Commissioners

The county commissioners heard only praise for a package of laws they want to introduce in the upcoming session of the General Assembly, including one that would let them veto specific spending plans of the school board.Nine residents attended the morning public meeting Saturday at the County Office Building, the first the county has sponsored to get public input on proposed legislation.The commissioners could revise the proposals before meeting with the county delegation on Dec. 1.Romeo L. Valianti was the only person to speak about a measure that would give the commissioners line-item veto power over the Board of Education budget and allow the commissioners to audit the board's management practices.

Meeting with all county department directors for the first time Wednesday, Commissioner-elect Elmer C. Lippy Jr. let them know what was foremost on his mind: the looming $2.5 million budget shortfall.The newly elected Board of County Commissioners -- Democrat Lippy, 70, Republican Donald I. Dell, 65, and returning Republican Julia W. Gouge, 50 -- assume office tomorrow, less than a week after the departing board imposed a hiring freeze and asked agencies voluntarily to cut spending to compensate for the projected deficit.

Carroll Commissioner Richard T. Yates proposed several ideas yesterday designed to help "the little guy" and improve the quality of life in the county.Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown promised that the commissioners would make changes soon to manage residential growth, including raising the impact fee.The two commissioners, in a "State of the County" address, spoke to about 150 people at a Chamber of Commerce lunch at Martin's Westminster.Commissioner Donald I. Dell was scheduled to speak, but was fogged in at an airport in the Midwest, where he had been attending a farm convention.

The Carroll County Commissioners voted 2-1 yesterday to expand the Planning Commission, adding two seats to the zoning review panel despite the opposition of residents and builders who spoke out at a public hearing on Tuesday.Commissioners W. Benjamin Brown and Richard T. Yates said they voted to increase the commission to seven members because they want to show county voters they are serious about controlling development."There was the perception that the commission was not doing enough for the people," Mr. Yates said.

Carroll County Commissioner Elmer C. Lippy calls it "bad chemistry," but it may take a psychologist rather than a chemist to repair the relations between the board's two male members and the lone female commissioner.After suppressing her unhappiness over board relations for nearly two years, Julia W. Gouge has publicly complained that Mr. Lippy and Donald I. Dell aren't giving her much respect.She claims they have deliberately excluded her from decision-making sessions and kept her in the dark for days, and sometimes weeks, on decisions the two had made.

State Housing and Community Development Secretary Jacqueline Rogers promised to return to Westminster with fixings for a housewarming party when the deck and patio are complete at a new state-supported group home.Rogers was in town Monday to meet with the county commissioners about legislation she wants them to support in the General Assembly and to suggest ways to encourage development of affordable housing.Commissioners Elmer C. Lippy and Julia W. Gouge, however, said they remain skeptical about a bill Rogers wants passed next year that would give home buyers the option of prepaying only half a year of their property taxes at settlement, instead of a year's worth.

The Carroll County commissioners recently recognized 188 government employees who marked anniversaries and exhibited outstanding performance during last year and employees with anniversaries through June 30. Recognition Awards were presented to six employees praised by the Carroll County Commissioner Ombudsman Committee for significant service to Carroll County citizens. Awards went to: Florence Kay Church, Dorothy Johns, Jack Brown and Heather Johnson, Employee of the Year; Howard Noll, Dorothy Johns, Cost Savings Award; and Fay Fields, Bright Idea Award.

If Carroll County's commissioners don't see anything wrong with the Carroll chapter of the Maryland Homebuilders' Association paying for a county official's trip to a convention, then they are in desperate need of instruction on conflicts of interest. There is no excuse for allowing the county homebuilders to pay for more than half of Ralph E. Green's trip to the Building Officials and Code Administrators national convention in St. Paul, Minn., last month.As chief of the county Bureau of Permits and Inspections, Mr. Green has the responsibility of inspecting the plans and construction of all the county's buildings.

For the past four years, the Board of Commissioners in Carroll County has been preoccupied with stanching the county's fiscal hemorrhaging and has postponed making hard decisions on solid waste disposal, school construction and managing residential growth. Another four years of indecision would be disastrous. This idyllic rural county, the metro area's bridge to Western Maryland, is quickly becoming an unplanned suburban nightmare with crowded schools and roads, inadequate police protection and a blighted landscape.

Bit by bit, the County Commissioners are going to balance next year's projected $116 million budget.They're doing it by approving money to print a newsletter, but slashing any funding for mailing it to county residents.They're halting the purchase of a $10,000 car for the County Attorney's Office.And -- for the second straight year -- they're canning the purchase of a $53,000 color copier.It's budget season again on North Center Street, and budget officials are warning that if agency heads think this year and its $3 million shortfall is tough, they ain't seen nothing yet.During the first round of agencies on the budget block last week, the Department of Law and the Department of Public Information both had a total of $194,560 slashed from their fiscal year 1992 requests.