City Council President

It has been called the mayoral campaign's unspoken issue.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's successor will take office in December saddled with a projected $153 million deficit over the next four years.The problem is simple: City spending will exceed yearly income because of a leveling off of property taxes from families moving out. The solution, as mayoral candidates know, is anything but elementary.The Baltimore Homeowners Coalition, a citizens group that over the past four years has tried to focus attention on the problem, recently published a 32-page booklet pinning the mayoral candidates down on how they would deal with the city's financial woes.

JUST 30 YEARS AGO, Baltimore's mayor had the kind of power that would make a king in a small country proud. Baltimore had 900,000 residents, and the city government employed 33,000 workers. In addition, the city government controlled a hospital, an airport, a jail, a community college, a municipal market system, a stadium and an arena.But a steady population decline during the past three decades has led to the erosion of Baltimore's tax base, forcing the city to privatize some agencies and to turn over others to the state.

Despite facing the leanest Baltimore budget in almost two decades, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke will increase the amount of money to the state's attorney's office by $1.6 million with hope of clearing a logjam in the city's courts.City Budget Director Edward J. Gallagher told the city's Board of Estimates yesterday that the 10 percent increase to the office of State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy should allow her to meet staffing needs.Included in the increase is $350,000 to help Jessamy's office take over the Police Department function of charging suspects arrested for a crime.

Meeting with Baltimore high school students earlier this year, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke summed up his 11-year mayoral tenure in one word: Nehemiah.The Old Testament book tells of a hero who returns to find his hometown in ruins. God calls upon Nehemiah to rebuild the city. A Harvard law professor introduced the tale to Schmoke."He told us that that was our mission," Schmoke recalled. "To be latter-day Nehemiahs."When he was sworn into office more than a decade ago, political analysts billed Schmoke as the new breed of U.S. mayor.

Joseph T. "Jody" Landers III, a key adviser and director for fiscal affairs for Baltimore City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III, was named yesterday as the new executive vice president for the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.Landers' appointment came after a six-month nationwide search in which more than 100 candidates were reviewed. He will be responsible for the day-to-day operations and overall administration of the GBBR beginning Nov. 10."One of the first tasks that I set for myself is to meet with all the leadership and the officers on the board and then to meet with the staff members here and kind of hone in on what are the key issues that need to be addressed," he said yesterday from the new GBBR offices in Lutherville.

Many city residents vote with feetCongratulations to City Council President Lawrence Bell and representatives of the First, Third and Fifth districts.They realize that cutting bloated budgets by a small percentage is preferable to increasing the piggyback tax on every long-suffering citizen of Baltimore City.Wake up, folks. As Mr. Bell put it during the June 9 council meeting, "Some 14,000 folks voted with their feet last year and left the city."Our council members in the Second, Fourth and Sixth districts need to remind themselves that the well-worn path to the Baltimore City taxpayer is beginning to lead out of town.

As City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III and Councilman Martin O'Malley push for a new police policy of near-zero tolerance in Baltimore, the question becomes: Can the pair complete the task when the mayor and the police commissioner vow to keep the status quo?Even if Bell and O'Malley can reconcile the ramifications of near-zero-tolerance policing -- such as clogged courtrooms and jails -- their biggest hurdle could be persuading other council members to listen to the message and to not pay attention to the messengers.

Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III may never be considered political allies, and they are hardly close friends. But they are turning out to be far from the persistent adversaries and bitter foes that recent political history suggested they would be.A year after winning convincing victories in the Democratic primaries -- Schmoke on his way to his third term as mayor and Bell to a first as council president -- the city's two most powerful elected officials seem on the verge of entering an era of good feeling not seen at City Hall in nearly a decade.

An older man with a familiar political name is among the candidates for mayor of Baltimore -- but it's not former Gov. William Donald Schaefer.Philip Charles Dypsky Sr., 84, a one-time bar owner who is part of the East Baltimore family that includes a current and former member of the state legislature, joins the mayor, the City Council president and a water-taxi driver in seeking the city's highest office.In all, 84 Democrats and 14 Republicans had filed late yesterday for three citywide offices and six councilmanic districts in September's primary elections.

Early on, as three black candidates and one white one began campaigning for City Council president, most people would only whisper about the role race would have on the contest's outcome. Then Joseph J. DiBlasi, who is white, made the issue decidedly public by declaring he would target only white voters.Now race counts.Since Mr. DiBlasi's comments this month, critics have lambasted him for playing the race card. And his opponents -- Lawrence A. Bell III, Vera P. Hall and Carl Stokes -- are getting warnings from leaders of the black community who say at least one of the three should drop out. Unless one does, Mr. DiBlasi could triumph by splitting the black vote three ways, they say, which was Mr. DiBlasi's strategy.

