to keep the party going a little longer by allowing all city bars to stay open until 2 a.m. The bill, sponsored by Classie G. Hoyle, Democrat of Ward 3, will be up for public hearing next month. Hoyle said it would even out the playing field throughout the city and help businesses increase foot traffic and sales. According to city code, most establishments have to stop selling alcoholic beverages by midnight, but some along West Street and downtown in the historic district and other locations are allowed to remain open until 2 a.m. "Restaurant and bar owners have said that it is very unfair that they have to close down early," Hoyle said.

Keeping a tiger in the living room may soon be harder than it once was. And chickens clucking in the front yard? Not without a permit. Under a proposal introduced yesterday in the Baltimore City Council, owners of farm and exotic animals would have to get a permit from the city's Health Department to keep their pets. The Health Department received 110 complaints in the past year from neighbors upset over unusual pets, said Baltimore's acting commissioner of health, Francine J. Childs. Now the agency wants the authority to enforce the city code that requires owners to properly care for those animals.

An Annapolis man has filed an ethics complaint against Alderwoman Louise Hammond, alleging that she altered a recently passed ordinance in a way that would lessen competition for the downtown shop where she works. The ordinance, passed by the city council this month, authorized the lease of Susan B. Campbell Park for Latino Fest, an event planned for Sept. 25. At Hammond's request, the council amended the ordinance to prevent merchants from selling their products at the festival. Annapolis resident Michael Calo considers the amendment a conflict of interest because Hammond works part time at Outer Island Imports, a downtown store that sells amethyst and other rocks.

Prompted by a Girl Scout's desire to join a peaceful protest with the Westminster chapter of Women in Black, the city's Common Council is reconsidering a section in the municipal code that requires permits for groups of fewer than 25 demonstrators. "We want to get an ordinance on the books that will allow for the exercise of First Amendment rights without the fear of violating laws," said Ava E. Lias-Booker, a Baltimore attorney representing three Westminster residents who believe their right to protest is inhibited by the city code.

A Washington developer sold the rights to 69 vacant and abandoned houses to a Baltimore nonprofit group yesterday, allaying concerns that the firm's ownership could delay an ambitious project to attack urban blight. SkyRise Investors plans to develop 51 of the 120 properties it picked up at a tax-sale auction last month, but it agreed to resell the remainder at no markup because they are less suitable for for-profit development, said Jim Kelly, executive director of the nonprofit Save A Neighborhood.

Nine months after the previous Annapolis city council narrowly rejected the annexation of an affluent waterfront community, the new council will consider legislation to make the process easier by reducing the votes needed to annex from six to five. Supporters of the proposed ordinance, to be introduced today, say the change would put the city in line with state law - in time for two annexation petitions, which the council expects to review soon. According to city attorney Paul G. Goetzke, who said he recommended that the council make the change three years ago, state law says that annexations should be approved "in accordance with the usual requirements and practices" of that body.