The Dixon administration introduced legislation Monday that would halt future cost-of-living increases for Baltimore's retired police officers and firefighters, the latest turn in an ongoing effort to reform the city's ailing $1.6 billion public safety pension fund. City officials stressed that the new legislation is a "stopgap" measure intended only to prevent the already depleted fund from plummeting further while they fashion a broader fix that will ultimately include post-retirement increases.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates approved an agreement Wednesday to lease city-owned land near M&T Bank Stadium to the developers of a slots parlor, with revenues aimed at a reduction in the property tax rate. "I made it very clear that we would only do this for property tax reduction and school construction," said Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who has previously opposed gambling. The city officials hope for an 8-cent reduction in the city's property tax rate of $2.27 per $100 in assessed value - more than twice as high as in adjacent Baltimore County and the highest in the state by far. City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake supported the measure, saying that the city will "flourish" by using revenues from the facility's rent payments to build schools and cut taxes.

It's hard to get them to admit it, but there is a palpable sense of relief on their faces, a sense that the end is in sight. Almost. These are the last handshakes. The last urgent messages reminding people to vote. The last requisite conversations with everyone from engaged voters to homeless people to those who are just angry. Tomorrow Baltimore voters go to the polls to pick the city's new leaders in an off-year election in which many voters are still undecided or even unaware of their choices.

For John Rhodes, it's the difficulty of distinguishing one from the other. To the Northeast Baltimore resident, all the mayoral and City Council president candidates' messages seem to blur together. For Karen Randolph of Cherry Hill, it's the lack of delivery and record: Why are the crime plans being pushed by these candidates not already in place? MARBELLA Trailing a pair in a tight city race. pg 1b

City Council president candidate Michael Sarbanes has raised nearly $40,000 more than incumbent Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake during the first seven months of this year, with half of his campaign contributions flowing in from outside Maryland. Sarbanes has slightly more cash on hand, $248,209, compared with Rawlings-Blake's $220,783 balance, according to reports filed this week with the Maryland State Board of Elections. The reports cover the period from Jan. 11 to Aug. 7. The close totals reflect what is shaping up to be the city's most competitive race in the Sept.

Sitting in the shade of their white tents, most vendors here sell photos or paintings, crafts or jewelry. But a handful of people showed up at Artscape yesterday to sell an idea -- that they are the best candidates to lead Baltimore. Among the most well-attended festivals in the city -- organizers estimate 500,000 will have come by the end of today -- Artscape offers political candidates a one-stop spot to shake hands, talk about their platforms and recruit campaign volunteers. Many are taking advantage of the captive audience.

Taking a brief foray back into Baltimore politics yesterday, Gov. Martin O'Malley endorsed longtime ally Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's bid to become City Council president in what is shaping up to be one of the closest races of this year's election. O'Malley has been working behind the scenes for Rawlings-Blake for months, but the formal endorsement underscored his support at an important time and simultaneously raised questions about whether the state's most powerful Democrat will back a candidate in the mayor's race.

To keep up with the city campaigns, read short biographies of the candidates for mayor and City Council president, and see a list of the council candidates, go to baltimoresun.com/electionsblog

Here are the candidates who filed papers by yesterday's 9 p.m. deadline to enter Baltimore's Democratic and Republican primaries for mayor, comptroller and City Council president. Mayor Democrats Phillip A. Brown Jr. Andrey Bundley Jill P. Carter Frank M. Conaway Sheila Dixon (incumbent) A. Robert Kaufman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. Mike Schaefer Republican Elbert R. Henderson City Council President Democrats Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake (incumbent) Kenneth N. Harris Sr. Michael Sarbanes Charles Ulysses Smith Republicans none Comptroller Democrat Joan M. Pratt (incumbent)

Last Thursday, when Kenneth N. Harris Sr. was still the chairman of the City Council's Education, Housing, Health and Human Services Committee, he testified before the school board and told its members he'd have some very pointed questions when they came before the council to explain things like sloppy budget reports. The very next day, Harris was the chairman of the Housing, Health and Human Services Committee. City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake decided that education was so important that it needed a committee all its own, without Harris - who just happens to be running for City Council president - as chairman.